The book of Jonah provokes a whole spectrum of reactions. I find it just a little amusing to dig through blog posts and online commentaries
only to discover that on one side we have Christians who want to take all
the miracles out of Jonah so that it reads more plausibly, while on the other
we have Christians who want to introduce new miracles into the book from
between the lines of its text.
Variety may be the spice of life, but it can also be
confusing to new readers of scripture.
Jonah 1:17 — The First Appointment
“And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.”
Up until this point, nobody has too much difficulty with the
book of Jonah. It’s at the moment the prophet hits the belly of the great fish
that people want to start reading the book figuratively or reject it outright.
Other Christians, like Jason
Tilley, argue no miracle was required to preserve Jonah and that surviving
three days and three nights in the belly of a sulphur-bottom whale or
whale shark is quite possible given their absence of teeth and multiple stomach
compartments.
The first two positions are untenable for Christians who
believe in the inspiration of scripture, for reasons I have detailed in this
post, while Tilley’s position may be correct, but is both unverifiable and unnecessary.
We already have six
supernatural events mentioned in Jonah, two of which have to do with the
great fish: the Lord “appointed” it to swallow up Jonah, and the Lord “spoke to
the fish” to conclude the episode. A Christian who accepts these statements as
true should have little difficulty with a dollop of divine preservation thrown
in between for good measure. The reader who does not accept these will simply
not get very much from the book. In any case, there is little value in arguing with
those who can manage the idea of God but balk at the occasional miracle.
Jonah 2:1-3 — Jonah Begins to Pray
“Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish, saying:‘I called out to the Lord, out of my distress, and he answered me;
out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice.
For you cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas,
and the flood surrounded me;
all your waves and your billows passed over me.’ ”
Out of the Belly of Sheol
On the basis of the phrase “out of the belly of Sheol”, some Christians
take the position that Jonah actually died inside the great fish and God raised
him from the dead upon his repentance. Sheol
is Hebrew for “grave”, so the argument is made that Jonah’s life ended inside
the great fish’s belly. Those who hold this position point out that since Jonah
is used as a picture of Christ by the Lord himself, having the prophet die makes
the type fit even better. (This is what I mean about introducing new
miracles into the book.)
Most commentators, however, think Jonah was simply speaking
poetically — essentially reckoning himself as good as dead — which
seems far more likely to me. David says something very similar in the song he
wrote when God preserved him from repeated attempts on his life. He writes, “For
the waves of death encompassed me, the torrents of destruction assailed me; the
cords of Sheol entangled me; the snares of death confronted me.” It seems
pretty clear David, like Jonah, is poetically describing a series of near-death
experiences from which he had been delivered. In fact, the imagery David uses
in 2 Samuel 22 (“waves”, “torrents”, “snares”, “many waters”) is so
similar to Jonah’s description of his underwater odyssey that the prophet may
well have had David’s words in mind when addressing the Lord. At very least,
David’s psalm sets a precedent for the non-literal use of sheol in prayer that we should probably consider before we prematurely
punch Jonah’s ticket for him.
Moreover, in referencing Jonah’s experience, the Lord does
not say that he died, but that he was “three days and three nights in
the belly of the great fish”, adding nothing to the scripture and making no
reference to any death but his own. I’m not sure we make the story any more profound
by entertaining the possibility of Jonah’s death and resurrection.
You Cast Me Into the Deep
The words “you cast me into the deep” are not literally the
case — we have just been told that it was the reluctant mariners who hurled
Jonah overboard — but Jonah is recognizing that it is God who bears
ultimate responsibility for his current situation. So they are “your” waves and
“your” billows.
Jonah’s prayer is a prayer of faith. He speaks of God’s response
to his prayer as a fait accompli (“he
answered me”, “you heard my voice”) even though God’s answer has yet to be
received. This is exactly the way the
Lord Jesus taught his own disciples to address their heavenly Father: “Whatever
you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be
yours.” This is the confidence of a man who knows God intimately and recognizes
that if God intended to punish him by taking his life, he would already be very
dead indeed. So despite his rebellious behavior, Jonah has no doubt how his
story will end.
Moreover, Jonah’s prayer is a prayer of thanks. He is
grateful. He sees the belly of the fish for what it is: as a place of safety
God has provided for him. For Jonah, the most traumatic part of being hurled
into the ocean is not the ±72 hours in the belly of the fish, but the
experience of near-drowning. Almost half his prayer describes his helpless
flailing in the water; exactly none of it is devoted to complaining about his
current situation or requesting an end to the darkness and stench of his
surroundings.
As with Elijah’s ravens, God’s provision is always welcome —
even when it comes in an unexpected form.
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Photo courtesy Sargis Babayan [CC BY-SA 3.0]
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