“But the LORD provided a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was inside the fish three days and three nights.”
~ Jonah 1:17
Hi James and Ellen,
Do you have a fish story? Ask your dad what his favorite fish story is. Your grandpaa has a lot of favorite fish stories. When your grandpaa was a kid, your grandpaa’s dad and ma – after they were finished with milking their cows in the evening, would sometimes go fishing. Your grandpaa’s dad and ma would sometimes take their kids to the ‘big rock’ on Lake Goldsmith’s north side – where it was not hard to catch bullheads. Your grandpaa’s dad was really good at catching crappies by slowly dragging the bait that he used back and forth real close to the shoreline. Lake Goldsmith is located less than a half a mile from the house where your grandpaa grew up as a kid. When your grandpaa was a kid, your grandpaa would often walk to Lake Goldsmith to fish. Your grandpaa would sometimes go to the ‘big point’ on Lake Goldsmith’s north side to fish. Your grandpaa at other times would fish by the dam. Your grandpaa now likes to fish off the dock that his bro Jim puts out in the water real close to his house which he built at the northeast corner of Lake Goldsmith. Besides catching literally hundreds of bullheads out of Lake Goldsmith, your grandpaa caught perch, crappies, bluegills, sunfish, northern pike, walleyes, carp and suckers out of the lake. Your grandpaa has fish stories of catching piranha while fishing in the Pantanal in Brazil. When your grandmaa and grandpaa were missionaries on the South America Mission missionary team that was in Bolivia, your grandmaa and grandpaa a couple of years spent several days in Corumbá, Brazil. Each time that your grandmaa and grandpaa went to Corumbá, your grandmaa and grandpaa would hire a guide who would take them in his aluminum, flat bottomed boat out on the Paraguay River. The guide would take your grandmaa and grandpaa on some of the Paraguay River tributaries – which are part of the Pantanal, where they would catch four pound bullheaded piranha, three varieties of catfish that would weigh up to 12 to 15 pounds, pacu and dorado. On one of the fishing trips that your grandmaa and grandpaa made on the Paraguay River, it seemed as if that every time that your grandmaa was reeling in a large catfish, your grandpaa was reeling in a very toothy piranha. Your grandmaa especially liked fishing in the Pantanal because she and your grandpaa would see capybaras, caimons – which are a type of alligator, a lot of different kinds of birds, etc. The day that your grandpaa and your dad went fishing in the Yapacany River in Bolivia, your grandpaa and your dad caught some small catfish and hooked a couple of very large catfish that – until the line broke, made a rod’s reel really screech as the catfish tore line off the reel. Your grandpaa and your dad have fish stories of fishing in the Delaware and Chesapeake Bays in a boat that your dad’s Uncle Daniel owned or now owns. Your grandpaa really enjoys surf fishing. When your grandpaa was a kid, your grandpaa’s dad and ma would take your grandpaa with them to Lake Poinsett, Lake Oakwood and other eastern South Dakota lakes to do ice fishing. Your grandpaa still really likes fishing though the ice. As your grandpaa is remembering the times when he has gone fishing, your grandpaa is continuing to recollect more and more personal fishing stories – such as the day when your grandpaa and your dad went fishing in a pond that was located on the O’Hara Airport grounds outside of Chicago.
Jonah had a whopper of a fish story that tops any fish story that your grandpaa could ever tell. Jonah’s fish story has him swallowed by an enormous fish instead of a fish swallowing the bait that he would have been using if he had been fishing for fish. Jonah was not fishing for a fish in the Mediterranean Sea when a monstrous fish – that was sent by God, swallowed him. The fish that swallowed Jonah saved Jonah from drowning. After Jonah spent three days and nights in the fish’s stomach, the fish vomited up Jonah someplace on the Mediterranean Sea’s shore. Jonah’s amazing fish story began when Jonah decided that he was not going to go to where and do what God had explicitly told him where to go to and do – which was to make the 500 mile trek from his hometown – which was the town of Gath Hepher, Israel, to the city of Nineveh – which was the capital of Assyria, to tell the guys, gals and kids who were living in this large central city to repent from their wicked lifestyles – which included abusing gals, cruelty, plundering, witchcraft and commercial exploitation. Jonah’s reaction to what God specifically asked him to do was to take off for the city of Joppa, find a ship that was headed for the city of Tarshish and to get on that ship. Jonah naïvely thought that he was escaping God’s eyes by getting on a ship but . . . no one can ever run from God. While Jonah was sound asleep below the ship’s deck, a violent storm suddenly threatened to break up the ship. Because the ferocious storm was so violent, the ship’s sailors threw all the ship’s cargo into the Mediterranean Sea. When the ship’s captain got scared about what might happen to his ship, the guy woke up Jonah to ask Jonah to pray to his god to stop the raging storm. After the sailors decided to cast lots as a way to find out if one of the guys who was on board the ship was culpable for the fierce storm, the lot fell on Jonah. Because Jonah immediately knew why the lot had fallen on him, Jonah insisted that the sailors throw him over the ship’s side into the Mediterranean Sea. The refusal of doing God’s will can sometimes cause serious harm to other guys, gals and kids.
Verse 17 says what took place next after the sailors threw Jonah into the Mediterranean Sea; “But the LORD provided a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was inside the fish three days and three nights.” God always has a way out of life storms that He sends – it is trusting in Him that He will always have a ‘fish’ in place as a safety net.
Jonah 1 (924)