Jonah: The Suspension Of The Book Of Jonah

Where the book of Jonah takes a turn to the “not so believable” is when Jonah is swallowed up by a large fish or whale and survives for three days inside the whale. He prays, repents and calls out to God for forgiveness. Due to scientific advancements, we know it’s not physically possible for a man to sustain life inside of another mammal after being digested. Scientifically the person would begin to be decomposed and turned into energy just as any other “food” would be converted. I think this is where we must use our suspension of disbelief and understand that while we were not there we cannot know for sure that God did not allow this to happen. God has and continues to perform miracles daily. Why are people given only days to live because
Jonah spent those three days doing just that and was given a second chance by God being expelled from the whale, finding his way to land and going on to the city of Nineveh to deliver God’s message. Jonah was still not sure of the true repentance of the people of Nineveh and in his humanly ways, waited for God to destroy the city for not following his commands. What Jonah did not expect was the mercy and concern God shows for all. God showed mercy on the city and did not destroy it, yet gave the people a second chance just as he did for Jonah. When Jonah watched from up upon a hill for the city to be destroyed and did not see this happen he was frustrated with God, questioning him and thinking how the people should be punished. “The basic content of Jonah 1-2 stresses that Jonah, in his distress, prays to God, who in return responds to his prayer by
In this role Jonah not only serves as a reminder of God’s willingness to forgive, but also may be seen as representative of both human frailty and greatness” (Zvi 141-142). To me, this sounds as familiar in our lives because as humans we all sin, fall short of grace, and often tend to repeat the same or similar mistakes at times until we truly learn the lesson God has for us in the trials we are going through. However, once again God was kind and showed compassion. God provided shelter to Jonah and a vine grew seemingly out of nowhere to shade him from the sun and feed him while he pondered and questioned God for sparing the city of Nineveh. When the vine withered, and died, Jonah again questioned God and failed to see that his own negativity and thinking that he knew better than God had caused his troubles. This is so relevant in our daily lives. While we may not look at the book of Jonah and immediately think it could have happened just as it’s written, I think it's not as important to ponder whether a great fish or a whale swallowed Jonah and he survived; to me the point of the story is that God can provide a supernatural means of