week 3: into the fish
Last week we heard the first time in the Book of Jonah that the prophet thinks of someone other than himself. Jonah knew trouble had come upon the ship he was in because he had run from the Lord. He tells the sailors to pick him up and throw him overboard and God’s storm of fury will abate for them. Jonah will willingly sacrifice his life so that the crew can be spared from perishing in this tumult.
Up until this point in the Book of Jonah we are reminded of a parable Jesus famously tells in Luke 15—the Parable of the Prodigal son. Hundreds of years before the birth of Jesus, it was Jonah who was the prodigal son that typified God’s Old Testament people, always turning away from God, running from him.
As the Prodigal son resented the life he had, and publicly turned his back on his own father, heading off to a distant land, so too Jonah resented the life he has and his Father in heaven, and leaves for far away Tarshish. As the Prodigal son wasted all that he had on reckless living, so too Jonah extravagantly wastes a great deal of what he had because of a reckless decision. While its not known how much a boat fare to Tarshish would cost in Jonah’s day, given that it was over a distance equivalent from Sydney to Perth it’s reasonable to imagine that it’s an expensive ticket. Next, all of Jonah’s possessions are thrown overboard to lighten the ship in the fierce storm.
After the Prodigal son ran away from his father, squandered all that he had and hired himself out to a pig farmer, working for Gentiles in a faraway land, he is hungry, and comes to a point of reflection and realisation, longing even for the food the pigs are eating. There, in the pig pen, surrounded by filth, the Prodigal has time to reflect. His poor decisions have brought him to this point and he is hemmed in by his circumstances.
When Jonah was thrown overboard, we might expect that would be the end of the story. Jonah has no life jacket or floatation devices, or surf lifesavers watching out for him. But this is where we continue to see God’s compassion and mercy.
God does provide a floatation device of sorts—Jonah does not drown but is swallowed by a great fish. The fish was there because God provided it. God not want Jonah to be destroyed in the storm, or to drown, but to save Jonah from these dangers—and an even greater danger—his attempts to run from God and shut God out of his life. God will not allow Jonah to do this, because he loves him too much. So God sends a storm, and then provides a fish. The fish is a safe haven for Jonah underwater. The question is: ‘Will Jonah see this?’
Just as the Prodigal son was brought to his lowest point—working for a pig farmer and longing to eat event he food that the pigs ate, Jonah had literally reached his lowest point, under the sea:
The engulfing waters threatened me,
the deep surrounded me;
seaweed was wrapped around my head.
To the roots of the mountains I sank down;
the earth beneath barred me in forever.
He is not in a filthy pig pen but the filthy insides of a fish. Can you imagine the slime and the stench?! He is captive in the great fish. There is no more trying to escape from God. God has hemmed him in The words of Psalm 139 come to mind: “You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me.”
God has hemmed Jonah in the great fish so that he has time to reflect. So that he can recognise his poor decisions have brought him to this point and he is at the limit of his capacity. God has hemmed him in so that he has time to reflect. Time for repentance (and remember that repentance is not turning away from sins, but turning to God as we are, with our sins, for him to take them from us).
Just as the Prodigal son comes to his sense and realises he has nothing within himself to repair his relationship between his father, and can only pin all his hopes on the mercy and compassion of his father, so too does Jonah come to realise he has nothing within himself to repair his relationship between his father, and can only bank on the mercy and compassion of his Heavenly Father.
Having sunk to a new low, trapped by his circumstances in the pig pen, the Prodigal son rehearsed what he would say: “I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.
Having sunk to a new low, hemmed in by the fish, God has brought Jonah to a point where Jonah realises that without God he is as good as dead. He desperately realises his only hope is his Heavenly Father’s mercy. Jonah prayed:
“In my distress I called to the Lord,
and he answered me.
From deep in the realm of the dead I called for help,
and you listened to my cry.
You hurled me into the depths,
into the very heart of the seas,
and the currents swirled about me;
all your waves and breakers
swept over me.
I said, ‘I have been banished
from your sight;
yet I will look again
toward your holy temple.’
Jonah’s only hope is in looking to God’s holy temple—looking towards the place where God promised to be present to hear the prayers of the people and show them his compassion.
God did forgive Jonah. What happens next after Jonah worships God in the fish?
The fish vomited Jonah out. Why did the fish do that? Because God commanded it. The great fish obeys God straight away. When God’s commands are obeyed the result is good. So often human beings—created in God’s own image as the pinnacle of his creation, blessed by him to be his representatives on earth—are upstaged by other created beings: “Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may have her young— a place near your altar, LORD Almighty, my King” (Psalm 84:3). “Even the stork in the sky knows her appointed seasons, and the dove, the swift and the thrush observe the time of their migration” (Jeremiah 8:7). Even the stars heed God’s call of them, so that not one of them is missing (Isaiah 40:26).
And even a great fish instantly obeys God’s word. The fish appointed by God is used by God to save a prophet from himself…and gives a glimpse, then, that God is not done with Jonah in the mission he had given him. And that means he is not done with the wicked Ninevites, either.
What might this episode of Jonah be teaching us?
When we feel hemmed in by our life circumstances, sitting in the darkness, with no outcome for what we have hoped for in sight, where might we be in relation to God? We know where he is in relation to us…but where are we, in relation to God? Is he wanting to hem us in not to destroy us but to teach us—that waiting on God is better than the outcome he grants? Is learning reliance on God for each moment more valuable for us than the answers to our prayers? Waiting, waiting, hemmed in, trapped, waiting on God…while all the while God is waiting for us, to stop and rest from our planning, and working, and running, and striving, and listen to him.
In the book The way of wisdom, by Timothy Keller, he poses this question: “How do you survive the dark times in your life? Do you use them to grow in faith, or do you merely endure them until they are over? Don’t let the dark times darken my heart but rather let them teach me wisdom.”
When might it seem that there is a great fish in our life—something that has swallowed us, threatened to overtake us, and we are trapped inside a dark place that seems like an imposition from God or unnecessary obstacle to good things for us…how might such be God’s very way of working to stop us in our tracks, and redirect us to walk the path he has prepared for us?
God does not want to destroy us, but sometimes it’s the thought that we are the driver of our life that needs to perish. Sometimes the ‘wait’ does not mean that God is far away but we are far away from God, and something more important in our heart needs to take place, the inner growth of wisdom, learning to rely on God and looking away from ourselves and our priorities and strategies for life, and again look to his holy temple. In a sense, it is a drowning that is required of us: a daily drowning of the old nature, that day after day a new self should arise to live with God in righteousness and purity forever, which is what living as baptised children means.
This is God’s will for us and is more important than most outcomes we ask God for. God would no longer have Jonah run away from his commands and the purpose he had for his life. Nor would God let Jonah go too far away from his grace.
In the first two chapters of Jonah we see what God’s grace is. Grace is not a concept; a mental idea and understanding about God. Grace is a power, which goes to work to renew the heart, so that we willingly have changed priorities, changed attitudes, changed life directions according to God’s will. God’s grace changed Jonah. Jonah went from worshipping God with his lips in chapter 1, to worshipping God with his heart; his life in chapter 2.
“Those who cling to worthless idols
turn away from God’s love for them.
But I, with shouts of grateful praise,
will sacrifice to you.
What I have vowed I will make good.
I will say, ‘Salvation comes from the Lord.’”
In Jesus, salvation does come from the Lord for you. Our opening verses from Psalm 88 were fulfilled by Jesus for the world:
I am overwhelmed with troubles
and my life draws near to death.
I am counted among those who go down to the pit;
I am like one without strength.
I am set apart with the dead,
like the slain who lie in the grave,
whom you remember no more,
who are cut off from your care.
You have put me in the lowest pit,
in the darkest depths.
Your wrath lies heavily on me;
you have overwhelmed me with all your waves.
As Jonah was in the fish under the depths of the sea, Jesus was crucified, dead and buried, thrown overboard as it were, in the tomb.
But anyone can die. The miracle—the sign of Jonah—was that just as Jonah came out of the fish alive, so too did Jesus come out of the tomb alive, for you. The depths of the earth did not bar Jesus in forever. He is the living risen ascended Lord. He is the New Temple, the new Zion, the new place of God’s favour from heaven on earth to you. Jesus is the better Jonah, for you. What Jesus vowed, he made good, for you. He says: This cup is the new covenant in my blood which is poured out for you. That is Jesus’ own sermon to you, which promises that you are not left behind by God, but steadfastly pursued by him, with favour and blessing from heaven for Jesus’ sake. Amen.
Pastor Tim Ebbs
St Paul’s Lutheran Church, Glenelg
Lent, 2026
