A Fish Prepared to Swallow Him — The Master Indorses the Story — A Test of Our Faith
By WM. COVERT
The little book of the prophet Jonah is made a subject of much ridicule by infidels, because they say its story is absurd. Indeed, if we should undertake to defend it as a narrative entirely in harmony with what might occur in the natural course of things, we would find the task a difficult one. But if the truthfulness of the story is to depend upon the ability of some great fish to swallow a man, the task is easy; for there have been many white sharks found with mouths, gullets, and stomachs large enough to swallow big men. And the disposition of these great sea monsters is, to do just such a thing as that of swallowing a man if he should be thrown overboard into the sea.
Quite Able to Swallow a Man
Mr. Smith, in his dictionary of the Bible, in commenting upon the book of Jonah, says: “The white shark, which sometimes attains the length of thirty feet, is quite able to swallow a man whole. The whole body of a man in armor has been found in the stomach of a white shark; and Captain King, in his survey of Australia, says he had caught one which could have swallowed a man with the greatest ease. Blumenbach mentions that a whole horse has been found in a shark; and Capt. Basil Hall reports the taking of one in which, besides other things, he found the whole skin of a buffalo, which a short time before had been thrown overboard from the ship. The white shark is not uncommon in the Mediterranean.”
Now, since Joppa, the place where Jonah embarked for Tarshish, is located on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea, it follows that his attempted voyage was on that sea. It was on that sea that the mariners prayed and cast lots to determine who was responsible for the raging storm that was threatening the lives of all on board. And into that sea Jonah was thrown when the lot fell upon him.
The Fish Was Prepared
When the story has led up to the point where the fleeing prophet was cast into the sea, it says: “Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fish’s belly. . . . And the Lord spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land.” Jonah 1:17; 2:1, 10.
Jonah was the Lord’s prophet for Israel; and he had been told to go to Nineveh and cry against it, because its inhabitants were so very wicked. But Jonah dreaded to undertake such a mission, so he went to Joppa. There he found a ship’s crew about to start for Tarshish; and they accepted his fare, and agreed to take him to Tarshish with them.
He may have thought that if he would go to Tarshish and do missionary work there, the Lord would accept that service instead of the work he had been asked to do in the great city of Nineveh. He may have reasoned with himself that there was need of missionary work to be done at Tarshish, and, too, that it would be more convenient to make the journey to Tarshish than to go to Nineveh. The ship was going to Tarshish, and he could go on board, go to sleep, and ride across the sea to that place. It probably seemed to him that the journey would be easier and the work not so embarrassing and that the Lord would consent to this change in the missionary plans.
The Storm Frustrated Jonah’s Plans
But Jonah’s attempt to change the Lord’s plans was not approved, and hence the storm frustrated the prophet’s self-appointed plans for missionary work. Then the great fish was ready to swallow up Jonah as soon as he was cast overboard. And it started back with him to the place whence he started. Now, as soon as he was on dry land again, “the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time, saying, Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee. So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord.” This time, Jonah did as he was bidden, and he preached with such power that the whole city was mightily affected.
His Earnest Work Was Convincing
Such preaching as this by the intensely earnest man upon the streets of the city, convinced the Ninevites of their great danger. “So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them. For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything: let them not feed, nor drink water: but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands. Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from His fierce anger, that we perish not? And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that He had said that He would do unto them; and He did it not.” Jonah 3:5-10.
But Jonah was greatly displeased because the Lord did not destroy the city. He said: “Lord, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that Thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest Thee of the evil.” But God wanted to bring the people to repentance; and so He enacted this great drama to bring them to repentance, and to save as many of them as possible.
The Key to the Lesson
The marvelous part in this story is not that the great fish could swallow up the prophet, but the wonder is that the prophet could live through the ordeal. But when we actually believe that it was God who was manifesting His power because of His kindness to men whom He would have repent of their sins, and also because He was enacting a parable that should be used as an object lesson to show His ability to do whatever He might wish to perform in heaven or in earth, in the seas or elsewhere (see Ps. 135:6), we have the key to the lesson.
When the Lord wanted Jonah swallowed, He had the fish ready to do His bidding. And when He wanted the prophet liberated, He spoke to the fish, and had him put out on the dry ground again, so he could and would do the work he had been bidden to do.
Christ Indorsed It
The lesson was indorsed and explained by Christ as follows: “Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from Thee. But He answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas: for as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here.” Matt. 12:38-41.
In the margin of the Revised Version, the term for the word “whale” is “sea monster.” It was some great sea monster that God used as an agent in the return of the fleeing prophet. By this means, the people of Nineveh were made to repent of their sins, thus saving the city for a time from an overthrow; and also in this way a great object lesson was given to mankind, illustrating the power of God and the willingness of God to save men.
