A Whale Of A Story! by Christine Smith

Most of us heard the story of Jonah in Sunday School as children and envisioned the whale taking a big gulp and swallowing Jonah, but that’s not exactly what happened. 

Three days and nights in the belly of the whale, so how did this happen? As a general rule, whales don’t eat people or their body parts, so why did this whale swallow Jonah? 

Well, to be honest, he didn’t. Whales eat things on the bottom of the ocean, such as seaweed and crustaceans. They will also gulp a school of small fish or anchovies, but not large fish. So humans? No! 

So, what actually happened that day? According to the Word, Jonah sank all the way to the bottom of the ocean and got his head wrapped up in seaweed. So, the whale just simply scooped him up as part of his seaweed salad. 

Jonah 2:5 in the Message Bible says, “My head was tangled up in seaweed at the bottom of the sea.” We don’t really know the depth of the water at the time, but we do know that few species of whales swim in shallow water, so chances are it was deep.

Jonah 5:6 says,“ I was as far down as a body can go, and the gates were slamming shut behind me, yet you pulled me up alive. 

I’m sure Jonah was probably at the end of his air when this unusual rescuer came to save him. Although he must have been momentarily happy to be able to get a gulp of air, it wouldn’t have taken long to begin to notice the less than ideal situation he was in. 

For three days, we hear nothing from Jonah. Then, when his life was slipping away—no food, no water, dark, smelly, and scared—the Word tells us he remembered God. 

When he began to worship God with thanksgiving and declared, “I’ll do what I promised to do,” God spoke to the whale, who puked him up on the right shore so he could accomplish his task. 

Alright, we are back on track, except that Jonah still had a problem with the assignment. He did what he was told to do. He went into Nineveh and warned the people to repent, or God would destroy them. 

Easy, right? Jonah 3:10 says, “God saw that they repented, and He changed His mind about them.” Then Jonah got furious. Why? Maybe he thought it was making him look stupid or inaccurate—it’s hard to say. But he sure was mad! He actually yelled at God, “I knew You would do this. Be all merciful and full of grace, letting them off the hook.” 

Poor Jonah went to have a good little fit outside the city and felt sorry for himself. Even after God said He would spare them, he sat there watching, hoping the city would be destroyed. Hmmm? Jonah, Jonah, Jonah, what is your problem? 

So God still tried to reach him and gave him a tree to shade him in the heat of his hissy fit. The next day, he killed it with a worm, and guess what Jonah did? Yup, another hissy fit! 

Even when God confronted him about his anger, he talked back to God and whined even more. Finally, we see God just tell him,” You are whining over a gourd that I gave you, by the way, and you care more about that than the lives of 120,000 people, not to mention animals who did nothing wrong! Grow up, Jonah, and get over yourself. Nobody cares that you were not right; they care that they are still alive. 

We don’t really see any repentance in Jonah. I wonder if that’s why we never hear of him again.

As an artist, Christine considers herself to be a barefoot, backwoods, country artist. As a writer, she often waxes nostalgic with a Huckleberry Finn style of text. As a minister, her friends call her “preacher woman.” But most important of all, God calls her – His!