Mention the Biblical book of Jonah, and everyone’s mind will leap to the big fish, the one that swallowed Jonah. But that’s not the story; it’s not the most essential part of the story; and, except for the fact that it’s a miracle that Jesus refers to, it could easily have been left out of the story. But many people, will pick up the Book of Jonah and rush through the first chapter to get to the big fish story.

Let’s start at the beginning. Jonah’s day job is prophesy. He works in the Northern kingdom of Israel. From time to time, God speaks a word to Jonah, then sends him out to speak to the people or the king by saying, “Thus says the Lord…” Sometimes, the king or the people will respond and change their ways. Other times they’ll pay no attention, or worse, run the prophet out of town. No matter, Jonah’s job is speak the word. If he does that, he’s good.

So God speaks to Jonah and says, “Go to Nineveh (a really nasty city) and preach repentance to the people.” Jonah doesn’t like those people. Part of him is afraid to go there, and part of him (because he knows God can be merciful) doesn’t want to see good things to come to that rotten city. Jonah runs south to Joppa, and hops on a ship going in a direction opposite of the way to Nineveh.

It’s a very stupid and bad thing to try to run away from God. First of all, God’s everywhere, so to try and go somewhere He is not is just plain stupid. Second, because God’s in charge, when He says, “Go!”, you’d better mount up and head out. Deep inside, Jonah must have known that, because he went down inside the bowels of the ship and slept, perhaps hoping that God would not notice.

God cranks up a terrible storm. The sailors on the ship know about storms, and they know what to do when caught in one. They might have had a little decision tree chart hung up on the captain’s wall:

This was a stage 4 storm. Stuff is being chucked over the rails and frightened sailors are sending  up petitions left and right. “Why is this happening?’ they cry. The captain goes below and wakes Jonah. “Why aren’t you praying to your god? Get up here and explain yourself.”The sailors draw straws to see who is to blame for the storm of the century. Jonah draws the short one. The sailors bombard Jonah with questions. “What caused this storm? Who are you? What’s your job? Where are you from?”

Jonah answered, “I am a Hebrew, and I worship the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land.” Jonah 1:9 (NLT)

Now these guys are really upset, and the storm was getting worse. “Why did you run away from your god? What should we do?”

“Throw me into the sea,” Jonah said, “and it will become calm again. I know that this terrible storm is all my fault.” Jonah 1:12 (NLT)

The sailors were idol-worshipers, but they did not want to kill Jonah, so they tried rowing out of the storm. But when that didn’t improve things, they did a strange thing; they prayed to Jonah’s God, the one true, real God who made heaven and earth and the sea. “Please don’t hold us guilty of this man’s death, because we’re about to do what he told us to do.” And they do it; they toss Jonah overboard just like excess cargo, and he falls into the sea.

The sea instantly becomes calm. The sailors realize they’ve met the real God. Immediately they pray to this God. They offer sacrifices to the God of the universe. Salvation has come to these idol-worshipers (idol-worshipers like the Ninevites). Every man’s life was affected by that amazing rescue from the storm. I imagine some, if not all of them, became followers of the Living God. For them the rescue was not just from bad weather, but from the fires of Hell. All because Jonah did what prophets are supposed to do; tell people about God.

The Book of Jonah could end right there, and it would be a great story about God’s abounding love and mercy. About how God uses weak (even disobedient) people to carry out His purposes to save. Jonah is history and God is glorified!

So no, it’s not about the big fish. Yeah, it provides a three-day time out for Jonah, but God could have used a big chunk of flotsam to accomplish the same thing. And yes, God gave Jonah another chance to preach to Nineveh. And yes the preaching had the desired effect. And still, Jonah remained sullen about the whole affair. No matter. Because some idol-worshiping people were saved that day by God’s grace and mercy. That was God’s purpose then, and it remains so today.