Jonah 1:17

The Bible says in Jonah 1:17, “Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.” There is a very important truth about the power and the love of God in the first phrase of this verse. It says, “the LORD had prepared a great fish.” Long before Jonah failed and ran away from God, God made a preparation. God knew what was going to happen. Jonah’s failure did not take the Lord by surprise. The Lord knew it would happen. The Lord prepared the great fish in order to teach Jonah a lesson, and in order to teach Jonah that it is best to go God’s way. If you are a believer in Jesus, the Lord has a plan for your life. For that plan to be fulfilled, you must learn to be surrendered to Him. So if you are not surrendered, God’s involvement in your life will be to teach you to be surrendered. It is very important that we learn to be able to truly say to the Lord, “Not my will but thine be done. Just show me what you want me to do, and I will do it. Just bring into my life what you want to bring, and I will accept it.”

Jonah spent three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish. That is what it took for Jonah to finally surrender to the Lord. O how stubborn the human will can be. One would think that it would not take that long to find oneself in the belly of a fish before one would turn to the Lord. But even the three days and three nights that Jonah spent in the whale was used to symbolize something important. Jesus referred to His own death and resurrection and said in Matthew 12:40, “For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”

Once Jonah learned his lesson, notice his response. It says in Jonah 2:1, “Then Jonah prayed unto the LORD his God out of the fish's belly.” Do not ever think that you failed the Lord Jesus, and therefore, you can no longer serve Him. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Just make sure that you learn from your mistake. That is what the Lord wants you to do. The Bible says in Jonah 2:2, “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.” Jonah cried out to God because Jonah was afflicted enough to cause him to want to cry out. That is one of the reasons that Almighty God allows afflictions: so that those who are afflicted will see their need to call out to Him. If you are smart, you will call out to God before you are afflicted, and thereby avoid any of those types of chastisements.

Jonah said to God in Jonah 2:3-8, “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.[4] Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight; yet I will look again toward thy holy temple.[5] The waters compassed me about, even to the soul: the depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head.[6] 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.[7] When my soul fainted within me I remembered the LORD: and my prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple.[8] They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy.” I think the thing to notice from these verses is this: who changed that allowed Jonah to return to the Lord. Did the Lord change? No, God was always there to welcome Jonah back. Jonah changed. Jonah changed his own attitude. Jonah said in verse 4, “I will look again toward thy holy temple,” and Jonah said in verse 7, “I remembered the LORD.”

Anything that you believe that keeps you from turning to the Lord is a lie. The truth is that you need the Lord, you can turn to the Lord, and He will forgive you and accept you when you turn to Him. Turning to the Lord involves truth and you aligning yourself with truth. That is why Jonah said in Jonah 2:8, “They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy.” That is also why Jesus said in John 8:32, “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” The truth is that you are a sinner who needs forgiveness. The truth is that Jesus loves you and died for you sins. The truth is that He will forgive you if you confess your sins. The truth is stated in Romans 10:13, “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

Jonah said in Jonah 2:9, “But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the LORD.” Once Jonah returned to the Lord and was forgiven, he realized how fortunate he was to be forgiven and to be accepted by the Lord. The result was that Jonah was thankful. Jonah appreciated his new spiritual condition and he was thankful for it. It is interesting that Jonah used the word “sacrifice” in the same verse as “thanksgiving.” It says in the law of Moses in Leviticus 22:29, “And ye will offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving unto the Lord, offer it at you own will.” It also says in Psalms 116:17, “I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call upon the name of the Lord.” In other words this is a gift that we have to give to Jesus: thankfulness. What does God want us to give Him and what does He want us to sacrifice unto Him? He wants us to be thankful to Him. That is the gift that He wants us to give Him: not our money, but our heart. It says in the New Testament in Ephesians 5:20, “Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” If we learn to thank God for “all things,” then we will be making a sacrifice of our normal human feelings. We will be thankful when we lose, we will be thankful when we are hated, and we will be thankful when things do not work out as well as when they do. That if what the life of faith is all about. Once you know Jesus as your Savior, God wants you to learn how to live a life of faith. You believe in Him and therefore you trust in Him concerning all things. To live by faith you believe that Almighty God is involved in every detail of your life even when you fail. He only allows to happen what He wants to happen for a purpose. That is why you can be thankful for all things: faith. God will use even negative things that happen in your life to some good purpose. You know that and so you can patiently wait to see that purpose unfold some day. If you do not see it in this life, you know for sure that it will come full circle at the judgment, and you will see it then when you are given a fuller understanding of all things. Jonah was thankful that he was received by the Lord and forgiven. Any Christian should always be thankful for that. You can and should pray something like this every day, “Thank you Lord Jesus that you came into this world of woe and died for me. Thank you Lord Jesus that your Spirit came to me personally and offered me salvation that day when I bowed before you and you saved me.”

The Bible says in Jonah 2:10, “And the LORD spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land.” God is involved in everything that happens, even when a great fish vomits. As well as ruling over the humans on this earth, God rules over the animal kingdom too. God created them, did He not? And of course, God rules over all of the natural world. That is why we say that God is “supernatural.” God is above all nature. That is one of the reasons that attempts to prove the existence of God through science come up short. Science measures and observes the material world. God is not material: He is a Spirit. And of course, Jesus demonstrated the spiritual attributes of God. The disciples saw it first hand. The Bible says in Matthew 8:24-27, “And, behold, there arose a great tempest in the sea, insomuch that the ship was covered with the waves: but he was asleep.[25] And his disciples came to him, and awoke him, saying, Lord, save us: we perish.[26] And he saith unto them, Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Then he arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm.[27] But the men marvelled, saying, What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him!”

The Bible says in Jonah 3:1-2, “And the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the second time, saying,[2] Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee.” There is at least one great lesson to learn from this: our God is a God of second chances. Since salvation is by grace and grace alone, then He has to be. One of the worse things I have ever heard in my life from a preacher was when I heard one say, “Well, you know so-and-so has been put on the shelf. God cannot use that person any more.” There is absolutely and positively no such thing as being put on the shelf. There is such a thing as being taken off the earth. In other words if you are a believer and if the Lord is finished with you, then He will take you to heaven. But as long as you are on this earth, God has something for you to do. Maybe you have not heard about eternal love. That is the kind of love that Jesus has. What happens when a Christian fails, and what happens when a Christian even refuses to go God’s way? Let me tell you what will always happen: the exact same thing that happened to Jonah is what will happen. Gods will continue to work in your life so that you will learn from your mistake and its consequences, and so that you will make a better decision the next time. It says in Hebrews 12:5-6, “And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him:[6] For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.” God will not put you on the shelf. He will not designate you of being no use to Him. He will continue to work in your life because you have a lot to learn and He has great patience and an unlimited number of ways to get to you.

That is exactly what happened to Jonah. Jonah learned from his mistake, and he was given another chance. You are God’s workmanship. He created a new life in you when you believed in Jesus, and He is not done with you. You are going to live with Him forever in eternity. He knows what you are. When you make a mistake, it does not surprise Him. He is ready for it. He has got a plan. He is going to teach you and give you a second chance, and a third chance, and a fourth chance…whatever it takes. When He is done with you, He will take you off the earth. Look at your feet. If they are still on the earth, that means God is not done with you.

Jonah was given a learning experience. And he learned, and then Jonah was given a second chance. It says in Jonah 3:3-5, “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.[4] And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.[5] 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.” Jonah’s message was a message of warning. It was a spiritual message that relates to the soul. God is a holy God, and one of His responsibilities as God is to judge the earth. Every nation, every city, and every individual are in danger of judgment because we are all sinners. You have a problem: the sin problem. By the Spirit and by those who preach the gospel, God sends you a warning, just like He did for the people of Nineveh. No wonder God wanted Jonah to go to Nineveh to preach the gospel. The Lord knew that the hearts of the people had been prepared, and now He just needed someone to go there with the truth. That is the way God usually works. He works in people’s hearts by the Spirit and then He sends a preacher. It says in Romans 10:14-17, “How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?[15] And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things![16] But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report?[17] So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”

That was a tremendous revival that God brought to Nineveh through the preaching of Jonah. Such revivals are rare, but they do happen. You will never know what God is going to do in your life unless you learn like Jonah, and go God’s way for you. Of course, Jesus was the best preacher and teacher of anyone who ever walked this earth, but Jonah saw more results from His preaching than Jesus did. It is not just the preacher that determines such things, it is also the hearers and if they decide to respond to the preacher. Concerning those who did not respond to His preaching, Jesus said in Matthew 12:41, “The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here.” What will your response be to the message of Christ? Will you turn to Him while you have time?

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