Bible Text: Jonah 1:17-2:10 | Preacher: Pastor Joe Ricchuiti | Series: Jonah, The Man That Got Away – A Fish’s Tale

1.  God provides a fish to be Jonah’s means of preservation.  “He was half-drowned before he was swallowed….he went from a wet darkness to an even greater dry darkness….[He} would eventually realize he was not in the darkness of Sheol [the grave] but of a ‘mysterious safety.’” (H.L. Ellison)

2.  Could Jonah have been swallowed by a “great fish” and survived the experience?  Dr. John D. Morris, Ph.D. offers the following explanation:  “First, let me say that the historicity of this account is vital to the Christian.  Believing it is not an option, for Jesus Christ Himself believed it and made it a model for the doctrine of His resurrection…(Matthew 12:40)….Furthermore, there have been several reported cases of modern sailors or other individuals swallowed by such an animal, only to be recovered many hours later….Whole animals as large or larger than a man have been found in the stomachs of the sperm whale, the whale shark and the white shark.  The ‘great fish’ may have been either a whale or a shark or even a fish specially prepared by the Lord for this purpose.  (The Hebrew and Greek words that are used merely mean ‘a great aquatic animal.’)  Some species of whales and some species of sharks are quite capable of swallowing a man whole.  Among these are the sperm whale, the white shark, and the whale shark, all of which have been found with whole animals as large or larger than a man in their stomachs…. The point is nothing about the story is totally impossible:  There are ‘fish’ large enough to swallow a man; men have been known to survive inside a ‘fish’; the Bible says it really happened; Christ said Jonah’s experience was an analogy of His own death and resurrection; and God is alive and capable of this feat.”

3.  Jonah’s experience and testimony lead to the following applications:

-crises give God room to work

-crises can come upon the obedient as well as the disobedient

-crisis focuses prayer on things that matter

-crises focus our attention on spiritual things

-crises remind us of our mortality

-crises remind us that God alone is sufficient

-crises should lead to renewed commitment to God