AHH.. The prophet Jonah!!  As with so SOO so many a Biblical narratives... Jonah's was, indeed, recorded and written for an example to us, fellow humans!!  FINAL WORD??  O-B-E-D-I-E-N-C-E!   Of all the other MANY stories of the Bible.. Jonah's is UNIQUE IN ITSELF, due to Jonah's BLATANT disobedience of God, and God's SWIFT & IMMEDIATE action against Jonah! 

 

That said??  It's AMAZING how misconscrewed things become over time.. SO. let's go ahead and clear THIS up.. While the subject of MANNY a debate and theory..

It is HIGHLY UNLIKELY that it was a whale that swallowed Jonah!!  The Bible says...

Jonah 1:17 - '..Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah.'  

Meaning, the LORD probably made a fish specific to the purpose of a holding cell for Jonah. 

It was a fish, that, prolly was NOT in existence, then, nor now.  God could have EASILY done that!!  Also, being that the Bible says 'HE PREPARED' a fish FOR the swallowing of Jonah.  It could very well mean that it was, indeed, a whale, and the LORD made it suitable to house Jonah for 3 days; without the digestion process occurring.   (Hebrew: דג גדול), which literally means "great fish."  We really don't know AND thus, REALLY shouldn't CARE since God didn't go into a lot of detail about the fish!  He prolly didn't want us doing a whole lot of speculating on the fish, thus taking our attention away from what ought to be the main focus;

which is EXACTLY what we've done!!  SORRY about that LORD! 😕

 

ANYWAAY.. Without FURTHER ADO..  The prophet Jonah's story...

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The PROPHET JONAH, was born in the 9th century BC.  Little is known about his early life, other than his father's name was Amittai..  Though being a prophet.. We can surmise that his walk with God, was pretty tight!  As with ANY prophet, however, he was HUMAN... with likes and dislikes.  And, from the evidence - he DID NOT like Nineveh (AT ALL).. or Ninevites

That is CLEAR - the 'why', is unclear..

 

The little of Jonah's life that IS known, starts in his life as a prophet, when God tells him to go to Nineveh, to forewarn them of their coming destruction because of their MANY sins.  (The fact that their sins are SO obviously great.. COULD be the reason for Jonah's disdain for them..)  So in surmising that Jonah ABSOLUTELY HATES the Ninevites!  He was 'prolly'  thinking in his mind, "that is GOOD!  They deserve to be destroyed!  Annnd prolly thinking, "If I do NOT warn them.. destruction will come, they'll be gone and the world will be a bit better off a lil less sinless!"  

 

I hate to think that ANY prophet of God would purposefully, and so BLATANTLY, ignore what God has told him to do!

 

So, he goes down to Joppa, and purchases a ticket to Tarshish.. which, is in the BLATANT OPPOSITE direction of Nineveh (by way of 2500 miles, where God commanded him to go!  (There is a reminder to THIS DAY  in Joppa, at port where Jonah boarded that faithful ship that day, of the result of being rebellious to God!  FoSho!!)

 

ANNYWAAY - Jonah hops aboard and closes his eyes for some sleep & slumber.. Meanwhile - God causes a brutal strong wind to stir up around the ship headed for Tarshish.. The boat was being PUMMELED and BEAT upon the boat, as Jonah was fast asleep in the bow.  The boats captain goes down to Jonah to tell him, "WAKE UP AND PRAY TO YOUR GOD LEST WE DIE FROM THIS STORM THAT YOU ARE SLEEPING THROUGH!!"  As the rest of the crew prayed and tossed lots as to the ferocity  of the storm.. God tells them what is going on..  They ask Jonah, "Why have you DONE this to us??"  Jonah tells the captain and crew to throw him overboard and the storm would cease!  Instead of immediately tossing him over.. The crew desperately tries in vain to row faster to get Jonah to dry land but the storm was just too overwhelming!!  So they take hold of Jonah and toss him overboard.  Immediately - the storm ceases, and a HUGE hungry fish that God had prepared.. was there with mouth open to take ol Jonah into his (or her as the case may be), abode.  His (or her as the case may be), belly!!  Can YOU IMAGINE what it must've been like in the fish's belly??  Dark, smelly, not to mention, claustrophobic & slimey.  Immediately, Jonah thought of God, and how he'd disobeyed Him. Ain't it funny how something like that gets your attention??  His prayer was a GREAT one!!  

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JONAH ⓶:⓵; JONAH'S PRAYER

 Then Jonah prayed unto the LORD his God out of the fish's belly,

⓶ And said, 'I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the LORD, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice.

⓷ For thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas; and the floods compassed me about: all thy billows and thy waves passed over me.

⓸ Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight; yet I will look again toward thy holy temple.

⓹ The waters compassed me about, even to the soul: the depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head.

⓺ I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me for ever: yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption, O LORD my God.

⓻ When my soul fainted within me I remembered the LORD: and my prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple.

⓼ They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy.

⓽ But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the LORD.

⓾ And the LORD spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land.

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With a NEW outlook and perspective of life (NO DOUBT!!!)  Jonah was listening attentively when God again commanded him to go unto Nineveh and command them to repent or be destroyed.  So Jonah (after cleaning up a bit, I imagine), arose and did as he was commanded, verbatim.  

 

Jonah ⓷:⓷ So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days' journey. ⓸ And Jonah began to enter into the city (for) a day's journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. 

⓹ 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. ⓺ 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. ⓻ 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 any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water: ⓼ 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. ⓽ Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?'

⓾ And God saw their works, that they (had) 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.

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APPARENTLY; Jonah's disdain for Nineveh and the Ninevites had NOT subsided; and APPARENTLY; he hadn't noticed the turn of repentance of the Ninevites, for he had went up to a cliff to have a front row seat of Nineveh's destruction.  When the destruction DIDN'T happen, and the LORD had told Jonah that, indeed, they HAD in fact repented... 

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Jonah’s Anger at the Lord’s Compassion;

⓵ But to Jonah this seemed very wrong, and he became angry. ⓶ 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. ⓷ Now, Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.”

⓸ But the Lord replied, “Is it right for you to be angry?”

⓹ Jonah had gone out and sat down at a place east of the city. There he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city. ⓺ Then the Lord God provided a leafy plant a and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the plant. ⓻ But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the plant so that it withered.  ⓼ When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die, and said, “It would be better for me to die than to live.”

⓽ But God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?”

“It is,” he said. “And I’m so angry I wish I were dead.”

⓾ But the Lord said, “You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. 11And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—

and also many animals?”

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AND THAT is where the book of Jonah ENDS!  Makes one wonder  if God did as Jonah requested and took his life...  Not a good place to end the life... IN AN ARGUMENT with the Almighty!  After all; his attitude was what made him fish food in the first place!  I think though, that, this is where that story had ended, thus, the book ended!  The moral of the story had been told... And that us 'ATTITUDE is EVERYTHING!'  And SELFISHNESS will get you NOWHERE with God!!  OTHER than maybe, in a BIG FISH!...😉