There seems to be a few people, maybe many more than a few who do not believe the account of the book of Jonah. They say no one could be swallowed by a great fish and survive. I say since God can do whatever He desires, and if it says that God prepared  great fish to swallow Jonah, then that was a special fish made for Jonah.

Jesus said that Jonah was swallowed by  a great fish, “But He answered and said unto them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas: for as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.  The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here.” Matthew 12:39-41

Jonah is mentioned as a prophet in Second Kings 14:25. If you cannot believe the simplest account of Scripture then, you are going to have a problem accepting any of Scriptures.

Now the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying,  “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me.”  But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD, and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.
Jonah 1:1-3

Now about “The Flight of Jonah” it crashed 🙂 . God called the prophet to go to a distant city, a Gentile city, because of the evil within that place. When Jonah heard the word of the LORD, he apparently says nothing, just packs a travel bag and goes out from the presence of the LORD. Every step he took was downward from that time until he prayed for deliverance.

He went down to Joppa. He went down into the ship going to Tarshish. When the LORD loved that generation of Gentiles in Nineveh so much that He was not finished with Jonah He sent a storm. Where was Jonah? Down in the lowest part of the ship. He was eventually thrown overboard, and went down into the belly of the fish.

Jonah spent three days and three nights in the belly of that prepared by God fish, which seems to have been specially prepared for Jonah.

God loves Jonah. He prays from the belly of the fish and despite his rebellion, and his hatred for these Gentiles whom God loves, God  delivers Jonah, by having the great fish vomit him out on the shore (2:10). Then the LORD calls Jonah again (3:1), and evidently with much angst he obeys the LORD reluctantly. When he arrives in Nineveh he warns them of approaching judgment from God, and the whole city repents, and the city is delivered for a few more years. About one generation was delivered from the judgment of the LORD, by His mercy and grace.

The flight of Jonah may have been his national hatred for the enemy nation. Jonah needed to learn love and compassion for others. I pray that he did, and that I do as well.

The love, mercy, and grace of God is clearly seen through the cross of Jesus Christ, God’s only begotten Son. There He took, willingly, our sins upon Himself to die for our sins; He was buried and He rose from the grave. As Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, so was the Son of Man three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

Do not take flight away from God, but flee from sin, to Jesus Christ, and live.