Jonah 1:17 - A Great Fish. Three Days and Nights. But Why?

Back in April of this year, I was present to hear a short testimony given by a man before a very large crowd of mostly college students. He said, “I was a fifth grader at Christian Heritage Academy. My teacher taught about sin. Sin terrifies you and then brings you to Jesus; because when you realize the nature of sin, you realize you need a savior. I made Jesus Christ the chairman of the board of my life when I was in fifth grade. It's been the most important decision I ever made. Everything I believe stems from Scripture, stems from God's Word. We must submit to God's will in all that we do.”

Hundreds of young people listening attentively – some who might never attend a Christ-preaching church. But there they were, hearing that Jesus Christ saves from sins. This man had proclaimed Christ many times before, and would many more – until he was brutally assassinated on September 10 at Utah Valley University.

After he said, “We must submit to God's will in all that we do,” Charlie Kirk stated, “It's okay to wrestle with God. That's literally what ‘Israel’ means, to wrestle with God, to question and have tension with what God wants out of us.”

Have you wrestled with God’s will?

Have you struggled with His sovereignty?

The Bible clearly states that the one true God decrees all things, great and small, and He works them together for the good of His people. This can be difficult to accept and understand. We question how God could accomplish His awesome plans even through awful things – and why He would choose to do so.

But we aren’t called to look to our own understanding. We’re called to look to Jesus. He perfectly trusted His Father’s sovereignty in the place of His people. Christ died and rose again to rescue us from sin’s rule to live freely under God’s rule.

And as we behold the glory of His saving work in our hearts and minds, we grow in trusting that God’s plans are wise and good. Then, even when His sovereign decrees make us sad, angry, and afraid, we will follow His ways – because those very decrees are accomplishing His perfect plans for us.

This next verse in the book of Jonah describes awful details decreed by God for Jonah’s good and for ours – to shape how we think, feel, and live. The verse demonstrates two things: God is absolutely sovereign over every detail of our immediate circumstances and He is absolutely sovereign over every detail for our eternal preservation. This is the reassurance we need in difficult times. So let’s look at this verse together.

The sailors tossed Jonah into the Mediterranean Sea, somewhere between Joppa and Tarshish, and the storm ceased. It’s reasonable to picture them observing Jonah vanishing under the surface. They didn’t sail away, watching him get smaller and smaller in the distance. He was gone from sight, and they made a profession of faith in Yahweh.

But what happened to the LORD’s prophet?

Verse [17] “And the LORD appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah.” This verse begins with another “and.” Again, that translates the vav consecutive – a grammatical construction in ancient Hebrew used throughout historical narrative as a primary indicator that real events are being described.

Yahweh “appointed” this fish to swallow Jonah. The sense here is not that God created the fish for this special purpose, but that God “assigned” or “prepared” the creature to perform this act. When Jesus refers to this even in the NT book of Matthew, the word He uses could be translated as “whale” or “sea monster.”

What animal could this have been? The sperm whale has a wide enough throat to swallow a human whole, and sperm whales do live in the Mediterranean. Experts quickly add that a human can’t naturally survive inside such a creature for any significant length of time. But that’s not problematic for the Hebrew text here. Yahweh prepared this creature to house Jonah for a few days.

This is historically unique. Demanding another case of this occurring in history would be like demanding another time that a sea was parted so people could walk through on dry land. These are not natural events; they are supernatural. They are special in redemptive history.

Now, there are reports of humans scooped into a whale’s mouth and quickly spit out. In fact, there are at least three such reports in the last six years! But in Jonah’s case God manipulates the natural laws He established in order to accomplish His redemptive purposes.

But what was the purpose? Why a great fish?

Yahweh’s response corresponds to Jonah’s deeds. If Jonah had fled on land, a great fish would be out of place. But Jonah fled on the sea, where monstrous creatures swam. God pursued Jonah on the path which Jonah himself chose – using these circumstances to graciously awaken Jonah’s conscience.

It was obviously a form of punishment. Jonah had rejected Yahweh’s call. But it was also the means of Jonah’s preservation. It functioned as judgment, not for final judgment, but to produce humility. The fish was God’s grace toward Jonah.

It was a tomb for a man who deserved to die. But Jonah didn’t perish in his horrific prison. Instead, he was preserved by God. Jonah apparently went overboard expecting to die. He wouldn’t anticipate Yahweh pursuing him like this. But there, inside the creature – awful as it was – at some point, he cried out to God.

We’ll look closer at his prayer in my next sermon, but I can tell you that Jonah 2 begins with another vav consecutive, reading, “[And] Jonah prayed to Yahweh his God from the belly of the fish, saying, ‘I called out to Yahweh, out of my distress, and he answered me; out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice.’” “Sheol” is synonymous with the grave, with a pit. It signifies going down to death. But as terrifying as it must have been, he did not – not physically.

The Westminster Confession of Faith says, “God the great Creator of all things upholds, directs, disposes, and governs all creatures, actions, and things, from the greatest even to the least, by His most wise and holy providence, according to His infallible foreknowledge, and the free and [unchangeable] counsel of His own will, to the praise of the glory of His wisdom, power, justice, goodness,
and mercy.”

The Confession later adds, “...God [often leaves], for a season, His own children to [various] temptations, and the corruption of their own hearts, to [discipline] them for their former sins, or to [show] them the hidden strength of corruption and deceitfulness of their hearts, that they may be humbled; and, to raise them to a more close and constant dependence [upon Him], and to make them more watchful against all future occasions of sin, and for [various] other just and holy ends.

The supernatural preservation of Jonah confirms that God is absolutely sovereign over every detail of our immediate circumstances. Just as God pursued Jonah where he was, so He pursues all who are His own. What looks like chance from your perspective is the unfolding decrees of Yahweh.

Now, what Jonah experienced plays a unique role in the redemptive plans of God. The Westminster Confession also states, “God, in His ordinary providence, makes use of means, yet is free to work without, above, and against them, at His pleasure.” God can bend the natural laws, but He often works within them. However, He is never bound by them.

How has good used even strange details of your life to bring you to Himself?

How has endurance of suffering strengthened your character and hope in God?

That is God’s way for His people. But the great fish and the period of time in which Jonah survived in it had a purpose greater than Jonah’s own life or calling. See the other half of the verse.

“And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. This time frame sounds familiar. Jesus Christ foretold his length of time in the grave at various times, such as Matthew 12, where he drew a clear parallel between Jonah’s time in the fish and His future time “in the heart of the earth.” Why this length of time for Jonah?

We don’t know exactly how long it took Jonah to break – to experience the true change of heart that produced real repentance. We do know it was long enough that he should have died, but short enough to demonstrate God’s miraculous preservation and salvation. Still, from Jonah’s account alone, we couldn’t say exactly why three days and nights. But we do know the significance of this length of time for Jesus.

Now you may be thinking, “Didn’t Jesus rise on the third day? Didn’t He lie in the tomb Friday night, Saturday night, and then rise on Sunday? Isn’t that only two nights?”

In Jewish tradition, however, a new day began at sundown — as Genesis 1 says, “And there was evening, and there was morning, the first day.” Any part of a day was counted as a full “day and night.” That’s why Jesus could be crucified Friday afternoon, buried before sundown, and that partial day still counted as Day 1. On Day 2 (Saturday), He remained in the tomb the full Sabbath. On Day 3 (Sunday), He rose early in the morning, and even that partial day counted.

In this way, Christ truly fulfilled what He called the sign of Jonah. Such a “sign” was a miracle prompting people to seek God’s salvation. The phrase “three days and three nights” was a figure of speech to describe the time. In both cases, it underscores the reality of God’s power over life and death.

Why three days and nights for Jonah? Simply put, to prefigure Christ.

Through Jonah, God foreshadowed the saving work of Jesus. Jonah entered a type of grave for sins; Christ entered an actual grave for sins. Jonah experienced a type of death; Jesus, an actual death. Jonah experienced a type of resurrection; Christ, an actual resurrection, to immortal life. The grave swallowed up Jonah, but one greater than Jonah swallowed up the grave.

The awful details in the lives of both men was according to God’s sovereign decree. Jonah didn’t know how long he would be in the fish; but Christ stated before his death that He would rise on the third day.

Why was this time frame necessary for Jesus? He rose just before decay was understood to set in (though it would have begun). Compare Lazarus, who was dead four days and had begun to decompose. If Christ had stayed longer than the third day, people could have dismissed His resurrection’s timing as an accident, rather than seeing it as the exact, promised, and prophesied act of God. Again, Jesus said he would rise after this time frame.

If He rose too soon, they might say, “He never really died.” If He rose too late, they might say, “It wasn’t the clear fulfillment of His own prophecy — it could have been chance, or His disciples made it up.” But the time frame was just right practically and prophetically.

You see, Jonah’s three days in the fish were appointed by God, not random. Christ’s three days in the tomb were likewise deliberate, to show that He is the fulfillment of Jonah’s sign. In this way, Jonah was what scholars call a “type” of Christ. If Christ had risen sooner or later, the typology and sign would not be as unmistakable.

And through this God has assured His people through the generations that He is absolutely sovereign not only over every detail of our immediate circumstances, but also, over every detail for our eternal preservation. Our God has the power and plan to save us from sin and certain death. This verse contains such specific details.

The message is that God is intentional in His decrees. Proverbs 16 says, “The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from Yahweh.” Ephesians 1 says He “works all things according to the counsel of His will.”

We have observed things that have made us sad, angry, and afraid. And we have experienced such things as well. Scripture confirms more are yet to come. Things seem to have no rhyme or reason, but it’s all decreed by God and it all works together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose. This was true for Jonah, it was true for Charlie Kirk, and it’s true for each of us.

Will you submit to God’s will today – and surrender your whole life to Christ? Will you humbly aim to trust God, not by sight but by faith that His ways are good? Will you turn from your efforts to control and rely on Him now? Will you renew your commitment to follow His ways?

The Lord’s table reminds us where we look for the ability to do these things. Not to ourselves, but to Jesus – to the only true and sovereign God.

Please bow with me in prayer.