In Praise of Fish Puke
. . .
Jonah 2:10
And the LORD spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land.
Well, this morning, we are going to be dwelling on a rather raunchy bit of text. The title that I’m giving to today’s message is “In praise of fish puke.” And I’m hoping that if I have never kept the attention of a third grader, that this will be the day.
I’ll also say that I love my job. I get to study things like this and sometimes it leads me in the oddest places. I mention this because there have been various people who have said they really like it when I talk about the original language. Well, here you go.
The word for vomit is the Hebrew word qô (pronounced koe). It can also be pronounced qâyâh (kaiyah). And I can only assume that this is one of those words that is what we call onomatopoeia. Do you know what onomatopoeia is? Onomatopoeia is when the formation of a word or pronunciation of a word sounds like the thing that is named by the word.
Take for instance the word sizzle. Sizzle sounds like what happens when something sizzles. That szz sound is the sound that you hear when the liquid hits the hot pan.
Well, what sounds do you hear when you get sick and heave your dinner? I’m not a Hebrew expert, but I’m thinking that qo and qayah didn’t take a lot of literary skill to come up with. They probably said, “what do you want to call it when you lose your cookies?”
You have to love the Bible though. It’s just so vivid. There’s always a surprise. And you can’t help but love this book for this reason. It has wild things like this.
Most of you know me well enough by now. You know that I don’t like to venture where the Bible is silent. Where the word of God speaks, we speak and we listen. And we do not try to pry into those areas where the word of God is silent. That only produces vain speculation.
However, this may be one of those areas where I may admit that I have had some trouble. Maybe it’s just because I have the level of maturity of a 10 year old. When it comes to Jonah’s being spewed out onto the dry land, I have often let my imagination fill in some of the blanks. I simply find this text fascinating and I really want to know more.
To tell you the truth, I heard a Christian comedian speak a little about this when I was younger. He was talking about funny stuff in the Bible. And, of course, this was one of them. You can’t help but chuckle. God speaks to the fish and the fish gets a severe case of indigestion. Jonah was such a sourpuss that even the giant fish found him to be a bellyache. And, as a result, he launches him out of his stomach.
This comedian then went on to say, “It’s no wonder that Nineveh repented at the preaching of Jonah.” You have this partially digested man walking into the city crying out 40 days and the city will be overthrown.
Jonah may very well have looked like a harbinger of a zombie apocalypse. After all, he had been in the stomach of a fish for 3 days. Perhaps he had some time to heal up on the trip to Nineveh, but one does wonder. I can only assume that some of the digestive juices had at least some effect. His skin was probably discolored and had pasty splotches all over it. His clothes were probably tattered and worn from all the acids eating away at them. His hair was probably a little scraggly looking. I could easily see him having some bald patches here and there. The fish’s gut probably thinned it out in different spots.
Imagine this guy walking in and saying, “Repent!” What would your reaction be?
Well, again, nothing of that is expressly biblical. It’s just some silly thoughts of my own imagination. One does wonder about some of the details.
Even though I have a rather weak stomach and I really don’t know if I’d be able to handle it. When I get to heaven, part of me is going to want to go to the archives and pull out the video of this one. I’d like to play back this part of history just to see some of the…shall we say…residual effects were.
That’s just me though. I would assume that I will be the only one in the theater for that showing. I doubt that there will be many of you who will be joining me for that one.
Of course, our purpose today isn’t to meditate on the possibilities or what our text does not speak on. Our goal is to always consider what the Lord says. And, while it may be a little weird–maybe even a little grotesque–I would like us to meditate on the fish puke. (I bet you have never had a sermon on that topic before.)
Believe it or not, this pile of goo that sits upon the shores of Joppa does require our attention. It really is a testimony to the fact that all Scripture is breathed out by God. Even a fish’s partially eaten supper is profitable for teaching, rebuking, and training in righteousness.
Oddly enough, there are three things that I would like us to consider regarding this rather…disgusting… episode. Let me give you those points. As we consider Jonah’s being regurgitated, want you to note the following:
We have, for one, something in this text that is (as I’m sure you are all aware) absolutely repulsive. We all know that there is something rather revolting in our text today, and we need to talk about that briefly.
Secondly, we have something that is extremely embarrassing. I mean it is a shame of the highest sort. And then thirdly, we have something that is oddly comforting.
But let’s begin with that which is first and get that out of the way. We recognize that there is something here in our text this morning that is absolutely repulsive.
I. We have something that is absolutely repulsive.
I mean, it’s nauseating. I’m actually kind of sorry to even have to talk about this. Because it is a bit revolting. I can understand if you find it offensive and maybe cannot stomach it yourself.
Unfortunately, because the ministry of the Word is what it is, sometimes (as a minister of the Word) I am forced to talk about things that may not be suitable to speak of in polite company sometimes. And I understand if you find it sickening. And, again, I wish I did not regurgitate it all here. But it really is necessary. After all, it is the main focus of our text. It’s really what the entire book of Jonah up to this point has been driving at. And really there’s no avoiding it, no matter how repugnant it may be.
Of course, we all know what I’m talking about. So let’s talk about God’s absolute sovereignty over every aspect of human life.
That’s really what this passage is all about. The passage tells us that God spoke to the fish and the fish immediately vomited Jonah out upon the dry land. And the point is that God is sovereign over all his creation. He’s sovereign over the fish. He’s sovereign over the fish’s digestive system. He’s sovereign over the depths of the sea. He’s sovereign over Jonah.
And this really is the culmination of everything we’ve looked at up to this point. In virtually every thing we have read and studied we have seen that God is the supreme authority who rules and governs all things.
He was sovereign over the storms.
He was sovereign over the casting of the lot.
He was sovereign over the fish because he appointed that fish to be there and swallow Jonah.
And, as we pointed out before, He was sovereign over Jonah’s sin. Jonah defied God’s command and ran away. But God used that. He showed himself sovereign over evil, and it became as the very means by which he would bring those mariners to faith. As you read this book, you know that it wasn’t by a coincidence that they ended up renouncing their gods and turning to the Lord.
You also find this in Jonah’s prayer in chapter 2. This prayer talks about how God was sovereign in saving Jonah. Jonah didn’t want to be saved. Jonah had no power to be saved. After all, he was wrapped up in seaweed. But the Lord sent this fish to sweep him up and save his life. That’s why Jonah ends his prayer by saying, “Salvation belongs to the Lord.” It is the Lord and he alone who delivers.
Now here, the Lord shows himself to be sovereign over the expulsion of Jonah. I like the words of John Gill (and I find it absolutely necessary to quote a guy by the name Gill when talking about a great fish). In reference to God speaking to the fish Gill said, the fish was “so wrought upon by God’s power that it could not retain Jonah in its belly any longer.”
I recognize that there are some differing opinions among us as to the exact extent of God’s sovereignty in salvation, but we at least we all can agree on this: the whole idea of God being God completely really is repugnant. It’s biblical, but its something that we all really chaff at in one way or another.
Indeed, this is why many people cannot bring themselves to recognize the miracle of Jonah’s being expelled from the fish. It is not because it is so wild of an idea. It is just the concept that it implies. If miracles happen, that means that there is one who is above us. There’s one to whom we are accountable.
This is really what idolatry is all about. There’s a lot that you can say about idolatry, but you have to understand this: Idolatry is a way of erasing the sovereignty of God. Idols are inferior beings. They are gods that you can manipulate. They are gods you can control to some degree. You offer a sacrifice, this god has to do what you want. Idolatry is really all about control when you get down to it. It is making God lesser than what he really is so that you can have more power and control.
That’s why the most revolting thing in this text is not the vomit. It is the claim that we are not the little gods that we think we are. The reason we dislike this attribute of God is because we want self sovereignty.
Sovereignty is repulsive because we want autonomy. We want to be the ones who are in charge. We want to be the ones with power. We want to call the shots. The last thing we want is to say there is someone who is higher than me. Because that means we are accountable to him.
That’s the message the Lord is sending to Israel. In the book of Leviticus the Lord said, “If you do not keep my commandments, the land will end up spewing you out.” That’s God’s way of saying, “If you do not recognize my authority over your life and keep my law, then I will punish you and send you into exile; you will face my judgment.”
And that’s what we need to take to heart. We are not free agents. We are not free to do as we please. We do not have self sovereignty. We need to recognize that we are under God’s authority.
Jonah now writes to emphasize this. As he washes up on shore and tries to wipe off the vomit and the pieces of fish that are stuck to his body, he has to be thinking: There is only one king and one lord. And I am not him.
The message Israel (and to all God’s people) is exactly the same: God is sovereign and that means we are obligated to obey him.
And that brings us to the second point that we should draw from our text. Yes, there is something that is repulsive in the text. But there’s also something that is exceedingly embarrassing that is found in this text too. There’s a sense in which the fish and his vomit put us to shame.
II. We have something that is extremely embarrassing
If you think about it, this slimy fish comes out looking better than we do. We might want to say that what the fish does is disgusting. But you have to say that there’s something honorable about the fish vomiting Jonah up. That’s because the fish is obedient. The fish has a compliant spirit. And that stands in stark contrast to Jonah (and of course, Israel), who has a very defiant spirit.
You see what happens in our passage here. God speaks to the fish and the fish responds by doing exactly what God wants. God says, “Fish, I need you to get that human out of your gut.” And the fish says, “Ok boss.” And he heaves him out.
It is all so simple. God speaks, and the fish responds. God gives a command; the fish obeys.
That stands as a contrast to what we see in Jonah. In chapter 1, we are told that the “Word of the Lord came to Jonah.” God spoke to Jonah. And what did Jonah do? Jonah ran away.
In chapter 3 we will read similar words. The word of the Lord will come to Jonah a second time. This time Jonah will go, but it won’t be because he really wants to. We’ll see that he still lacks a great deal of enthusiasm. He goes, but it’s probably because he doesn’t want the Lord to kick up a sand storm and have a camel swallow him.
All in all, we’ve seen that all creation is living in obedience to the Lord. The wind and waves obey him. The dice that the mariners cast obey him. The fish is a dutiful servant.
But Jonah; he’s supposed to be the son of faithfulness (Amattai). As a man (a human being) he is supposed to be the highest of all the creatures of the earth. As an Israelite, he’s one of the chosen. He’s supposed to be one of God’s own people! Yet he has a less than stellar showing when it comes to his obedience. He doesn’t look very good in comparison to the fish.
So it ends up being a little humiliating. It is as if God’s saying, “Look, you just got shown up by a scaly ol’ fish.”
It’s kind of like how the United States Basketball team got beat by Puerto Rico in the 2004 Olympics. You had guys like Allen Iverson, Tim Duncan and a roster full of elite NBA stars. The team was stacked. But they got worked over by a squad from the tiny island of less than 4 million people.
It’s like, “Are you serious?” You’ve been shown up by Puerto Rico? You’re supposed to be the greatest basketball players on the planet. Each of you makes millions of dollars every year. And you got beat by…Puerto Rico?
You can’t help but hang your head and think about how humiliating that is.
You find the same sort of thing here. Israel, don’t you know that you are supposed to be the greatest people that God has ever had on the face of the planet. You were made in the image of God. You were chosen by God out of all the nations of the earth. You’ve been given the law and the prophets. You’ve been given the covenants and the temple, the very place where God is supposed to abide. He has delivered you time and again.
But what happens when it comes to your obedience? You fail miserably. Not only do you fail miserably, some yucky old sea creature comes out looking much more faithful.
Now, we Americans are not really into shaming people. Public shaming used to be something that was popular. We’ve become a nation that doesn’t really approve of any kind of intentional, public humiliation. We have become very sensitive to making people feel bad. And we think that you should be ashamed of making people feel any kind of shame.
But the loss of shame is not altogether a good thing. I hope that this does become a gut punch. The fact that we do not walk in obedience to God is something that should be taken seriously. And we should understand that every time we sin against God, we not only incur guilt, we not only do something that provokes him to anger– we do something that is completely out of accord with the rest of creation.
We should recognize that our sin is really a serious thing. We are God’s chosen people. We are the highest of all God’s creation. We have been given every blessing and privilege. And when we break the commandments of God, that should be something that should make us say, “There’s something really wrong here.”
Some theologians have said that sin abases us so much that we sink below the brute beasts of the earth. I think it was John Gerstner was accused of having a worm theology. And Gerstner replied by saying, “Oh no, I would never put worms down like that.”
It’s true. If you think about it, worms are not sinning against God. Worms are faithful. Every time we break God’s law the worms are over there rolling their eyes at us.
There’s a sense in which the worms put us to shame. And maybe, if we feel that shame, and if we recognize just how embarrassing it is, maybe–once we feel the sting of how humiliating that really is–maybe we’ll say, “You know what? I need to repent. I really do need to turn this thing around and seek God’s pardon.”
The tax collector who beat his chest & said, “Lord, forgive me, a sinner.” He felt the shame. He knew the wrong of what he had done.
The woman who crashed the party and wiped Jesus’ feet with her hair. Contrast that with the religious leader who looked down on Jesus for letting her do that. She knew the evil of her actions. She was brought low by the conviction of its wretchedness. It was not what God wanted. It was not what he intended.
One aspect of true repentance is sensing the filthiness and odiousness of our sins. And this fish is preaching a sermon by his actions, saying, “Look at how out of whack you are. Don’t you see how you need to repent?”
And if that happens--if you get that conviction, there’s good news. Because in this passage we not only have something that is repulsive and embarrassing. We also have something that is comforting.
III. We have something that is oddly comforting
Oddly enough, there is encouragement to be found in the fish vomit. It might not be a pretty sight to behold, but the spewing forth of Jonah is a sign of deliverance. It is a sign of resurrection.
There’s a sense in which Jonah and the sludge in which he sits becomes sacramental. It's a visible sign. Jonah is a living sacrament; it signifies the fact that God is gracious. It tells us that he saves sinners.
As he looks at the discoloration of his skin, Jonah can help but take comfort. He might have some burning sensations, but there’s the consolation that his time in that hell hole was limited.
And it is just like what should happen each time we observe the Lord’s Table. Or even today as we witness the baptism. It should offer us the consolation that we did not get what we deserved.
Now, I always find the commentators so funny. Sometimes I think we should just burn the commentators (and their commentaries). Because a lot of the commentaries like to speculate as to where Jonah was spit out. Was it back in Joppa, where he first jumped aboard the ship? Was it somewhere not far from Nineveh. There are some who have said that it was on the shores of the Red Sea, which means that the fish had to have swam around the southern coast of Africa at lightning's pace to make it in three days.
But, as we’ve noted earlier, where the text is silent, we don’t try to pry. It isn’t about where he was spit out; it is that he was spit out. It isn’t about a particular region. It’s about the regurgitation.
The vomit is a message of life: God forgives. God offers redemption to sinners. He resurrects those who turn to him and put their faith in him.
And this, my friends, is what we need to come to grips with: The real miracle in this story is not that Jonah was swallowed. The miracle isn’t that Jonah was there for three whole days or parts of three days. The miracle is that Jonah came out. The miracle is that the Lord gave Jonah another chance. He gave Jonah the opportunity to get up and get showered off and to live. It’s a miracle because he did not deserve it.
The message to Israel (and the subsequent message to us) is that the very attribute that we despise; the one attribute that we have the greatest contention with, is the one thing that we most need. God’s sovereignty, repulsive as it may be to us, but it is the very thing that makes our deliverance possible. Because it is only by the sovereign power of God that the gates of death and hell can be broken.
When the religious leaders came to Jesus, they demanded a sign. It was a foolish thing to request because Jesus had already provided all the signs in the world. And he said this: An evil and adulterous generation asks for a sign. But none will be given except the sign of Jonah.
You want a sign, I’ll give you a sign. I’ll give you the greatest sign you could ever possibly imagine. But you got to understand; there’s a problem. And it is your heart. You have not yet grasped your own sinfulness. You do not understand that this sign will not mean anything, because you do not recognize the depth of your sin.
My friends, we have a great and glorious display of God’s sovereign power in the resurrection of our Lord. We have a reminder that he is a God who is willing to deliver us from death and hell. But we must understand the need for repentance. In response to his grace, we must put away our idolatry and our sin. We must take God for who he is and acknowledge that he is who he says he is. He is the one who is sovereign; he is above us. And we must truly show that we hate and despise this sin, and seek to turn away from it.
I’ll also say that I love my job. I get to study things like this and sometimes it leads me in the oddest places. I mention this because there have been various people who have said they really like it when I talk about the original language. Well, here you go.
The word for vomit is the Hebrew word qô (pronounced koe). It can also be pronounced qâyâh (kaiyah). And I can only assume that this is one of those words that is what we call onomatopoeia. Do you know what onomatopoeia is? Onomatopoeia is when the formation of a word or pronunciation of a word sounds like the thing that is named by the word.
Take for instance the word sizzle. Sizzle sounds like what happens when something sizzles. That szz sound is the sound that you hear when the liquid hits the hot pan.
Well, what sounds do you hear when you get sick and heave your dinner? I’m not a Hebrew expert, but I’m thinking that qo and qayah didn’t take a lot of literary skill to come up with. They probably said, “what do you want to call it when you lose your cookies?”
You have to love the Bible though. It’s just so vivid. There’s always a surprise. And you can’t help but love this book for this reason. It has wild things like this.
Most of you know me well enough by now. You know that I don’t like to venture where the Bible is silent. Where the word of God speaks, we speak and we listen. And we do not try to pry into those areas where the word of God is silent. That only produces vain speculation.
However, this may be one of those areas where I may admit that I have had some trouble. Maybe it’s just because I have the level of maturity of a 10 year old. When it comes to Jonah’s being spewed out onto the dry land, I have often let my imagination fill in some of the blanks. I simply find this text fascinating and I really want to know more.
To tell you the truth, I heard a Christian comedian speak a little about this when I was younger. He was talking about funny stuff in the Bible. And, of course, this was one of them. You can’t help but chuckle. God speaks to the fish and the fish gets a severe case of indigestion. Jonah was such a sourpuss that even the giant fish found him to be a bellyache. And, as a result, he launches him out of his stomach.
This comedian then went on to say, “It’s no wonder that Nineveh repented at the preaching of Jonah.” You have this partially digested man walking into the city crying out 40 days and the city will be overthrown.
Jonah may very well have looked like a harbinger of a zombie apocalypse. After all, he had been in the stomach of a fish for 3 days. Perhaps he had some time to heal up on the trip to Nineveh, but one does wonder. I can only assume that some of the digestive juices had at least some effect. His skin was probably discolored and had pasty splotches all over it. His clothes were probably tattered and worn from all the acids eating away at them. His hair was probably a little scraggly looking. I could easily see him having some bald patches here and there. The fish’s gut probably thinned it out in different spots.
Imagine this guy walking in and saying, “Repent!” What would your reaction be?
Well, again, nothing of that is expressly biblical. It’s just some silly thoughts of my own imagination. One does wonder about some of the details.
Even though I have a rather weak stomach and I really don’t know if I’d be able to handle it. When I get to heaven, part of me is going to want to go to the archives and pull out the video of this one. I’d like to play back this part of history just to see some of the…shall we say…residual effects were.
That’s just me though. I would assume that I will be the only one in the theater for that showing. I doubt that there will be many of you who will be joining me for that one.
Of course, our purpose today isn’t to meditate on the possibilities or what our text does not speak on. Our goal is to always consider what the Lord says. And, while it may be a little weird–maybe even a little grotesque–I would like us to meditate on the fish puke. (I bet you have never had a sermon on that topic before.)
Believe it or not, this pile of goo that sits upon the shores of Joppa does require our attention. It really is a testimony to the fact that all Scripture is breathed out by God. Even a fish’s partially eaten supper is profitable for teaching, rebuking, and training in righteousness.
Oddly enough, there are three things that I would like us to consider regarding this rather…disgusting… episode. Let me give you those points. As we consider Jonah’s being regurgitated, want you to note the following:
We have, for one, something in this text that is (as I’m sure you are all aware) absolutely repulsive. We all know that there is something rather revolting in our text today, and we need to talk about that briefly.
Secondly, we have something that is extremely embarrassing. I mean it is a shame of the highest sort. And then thirdly, we have something that is oddly comforting.
But let’s begin with that which is first and get that out of the way. We recognize that there is something here in our text this morning that is absolutely repulsive.
I. We have something that is absolutely repulsive.
I mean, it’s nauseating. I’m actually kind of sorry to even have to talk about this. Because it is a bit revolting. I can understand if you find it offensive and maybe cannot stomach it yourself.
Unfortunately, because the ministry of the Word is what it is, sometimes (as a minister of the Word) I am forced to talk about things that may not be suitable to speak of in polite company sometimes. And I understand if you find it sickening. And, again, I wish I did not regurgitate it all here. But it really is necessary. After all, it is the main focus of our text. It’s really what the entire book of Jonah up to this point has been driving at. And really there’s no avoiding it, no matter how repugnant it may be.
Of course, we all know what I’m talking about. So let’s talk about God’s absolute sovereignty over every aspect of human life.
That’s really what this passage is all about. The passage tells us that God spoke to the fish and the fish immediately vomited Jonah out upon the dry land. And the point is that God is sovereign over all his creation. He’s sovereign over the fish. He’s sovereign over the fish’s digestive system. He’s sovereign over the depths of the sea. He’s sovereign over Jonah.
And this really is the culmination of everything we’ve looked at up to this point. In virtually every thing we have read and studied we have seen that God is the supreme authority who rules and governs all things.
He was sovereign over the storms.
He was sovereign over the casting of the lot.
He was sovereign over the fish because he appointed that fish to be there and swallow Jonah.
And, as we pointed out before, He was sovereign over Jonah’s sin. Jonah defied God’s command and ran away. But God used that. He showed himself sovereign over evil, and it became as the very means by which he would bring those mariners to faith. As you read this book, you know that it wasn’t by a coincidence that they ended up renouncing their gods and turning to the Lord.
You also find this in Jonah’s prayer in chapter 2. This prayer talks about how God was sovereign in saving Jonah. Jonah didn’t want to be saved. Jonah had no power to be saved. After all, he was wrapped up in seaweed. But the Lord sent this fish to sweep him up and save his life. That’s why Jonah ends his prayer by saying, “Salvation belongs to the Lord.” It is the Lord and he alone who delivers.
Now here, the Lord shows himself to be sovereign over the expulsion of Jonah. I like the words of John Gill (and I find it absolutely necessary to quote a guy by the name Gill when talking about a great fish). In reference to God speaking to the fish Gill said, the fish was “so wrought upon by God’s power that it could not retain Jonah in its belly any longer.”
I recognize that there are some differing opinions among us as to the exact extent of God’s sovereignty in salvation, but we at least we all can agree on this: the whole idea of God being God completely really is repugnant. It’s biblical, but its something that we all really chaff at in one way or another.
Indeed, this is why many people cannot bring themselves to recognize the miracle of Jonah’s being expelled from the fish. It is not because it is so wild of an idea. It is just the concept that it implies. If miracles happen, that means that there is one who is above us. There’s one to whom we are accountable.
This is really what idolatry is all about. There’s a lot that you can say about idolatry, but you have to understand this: Idolatry is a way of erasing the sovereignty of God. Idols are inferior beings. They are gods that you can manipulate. They are gods you can control to some degree. You offer a sacrifice, this god has to do what you want. Idolatry is really all about control when you get down to it. It is making God lesser than what he really is so that you can have more power and control.
That’s why the most revolting thing in this text is not the vomit. It is the claim that we are not the little gods that we think we are. The reason we dislike this attribute of God is because we want self sovereignty.
Sovereignty is repulsive because we want autonomy. We want to be the ones who are in charge. We want to be the ones with power. We want to call the shots. The last thing we want is to say there is someone who is higher than me. Because that means we are accountable to him.
That’s the message the Lord is sending to Israel. In the book of Leviticus the Lord said, “If you do not keep my commandments, the land will end up spewing you out.” That’s God’s way of saying, “If you do not recognize my authority over your life and keep my law, then I will punish you and send you into exile; you will face my judgment.”
And that’s what we need to take to heart. We are not free agents. We are not free to do as we please. We do not have self sovereignty. We need to recognize that we are under God’s authority.
Jonah now writes to emphasize this. As he washes up on shore and tries to wipe off the vomit and the pieces of fish that are stuck to his body, he has to be thinking: There is only one king and one lord. And I am not him.
The message Israel (and to all God’s people) is exactly the same: God is sovereign and that means we are obligated to obey him.
And that brings us to the second point that we should draw from our text. Yes, there is something that is repulsive in the text. But there’s also something that is exceedingly embarrassing that is found in this text too. There’s a sense in which the fish and his vomit put us to shame.
II. We have something that is extremely embarrassing
If you think about it, this slimy fish comes out looking better than we do. We might want to say that what the fish does is disgusting. But you have to say that there’s something honorable about the fish vomiting Jonah up. That’s because the fish is obedient. The fish has a compliant spirit. And that stands in stark contrast to Jonah (and of course, Israel), who has a very defiant spirit.
You see what happens in our passage here. God speaks to the fish and the fish responds by doing exactly what God wants. God says, “Fish, I need you to get that human out of your gut.” And the fish says, “Ok boss.” And he heaves him out.
It is all so simple. God speaks, and the fish responds. God gives a command; the fish obeys.
That stands as a contrast to what we see in Jonah. In chapter 1, we are told that the “Word of the Lord came to Jonah.” God spoke to Jonah. And what did Jonah do? Jonah ran away.
In chapter 3 we will read similar words. The word of the Lord will come to Jonah a second time. This time Jonah will go, but it won’t be because he really wants to. We’ll see that he still lacks a great deal of enthusiasm. He goes, but it’s probably because he doesn’t want the Lord to kick up a sand storm and have a camel swallow him.
All in all, we’ve seen that all creation is living in obedience to the Lord. The wind and waves obey him. The dice that the mariners cast obey him. The fish is a dutiful servant.
But Jonah; he’s supposed to be the son of faithfulness (Amattai). As a man (a human being) he is supposed to be the highest of all the creatures of the earth. As an Israelite, he’s one of the chosen. He’s supposed to be one of God’s own people! Yet he has a less than stellar showing when it comes to his obedience. He doesn’t look very good in comparison to the fish.
So it ends up being a little humiliating. It is as if God’s saying, “Look, you just got shown up by a scaly ol’ fish.”
It’s kind of like how the United States Basketball team got beat by Puerto Rico in the 2004 Olympics. You had guys like Allen Iverson, Tim Duncan and a roster full of elite NBA stars. The team was stacked. But they got worked over by a squad from the tiny island of less than 4 million people.
It’s like, “Are you serious?” You’ve been shown up by Puerto Rico? You’re supposed to be the greatest basketball players on the planet. Each of you makes millions of dollars every year. And you got beat by…Puerto Rico?
You can’t help but hang your head and think about how humiliating that is.
You find the same sort of thing here. Israel, don’t you know that you are supposed to be the greatest people that God has ever had on the face of the planet. You were made in the image of God. You were chosen by God out of all the nations of the earth. You’ve been given the law and the prophets. You’ve been given the covenants and the temple, the very place where God is supposed to abide. He has delivered you time and again.
But what happens when it comes to your obedience? You fail miserably. Not only do you fail miserably, some yucky old sea creature comes out looking much more faithful.
Now, we Americans are not really into shaming people. Public shaming used to be something that was popular. We’ve become a nation that doesn’t really approve of any kind of intentional, public humiliation. We have become very sensitive to making people feel bad. And we think that you should be ashamed of making people feel any kind of shame.
But the loss of shame is not altogether a good thing. I hope that this does become a gut punch. The fact that we do not walk in obedience to God is something that should be taken seriously. And we should understand that every time we sin against God, we not only incur guilt, we not only do something that provokes him to anger– we do something that is completely out of accord with the rest of creation.
We should recognize that our sin is really a serious thing. We are God’s chosen people. We are the highest of all God’s creation. We have been given every blessing and privilege. And when we break the commandments of God, that should be something that should make us say, “There’s something really wrong here.”
Some theologians have said that sin abases us so much that we sink below the brute beasts of the earth. I think it was John Gerstner was accused of having a worm theology. And Gerstner replied by saying, “Oh no, I would never put worms down like that.”
It’s true. If you think about it, worms are not sinning against God. Worms are faithful. Every time we break God’s law the worms are over there rolling their eyes at us.
There’s a sense in which the worms put us to shame. And maybe, if we feel that shame, and if we recognize just how embarrassing it is, maybe–once we feel the sting of how humiliating that really is–maybe we’ll say, “You know what? I need to repent. I really do need to turn this thing around and seek God’s pardon.”
The tax collector who beat his chest & said, “Lord, forgive me, a sinner.” He felt the shame. He knew the wrong of what he had done.
The woman who crashed the party and wiped Jesus’ feet with her hair. Contrast that with the religious leader who looked down on Jesus for letting her do that. She knew the evil of her actions. She was brought low by the conviction of its wretchedness. It was not what God wanted. It was not what he intended.
One aspect of true repentance is sensing the filthiness and odiousness of our sins. And this fish is preaching a sermon by his actions, saying, “Look at how out of whack you are. Don’t you see how you need to repent?”
And if that happens--if you get that conviction, there’s good news. Because in this passage we not only have something that is repulsive and embarrassing. We also have something that is comforting.
III. We have something that is oddly comforting
Oddly enough, there is encouragement to be found in the fish vomit. It might not be a pretty sight to behold, but the spewing forth of Jonah is a sign of deliverance. It is a sign of resurrection.
There’s a sense in which Jonah and the sludge in which he sits becomes sacramental. It's a visible sign. Jonah is a living sacrament; it signifies the fact that God is gracious. It tells us that he saves sinners.
As he looks at the discoloration of his skin, Jonah can help but take comfort. He might have some burning sensations, but there’s the consolation that his time in that hell hole was limited.
And it is just like what should happen each time we observe the Lord’s Table. Or even today as we witness the baptism. It should offer us the consolation that we did not get what we deserved.
Now, I always find the commentators so funny. Sometimes I think we should just burn the commentators (and their commentaries). Because a lot of the commentaries like to speculate as to where Jonah was spit out. Was it back in Joppa, where he first jumped aboard the ship? Was it somewhere not far from Nineveh. There are some who have said that it was on the shores of the Red Sea, which means that the fish had to have swam around the southern coast of Africa at lightning's pace to make it in three days.
But, as we’ve noted earlier, where the text is silent, we don’t try to pry. It isn’t about where he was spit out; it is that he was spit out. It isn’t about a particular region. It’s about the regurgitation.
The vomit is a message of life: God forgives. God offers redemption to sinners. He resurrects those who turn to him and put their faith in him.
And this, my friends, is what we need to come to grips with: The real miracle in this story is not that Jonah was swallowed. The miracle isn’t that Jonah was there for three whole days or parts of three days. The miracle is that Jonah came out. The miracle is that the Lord gave Jonah another chance. He gave Jonah the opportunity to get up and get showered off and to live. It’s a miracle because he did not deserve it.
The message to Israel (and the subsequent message to us) is that the very attribute that we despise; the one attribute that we have the greatest contention with, is the one thing that we most need. God’s sovereignty, repulsive as it may be to us, but it is the very thing that makes our deliverance possible. Because it is only by the sovereign power of God that the gates of death and hell can be broken.
When the religious leaders came to Jesus, they demanded a sign. It was a foolish thing to request because Jesus had already provided all the signs in the world. And he said this: An evil and adulterous generation asks for a sign. But none will be given except the sign of Jonah.
You want a sign, I’ll give you a sign. I’ll give you the greatest sign you could ever possibly imagine. But you got to understand; there’s a problem. And it is your heart. You have not yet grasped your own sinfulness. You do not understand that this sign will not mean anything, because you do not recognize the depth of your sin.
My friends, we have a great and glorious display of God’s sovereign power in the resurrection of our Lord. We have a reminder that he is a God who is willing to deliver us from death and hell. But we must understand the need for repentance. In response to his grace, we must put away our idolatry and our sin. We must take God for who he is and acknowledge that he is who he says he is. He is the one who is sovereign; he is above us. And we must truly show that we hate and despise this sin, and seek to turn away from it.