The LORD had prepared a great fish

Jonah 1:17

Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

Every one of us knows the story of Jonah, the man who ran from the presence of God when he was commanded to go to a place to which he didn’t want to go. He did not want to preach to heathen Nineveh. It was a wicked city, and Jonah did not want them to repent. He knew that God was a gracious and merciful God, and therefore would forgive them if they repented and turned to Him. Jonah did not want to see the Lord spare the city. Therefore, He attempted to run from God by taking a ship to Tarshish. Now, all of us understand that you cannot run from the presence of God! The psalmist makes this clear when he says, “Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.” See 139:7-8. It is impossible to hide from God’s all searching eye, and from His presence which is everywhere. God knew where Jonah was, and Jonah never disappeared from the Lord’s presence. While He was running, while He was on the ship, and while he was sleeping and forgetting about God’s command, God was there the whole time. And He knew the actions that Jonah would commit before He performed them. He knew that Jonah, recognizing his sin, would not immediately repent and turn back to Nineveh, as he should have, but would tell his ship mates that they should throw him overboard. He would rather drown in the depths of the sea than go to Nineveh! But God was many steps ahead, as He always is. Knowing that Jonah was to be thrown into the sea, He prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. He prepared the fish! He had set things in order ahead of time! And is this not always how the Lord works?

The Lord always knows how we will act, and orchestrates His action as is necessary. He prepares things when we are asleep, as Jonah. He knows what we will do before we do it, and knows what needs to be done to accomplish His righteous ends in our life. For this we must thank the Lord. If it were not for God’s provision and preemption, we would have been desolate and destroyed many a time. If it were not for the prior knowledge of God, we would many times find ourselves in inextricable circumstances—left to our whims and whits. But, so many times, God has acted ahead of time, and has saved us from untold agony and failure. He has saved us from falling and never rising again. Oh, thanks be to God, for His almighty preparation! He prepares a fish, or a circumstance, or an act by someone else, or a providential intervention, so that we may not be forever and irreparably ruined. Let us praise the Lord for this! The fish was not a fun place. It was “the belly of hell” to Jonah. It was a place or correction and reconsideration. But it was the only place where Jonah could get His heart right with God. God sent a great fish, and a whole city was saved as a result. Let us obey His commands the first time! But let us praise Him that when we fail, through His preemptive and preparatory work, He receives us into everlasting habitations.

“Oh Father, how we praise you for the great preparation you effect in our lives. When we don’t care as we should, or obey as we should, or listen as we should, you prepare saviors to bring us back to your will. And, even now, in our lives and in the lives of so many others, you are preparing things without our knowledge. This is the unconscious preparation of God. And we truly thank and praise you for it! In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.”