Jonah and the Big Fish - Pt 1

And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish, saying, “I called out to the Lord, out of my distress, and he answered me; out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice.” (Jonah 1:17-2:2 ESV).

There’s something about abandoned places that draws to us. It may be the allured of the actual history of a place; perhaps it is the uniqueness of the actual condition of the property; or, it could be the temporal nature of it. Whatever the allure, we all are somewhat fascinated by these old husks of their former glory. Because I like to tramp around the woods and fields I have seen many of these places “up close and personal.” I have imagined what they might have been like in their glory days. We see Jonah in our reading today as an abandoned “house.” He has not been abandoned by the presence of God. He is simply not what he may have been previously. He has fallen into disrepair and solitude. There is a great truth that we often miss from this part of the story. After Jonah was thrown into the sea, God appointed a “great fish” to swallow the prophet, and he remained within the belly of the fish for three days and for three nights (v. 17). People tend to see the fish as an instrument of the Lord’s judgment when, in fact, the fish was the very means by which our Creator saved Jonah from certain death. Readers likely interpret the fish as God’s judgment due to Jonah’s words; while in the belly of the fish, he spoke of crying to the Lord “out of the belly of Sheol” (vv. 1–2). When we read that phrase in context, we see that Jonah spoke not of a fish’s stomach but of the bowels of death itself, Sheol being a common Old Testament term for the grave. Jonah was cast into the sea to save the lives of the sailors en route to Tarshish (cf. Jonah 1:11–16), but the churning waters were no safe haven for the prophet. When Jonah prayed to God, he referred to the flood surrounding him, the waters closing in to take his life, and seaweed wrapping around his head (cf. Jonah 2:3–5). In His grace, the Lord rescued Jonah from the pit—the grave—even though the prophet had disobeyed His command to go to Nineveh (v. 6). That’s the message of the Gospel. God was not surprised by the fall of man. God was not caught unprepared by Adam and Eve’s sin. He was grieved, but not surprised. His plan was already in place. Jesus would come to pay the price we could not pay and die the death we deserved. We may look abandoned, however, the truth is we have never been more in the presence of God than when God is executing his plan for our lives. So, rejoice and turn to Him. He will get you to shore!