By Bob Wilkin
The story of Jonah and the whale is a favorite with children. (It should be noted that the text of Jonah does not say he was swallowed by a whale; a great fish is the term used.)
The story of Jonah and the great fish has parallels to the story of Jesus sleeping in the boat while the disciples floundered on a tempestuous sea (cf. Mark 6).
We can learn much from this brief account in Jonah, chapter 1.
The following is drawn from my commentary on Jonah that will be part of volume 2 of our Grace Old Testament Commentary: the Prophets.
1:4-9. God is sovereign. He controls everything, including the weather. Even the sea obeys Him. He caused a great storm, which He knew would ultimately lead to Jonah obeying his commission. He used storms in the ministry of Jesus to teach the disciples vital lessons as well (cf. Matt 8:23-27; 14:22-33).
Even seasoned sailors were afraid. They began lightening the ship by throwing cargo overboard. But Jonah…was fast asleep, as Jesus was during a similar storm (Matt 8:24).
The captain used the same language that God had used: Arise (cf. v 2). A polytheist, he wanted Jonah to pray to his god for deliverance so that they might not perish (i.e., die).
The sailors believed that this calamity had come upon them because of something someone on board ship had done. These unbelievers responded in a way that many believers today do not. When faced with calamity, we should at least consider that it might be because we are out of fellowship with God (Jas 5:19-20).
The casting of lots was common then and it was still being used in the first century when the apostles cast lots to see whether Matthias or Barsabas was God’s choice (Acts 1:23-26). That it fell on Jonah was no coincidence. God controlled this as well.
They concluded that Jonah had done something wrong and so they inquire about him. He admits to being a Hebrew who fears God, the Creator. His claim to fear God is contradicted by his rebellion to this point. However, Jonah surely feared God greatly at that time. He realized he was now in God’s hands.
1:10-16. Jonah’s words served to heighten the fear of the sailors. They now believed that Jonah’s God caused this great tempest.
Possibly they had become monotheists and had come to believe that the God of the Hebrews is the Creator and the Sovereign.
When he told them to throw him overboard to make the tempest cease, they did not immediately comply. These were honorable men who did not want this man’s death on their hands. So, they rowed as hard as they could, but to no avail (cf. Matt 8:25).
Giving up any hope of saving themselves, they determined to do what Jonah had told them to do. But first they prayed to the LORD! They ask Him not to hold them accountable for Jonah’s seemingly certain death for they were doing what He wanted.
When they threw Jonah into the sea, it ceased from its raging. The result was that these men feared the LORD exceedingly and they offered Him sacrifices and made vows to Him as well.
Was this pagan superstition or did they come to faith in the God of Israel? The latter was surely the case. However, the bigger question was whether they believed in the coming Messiah for everlasting life. Had Jonah told them about the Messiah? It seems likely that he had and that these men were born again on this occasion. But the text leaves this uncertainty.
1:17. In the Hebrew text, this is the first verse of chapter 2. The expression three days and three nights did not mean three full days (seventy-two hours). Compare Esther 4:16 and 5:1. See also Matt 12:40 where the Lord links His resurrection on the third day with Jonah’s being “three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish.”
2:1. Jonah now did what he should have done when he first received his commission to go to Nineveh: he prayed.
2:2-9. Jonah’s prayer is a psalm of thanks. In fact, most of what he prays can be found in various psalms.
Here was a man so acquainted with God’s Word that his prayer was filled with Biblical language. He was praying from the belly of Sheol (v 2) in the sense that he was near death.
He thanks God for saving him from a watery grave (vv 3-6). While he was not yet on dry land, he was alive and he knew he would soon be back on land.
This psalm is both a prayer of thanks for the deliverance from the tempest and a thanksgiving for his coming deliverance from the belly of the fish. Salvation is of the Lord (cf. 2 Chron 20:17; Ps 18:2; 68:20; Jer 3:23; Lam 3:26; Matt 8:25) refers to deliverance from temporal distress, in this case, the storm and the sea.
The Bible presents God’s servants with all their flaws. David, though a man after God’s own heart, committed adultery and murder and had his flaws as a father. Abraham was God’s friend, yet he passed his wife off as his sister on two different occasions. Jonah was used by God to save a million or so Ninevites from premature death, but because he found the Ninevites and their culture repugnant, he initially disobeyed God’s commission to go to them.
There were many ways God could have gotten Jonah to obey Him. The one He chose was remarkable and very memorable for both Israel and the Church. In addition to getting Jonah back on track, pagan sailors were confronted with the God of Israel and were possibly born again through the ministry of the reluctant prophet.
Jonah’s three days in the belly of the great fish is a type of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead. The Lord Jesus rose on the third day.
Sadly, many pastors and Bible scholars now teach that the story of Jonah is a parable. In their minds, there was no great fish. Jonah was not literally swallowed and delivered onto land three days later. It’s just a children’s story, like Hansel and Gretel or Cinderella.
Jonah is not a fairy tale. The account of Jonah and the great fish really happened. It is just as certain as the resurrection of our Lord from the dead. Our God is an awesome God who does great miracles. If your pastor believes that Jonah is a parable, you might want to find a new church.
Bob Wilkin is Executive Director of Grace Evangelical Society. He and Sharon live in Highland Village, TX. He has racewalked twelve marathons.
