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| Sperm whale (Physeter microcephalus) illustration by Uko Gorter |
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| To Part 3 Jonah 1:17 |
Now
the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly
of the fish three days and three nights (Jon 1:17).
Great
(Heb., gadol,
14 occurrences in Jonah)
Getting
back to a much larger creature than a minnow, I want to touch on this adjective, great, one more time. Jonah got a solid visual of his submersible vehicle when the creature upchucked Jonah onto
dry land (Jon 2:10). During his walk-around moment, he saw his captor from a
different vantage point, from interior to exterior, from the darkest of dark to
the light of day, and must have mumbled to himself, “This is what swallowed
me?” It had to have been an epiphany of sorts. He wasn’t just elated to be alive; he
was “whalelated” (a whale of elation)! He couldn’t
believe his eyes! It was the largest creature he had ever seen!
In
such case, if this great fish actually turned out to be a sperm whale, we can visualize what
Jonah meant by great as illustrated by this picture below, and others like it on the
internet. Jonah described it as physically great as he gazed upon its beached body. It will
never return to the deep or rejoin a pod (a group of sperm whales). I would
like to think that Jonah’s great fish was a whopper of a sperm whale, say, an adult male around
60+ years of age, massive among the class of Physeter (Greek for “blower”)
Macrocephalus (an exceptionally large head and brain), the largest
toothed whale of its kind at the time it was summoned by Yahweh to rendezvous
with a Phoenician ship.
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Photo: RNZ / Tracy Neal
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The
only record we have in human history is the biblical account of a male Physeter
Macrocephalus giving its life to save a human life. This is not meant to be
overly sentimental, for the value of human life is priceless compared to any
non-human creatures. However, this sacrifice of a magnificent creature is often
overlooked as part of the unknown collateral damage that was set in motion when
Adam rebelled in the Garden of Eden. This had a negative impact on all of
creation (Rom 8:20-22). There is no way Jonah could have seen this coming of
being swallowed by a great sea creature when taking off for Tarshish. None of us
see what’s coming when we disobey Yahweh.
Let’s
not forget that the mariners almost lost their lives because of Jonah (cf. Jon
1:10). He tried to give his life up for the crew as recompense. This sperm
whale lost its life because it had to beach itself in order to vomit Jonah onto
dry land. Without batting an eye, if Jonah had his way, all life, human and
animal, in Nineveh and the surrounding burbs would have been destroyed. There
is some extreme prejudice going on here within his heart and mind. A disturbing
pattern has emerged.
How
can Jonah have such a disconnect with life? Can you not see that something is
terribly wrong with Jonah? He is supposed to be a life-giver rather than the
grim reaper! He is officially a prophet of God, but right now, he is acting
like a prophet of the flesh. It’s not about Yahweh; it’s about him.
We
have all been there, haven’t we? Usually, you can spot a person who has a
disconnect with God because he or she has a disconnect with others. If the
great command is not happening in our lives, you can bet the second command
isn’t happening either (Mk 12:30-31)! As a prophet like Jonah or a believer
like us, these two commands are the biggies, folks, in Jonah’s day as well as
in ours! He was heading to Tarshish (Jonah’s will) rather than to Nineveh
(God’s will); I rest my case.
Great in Jonah’s description
of the fish would be equivalent to our word for humongous today. A large sperm
male being 60+ feet long and 50+ tons is normal; it would certainly qualify
this whale as great in anybody’s
assessment back then or today.
I
have this theory that Yahweh wanted some Assyrians to witness Jonah coming forth
from the whale’s mouth on the beach so they could relay that information back
to the king in their capital city of Nineveh. I would not be surprised at all
for Jonah to see on his first day walking through the burbs to reach the gate
of Nineveh, a noticeable look of anticipation or expectation of him visiting
their capital city.
You
have to admit it was kind of strange that he got their attention so quickly, from
the unwise to the wise, from the powerless to the powerful, from the poorest to
the richest. You might say that he made a splash (a Dagon pun…)! Unbeknownst to
Jonah, the Holy Spirit was already preparing the hearts to be receptive to
Jonah’s message from the LORD (cf. Jon 3:2).
This
was going to result in the greatest missionary effort in the Old Testament! He
would be going to foreign soil to preach repentance, an uncommon thing for
prophets in the OT! It should excite us that God took a disgruntled
prophet and did an amazing job! It is a testament that God honors His Word which
is never conditioned upon the spirituality of the messenger. Nonetheless, we
are commanded to be holy at all times (Lev 19:2; 1 Pet 1:15-16).
In
my estimation, this was the miracle we should be talking about in the book of
Jonah – Assyrian repentance! Salvation is of the LORD (Jon 2:9c)! It is the
miracle of miracles! What are you doing about the message of repentance and how
it can eternally transform lives? Are you dodging or declaring the good news? Has Yahweh yet to
work a miracle in you? We will talk more about this when Jonah arrives there. Until then, what was this great
fish appointed to do? It was to swallow (Jon
1:17a) and vomit (Jon 2:10); Yahweh would take care of the rest.
to
swallow Jonah
What a slammer to Jonah, that this whale
showed up on God’s timetable (cf. Jer 31:35; Acts 17:25, 28), but Jonah was
dumber than the whale! We are free to choose, unlike this whale, but we are
never free of the consequences of our choices. Invariably, some of our bad
choices draw others into the vortex of our rebellion, like the Phoenician
mariners? You know this! It is the unknown collateral damage or ripple effect.
How far will the ripple travel; it can for a lifetime, depending on what it is, even though we are forgiven. That’s why it doesn’t pay to disobey.
Jonah is about to experience something very
extraordinary and terrifying. Thankfully, we will never relate to his
experience (not wanting to) because of its uniqueness. He could have never
anticipated in a zillion years that refusing to honor his vow to God to go to
Nineveh and preach would result in whale time. He must have died with a thousand
regrets during those three days and three
nights! He played the hero back there on the USS
Minnow, which was totally unexpected when I read this for the first time; I didn’t
know he had it in him, but now he is left with no other option but to play the
fool for foolishly disobeying Yahweh.
Operation Great Fish was to scoop up Jonah after he was thrown
overboard and before drowning which I am guessing would be near the ship
just below the surface to pick him up! I suppose that could be viewed as
coincidental, but doesn’t it stand to reason that if the LORD spoke to the
fish on where to spew Jonah out
(Jon 2:10), then it is reasonable to expect that the LORD spoke to the fish
where to pick him up, yes?
This
huge creature cannot dart or turn on a dime like a fish, but between Yahweh and
the sperm whale using its echolocation; they got this! It was on a glide path to
pick up its package, and pick it up this humongous whale did it with great
precision because Jesus was at the helm. Imagine the moment Jonah hit the
water; it was within seconds that he took the short waterslide ride down a real
whale’s esophagus into the forestomach (cf. the metaphorical imagery of
Jeremiah 51:34).
Did
you know that the gullet or esophagus (a passageway between the pharynx and the
stomach) of the P. macrocephalus or P. catodon (more than likely
it is referring to the same whale) is the largest of the cetaceans (whales,
dolphins, porpoises, narwhals) large enough to swallow a human? And it is the
only gullet large enough to swallow a human.12
And
Jonah was in the belly of the fish
It
is interesting that the forestomach of the sperm whale is referred to as the
“paunch,” a protruding abdomen, hence, the belly. How does this sound: a possible cause of death
by suffocation, drowning, crushed, or dissolved; take your pick!? These pleasantries
inside the GI tract of a cetacean indicate to me that Jonah could not have
survived within the whale by any natural means for any length of time, much
less, three
days and three nights. The first major problem was that there was no oxygen in the
forestomach. After his last breath, Jonah was a dead man whether in the
water or inside the forestomach of this mammoth whale. This would normally be a
good thing if slated to go out the rear end! <><
12.
https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Physeter_catodon/
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| To Part 5 of Jonah 1:17 |
