The command of God was very clear. He did not ask Jonah if he had changed his mind, nor did He ask if Jonah could find time to go to Nineveh. He just told him to go. And Jonah went! No more the reluctant prophet, at least for the moment!
Every scene here is directed by The Lord Almighty. He is the God of creation. He has total authority over all the animals He has created. In Genesis 1:26 we read that He gave that authority to man too. Although this was maybe not the first thought Jonah had here.
Often salvation from the Lord does not look like we expect it to. For Jonah, the way of being rescued from the sea was to be swallowed by the whale. Has the Lord ever rescued you from one problem only for you to find yourself in a different, bigger problem?
We are surrounded in our daily lives by people who cling to idols. Yet unless we rely totally on the Lord God, we are forfeiting, as this verse tells us, some of the grace we could receive from our Heavenly Father who loves to give good gifts to His children.
After the sailors threw him into the sea and he was heading downwards, Jonah must have prayed panic prayers. When he believed himself to be at the end of his life Jonah cried out to the Lord, and called Him My God. Do you know people who have done that?
This must have been the worst moment of the life of Jonah. He was inside a fish, not knowing if he would ever get out. He could do nothing to help himself and must have been overcome with remorse. But nothing in this chapter implies that he regretted his rebellion.
It was not actually God, but the sailors, who threw Jonah into the sea. But Jonah recognized that it was what God had intended, in order to bring Jonah back to where he ought to be. In the city of Nineveh being a humble obedient servant of the Lord.
The prayer from inside the fish started with recognition that God had already saved Jonah from the sea. He talked of the prayer already answered. So we can suppose that was a prayer prayed quickly as he was thrown overboard or was desperately trying to swim in the raging waves.
This part of the story, (the three days and three nights) is much harder to believe than the fact that Jonah was actually swallowed by the fish. The fact that there was enough air in the belly of the fish for him to breathe and stay alive for three days!
God is still the Lord of creation, and uses His creation in His way to fulfill His plans and purposes, in His perfect timing. It must have been very unpleasant for Jonah to be swallowed by this sea creature. But it had the effect God wanted, Jonah repented and prayed.
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