Origin: Book of Jonah in the Bible, specifically Jonah 1-4
Once upon a time, there was a man named Jonah who lived in the land of Israel. God had a special plan for Jonah, but Jonah wasn’t sure he wanted to follow it.
One day, God spoke to Jonah and said, “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.”
But Jonah didn’t want to go to Nineveh. Instead, he decided to run away from God’s command. He boarded a ship that was sailing in the opposite direction, hoping to escape from God’s presence.
While Jonah was on the ship, a great storm arose, and the sailors were terrified. They prayed to their gods for help and threw cargo overboard to lighten the ship, but the storm continued to rage.
Meanwhile, Jonah was fast asleep in the bottom of the ship. The captain woke him up and said, “How can you sleep? Get up and call on your God! Maybe he will take notice of us so that we will not perish.”
The sailors decided to cast lots to determine who was responsible for the storm, and the lot fell on Jonah. They asked him, “Who is to blame for this trouble? What do you do, and where do you come from? What is your country, and of what people are you?”
Jonah confessed that he was running away from God’s command, and he told the sailors to throw him into the sea to calm the storm. Reluctantly, the sailors threw Jonah overboard, and immediately the storm stopped.
Now, God had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah. Jonah found himself inside the belly of the fish, surrounded by darkness and seaweed.
For three days and three nights, Jonah prayed to God from inside the fish, asking for forgiveness and promising to obey God’s command. And God heard Jonah’s prayer.
The fish vomited Jonah onto dry land, and once again, God spoke to him, saying, “Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.”
This time, Jonah obeyed God’s command and went to Nineveh. He walked through the city, proclaiming, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown!”
The people of Nineveh believed Jonah’s message and repented of their wickedness. They declared a fast, and even the king put on sackcloth and sat in ashes as a sign of repentance.
When God saw their repentance, he had compassion on them and did not destroy the city.
Jonah was angry that God had shown mercy to the people of Nineveh. He sat down outside the city and waited to see what would happen.
God caused a plant to grow up over Jonah to give him shade from the hot sun, and Jonah was very grateful for the plant. But the next day, God sent a worm to chew the plant so that it withered and died.
Jonah was angry again, and God said to him, “You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?”
And so, children, the story of Jonah and the Big Fish teaches us about obedience, repentance, and God’s mercy. It shows us that even when we try to run away from God, He still loves us and wants us to obey Him.
