God is in Control

Last week we looked at the consequences of Jonah’s sin—how he “went down” in a spiral because he was running from God. But I also believe it is important to concentrate on how God acted during Jonah’s tailspin. The prodigal prophet may have thought he was in control of things while he was running in the opposite direction of Nineveh, but even in his disobedience he could not thwart the plans on the Almighty.

In 1:17 the narrative reads, “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.” The Lord prepared a fish. This was not a freak accident or a random event, but was providentially orchestrated by God Himself. Did He prepare the fish from scratch just for this occasion, or had God been preparing the fish for years? Was it a special kind of fish that did not exist? We do not know, but we know where it came from. God was in control, and He prepared the instrument that was going to get Jonah’s attention.

God had already prepared Jonah to be a prophet, and then prepared him to preach to the Ninevites; his disobedience was not going to keep the Lord’s message out of Nineveh, so God prepared a great fish. Earlier He had prepared a storm that was used to toss Jonah overboard so that the fish He prepared could swallow him. Since surviving inside the stomach of a fish is not possible, there would need to be some miraculous preparations taking place for that as well. Later in this letter God prepared a plant to grow to give Jonah shade, and then He prepared a worm to eat the plant. Through the entire story God is in control.

 That is an important lesson for us to keep in mind as we live life. Jonah is not just a story about a prophet taking God’s message to a pagan nation, or about a crazy fish that happened to eat a man and spit him out on dry land. It isn’t a coincidence. God is sovereign and nothing happens that He does not either author or allow. We cannot stop Him, and He does not need our permission. Your life may feel like things are coming unraveled sometimes, but it may just be that God is preparing something that we cannot see.