If you have children (or grandchildren) age 5 or under, turn off the TV, sit them down with a snack and tell them to be quiet while you read them a story. Children older than 5 might be interested also, because this is not a fairy tale, but a true story. I have embellished and dramatized it a bit for story telling, but the essential facts of the story are true.
Jonah and the Whale
Once there was a man named Jonah. He loved God very much and talked to God all the time. And God talked to him also.
Jonah lived near a city called Nineveh. Nineveh was a very bad place and the people who lived did very evil things. So God told Jonah to go to Nineveh and tell the people to stop doing bad things and start to worship God, but Jonah didn’t want to go there.
Jonah disobeyed God and instead of going to Nineveh like God told him to, he went the other way to a different city. There, he paid for a ticket to get on a large boat and sail to a very far away place. He was trying to run away from God. But what Jonah didn’t realize is that you can’t run away from God because God is everywhere.
But the boat sailed away with Jonah on it. They were in the middle of the sea when a great storm came upon them and the wind and the waves were crashing over the boat. All of the men on the boat began to throw everything over the sides in the hopes of staying afloat. They also began to pray to their gods, but because their gods were not real, nothing happened. Meanwhile, Jonah went down to the bottom of the ship and just fell asleep.
So the rest of the men came down and woke Jonah up and brought him up to the top and asked him to pray to his God because maybe Jonah’s God would hear him and stop the storm.
Jonah knew that he was the problem, because he had disobeyed God and ran away. So, he told the men on the boat to throw him off the boat and then the storm would stop. The men didn’t want to do it, and they prayed to God for forgiveness, but they did throw Jonah off the ship and into the sea.
There, Jonah found himself tossing around the sea, getting caught up in giant seaweed and all sorts of other stuff. He saw jellyfish and octopus and all sorts of sea creatures while he was in the sea.
Then, suddenly, a great whale came by with it’s mouth open, for you see, giant whales eat seaweed that floats on the top of the water. Since Jonah was all wrapped up in seaweed, he went into the whales open mouth along with everything else.
He ended up in the whale’s belly and stayed there for three days and three nights. It was totally dark and all slimy and gross inside the whale. Finally, Jonah began to pray to God, He said, “Lord God, I have not obeyed you and now I find myself in this dark place. I promise that I will do what you ask of me and I will sacrifice and pay my vows to the Lord God. There is no other God like You.”
So, because whales don’t normally eat people, or even any other fish, the giant whale got a big stomach ache. God told the whale to go near the beach and when he did, the whale vomited up Jonah from his belly and spewed him up onto the beach.
Jonah found himself all tangled up with seaweeds and slime from the whales belly – but he was alive. He thanked God for saving him from the belly of the whale.
So God said to Jonah a second time, “Go to Nineveh and tell the people to stop their bad behavior and sinning and to worship God.” So this time, Jonah went to that evil city and told the people that within 40 days, destruction would come upon them unless they turned to God and followed His commandments.
So the people listened to Jonah and they stopped doing their bad things and began to pray to God. This was a wonderful thing. Even the king of Nineveh turned his heart to God and stopped doing evil.
But strangely enough, Jonah got mad at God for this, so he went up to a mountain and began to pout and be angry with God.
God said to Jonah, “What are you mad about?” And Jonah answered and said, “God, I knew You are a loving and forgiving God, and I knew that if I went to that city and told them that You were going to destroy it unless they became good, that they would listen to You and make me look like a fool – because the destruction would not come.”
Now while Jonah was sitting on the mountain looking down on the city, God made a plant to grow right next to him. And the plant grew and gave Jonah shade from the hot sun. Jonah was very happy for the plant and the shade.
But the very next day, God had a big worm eat the plant and it withered away and died just as suddenly as it had grew up. When the sun grew hot and the wind blew, Jonah said, “It is better for me to die than to live.” He was very upset that the plant that God had given him had died.
So God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant? For you did nothing to make it grow. Is it right for you to have more pity (love) for that plant than for all the people of that great city?”
God said, “I love the people of that city as I love all people, and I want them all to come to heaven, so I had you go them to tell them the truth about God. You should be happy that they listened and now obey the Lord.”