“When my soul fainted within me (or, when I lost almost all hope that I could live any longer), I remembered the Lord. (Jonah says he no longer considered his dire circumstances. He remembered with whom he had a vital, tangible, real connection and relationship). And my prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple.” (He knew that his prayers, even if only thoughts instantly reached the ear and mind of His Creator regardless of how distant they were in space from one another). And then Jonah warned, “They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy.” (See Jonah 2:7-8). The fact that he was even then in the belly of a great fish did not cause him to throw in the towel. To him it was but a lying vanity. Had he given full weight to his dreadful plight and forgotten about God’s help he would have indeed perished.
Read the Book of Jonah slowly and carefully. This was a one-of-a-kind marine animal specially prepared by God to swallow God’s reluctant prophet. It was not a small-mouthed bass. It was not even a whale. It was a just then created sea creature that swallowed Jonah just as he was tossed into the sea by the sailors on the boat Jonah had been standing on moments before. It had no stomach acids. It had no great teeth that chomped and bit Jonah as he entered its mouth. It had an oxygen supply in its insides that could keep Jonah alive for as long as God desired. I beg of you, DO NOT LIMIT GOD. You may well forsake your own mercy someday if you do. If your automobile crashes off a falling bridge someday, DO NOT LIMIT GOD. If your aircraft spins out of control and plunges swiftly toward the ground, DO NOT LIMIT GOD. If your physician says, “You have a fatal illness,” DO NOT LIMIT GOD.
Look carefully at verse 17 of Jonah Chapter 1: “Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.” This fish probably had a throat several feet in diameter. It was probably without any organs or innards, having only a belly. Some fish species are luminescent, some even transparent. This fish probably had a luminescent bright glow inside, not outside. Jonah could probably have read a newspaper from inside this fish’s belly. DO NOT LIMIT GOD. With God ALL things are possible, if not probable and likely. The God with whom we deal can stand out on the edge of nothingness and fling ten thousand worlds into existence. He can snap His fingers and a blazing sun greater in size than ten thousand earths will appear hovering in space. Please, whatever you do in life – DO NOT LIMIT GOD!
If the United States Navy can construct an Ohio class nuclear-powered submarine that can remain submerged for four months at a time with a crew of 165 men and women inside, I have no difficulty whatsoever believing God can instantly construct a fish-like vessel capable of submerging with one man inside and keeping him alive for three days and three nights!
Christ’s Faithful Servant (Galatians 1:10-12),
Donald Wiley