Jonah's Coffin

Jonah’s Coffin

Jonah 1:17-2:10

There are two thoughts concerning what happened to Jonah after he was thrown out of the boat.

1. He was immediately swallowed up by a big fish and he lived for three days inside of it.

2. He was thrown into the sea where he drowned and was subsequently swallowed up by a fish and he resurrected three days later, and the fish spit him out.

I hold to the second view. We can disagree on this issue. It’s not heresy to believe either of those two things. I have great friends who disagree with me and that’s ok. As we work through these passages, I’ll do my best to explain my position.

1:17 This is a summary statement. We can all agree on these things.

Jonah was swallowed by a fish. Some say whale, some say a giant shark. Some even say a grouper.

Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights.

Let’s look at the word “appointed”. It doesn’t mean “created”. It means that in God’s providence He ordained that fish to be in that spot at that time. He gave the fish an appetite to swallow up Jonah whole. This fish would be Jonah’s coffin. If it were not for the fish, Jonah’s body would have been likely picked apart by crabs and other scavengers.

This fish is what God uses to preserve Jonah.

2:1 Some think the word “then” means it wasn’t until three days later that Jonah prayed at all. Most people who believe this think Jonah continued to pout for three days inside a fish’s stomach without praying. I find that hard to believe. I would imagine Jonah was praying on the way down! I would have been!!

The prayer that extends from verses 2-9 is prayed after Jonah is resurrected from the dead. It’s not to be understood as what he said verbatim. Certainly, everything he says is contained in the prayer he prayed from the fish’s belly. But we can be sure he prayed more than is written. What is written is for our benefit. It tells us about what was happening not on the inside of the fish, but on the inside of Jonah.

v. 2 “I called out to the Lord, out of my distress”

Finally, Jonah prays. This is the first prayer of Jonah recorded in the book. He has been giving God the silent treatment.

In his distress he prayed. God will get us to the point of prayer if we are not willing to pray. He will create such circumstances that we have no choice but to pray.

“out of the belly of Sheol” “Sheol” is the grave. The ocean was his grave, the fish was his coffin.

Could you imagine waking up inside the belly of a fish?

The darkness

The smell

The heat

The wetness

We have heard of people waking up who were buried alive. That would be a horrible experience. That’s much like what Jonah experienced when the Lord resurrected him after three days.

If you are buried alive when you wake up, you have no hope. No one can hear your screams. No one could hear Jonah except God.

“You heard my voice”

v. 3 “You cast me into the deep”

He didn’t blame the sailors. God demanded Jonah be thrown out of the boat if he didn’t go to Nineveh. They only did what they had to do. Even Jonah himself told them to throw him out.

Notice: Your waves, Your billows

All of this was orchestrated by God and directed toward Jonah.

We see Jonah reliving the incident. After he was thrown into the sea he began to sink.

The flood surrounded him.

The waves and billows passed over him.

He is submerged in the water. I don’t know if he knew how to swim or not. It appears he just sank once he was thrown in.

Do you remember in 1:3 when Jonah paid the price to go to Tarshish? Well, he is paying for it again. The wages of sin is death.

v. 4 Finally we see some level of repentance from Jonah.

“Then I said I am driven from your sight”

He thought that was where he wanted to be. Remember 1;3? He was running from the presence of the Lord. you would think he would be happy if he were out of God’s sight!

Jonah knew God could see him. “from your sight” means he feels as if God does not care for him anymore. He had taken the kindness of God for granted.

Our sin can cause us to feel as if God does not love us. We can hardly blame Him for it. He has no reason to love us. We don’t deserve His grace.

“yet I shall again look upon your Holy Temple”. Jonah had no idea which direction the Temple was. He was in the ocean. The point is he will look towards the presence of God. This is a reversal of 1:3.

In chapter 1 he turns his back to God.

In chapter 2 he turns his face toward God.

v. 5 Here we see Jonah wrapped in seaweed as he contemplates his death. Nothing surrounded him but water. He knew there was no hope. One can only hold their breath for so long. Eventually you blackout or take a big gulp of water. Drowning is essentially death by suffocation. It’s a terrible way to die.

v. 6 “At the roots of the mountains” shows that Jonah had sunk to the bottom of the ocean.

“I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever”

This is the language of death. “Bars” is a poetic way of describing a gate or a barrier. He sank to the ocean floor. There was nowhere else to go. He was trapped.

“Forever” in Jonah’s mind this was it. He was dead and he would always be dead.

God did a miracle. He brought Jonah back from the dead. He restored his life.

Notice he says “O LORD my God”. Jonah recognizes he is a child of God. God’s goodness towards him reveals that. He was alive because of God’s grace.

v. 7 This is Jonah looking back. As he was sinking to the bottom of the ocean his life was slipping away. While he was dying he thought of the Lord.

He remembered the Lord.

He prayed to the Lord.

I hope this will be true of all of us. There is a good chance many of us will know we are dying.

Maybe we linger after an accident waiting for the ambulance to arrive, but we know we are not going to make it.

Maybe we are lying in a bed and they are stopping all our medications.

When you know you are dying remember the Lord. talk to the Lord. This is how the believer is to handle death.

Remember the goodness of God toward you in your life.

Remember the forgiveness of God.

Remember that God is the great protector and provider of those we leave behind.

I would imagine Jonah was asking for forgiveness. He probably was rethinking the last few days of his life. He had some regrets.

v. 8 One of Jonah’s last memories was probably those sailors praying to their false gods. I think this verse points to that (1:5-6). He knew that those who worship idols are cut off from God. He knew he was privileged to worship the God who existed. Sadly, he did not get to see those sailors turn to God. He should have been the one to lead them to the Lord.

v. 9 Jonah is thankful to the Lord.

He says he will offer sacrifices with the voice of thanksgiving to the Lord. He is thankful to be alive. Notice he even made some vows. He even promises to pay those vows. What do you think they were?

I think he vowed to go to Nineveh.

I think he vowed to preach to the people.

‘Salvation belongs to the LORD!’ Jonah could give no one glory for his salvation except God. This probably refers to the Lord delivering Jonah from the ocean.

One thing you notice in this prayer is there is no mention of a fish. All we see is the mention of the ocean. That’s probably because when Jonah was resurrected, he had no idea where he was. His last memories were sinking to the bottom of the ocean. He was dead when the fish swallowed him up.

I think he was probably alive in that fish for a few minutes.

v. 10 Here we see the sovereignty of God. God directs the fish to vomit Jonah out. That’s a disgusting picture. We can imagine Jonah being hurled through the air a little way toward the bank. That’s probably when he realized he had been inside a fish.

Jonah had wasted money

Jonah had wasted time

Jonah had wasted opportunity

By God’s grace he was still alive.

Let me share what Jonah learned more than anything else. He learned he did not want to be cut off from God. He thought he did, but he learned he didn’t.

We think we can live without God because we forget about death. In death all we have is God. Since we are all going to die, right now all we have is God. When we make a life without Him, we invite discipline and disaster.

We will waste our lives.

I have said many times that Jonah is a shadow of Jesus. Just as Jonah was in the belly of that fish for three days and three nights, Jesus was in the grave. But let me point out to you the differences between Jonah and Jesus.

Those who cast Jonah into the ocean did not want to do it. Those who killed Jesus were glad they did.

Jonah’s death was the result of disobedience. Jesus was obedient unto death.

Jonah was in the dark about his death. Jesus understood every detail of His.

Jonah had to be vomited out of his grave. Jesus walked out of His grave on His own.

Because Jesus walked out of his grave it doesn’t matter what our coffin looks like.

It could be an old wooden box.

It could be decorated in fine jewels.

It could be an Urn.

It could be a whale.

It doesn’t matter what it is because one day the Lord will speak and it will spit us out.