This is one of my favorite stories in the Bible, I remember hearing about it in Sunday school as a child. This book of Jonah is only 4 chapters long, but it’s a great lesson about why we shouldn’t run when God asks us to do something out of our comfort zone and why we also should be a snob.

Nineveh was a booming city with over 100,000 people and it didn’t have a good reputation.Jonah didn't want to go there because he thought it was filthy and beneath him. God wanted Jonah to warn them that the city would be destroyed in 40 days unless they repented. The number 40 represents trial and tribulation in the Bible. Noah spent 40 days on the ark and God’s people spent 40 years wandering in the wilderness after they were freed from the Pharoah. Jonah doesn’t want to go to Nineveh because he thought NIneveh was filthy and didn’t have a good reputation so he thought it was beneath him. He chooses to ignore God and tries to get as far away from Nineveh as possible. But we all know that we can’t escape from the Lord. He is everywhere and he is all knowing. Did you notice that it said that each sailor called upon their God and the captain tells Jonah to call upon his God instead of call upon God. That indicates that the sailors weren’t believers and they were desperately trying to make the storm stop. The storms we go through in this life show us where we put our faith.

Jonah admits that he is running from the Lord and the storm is because God is displeased with him. He tells them to throw him overboard, but the sailors are hesitant because they know being thrown overboard is a death sentence. They desperately try to row the boat to shore, but the wind and waves were too strong. They call upon the Lord and begin begging him not the kill them over Jonah and not to let his blood be on their hands if he dies. As soon they throw Jonah overboard the sea stops. Then it says they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows. The Lord works in mysterious ways. God can use any situation to minister to people, those sailors' lives changed forever that day because they caught a glimpse of his power.  They came to know the one true God.

Notice that the text says a great fish swallowed Jonah instead of a whale. Many people believe that it is referring to a whale because no other fish were big enough to swallow a man. Could you imagine being stuck fish’s stomach for 3 days? It says his head had seaweed wrapped around it and the depth closed around him.  My husband and I have discussed this a few times. My first thought was “I bet it smelled like a horrible combination of bile and fish” and my husband said he wondered if being in that stomach acid hurt. The three days in the fish represents Jesus’ death and resurrection.

Wearing a sackcloth is a sign of grief, death, or repentance. The people of Nineveh turned from their ways. He had compassion on them and we can have that same compassion too if we turn from our sinful ways as well.