NOTES for Jon 1:17
Each chapter of the book of the prophet Jonah is a concise and accurate outline of how a person behaves after encountering the will of God. Knowing what he ought to do, Jonah flees, tries to hide, refuses even to pray, and as a result finds himself in a hopeless situation. It is easy to replace the belly of the whale with something more understandable and familiar: illness, failure, depression, loneliness, or a lack of understanding. Everything that deprives us of the will to live and plunges us into despair. Everything that is for us an obvious consequence of our disobedience to God, of our sin. All this is the belly of the whale, where we suddenly realize that escape is possible only by turning to the One who makes even the laws of nature act as His will pleases.