Jonah 1 and 2
Once God told a man, named Jonah, to go to a far city, Nineveh, and speak to the people against their wicked ways. But Jonah did not want to go, and hurried away in the opposite direction. He reached a town on the coast of the Great Sea, and saw a ship ready to sail across to the other side, and he paid the fare to go in the ship.
After the ship was out in the sea, a great storm came up, the winds and waves were so strong, the sailors feared the ship would be broken in pieces. They threw their cargo overboard to lighten the load, and did all they could for safety; they prayed to their gods to save them, for they seem to have been heathen men.
All this time Jonah was down in the lower part of the ship soundly steeping. The captain of the ship came to waken him, surprised that he should sleep in such a storm, and told him to arise and pray to his God.
But the storm kept on and the men decided it was because some one had done a wrong deed, to cause such a danger to them; and they cast lots to learn which man, and the lot fell on Jonah. Then the men questioned Jonah, who he was and what he had done.
Jonah told them that he believed the God of heavens, but had not gone where God told him to; and he said that was the reason God had sent the storm. He told the men to cast him into the sea and the storm would stop.
The men were not willing to do that, and they rowed hard to bring the ship to land, but could not, the wind was so strong against them. They felt God’s power in the tempest, and prayed to Him that they should not do wrong to Jonah. Then they took jonah and put him overboard into the sea; the storm at once stopped.
Perhaps you already know what became of Jonah, he was not drowned, for God had planned a way to save him: He had a great fish come close to the ship, which took Jonah in its mouth. God kept him safe within the great fish for three days and three nights. That was a strange place to live! Jonah could not run away, nor do as he pleased there; he could not possibly free himself; all he could do was to pray to God.
God heard Jonah’s prayer and saved him, for we read that the Lord spoke to the fish, and it threw Jonah out unto the land, and he was unhurt. The ship could not get to the shore, but the fish carried Jonah there. The sailors may never have known that Jonah was saved, but when the storm stopped so suddenly, they felt it was by God, and “they feared Him exceedingly.”
Jonah afterward wrote what he prayed to God. He said his heart was faint, then he remembered the Lord. He believed God would save him, for he said, “I will again look toward Thy holy Temple.” the last words of Jonah’s prayer were, “Salvation is of the Lord.”
Some people say that the story of Jonah could not be true, yet many great fish have been seen and taken out of the seas large enough to swallow a man. God who made the seas and all in them, could command a fish and could keep Jonah alive, as He later kept Daniel alive in the lions’ den, and the three men in the burng furnace.