What if you found yourself alive and in the belly of a whale? It would be most terrifying, would it not? This is the bible truth about Jonah. God told Jonah to go and preach to Nineveh about their wickedness. Jonah decided he did not want to preach to them, so instead he boarded a ship headed for Tarshish. This made God angry and He made the wind and seas very fierce. The whole crew was in a panic and began to pray to their various gods. In a attempt to keep the ship from sinking they hurled the cargo into the sea. The captain spotted Jonah fast asleep and told him to pray to his God for they were going to sink. The crew decided to cast lots to see if they could find out why they were having such evil upon them. The lot fell on poor Jonah and they began to question him. Jonah told them where he was from and about God and how he disobeyed God. Jonah said throw me over and you may be safe. The crew thought this was wrong so they tried to ride the seas but God made the seas even more treacherous. So they prayed to God not to be guilty of this man's blood and they threw him over. The seas were immediately calm. The crew feared the Lord greatly and made sacrifices to Him. Jonah was in the belly of great fish three days and nights. Here is his prayer:
Jonah 2:1-10 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. For you cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the flood surrounded me; all your waves and your billows passed over me. Then I said, 'I am driven away from your sight; yet I shall again look upon your holy temple.' The waters closed in over me to take my life; the deep surrounded me; weeds were wrapped about my head at the roots of the mountains. I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever; yet you brought up my life from the pit, O LORD my God. When my life was fainting away, I remembered the LORD, and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple. Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love. But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay. Salvation belongs to the LORD!" And the LORD spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land. Then Jonah went to Nineveh to preach. He announced that in forty days the town and it's inhabitants would be destroyed. The king and the people from the oldest to the youngest believed the Lord and repented. A fast was announced by the king and they called out mightily to God. When God saw that they turned from their wickedness, he did not destroy them. This made Jonah mad. Jonah 4:2-4 And he prayed to the LORD and said, "O LORD, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster. Therefore now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live." And the LORD said, "Do you do well to be angry?" Jonah went to sit at the edge of town to see what would happen.
Then God again spoke to Jonah. Jonah 4:6-11 Now the LORD God appointed a plant and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be a shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort. So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the plant. But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant, so that it withered. When the sun rose, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint. And he asked that he might die and said,"It is better for me to die than to live." But God said to Jonah, "Do you do well to be angry for the plant?" And he said, "Yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die." And the LORD said, "You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?" O Lord, I praise You. You are creator and king, Lord over all. Amen
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