©
Jeannie St. John Taylor
God said, “Jonah, get up and go to
the huge city of Nineveh!
Tell them I have seen how wicked they are. If they don’t repent, I will punish
them.”
Jonah squinted into the hot sun,
toward the desert where Nineveh
was located. “Nineveh is an Assyrian city and they are the cruelest people on
earth,” he thought. “The Assyrians want to destroy my people and take our houses.
If I warn them, they will repent and God won’t destroy them.” He crossed
his arms, pushed out his lower lip and turned his back to Nineveh. “But
I want him to wipe them out. I’ll run away.”
He started walking in the opposite direction
toward the Mediterranean Sea. At the port of Joppa
he bought a ticket on a boat headed to Tarshish, a city as far away from Nineveh as he could get.
He boarded the ship and climbed down to the dark hold to take a nap. He didn’t
know God had been watching him the whole time and could see him in the dark
bottom of the ship.
While Jonah slept, the LORD flung a
powerful wind over the sea. It whipped up the water and terrified all the
sailors. They pulled against the oars trying to row ashore, but they couldn’t.
They threw cargo overboard. That didn’t help. Wild waves tossed the boat.
Finally, the captain woke Jonah so
the sailors could cast lots to find out who had offended God and caused the
storm. When the lot fell to Jonah, he hung his head in shame. “This terrible
storm is my fault,” he admitted. “I am running away from the LORD. You better
throw me overboard.”
“We don’t want to cause your
death,” the sailors told Jonah. They tried even harder to row ashore. Rain
drove against their faces. Waves crashed over the sides of the ship. “We’re
going to die!” shouted the sailors.
“If you throw me overboard,” Jonah
said, “the storm will stop.” He felt
hands grab his arms and legs as the sailors picked him up and pitched him into
the air. Jonah flew over the side of the ship and plunged into the cold water.
Immediately, the storm stopped.
Water closed over Jonah’s head. He
held his breath and churned his arms and legs, but he sank down, down to the
heart of the sea. His lungs felt as though they would burst. Swaying seaweed
wrapped around him. He closed his eyes and tried to claw it away from his face.
“I’m trapped,” he thought. “I’m going to die.”
Something bumped him. He opened his
eyes to see a huge fish gliding past. The creature circled then swam back
toward him, it’s mouth a gaping black cave. “Dear God, help me!” he prayed just before he passed out.
Jonah awoke coughing and choking in
a cramped cave that smelled of decaying fish. The cave swayed sideways. “Is this how it feels to be dead?” he
wondered. Jonah reached out to steady himself and his hand sunk into the soft
wall of the cave. He was inside the fish! The fish hadn’t killed him, it had
saved his life!
For now.
From his dark prison, Jonah cried
out to the Lord. “Oh, LORD my God, you have snatched me from death!” Hours
passed and he continued to praise the LORD and beg for mercy. He knew now that
God could see him and hear him even in the dark. Even inside the fish. But would
the LORD rescue him?
“Only you can help me, LORD,” Jonah
begged. “Please save me.”
Three long days dragged by while
Jonah called to the LORD. Not a single ray of light penetrated the darkness
around him. He wondered how long it would be before his air ran out or the
stomach juices of the fish started eating him alive?
Unexpected, the cave convulsed
violently and the fish spit Jonah onto a beach. Jonah collapsed onto dry ground
laughing and praising God.
That’s when Jonah heard God’s voice
giving him a second chance. “Arise, go to Nineveh,
and call out against it the message I gave you.”
“God sent a fish to save my life when I disobeyed him,” thought
Jonah. “And he’s sending me to save the
lives of the people of Nineveh
even though they are disobeying him. Even though they may continue to be the
enemies of my people.”
Jonah walked many miles across the
desert to the city and warned the Assyrians of Nineveh to stop their cruelty
and wickedness. All the people – even the king -- listened to Jonah and
repented. Everyone in the city fasted to God, turned from violence and stopped
doing evil.
Because Jonah warned his enemies of
God’s wrath, God relented and spared the lives of thousands of men, women and
children.
Jonah painting above from Free Clip Art
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