Jonah and the Big Fish
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Jonah received clear instructions from God for this job.
The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai: “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.”
Jonah’s job, as a prophet, is to proclaim God’s Word: to say what God tells him to say wherever God tells him to say it … even in Nineveh, the capital of Assyria.
This job, proclaiming God’s word, is potentially dangerous. It might get Jonah in trouble. In the news, we see what happens when you correct the president of a neighbouring country: insults, threats, and tariffs. From history, I don’t get the sense that Assyrian kings were much different. Although, Assyrian kings have a reputation for being even more brutal and cruel. In the Assyrian Empire, they didn’t just shoot the messenger. They made him suffer first.
It’s potentially dangerous for Jonah to go to Nineveh and proclaim the message that God gave him: “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.” But it’s not the danger that makes Jonah run away. Jonah doesn’t run because he’s afraid of what the Ninevites will do. Jonah runs way for a different reason.
In ch. 4, after God relents from sending disaster, Jonah confesses why he ran away.
He prayed to the Lord, “Isn’t this what I said, Lord, when I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.
God is gracious and compassionate. Jonah claims he was afraid God would relent from bringing disaster. That’s his excuse. The reason Jonah gives for running from the Lord: God is gracious and compassionate. So Jonah heads to Tarshish.
Tarshish is the name of a port on the Atlantic side of southern Spain, ‘way on the far side of the Mediterranean. Scholars find the name Tarshish is used to describe the farthest away place you can imagine: “That’s so loud they could hear it from here to ‘Timbuktu.’” Or in Jonah’s day: “from here to Tarshish.” Jonah ran from the Lord to the farthest away place he could imagine. He was headed to “not-Nineveh.” But disobeying the Lord is a bad life choice.
We all face choices about what God wants us to do. There are lots of choices we face that are not right/wrong, good/bad choices: Choosing Tigerstripe ice cream instead of Raspberry Ripple is a question of taste. It’s not a moral choice.
BUT Stealing a carton of icecream instead of buying it is a moral choice; a bad choice. Perhaps you recall the 10 Commandments. The eighth commandment is short and pointed:
“You shall not steal.
Here’s the challenge you and I face. Disobeying God leads to death. Rebelling against the Lord cuts us off from God’s goodness and love for all eternity.
That’s what Jonah discovers aboard the ship headed to Tarshish. Disobeying the Lord, running from the Lord, being far from God, it all leads to death.
Jonah 1:4 “Then the Lord sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up.”
Jonah accepts that. He pronounces his own death sentence. When the sailors, who know he’s running away from the Lord, ask him what they should do to Jonah to make the storm calm down, Jonah tells them: Jonah 1:12 ‘“Pick me up and throw me into the sea,” he replied, “and it will become calm. I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you.”’
That could have been the end of Jonah. Being tossed overboard might have been the last we heard or seen of him. But God is gracious and compassionate! God shows mercy - even on his wayward prophet.
Now the Lord provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
This is the picture of Jonah that catches our attention. Jonah was swallowed whole and rode around for 3 days in the belly of a fish. It doesn’t sound like a very comfortable adventure . Now if there were windows …
I’ve heard people say they have trouble swallowing the fantastic stories from the OT.
Shadrach, Meshack, and Abedgego surviving the fiery furnace
Daniel surviving the Lion’s Den
Jonah being swallowed whole by a Big Fish and being vomitted out, alive and able to go to Nineveh ...
They are fascinating stories, but how could they be true? How could Jonah survive 3 days in the belly of a fish?
Humanly speaking that’s impossible. Jonah is cut off from air. He’s awash in the stomach juices of the fish. If he passed through the stomach, the fish intestines would be a tight fit. Surviving inside a fish is impossible.
But that’s what a miracle is. Miracles are actions outside what humans can do and outside what you usually see in creation. Miracles are marvelous deeds of God which reveal the Lord’s power and to move us to worship. Some scholars cite Ps 72 in their definition:
Praise be to the Lord God, the God of Israel,
who alone does marvelous deeds.
God’s marvellous deeds prompt us to praise the Lord. Miracles prompt worship; miracles prompt faith. And since the Bible introduces the Lord as the creator of the heavens and the earth, the sea and everything in them, then why would we be surprised us that God can do amazing things in his creation; things beyond our understanding?
According to his wisdom, grace, and compassion God can intervene in the normal processes of his creation and cause a different outcome. Like allowing Daniel to survive the night in a den full of hungry lions or allowing Jonah to be swallowed by a big fish - and then have the fish vomit Jonah on the shore - alive and able to travel to Nineveh.
These signs and wonders are supposed to make you say, “Wow, God is amazing! God is powerful! God is gracious and compassionate. The Lord cares about his people; even disobediant people like Jonah.”
If you have trouble swallowing the idea that Jonah can survive 3 days in the belly of a fish, you might also have trouble accepting Jesus’ resurrection after three days in the grave. Both are miracles. Both show God’s power. Both are accepted by faith in God and God’s word: the Bible.
In Matt 12, Jesus connects his own death and resurrection to the sign of the prophet Jonah.
For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now something greater than Jonah is here.
See, that’s an exciting detail about the story of Jonah and the big fish. It doesn’t end with Jonah as seaweed fertilizer on the sea floor. After 3 days,
The Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.
That puts us right back where this whole adventure started. Jonah 3:1 “Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time:” The outcome is different this time. This time,
Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh.
See, this is the true definition of repentence. Repentence is not just feeling sorry for making a bad choice - that’s just “regret.” Repentence is regret that causes you to obey the word of the Lord. Repentence is really happening when you have learned not to steal anything, not even stealing a cheap carton of ice cream from a wealthy multinational supermarket chain.
You hear Jonah’s regret in Jonah chapter 2. In his prayer from inside the fish, Jonah puts his feeling into words:
He said:
“In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me.
From deep in the realm of the dead I called for help, and you listened to my cry.
You also hear the beginning of repentence:
“When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, Lord,
and my prayer rose to you, to your holy temple.
But his true act of repentence shows up when the word of the Lord comes to Jonah a second time and Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh.
Repentence is the miraculous transformation that takes place from faith in God. Repentence is a key word in the Kingdom of God and the life of believers. Jesus’ preaching about the kingdom is an invitation: “Repent for the kingdom of God is near.”
It’s one of the ways that the OT book of Jonah points ahead to the ministry of Jesus. Every story whispers Jesus’ name!
Just like Jonah was tossed overboard to what looked like certain death, Jesus was sentenced to die on a cross. Jonah was guilty of disobedience just like me and you and every other human. Jesus is the only human since The Fall Into Sin who completely obeyed God his heavenly Father 100% of the time.
Jesus died on the cross for the sin of humankind. He could be crucified our our substitute even though he is God because he is also completely human.
After Jesus died, he was laid in a tomb. The stone was rolled over the opening and Jesus lay entombed for 3 days, just as Jonah was in the belly of the fish for 3 days.
None of the sailors expected Jonah to stand on dry land again. But 3 days after the storm, the fish vomited Jonah on dry land. Maybe the seaweed was still wrapped around his head, but Jonah was alive!
Jonah’s resurrection from the depths of the sea point ahead to Jesus’ resurrection from the grave. Nobody expected Jesus to rise from the grave either. But 3 days after he was buried, Jesus arose! He walked and talked, ate with his disciples and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive!
Jesus’ resurrection leads to our resurrection. By faith in Jesus, you are raised to new life. The HS, does not just make you alive, the HS completes the process of repented, God’s miracle of transformation.
You see that repentance, that transformation, in Jonah. The difference between Jonah ch. 1 and ch. 3 is Jonah’s response to the word of the Lord. In ch. 1, Jonah ran away from the Lord. In ch. 3, Jonah obeyed the Lord.
The difference comes from the storm, being thrown overboard, spending 3 days in the belly of a fish. Jonah regretted his actions, cried out to the Lord, and was rescued from death. After rising from the depths of the sea and being rescued from the belly of the fish, Jonah has been transformed. He obeys God, although not perfectly, as we see in ch. 4. Jonah still needs an attitude adjustment.
It’s picture of our experience as Christians. By faith we die with Christ. We are transformed, striving to obey God and being corrected by God’s word and spirit.
But the story is not just about Jonah. The main character of the book of Jonah is the Lord God Almighty. Every chapter confirms God’s character. Jonah sums up God’s character in
You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.
God relented from sending calamity on Jonah, on Nineveh, and on the whole, disobedient world. Jonah and the big fish reinforces what we learn about God’s character in the gospel:
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
