I am posting this topic because of the chatroom question raised over Jonah in the belly of the fish, and all of the surrounding debate around this. I believe the bible can be taken literally in terms of what transpired. Lets analyse these verses:
Jonah 1
17 Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah.
And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
Jonah 2
2 Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the fish’s belly. 2 And he said:
“I cried out to the Lord because of my affliction,
And He answered me.
“
Out of the belly of Sheol I cried,
And You heard my voice.
3 For You cast me into the deep,
Into the heart of the seas,
And the floods surrounded me;
All Your billows and Your waves passed over me.
4 Then I said, ‘I have been cast out of Your sight;
Yet I will look again toward Your holy temple.’
5
The waters surrounded me, even to my soul;
The deep closed around me;
Weeds were wrapped around my head.
6
I went down to the moorings of the mountains;
The earth with its bars closed behind me forever;
Yet You have brought up my life
from the pit,
O Lord, my God.
7
“When my soul fainted within me,
I remembered the Lord;
And my prayer went up to You,
Into Your holy temple.
8 “Those who regard worthless idols
Forsake their own [
b]Mercy.
9 But I will sacrifice to You
With the voice of thanksgiving;
I will pay what I have vowed.
Salvation
is of the Lord.”
10 So the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry
land.
>We can take this account from Jonah LITERALLY. He was swallowed by a fish. He (his BODY) was in the fish 3 days. There is no suitable living environment within a fish (air pocket, condominium, economy class seating). Jonah died. He wasn't being preserved alive within the fish.
>Jonah gives the account - out of Sheol (Hell) he cried out. This is not to create a precedent that others can cry out from hell and be delivered in the same way. No. It just means that God is sovereign and can do as He pleases. He can bring low and He can lift up.
>Jonah's body was in the fish but his soul was in Sheol.
>Hell looks to be a place under the earth for this is where Jonah describes it.
>We also see with the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, the rich man saying engaging with Father Abraham. Conversation/communication is possible within this spiritual nether realm.
>So it is not impossible for Jonah to call out to God from Sheol, and his prayer went up to the Holy Temple.
Now we have an interesting account coming from the Words of our Lord:
Matthew 12
38 Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered, saying, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from You."
39 But He answered and said to them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40
For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
>Jonah Died and Jesus Died.
>Jonah was alive after 3 days, Jesus was alive after 3 days.
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