Jonah 1: How to Get Swallowed by a Whale

Do you ever wake up and ask yourself how can I get swallowed by a whale today? Well, I really hope you don't, but if you do, Jonah provides you with an absolutely wonderful guidebook on how to do that very thing. So, how do you get swallowed by a whale? Answer: rebel against the living God.

In Jonah 1, we see a great narrative of Jonah's pilgrimmage into the belly of a whale. The story all starts in verses 1 and 2, when God calls Jonah to go prophesy to the Ninevites and call them to repentance. It is important to note that Nineveh was the capital of Assyria, a great enemy of the Israelites and the nation that would eventually destroy the Northern kingdom. Now, if you don't get all that biblical history, don't worry about it, here's the point: God called Jonah to proclaim the Gospel to his ememies, and Jonah didn't like that idea. Thus, in verse 3, we find that he ran as far as he could from God.

Well, the story continues on from there, and Jonah finds himself on a boat with a bunch of pagan sailors. God sends a great storm over the lake, and the sailors start fearing for their lives, which causes them to go down and get Jonah (who was in the bottom of the ship sleeping) in order that they might call out to his God. Jonah explains to them who his God is, and the sailors (ironically) rebuke Jonah for running from this great God, who they eventually cry out to for salvation (verse 14, 16). Long story short, the sailors end up throwing Jonah into the sea (which was originally Jonah's request*), and the storm ceases. Jonah then is swallowed by a whale, which is the great cliffhanger before chapter 2.

So what's the point of this absolutely wacky story? I promise you--this is not a fairytale. This wacky stuff actually happened. Nevertheless, it was quite ironic and crazy, but that's the point. The book of Jonah could easily be categorized with today's literary genre of satire, where the entire reason for the craziness is to make a point. So what's the point in this first chapter of Jonah? Answer: that we must repent before our living God, and not rebel. Ironically, the man in this story who was supposed to be godly (Jonah) rebelled against God, whereas the men who were supposed to be ungodly (the Gentile sailors) find themselves calling out to Yahweh for their salvation. This irony is intentional, and it teaches us a clear point: even those who are godly can often rebel against the God, but we ought not to. However, it ought not to be so among us. We ought to repent before the Lord, just as the sailors did, rather than rebel against him. This is our correct posture before the living God.

So, are you living in rebellion or repentance? Let me note to you, dear brothers and sisters, that these are the only two options. There is no middle ground. Furthermore, one leads to eternal salvation, and one does not. Am I saying that Jonah was not a saved child of God? Certainly not. He was a prophet of the Lord. But he was living in sin. He was a hypocrite, claiming that he was pledging allegiance to the living God (verse 9) when in fact he was in rebellion against him. He may have been a saved child of God, but he was not walking in the path that was in accordance with the path to heaven. He was saved, but he was a hypocrite, and perhaps you are in the same boat* as Jonah this morning. Brother and sister, let me encourage you this morning: that boat only leads you to the belly of a whale. In other words, God will have his way whether you repent or not. And I don't know about you, but I'd rather be on God's side from the beginning than spending three days inside of a fish* (although that may sound entertaining for some of you). Therefore, I encourage y'all today: don't rebel, REPENT! Amen.

*Jonah thought that the best way to run from God was to ask someone else to murder him, but this only opened the door for a whale to swallow him up and bring him to Ninevah. Surely God is sovereign.

*There is no point of this footnote other than pointing out how genius this pun was.

*For all you science nerds, yes, I know that a whale is technically a mammal. I passed third grade too.