
If it is can be proved that the Book of Jonah is not true, then Jesus of Nazareth was not Lord. Why? Because He not only believed the account to be true when He spoke the words of Luke 11:32 about the Ninevites rising in judgment and condemnation against the Jews of His generation, for “they repented at the preaching of Jonah,” but He also used the Jonah account as His final “sign” to prove to Israel He was (is) their Messiah. It was a major sign-prophecy regarding His death, burial, and third-day resurrection, “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” (Matthew 12:40, 41). If Jesus was “fooled” into believing that a myth or mere legend was true, He cannot be omniscient God. If He purposely lied about the account of Jonah, He was (is) not God, because God cannot lie.
Jesus Believed in the Book of Jonah!

Because our resurrection depends on the reality of Christ’s resurrection, this subject is serious. If Jesus used a false story as the great sign of His resurrection from the dead, we are in trouble. If He is not God, His death did not atone for our sin nor did He rise from the dead. The Apostle Paul put it bluntly when he said if Christ be not raised, our faith is in vain, and we are yet in our sins (I Corinthians 15:17).
Why Do People Scoff the Book of Jonah?
Why is the Book of Jonah viewed so skeptically by most people? They think it is ludicrous to believe a man could survive after being in a great fish three days. But is it so impossible, even from just the natural realm? We address that later, but with God’s involvement, nothing is impossible. Can He not do anything He chooses? Did He not create everything from nothing? Is a “whale-submarine” beyond His capabilities? No; in fact Scripture specifically says the LORD prepared the great fish to swallow up Jonah (Jonah 1:17). It may have been a unique creature never before or after seen, for all we know!
Why Did Jonah Despise Nineveh?
Jonah, a prophet of God (not exactly an exemplary one), was instructed by God to go to Nineveh, the capital city of the neo-Assyrian Empire of the late Seventh Century B.C., and preach to its tens of thousands of pagan worshippers that they were to repent and turn to the true God, YHWH. Jonah despised the Ninevites and did not want to go. Sennacherib, the city’s king, had laid siege to Jerusalem in 701 B.C. (II Kings 18:13-19:37), so there was no love lost between the Israelites and Assyrians. Jonah knew God to be gracious, so he figured if the Ninevites listened to him and obeyed, they would be forgiven and saved (Jonah 4:2). Their salvation was a horrible thought to him (do we pray for our enemies today to be saved?), so he hopped on a boat going the opposite direction from Nineveh!
Three-Word Outline for Book of Jonah: Go! No! Uh-Oh!
The LORD said, “GO,” but Jonah said, “NO” to which we could all say, “UH-OH”! The LORD sent a storm (Jonah 1:4-16), and the ship carrying Jonah was going to be destroyed. The stubborn prophet knew it was his fault, so he asked the sailors to throw him overboard. They did, and the storm immediately ended. God sent a giant fish, which swallowed Jonah whole. He then spent three days and three nights in “Whale Belly School” (sleeping on a foam blubber bed), where he received his discipline diploma the moment he finally said, “Salvation is of the LORD” (2:9). Unlike Jonah, the huge sea creature immediately obeyed the LORD and vomited out Jonah on the shore (1:17; 2:10). Evidently, there were people who witnessed the tail of a great fish lashing the water and then the sea monster choking up something before disappearing back under the sea. Whatever it had spit out was alive! It stood up, covered with slimy seaweed, and had the form of a man! Those witnesses likely ran to tell others so word spread quickly that a “god” had sent them a messenger from the sea!

How Dagon, the Fish “god,” Relates to Book of Jonah?
What messenger? Well, this is where it is necessary to know a little history to get the full impact of this account. When the LORD sent the famous ten plagues on Egypt in the days of Moses it was to prove to pharaoh and the Egyptians that He is the One True God. He was demonstrating His sovereign power over their various false “gods” (see lessons 6 to 8 in “The Caldwell Commentary” entitled “CHRIST in EXODUS” for discussion on how each plague attacked and defeated a particular Egyptian “god” or “goddess”). The Ninevites worshipped a fish “god” named Dagon. He was depicted as a man wearing a fish or as a half-man, half-fish creature. The Philistines (who lived along the shore Jonah was likely regurgitated) and other ancient pagan peoples also worshipped Dagon (see Judges 16:23, 24; I Samuel 5:1-7, I Chronicles 10:8-12). Archeological discoveries from ancient Nineveh include images of Dagon, “the fish god,” in the remains of many palaces and temples.
Could the LORD have gotten Jonah to Nineveh in some less remarkable way; one that “sophisticated” people today would be more inclined to believe? Could He have brought Jonah to the city as a prisoner who was thrown into the “belly” of a ship (not a whale) for three days and nights before the captain sold him as a slave to the Ninevites? Yes, He could have done that – or one of a thousand other means to get Jonah to Nineveh so he would preach about Him to its citizens. However, God’s purpose, which was for the entire city . . . from the king to all its citizens . . . to repent and turn to Him for salvation. Yes, people today might be more inclined to believe the account without the inclusion of “the whale,” but there would not be a Book of Jonah if the Ninevites had not heard and obeyed God through His reluctant prophet.
So, why did the Ninevites respond to Jonah so positively? Because a Jewish man, ghastly white, spewed out of the mouth of a huge fish, told them he had a message from God! They listened to him because they truly believed he was divinely sent (and he was)!
God uses all sorts of varied means to reach people! To reach the Samaritan city of Sychar, His “tool” was an ostracized immoral woman who went alone to the well outside the city because other women would have nothing to do with her. When she ran back from the well to tell her hometown people she met “the Christ,” the whole city got saved! She was quite an unlikely “key” to “open” the heart of a city! The “tool” God used to reach the hugely populated city of Nineveh was “a giant fish”! Over the centuries He has used many different means to unlock people’s hearts! In my life, He used the screams of my dying, lost grandfather and soon-after suicidal death of one of my best friends to open my heart to the message of salvation in Christ.

Further Historical Facts About Jonah and the Giant Fish!
Below are some further fascinating truths from history about Jonah and “the whale”:
- Berosus, a famous ancient historian, wrote about the account of Oannes, a fish-man who came from the sea to preach great wisdom. “Oannes is the Assyrian/Ninevite version of the Greek name Ioannes,” which is “Jonas” (Jonah) in Hebrew!
- There are definitely “great fish” large enough to swallow a man whole. For example, the sperm whale grows to lengths up to 70 feet. Its esophagus is approximately 20 inches wide, and sperm whales do not have to chew their food. There is always some air in the whale’s two-chambered stomach. Digestive activity takes place in the second chamber, but only when the creature that was swallowed is dead. Jonah could have been in the first compartment, or, if he was in the second chamber, being alive would prevent the digestive activity of a normal whale from occurring.
- Many whole animals as large as or even larger than men have been found in the stomachs of sperm whales and great white sharks. Both the Hebrew and Greek (Septuagint) words used in the Book of Jonah refer to “a great aquatic animal”.
Did Jonah Die and Resurrect?
There is very much the possibility that Jonah died in the belly of the whale, and God raised him back to life on the third day, which would make the event even a greater “sign” of Christ’s resurrection. This thought is supported by Jonah’s prayer when he said, “. . . out of the belly of Hell (literally Sheol, the place of the departed souls of the dead) cried I, and Thou heardest my voice” (Jonah 2:2).
Have a truly blessed day! Remember, when God speaks, be like the whale and immediately obey so you don’t have an “Uh-oh” experience like Jonah!
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