Humpback whales are incredible creatures. Just like us they are mammals and breathe air. They live in all the oceans around the world. A humpback could easily fit a human inside its gigantic mouth, which can open as wide as 10 feet. But a humpback could never swallow a human being. Humpback whales have no teeth and their throats are only slightly larger than a human throat. These whales feed on shrimp-like krill and small fish, straining huge volumes of ocean water through their baleen plates, which act like a sieve.
Critics of the Bible and many we-sites like to tell you no whale or fish could follow a human being. That is not true. The only whale with a throat big enough to swallow a human is the one God prepared to swallow Jonah. We’ll learn just what that great fish was.

The Humpback whale made the news around the world last week. It happened here in the USA. Two men were fishing last week about 60 miles from Boston off the coast of Rye, New Hampshire. Fishing these waters is a common practice but having one’s boat capsized by a Humpback whale in the process is not. These men went in the oceans 55 degree waters and were lucky to be alive after two teenagers rescued them from the waters of the Atlantic Ocean. This enormous humpback whale toppled their boat. That is not common, not at all and neither is it to be swallowed by a Humpback whale. The incident has gone viral after it was captured on video by Wyatt and Colin Yager brothers who were in their boat nearby. They helped rescue Paquette and Kenney from the water.

Last week we started the book of Jonah… Review:

He was sent by God to go to Nineveh. Nineveh was the capital city of the Assyrian Empire, to preach repent or die. Jonah fled in the opposite direction most likely for fear or revenge. Anthropologists tell us that the Assyrian’s were one of the cruelest people ever to live on the face of the earth. The Aztecs, Assyrian’s and the Vikings were top three. Jonah’s started from a Joppa port aboard a merchant ship. He paid his way on this merchant ship going to Tarshish. God send a mighty wind the storm was so violent that we learn in verse five that “All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god”.

The sailors finally gave in and with much fear and prayer they threw Jonah over the side. And the storm stops. They are floating on the calm sea like it was all just a bad dream except for their wet clothes and torn sails, there is no sign of the storm, and no sign of Jonah. These men once again do the right thing and fall on their knees worshiping Jonah’s God and promising to serve him. We cannot say for certain these men were saved but they certainly had an experience that challenged their faith and gods. Repentance must precede revival.

Note in verse #16, “Then the men feared the LORD exceedingly.” The attitude of the sailors became a healthy fear. This is why they made a sacrifice. These Phoenician sailors had no idea that Jonah did not drown, but they were impressed the sea was calm and they worshipped God.

I Jonah’s Rescue Is Miraculous Vv 17-2:1

1. God continues to be gracious to this runaway prophet. Instead of leaving him to die, he sends a great fish to swallow him and carry him to land over three days. – Psalms 40:5

2. Skeptics and critics frequently have railed against a man being swallowed by a whale. They have insisted that the very idea that a person actually could be swallowed by such a creature and survive is preposterous. Yet this charge has been shown to be ineffective for two reasons: (1) historical precedent exists for the possibility of just such an occurrence; and yes (2) there is a whale that could swallow a person and keep him alive. The blue sperm whales are capable of swallowing humans.

3. Jonah survive going clear to the bottom of the ocean, he was swallowed whole by the fish, and survive (at least 49 hours by Jewish standards) with consciousness for three day. In the belly of the fish he prays a beautiful prayer that we’re going to read. God then commands the fish to vomit Jonah out on the shore this is a truly a miraculous event.

Illustration:

A story was printed in popular accounts and newspapers around 1891 and has shown up often since then as a tale of the “Modern Jonah”. It cannot be proven but it cannot be disprove by my research.

The whaling ship “Star of the East” on February 9, 1891, was near the Falkland Islands, when a lookout spotted a blue sperm whale several miles off. Two boats were launched; one succeeded in harpooning the whale, but the second was upended by the whale’s tail and its crew tossed into the water. One man drowned and another, Bartley, could not be found.

The whale was killed and hauled to the side of the ship, where the crew set to work carving up the carcass. The next morning they hoisted the stomach on deck and were surprised to see signs of life. Inside they found the unconscious Bartley, who they doused with seawater and soon revived. For two weeks he was sickly but by the end of the third week he’d fully recovered.

Bartley recalled being swallowed by a great darkness, then slipping along a smooth passage until he came to a larger space. He felt slimy stuff around him and realized the whale had swallowed him. He could breathe, but the heat sucked the energy out of him and eventually he passed out. The only lasting effect of the incident was that the skin of his face, neck, and hands was bleached to the color of parchment by the whale’s gastric juices.

4. The blue sperm whales are capable of swallowing humans. They live on squid, which they swallow whole. In 1955 a 405-pound squid was removed intact from the belly of a sperm whale. As long as the individual made it safely past the teeth, it could be possible to be sucked down the esophagus of a large sperm whale and contained within its stomach. It goes without saying that it would be the most unimaginably terrifying, disgusting and uncomfortable experience as Jonah sighs: “My soul fainted within me” (v 7).

5. The text of Jonah insists that the sea creature in question was orchestrated supernaturally by God for the purpose intended. God specifically “prepared” (ma/na appointed, constituted, made ready) a great fish. He chooses a specific “great fish,” to be his servant and appoints it officially to serve his purpose. We cannot overestimate God’s sovereignty in finding the great fish and sending it off on this particular errand of rescue. The same term is employed in the same book to refer to additional direct manipulations initiated by God.

II Jonahs’ Repentance is Humbling Vv 2:2-10
Pro 29:23 A man’s pride shall bring him low: but honour shall uphold the humble in spirit.
1. When he was totally exhausted at the end of his rope…nowhere else to turn…only then did he cry out for God’s help. At first, Jonah probably thought he was going to die. But after a number of hours, he realized God is at work to rescue his prophet with a purpose—not just to save his life or to make him thankful to God, but ultimately because he wants to save both Jonah and the city of Nineveh for eternity.

2. In Chapter 2:1 it says, “Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from the belly of the fish….” Jonah now is seeking God through prayer. He later writes this experience in a song or prayer. The prayer is a beautiful song of salvation, a great expression of worship and praise. We must learn how to pray in the midst of failure, the times when our distress has been caused by our own disobedience. Usually that is when it is the most difficult to pray because our self-condemnation is at work, and we think that either we have no right to call on God, or he will pay no attention to us.
Psalm 55:16 As for me, I will call upon God; and the LORD shall save me.

3. Jonah knows he is as good as dead when he is thrown over the side of the ship. He describes the experience of death by drowning and all that goes with that as distress, a word that means excruciating agony. He knows that he is headed for the belly of Sheol the place of death. He describes vividly the terror, not just the physical sensations but also what is going on spiritually in this process. Note what he says in verses 3-6… There is repenences.

4. Jonah realizes that God is responsible for all of these consequences; God sent the storm and even resisted the well-intentioned efforts of the pagan sailors to save his life. He is sovereign and at work. As Jonah is sinking under the ocean he realizes that God has been saying, “All right, Jonah, you can have exactly what you want.” When Jonah gives up any hope of surviving, when he can’t sink any lower, God intervenes and saves him. Verses 6b-7: …

5. This verse vv. 10 states that, “That the LORD ordered the fish to vomit Jonah out onto the beach. Whales can and do “vomit”—and as it turns out, the sperm whale is known for its “vomit.” Sperm whales are unique in producing what is known as ambergris, a waxy substance found floating in or on the shores of tropical waters, it originate in the intestines of the sperm whale, and used in perfumery as a fixative for use in cosmetics.

Conclusion:
When we are confronted by God’s exposure of some problem in our lives that we have brought on ourselves, one of the things this song teaches us is to thank him for loving us enough to do whatever is necessary to make us face what we have been doing. Repentance is the Prerequisite for Revival.