The LORD appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. – John 1.17, CSB
God told Jonah to go and preach against Nineveh. So, he got up and went in the complete opposite direction. Why? Because Jonah hated Nineveh.
Nineveh was the capital of one of the cruelest, vilest, most powerful, and most idolatrous empires in the world. For example, writing of one of his conquests, Ashurnaṣirpal II (883–859) boasted, “I stormed the mountain peaks and took them. In the midst of the mighty mountain I slaughtered them; with their blood I dyed the mountain red like wool.… The heads of their warriors I cut off, and I formed them into a pillar over against their city; their young men and their maidens I burned in the fire” (Luckenbill, Ancient Records of Assyria and Babylonia, 1:148). Regarding one captured leader, he wrote, “I flayed [him], his skin I spread upon the wall of the city …” (ibid., 1:146). He also wrote of mutilating the bodies of live captives and stacking their corpses in piles.
Johnson, Elliott E. “Nahum.” The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, edited by J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck, vol. 1, Victor Books, 1985, p. 1494.
So Jonah ran. But his journey in the wrong direction was not just a refusal to go to Nineveh. It was also an attempt to run away from God. “Jonah got up to flee to Tarshish from the LORD’s presence“ (Jonah 1.3, CSB). So he boarded a ship to attempt to flee from God, which he discovered was meaningless (Psalm 139.7-12). And while on the ship, “the LORD threw a great wind onto the sea, and such a great storm arose on the sea that the ship threatened to break apart” (Jonah 1.4, CSB). The crew was terrified as the storm grew worse and worse with every moment Jonah continued his vain attempt to flee from the presence of the Lord. So Jonah, knowing the storm was the Lord’s doing because of his disobedience, told them to throw him overboard.
What went through his mind when his body hit the water after the crew of the ship picked him up and threw him into the sea? Shocked by the sudden cold water engulfing him, he swam up and got his head above the water to take a much-needed breath. The raging sea was becoming calm. Still with his head bobbing in the water, he looked up at the ship as it sailed away, leaving him there to die. He knew the storm that almost broke apart the ship and killed everyone on board was his fault. And as he saw that vessel sail further and further away, he accepted his fate. God won. Jonah lost. Death was coming.
Then, in an instant, everything went violently dark, and he found himself in the belly of a large fish. But instead of dying instantly, he was jostled and jolted with each quick change of direction the great sea creature made. As the direness of the situation set in, Jonah knew that death awaited him. But his perspective on the chain of events lacked an understanding and recognition of God’s gracious providence of salvation, because “the LORD appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah” (Jonah 1.17, CSB). The word “appointed “ in Hebrew means selecting someone or something for a specific purpose. The large fish that seemed to Jonah like God’s wrath and judgment was God’s gracious and purposed instrument of salvation. Instead of allowing Jonah to die in the middle of hopelessness, God provided Jonah a way back to himself. And Jonah returned to the Lord, which we can see in his prayer that he prayed to the Lord from the belly of that great fish.
I called to the LORD in my distress, and he answered me. I cried out for help from deep inside Sheol; you heard my voice. When you threw me into the depths, into the heart of the seas, and the current overcame me. All your breakers and your billows swept over me. And I said, “I have been banished from your sight, yet I will look once more toward your holy temple. The water engulfed me up to the neck; the watery depths overcame me; seaweed was wrapped around my head. I sank to the foundations of the mountains, the earth’s gates shut behind me forever! Then you raised my life from the Pit, LORD my God!As my life was fading away, I remembered the LORD, and my prayer came to you, to your holy temple. Those who cherish worthless idols abandon their faithful love, but as for me, I will sacrifice to you with a voice of thanksgiving. I will fulfill what I have vowed. Salvation belongs to the LORD. – Jonah 2.2-9, CSB, emphasis added
And after Jonah’s prayer of repentance and surrender to the Lord, the Lord commanded the great fish to vomit Jonah on the shore.
God didn’t keep Jonah from running away. He let him run, but didn’t let him go. I’m convinced that what God did to Jonah had less to do with getting Jonah to Nineveh and more with getting Jonah back to God. God pursued Jonah to capture his heart. And God’s appointment of a great fish was less about God’s wrath and more about God’s kindness, which led to Jonah’s repentance.
Don’t mistake God’s gracious pursuit of you. Don’t fail to recognize what God is doing in your life to capture your heart. What may seem like death and destruction may be God’s gift of disguised deliverance, “or do you despise the riches of his kindness, restraint, and patience, not recognizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?” (Romans 2.4, CSB).
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Brian J Holland 
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