Out of the Belly of Hell!
Imagine how it might have been with Jonah.
I. DOWN
The last sight lingering in his eyes was a bobbing ship, stormy skies, pelting rain, and the fear-struck faces of the sailors who threw him into the water. Splash!
On the surface it grew strangely calm, but for Jonah the storm never stopped. His storm was inside!
“Don’t try to swim! It’s all over! Go ahead and inhale the water and let it be over with. Don’t fight. Don’t try to swim. That would only prolong the agony. You know what is going to happen! My ministry is over! It’s a great big flop! My dreams are a crumpled empty shell.” His whole life replayed itself before him, then he passed out!
Suddenly there was a quick motion. Something surrounded him. He was conscious of slippery cold flesh. Things grew even darker. Jonah was pushed along a narrow passageway by an invisible force. Then into a larger cavity. Air! Gasp. He inhaled heavily.
He opened his eyes. “My eyes don’t work! I’m blind!” Motion sickness overwhelmed him. Vertigo! Muscles tightened around him then relaxed. He was inside a giant washing machine. Sea weeds wrapped round his head and all around his body. Water kept sloshing into his mouth, trying to work its way into his lungs. Jonah spat disgustingly and coughed to clear his windpipe.
“Where are my clothes? Oh, well, there is no one else here to see me.” He passed out again.
He was startled awake by a sense of turning. He lost all sense of direction. His stomach retched out its contents, then went into dry heaves. All the has-been food was floating around him. He screamed but there was no sound. He passed out.
“Oh, God! I’m still alive! Let me hit my head on something and knock myself out!” But everything around him was soft.
A couple of small fish slithered between his legs. He shudders. He grabs one and squeezes it to deathly stillness. “What for? Don’t know. Can’t stand not knowing where it will slide by next!”
II. TO HELL
“Oh God! I’m living in Hell! Let me die!” His mind reels. There is no category for this experience.
His skin begins to crawl. He gags, retches. He imagines the color of the green bitter bile that stings his mouth, spits it out, and it oozes all over his face. He passes out again.
OoooOOoooh! His skin is becoming raw. Weeds twist around his arms and legs. He squirms to find a less painful position. Stomach muscles tighten around him. No way to get comfortable in here! Pass out! He wakes with a shudder.
“Horror! How long will I live in here? I’m certain to die, but how long will I suffer these nightmares? Gasp. Heave. His consciousness blinks out.
Oxygen deprivation does its mind-altering worst. Phantasms terrify him. Shudder.
His life review passes before him again. He can’t stop the play from rolling. Everything he ever did plays and replays. Every harsh word. Every kindness he ever received. Every time he neglected his family. Every time he prayed. Every occasion when he went to the temple. He passes out, delirious.
The Psalms take on new meaning. The language of David and of the other prophets comes out of his mouth over and over again.
2 … I cried … mine affliction unto the LORD …
he heard me; out of the belly of hell …
thou heardest my voice.
3 … thou hadst cast me into the deep,
in the midst of the seas;
and the floods compassed me about: (pause)
all thy billows and thy waves passed over me.
4 … I am cast out of thy sight; …
I will look again toward thy holy temple. (pause)
5 The waters compassed me about, even to the soul:
the depth closed me round about….
6 I went down … (dizzy)
yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption,
O LORD my God.
7 When my soul fainted within me (pause)
I remembered the LORD: (shiver)
and my prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple.
8 They that observe lying vanities (pause)
forsake their own mercy.
9 But I will sacrifice unto thee (pause)
with the voice of thanksgiving;
I will pay that that I have vowed. (sigh)
Salvation is of the LORD.
Why did he choose this language? Because Jonah knew the Psalm book and the other Scriptures. When he was distressed, he chose the language of Scripture to express himself. It had meanings he had never before experienced.
III. CAN’T DIE
There is pain in my joints! I’m cold. Shallow breath is all that is possible.
More nightmares! Oxygen?
“God Almighty! What are you doing to me? Let! Me! DIE!”
More life reviews! Mother. Father. Now all the characters are confused. The merry-go-round accelerates. His lights go out!
He awakes with involuntary jerking. Shiver! Heave! Gag! Shudder! Ache. “Oh, my God!”
“Nineveh.” That was it! “Go to Nineveh!” Heave. “It’s over. My ministry…. Well, I’d rather be here than be tortured by angry Ninevites! Anyway I hate those pagans!” (He was a stubborn man!)
He slipped out of consciousness. It’s a mercy that our mind can only suffer so much and then the circuits are overloaded and the lights go out.
“I’m still here!” Angrily he kicks the wall. Its flesh yields. Kick. Punch! Elbow! Gag! “I am entombed, alive! I can’t DIE!”
Exhale. He begins to lose consciousness. Here it comes – Death! “I don’t know what is after death, but it can’t be worse than this!” Oh, it can’t?? He passes out.
He wakes again. “How long have I been here? Eternity! Eternity! ETERNITY! Time is frozen in place. Time has lost its meaning. Besides, where am I going? What or who is waiting for me?” One minute can last forever! He shudders and weeps silently. ETERNITY is spinning on its side! Despair sweeps over him. I’m lost! LOST forever!
Pensively, “I said I’d rather do anything than go to Nineveh! But this?” Lights out.
He blinks. “I have not been able to see anything for hours! Or is it days? Shakes his head. Could it be years already?
Motion sickness whelms over him again. Up! Down! Twist! Spin! Always spinning! Slowly! No – no, it’s a fast spin…. No, I guess maybe it’s slow.
“Nineveh. NO! Do you hear me, God? I said, NO! Besides that is impossible now.”
His mind replays his entire ministry. The good times in prayer. But now I’m separated from God. A living Hell!”
“I’ll never again see the temple!”
Did Jonah have children? A wife? Brief scenes of pleasure dance before him and torture his twisted consciousness. My family, my friends, my possessions. Nevermore! Never, nevermore!
IV. GIVE IN
“God!” That hard lump of rebellion is starting to melt. “God, if I could, maybe I would.” Shakes his head resolutely, “Maybe not!”
“Yes, I would! But that’s impossible! I’ll die right here in this wretched (heave).”
A fresh inflow of water and bubbles awaken him. “I’m still alive! In this living Hell!”
More living, crawling, swimming, wiggling things! All invisible in the outer darkness. Or is it inner darkness?
Hiccup! “I’m still alive! God! Get me out of here!”
No answer.
“God if You’ll….”
No sense trying to cut a deal! Heave.
Wails, “God, do You hear me?”
Of course, He does.
“God, I’m sorry!” Gag.
Oh Lord, have mercy!” Twist.
“Yes, Lord! I will! I promise! Yes! Nobody else has a God like this! Everybody else seems to be able to do whatever they please with no God to interrupt their plans! Maybe I wish this God were dead! No, He’s alive and He’s after me! Yes, Lord, Yes!”
“If I knew directions, I’d pray toward the temple in Jerusalem, but I don’t even know up from down. Oh well, I’ll just do my best.”
“God! … I give in! Yes!”
Silently, in the skies the Almighty gives a command to His messenger, the captor of Jonah. “Spit him out!”
That big fish swims faster than ever before, swims right toward the beach. He doesn’t want to swim around in his own puke. You don’t throw up in the pool! The fish is right on target. He heaves and Jonah comes twisting, turning through the dark passageway, then flipping through the open air, flying, light blinding his eyes! Arms and legs flailing! Warm air soothing his skin! Splash! Down into the shallow surf. Oh, well he needed a bath anyway — before leaving on his mission.
“I’m dreaming! It’s my twisted imagination! No, the blinding light searing my sightless eyes is for real!”
“This water, this sand….” He falls over, picks himself up, staggers. “This water, this sand, this sky, this air!” He throws sand high over his head. It rains down all over him and sticks to his shriveled skin. He throws water in the air and it showers him. He laughs hysterically. “I’m FREE!”
“I can see! I can hear! I can feel the water and the sand.” He falls over again. It takes a while to get used to solid ground after that submarine ride. His legs feel like rubber. He rubs his hands over his skin. “I’m as naked as a cucumber.” Runs his fingers through his hair, no, there is no hair. “I’m as bald as an onion.” His skin is shriveled like a raisin. His eyes are wild with that insane look. He has an involuntary twitch in his face.
Yeshuotah l’YAHWEH – Salvation to the LORD! (That’s shouting ground!) “I’m saved! All deliverances are from the LORD! Hallelujah! I’m alive and I’m free! Hosanna in the highest!”
He thrashes his arms and legs in the water. Throws water high into the air. Thank You, LORD! Thank YOU!
Jonah still has a ways to go, but he’s on the right track! What did he say to the first humans he saw? How would you tell a story like that? They thought he was stir crazy. Anyway, only crazy people laugh hysterically, and walk around naked – naked as a cucumber, bald as an onion.
He had to buy some clothes. No, he had no money. “I’d better find someone I know. No, I don’t want anyone to see me like this. Well, how am I going to get my life back to normal?” Is there a normal after being swallowed by a fish?
“Where am I?” The Bible does not say where the fish dropped him off. Some think the Lord sent him right back to Joppa where he might have to tell his story to the same people who had seen him fleeing. He might have been dropped off in Alexandria, Egypt. That way the Egyptians would hear another story of Israel’s God. The Egyptians seemed to keep track of the miracles of Jehovah. He might have been dropped off on the shores of Greece. They have a fish story about Hercules and the Romans have one about Andromede that is a garbled version of the Biblical story of Jonah.
You’d think he’d never resist the Divine Orders again, but we humans can be very stubborn. He still had some tough lessons to learn.
The Psalm of Jonah as we have it is written in the past tense. He remembered what he had prayed and put it into a psalm so he and others could remember the lessons learned.
The way of transgressors is hard! If you are going to cut your own groove, you’re going to face some very tough circumstances. And you will find you’ve made your own problems. Life is tough enough without creating more difficulty. Was God punishing Jonah? I think it is better to say God was trying to get Jonah’s attention, trying to bring him back to the right path.
God will not force you against your will, but He may bring you around to change your mind. He loves you and is interested in your eternal welfare, the salvation of your soul.
The Almighty is the God of a second chance! If you repent, He will forgive. Whether you are Jewish or pagan! Whether you are a backslider who once knew God and has run away, or a heathen who never heard of Jesus Christ!
