In the Belly of a Fish

Jonah 1:17-2:10

First Jonah went down to Joppa, then he went down into a ship, then he went down into the sea and now he goes down into the belly of a great fish. The pathway of disobedience leads ever downwards. Downwards, ever downwards leads the path of sin.

Sin makes us promises that it cannot keep. It promises pleasure but delivers pain, it promises freedom but delivers a cage, it promises peace but brings strife, it promises heaven but delivers us to hell. To choose to sin, is to choose to be deceived.

God hurled a great tempest upon the sea and Jonah’s ship was stricken. The sailors hurled Jonah overboard and immediately the waters became calm. Only when sin is cast out does the storm stop raging! There will be no peace while we are at peace with sin.

Verse 17 tells us that The Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. Many over the centuries have tried to speculate what kind of fish this might have been. Was it a whale? Or perhaps a whale shark? Others have speculated that the whole story is just figurative and didn’t literally happen. The problem with that view is that Jesus didn’t see it that way, He says in Matt 12:40 that Jonah certainly was in the belly of a great fish three days and three nights. So whatever view we might take here, we cannot say that this didn’t happen, or that it was merely figurative, since that would put us at odds with the only infallible interpreter of scripture, God Himself.

Ultimately, the point of the book isn’t to teach us about the stomach capacity of certain marine creatures, it is to teach us about the sovereign grace of God. We mustn’t miss the wood for the trees.

God ‘appointed’ the great fish to swallow Jonah. God didn’t just know it would happen, nor did He merely permit this to happen; He appointed that fish to swallow Jonah.

God is sovereign over all things in this world; in chapter 4 God appoints a plant to grow and give Jonah shade, then he appoints a worm to attack the plant. God’s sovereignty extends not just over all of mankind, but also over all nature. Nothing in this world happens by sheer random chance.

“You are never abandoned into a world of irrational chance. You remain under the superintendance of the sovereign Lord of heaven and earth.” - O. Palmer Robertson

Jonah knew this to be true; “For YOU cast me into the deep” he says. “YOUR waves and YOUR billows passed over me.” Jonah saw God’s hand even in his affliction.

You see, that dread beast that swallowed Jonah whole was appointed by God not to destroy him but to deliver him. To those sailors looking on from the ship it looked like curtains for Jonah, it looked like the end. But God had other plans, it was not to be the end, but a new beginning for Jonah.

GOD TRANSFORMED JONAH IN THE BELLY OF THAT FISH IN THE FOLLOWING 4 WAYS:

It woke Jonah up. In the boat, Jonah had been fast asleep, even though the storm raged all about him. But in the belly of the fish, Jonah became lucid. He woke up! He became distressed.

In the pilgrims progress, it isn’t until Christian learns about the dreadful fate of his hometown ‘the city of destruction’ that he flees in search of the celestial city. In order to get us on the right path, God must expose us to the horrors of walking on the wrong one. We must be shaken from our sleep, sometimes it even takes a brush with death to sober us up.

It drove Jonah to his knees. There is no record of Jonah having prayed in the storm. The other sailors prayed, first to their own gods, and then to Yahweh, but Jonah Himself doesn’t pray. But now, out of his distress, he calls out upon the Lord. He turns the belly of the fish into an oratory!

It is only when we realise our finitude, our limits, our weakness that we begin to look outside of ourselves for answers. A humbled heart will be a prayerful heart. From time to time, God will remove certain comforts and pacifiers from us in order to cultivate in us a dependence upon Him. Do not despair when this happens, realise that these are God’s waves, and God’s breakers that are driving you to your knees to pray.

“I have learned to kiss the waves that throw me up against the Rock of Ages.” C.H. Spurgeon

Jonah experienced God’s grace. “Salvation belongs to the Lord!” Cried Jonah from the belly of the fish. And after 3 days and 3 nights the Lord spoke to the fish and it spat Jonah out onto dry land. 3 days and nights is a long time to be anywhere, let alone in the belly of a fish under water without light, food or water. We don’t know how long it took Jonah to start praying, maybe at first he just curled up and waited for the end?! Perhaps he thought that that fish’s belly would become his tomb. But God had other plans.

There will be times in life when you are swallowed up whole; whether by grief, or illness, fear or sadness. And for a time those places feel like a tomb. Like you will never return to the sunlit lands again. But remember Jonah! Remember Christ! Who was dead and in the tomb three days and nights before being raised up to life again. There is hope!

Remember that God throughout history has allowed his Church to appear to be swallowed up whole; in Egypt, in Babylon and then later under Roman persecution. But each time she has been delivered, each time she has been purified, each time she has been strengthened. That is God’s purpose for you in seasons of trial and affliction.

God showed Jonah that salvation belonged to Him and to Him alone. God delivers all who call upon Him, He rescues all those who look to Him. No matter how wretched the sinner, no matter how desperate the situation; God is able to save to the uttermost those who come to Him through Christ.

John 6:40 ESV

40 For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”

It fitted Jonah for His Calling. The fish spat Jonah out on the right coastline. God put Jonah right back on track. When God delivers us out of trials He doesn’t leave us out at sea, He puts us back on track. Back into our calling. But like Jonah we are now better fitted for it than we were before!

Jonah now knew what it was to receive God’s mercy. And now he would come to Nineveh preaching from experience, preaching repentance as a repentant man. God fitted Jonah for his calling in the belly of the whale, and he is fitting you for yours in the belly of whatever has swallowed you!

We too, like Jonah are recipients of God’s grace. And we are to go out into the world and to tell others about this grace that we have found in Christ.

The Christ who went down on our behalf. Down into the waters of death, down into the belly of sheol for three days and three nights before being raised up to life again. He now lives and reigns forever and ever and shall never die.

And we do not preach a saviour who is unmoved or unaware of our sufferings. We preach a saviour who has come and suffered, who has come and tasted death and the grave and gone beyond them both to prepare a place for all who believe on Him.