Going Down Under

There has always been some skepticism regarding the book of Jonah. Some have tried to say that it's a fictional book that teaches us a moral lesson by using allegory.  Others have attempted to prove that the book has no truth to it at all. One of the main reasons for this skepticism comes from the seventeenth verse of the first chapter which declares "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."

The questions that skeptics ask are, "Is this really possible? Can a man actually be swallowed whole by a fish, and if so, how could he possibly survive, let alone compose poetry in the belly of a fish?"  I know it sounds a bit "fishy" but the simple response is; our Great God is a God of Great Miracles.  Can a man live in the belly of a fish for three days?  Probably not! But with God all things are possible.

First, I want to make clear that the large fish could have been a whale. The Hebrew word dag, translated fish is not limited to what is called "fish" today but is a general word for an aquatic beast which could definitely refer to a sperm whale.  Second, in preparing for this message I ran across several accounts of men who claim to have been swallowed by whales and yet lived! There are also those who question the validity of the historical accounts, yet I thought it helpful to note the most striking incident:

The famous French scientist, M. de Parville, in 1914, writes of James Bartley, who in the region of the Falkland Islands near South America was supposedly swallowed by a whale and yet lived.  According to witnesses on the whale ship "Star of the East" the men had spotted a large sperm whale about a mile out. Two boats were lowered and one of the harpooners was able to spear the great fish.  As the second boat approached the fish, the fish's tail overturned the boat. One man drowned, but the other, James Bartley, disappeared.  The whale was killed and drawn up beside the ship.  The crew worked the rest of the day and part of the night removing the blubber.  The next day the whale's stomach was attached to some tackle and hoisted on deck. When the stomach was split open, James Barkley was found - unconscious, but alive.  Once revived, witnesses said he acted like a raving lunatic.  Finally after two weeks he was able to regain his composure and tell his story. He said that when the boat overturned, the waters foamed around him and then he was drawn into darkness.  He soon found himself in a great place where the heat was intense.  In the dark he searched for an exit and found only slimy walls round him.  Then the awful truth of where he was filled his mind and he became unconscious until he was revived on the deck of the ship.

To be honest, I'm not confident the above story is actually true, but I am fully confident that God is a God of miracles!  I believe Jonah was alive, in the belly of the whale, three days and three nights!  But know this--the miracle that made all the difference to Jonah is not the amazing dimensions of the fish. Rather, it is Jonah's rescue from drowning and later, dry land.  What miracle makes all the difference to Christians?  Is it the dimensions of the grave?  No, it is our deliverance from death through Jesus' death.  It is Jesus being raised by the Father in a victory over sin, death, and the devil.  It is our hopes secured through His resurrection. The important miraculous sign of Jonah is that he is raised from the depths, not that he survives in the air sac or the wide pharynx of a whale.