Why Was Jonah In The Belly Of A Fish?

​Jonah 2:1-2 - Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from the belly of the fish, saying, “I called out to the LORD, out of my distress, and He answered me; out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and You heard my voice….” ESV

• His Disobedience 

Jonah was in this predicament because of his own disobedience to God. In the first chapter God wanted Jonah to go to Nineveh and Jonah didn’t want to go to there. So, he runs down to Joppa and buys a ticket for a boat ride and tries to elude doing what God had instructed him to do.

While trying desperately to escape doing the will of God Jonah finds himself in serious trouble with the LORD.
 
What does God do?
 
He sends a mighty wind on the sea and the ship, and sailors are in trouble. They are in way over their head, and they are seasoned sailors.
 
There are times in our life when we may be like Jonah. We are on the run. We know there are things in our life God wants us to do and we refuse. 

• Like What?

 What are some things we know God wants us to do while living here? I want to submit some suggestions we don't often hear preached about but that doesn't make them less true.
 
Jesus said in Luke 17:32 - "Remember Lot's wife."  When was the last time you remembered Lot's wife? If you were to think about her what would your thoughts be? That she disobeyed a very easy command found in Gen. 19:17 - …"Do not look behind you,…".
 
What did the text mean when it said she looked back? The Hebrew word for "looked" used here is "nabat" (naw-bat'); it means to scan, i.e. look intently at; by implication, to regard with pleasure, favor or care.[i]
 
 Lot's wife was used for an example that you can be freed from a life of sin but look back at it with thoughts of pleasure. She wanted to return and when she looked back disobeying the angelic command she turned into a pillar of salt.
 
The Israelites looked back to Egypt and saw their enslavement as something that wasn't so bad. When in reality it was horrible.
 
Have we ever looked back to our life of sinfulness and thought "Oh, it wasn't really that bad." Do yourself a favor and don't look back on your past and think it wasn't that bad. Remember this; it was bad enough to put Jesus on the cross.
 
Rom. 5:8 - But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Did you notice Paul said we were sinners when Christ died for us. We didn't have our life all together.
 

• Jonah Was In The Belly Of  A Fish

The reason he was in the fish's belly was because of his disobedience. Maybe you have found yourself in a precarious situation. It might not be as bad as a fish's belly and then again maybe it is.

What are you going to do?

My recommendation is to do what Jonah did and that is he prayed and asked God for help. We must never forget that God is more gracious than we are and even though we have disobeyed Him. He will do right by us because of His gracious nature.

Think About This:

Forgiveness doesn't exonerate the violator. Forgiveness liberates the victim. It's a gift you give yourself.

Stay Pumped,
 
Gary A. Serago
 
Minister of God's Word
 
[i] (Biblesoft's New Exhaustive Strong's Numbers and Concordance with Expanded Greek-Hebrew Dictionary. Copyright © 1994, 2003 Biblesoft, Inc. and International Bible Translators, Inc.)