If I Could Ask One Question of Jonah, I Would Ask “What Did it Smell Like Inside the Fish?”

“The Lord said to Jonah son of Amittai, “Go immediately to Nineveh, that large capital city, and announce judgment against its people because their wickedness has come to my attention.” Instead, Jonah immediately headed off to Tarshish to escape from the commission of the Lord. He traveled to Joppa and found a merchant ship heading to Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went aboard it to go with them to Tarshish far away from the Lord. But the Lord hurled a powerful wind on the sea. Such a violent tempest arose on the sea that the ship threatened to break up!

He said to them, “Pick me up and throw me into the sea to make the sea quiet down, because I know itʼs my fault you are in this severe storm.” Instead, they tried to row back to land, but they were not able to do so because the storm kept growing worse and worse. So they cried out to the Lord, “Oh, please, Lord, donʼt let us die on account of this man! Donʼt hold us guilty of shedding innocent blood. After all, you, Lord, have done just as you pleased.” So they picked Jonah up and threw him into the sea, and the sea stopped raging. The men feared the Lord greatly, and earnestly vowed to offer lavish sacrifices to the Lord. The Lord sent a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the stomach of the fish three days and three nights.” Jonah 1:1-4, 12-17

The story of Jonah is a story about the limits we try to put on our calling from G-d, and the lengths G-d will go to reduce our limits. Jonah tried immediately to limit the length he would go to accept a calling from G-d. As soon as G-d said “Jonah, Go to Nineveh!” — Jonah went the opposite direction. As soon as he began running, Jonah experienced trouble. The men on the ship to which he had retreated soon discovered that someone on board was responsible for their bad luck and bad weather, and Jonah confessed that his G-d was angry. Finding no other way to appease G-d — Jonah was thrown off the ship and immediately swallowed by an enormous fish (or mammal or Leviathan). The text does not say that he was chewed up and swallowed — just that he was swallowed whole and descended into the belly of the beast.

Have you ever cut open a fish? I have — it is not a pleasant smell. Actually cutting up any living mammal, fish, or mullosck is not necessarily pleasant smelling. Now imagine you have been swallowed by a large “thing” and descended into their gastrointestinal playground. It must have sounded awful, looked awful, felt awful, and smelled awful. In three days Jonah would be vomited up on the beach. Imagine sitting in the stinking, foul, pool of undigested matter of a large creature/mammal for three days, praying to G-d and hoping you do not agree with their stomach — and then becoming the vomit.

No wonder Jonah went right back to doing what G-d asked him to do — preach to the people of Nineveh. Imagine if he decided to flee once again. Most likely G-d would have had him swallowed by a Pelican, or some other immense bird — imagine becoming bird vomit.

That is the question I would ask Jonah. What question would you ask?

Pastor Dave