Jonah and the Whale

Tap a numbered reference to read the verse.

Many of us know the story of Jonah and the whale. And for those of us who don't, here is a quick recap. Jonah was instructed by God to go and spread God's word to the people of Nineveh.¹ Well, Nineveh wasn't the nicest of places or known for its friendly nature. So Jonah decided to run in the opposite direction. He hopped on a boat going to Tarshish and off he went.² A great storm started because of his disobedience,³ and when everyone on the boat panicked because they thought they were going to die, Jonah said he was the reason for it and told them to throw him into the ocean.⁴ And they did just that. Immediately, a large fish swallowed him. Now, we don't know for sure if it was a whale or something else, but many believe it to be a whale. Jonah spent three days in the belly of this whale,⁵ until the whale spit him out on the shores of Nineveh—the exact place he did not want to go.⁶ The people of Nineveh received God's word as truth,⁷ and God used Jonah to spread His word and save an entire nation.⁸ So how does any of this point to what Christ did on the cross hundreds of years later? Well, Jesus Himself compared His death and resurrection to Jonah's three days in the fish.⁹ We are like Jonah, primarily in the earlier part of the story. God wants us to come to know Him and have a relationship with Him, which is only made possible by what Christ did on the cross.¹⁰ But like Jonah, we turn and we run. The Lord may send a "whale" into your life to bring you to Himself, but He also may not. Like Jonah admitting his sin, which led to him being tossed off that boat, we must confess our own sin.¹¹ Now, being tossed off that boat was the best thing to happen to Jonah. I'm sure the fish smelled terrible, but Jonah was being used exactly how God wanted him to be used—and he was used in an amazing way. Just like Jonah, when we confess our sin and "throw ourselves off the boat"—that is, when we follow Christ—it is the best possible thing we can do.¹² We then get to live for Christ, be forgiven of our sins, and one day spend an eternity with God.¹³ Scripture References ¹ Jonah 1:1–2 ² Jonah 1:3 ³ Jonah 1:4 ⁴ Jonah 1:12 ⁵ Jonah 1:17 ⁶ Jonah 2:10 ⁷ Jonah 3:5 ⁸ Jonah 3:10 ⁹ Matthew 12:40 ¹⁰ Romans 5:8 ¹¹ 1 John 1:9 ¹² Romans 10:9–10 ¹³ John 3:16; Romans 6:23

Scripture quotations marked (ESV) are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. ESV Text Edition: 2025. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated in whole or in part into any other language. Used by permission. All rights reserved.