Jonah 1:17--A Great Fish Swallows Jonah

Jonah 1:17
English Standard Version

A Great Fish Swallows Jonah
17  And the LORD appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

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Many skeptics have issues with this verse.  I won't say that they have any more issue with it than anything else supernatural in the Bible, but up to this point they are okay with the story--even with the violent storm and it ending when they threw Jonah overboard.  They may just chalk all that up to mere coincidence that the storm started around the time he got on board and ended around the same time they threw him in and they may claim that the story was embellished a bit to try to show causality where there was none (there was causality because the LORD was working to get Jonah's attention and to send a message to the people on the boat with Jonah).   However, you get to this point in the story and you really only have two options.  You believe the story by faith or you say that it is mythology and fairy tale.  Try as people might, there is no natural explanation for what we are about to read.

At just the right moment, the LORD caused a great fish (not a whale) which He had prepared for this very occasion to swallow Jonah and get him back on track for the journey which the LORD had called him to.  He would spend three days and three nights in the belly of the fish (which Jesus will point to later as something He will "fulfill" by spending three days and thee nights in the belly of the earth).

Jonah will have a lot of soul-searching to do while he's in the belly of the fish and we'll get to read some of the prayers that he makes to the LORD while he is there in the next chapter.  Things would have been much easier for him if he had just obeyed to start off with, but God ended up taking what was meant for evil (Jonah's disobedience) and turning it into something for His glory and the good of others (the gospel being proclaimed to the men on the boat, and us having "The Sign of Jonah" for Jesus to point to in the New Testament).  You will never stop God from accomplishing His plans and purposes, but let's hope He doesn't have to send a giant fish made just for you after you to swallow you up and take you where He told you to go and that you don't have to come out of the situation smelling like fish guts and vomit like Jonah did.