FBC Gridley

There is a sense in which when we come to Jonah the first chapter, God opens the door to His dealings with a runaway prophet and gives us a glimpse of how He works in the storms of life. Here we see not theory but reality; God interrupting Jonah’s plans and calling him back through a divinely appointed timeout.

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In the opening verses of Jonah 1, we hear the Lord’s command to go to Nineveh, and in the following section we watch Jonah flee to Tarshish. But God sends a storm, the sailors cast lots, and Jonah is thrown into the sea, only to be swallowed by a great fish provided by the Lord.

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This passage may appear at first to be about Jonah alone, but a closer study reveals a great deal about the nature, the discipline, and the mercy of God in the life of His people.

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One of the things that impressed me was that even in judgment there was grace; God was not finished with Jonah yet.

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“Now the Lord provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God.”