NOTES for Jon 1:17; Jon 2:1-9

The translation familiar to us says that Jonah was swallowed by a whale, although in the original language the text mentions dag gadol, a great fish. Taking the translation literally provoked unfounded but persistent ridicule from opponents of religion, who liked to point to the size of a whale's gullet, unable to swallow a human being. Yet cases of people being swallowed by certain large predatory fish are known. Even so, the species of the creature mentioned in the Book of Jonah is less important than the meaning of the account.

We see Jonah calm, trusting in God. Looking back now, we can see even in Jonah's calm deep inside the ship during the storm a pledge of his calm inside the fish. But inside the ship, Jonah himself was trying to withdraw from God; inside the fish, he received what he had been seeking, for the Lord gave him that opportunity. Each of us, by turning away from Him, may find ourselves swallowed by a similar fish. It can take any form and appear amid any outward circumstances. It then depends on us whether we cry out to God through the barriers separating us from Him, barriers that have arisen from our own actions and desires.

Jonah's prayer from the depths is an inspired psalm expressing the hope not only of an ancient prophet, but of any of us who fall, often sinking into a state of rejection and abandonment, yet not abandoned by God even then. He is with us everywhere and is ready to lead us out of despair and black darkness, just as He brought Jonah out onto dry land.

…Centuries would pass, and Christ, comparing His time in the tomb with Jonah's time in the whale's belly, would reveal to His listeners that no other sign would be given them ‘except the sign of the prophet Jonah’ (Matt. 12:39–40). Would it be stretching the point to note that Jonah's willingness to sacrifice himself for his fellow voyagers also resembled the coming self-sacrifice of the Son of Man?