WHALE BELLY LESSONS

There are times when we are like Jonah…swallowed by a great fish (whale) and don’t realize the depth and degree of our having been swallowed. Perhaps it is in the whale we realize we have been consumed. Maybe we can smell and watch the digestive juices of destruction while in the belly…? I think we can.

I have found that sin, wrong thinking, improper behavior and such at first have an alluring and inviting smell and look…and then later the smell of being in the whale belly grabs us, gags us and chokes us. Who is the Great Fish…the Great Whale? Who has us? What are we battling and trying to survive? The whale belly experience is caused by disobedience both for Jonah and for us. Man, it stinks inside a Great Fish…and outside a Great Fish …or a cooked fish or any other fish. The best plan is to avoid fish Great or Small, or whales Great or Small…or bellies Great or Small.

Jonah found himself in the belly of a whale because “he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord” (Jonah 1:3,10). Jonah prays from the belly of the whale (2:1) that he is distressed, the waters are closing in to cover him, and “seaweed is wrapped around his head” (2:5). Don’t you hate it when that happens? (I have always liked that seaweed line.) How low can we go? “I have descended to the roots of the mountains” (2:6) and that is way down there! Then after his repentance, “the Lord caused the whale to puke him up on dry land” (2:10). That is not a very pleasant way to come to shore and come to obedience and how long did it take for Jonah to get cleaned up? We don’t know but he got a second chance (3:1) from the Lord of the second chance and remained faithful. From the belly to believer…just like that. To obey the first time sure seems the much better choice.

“For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” Jesus