Day 28
The sea monster spat forth Jonah as it had received him, like a babe from the womb. While the Word, having dwelt in the Virgin and taken flesh, came forth from her, yet kept her undefiled. For being Himself not subject to decay, He preserved His Mother free from harm. (6th Ode Christmas Canon)
The story of Jonah in the belly of the sea monster is often looked at as an image of the three days that Jesus Christ was in the tomb prior to His Resurrection. We even see Jesus Himself refer to this in the Gospel of Matthew when he says: “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.”
The Church also sees in this story of Jonah an image of the Birth of Christ from the undefiled womb of the Virgin. We see this clearly in the sixth ode of the Nativity Canon above.
So how exactly did Jonah end up in the belly of a whale? In the book of Jonah in the Old Testament, we see that God commanded Jonah to travel to the city of Nineveh and preach to them of their wickedness and how it has grieved God. But instead of listening to God, Jonah boarded a ship and tried to flee to the city of Tarshish and away from the presence of the Lord.
While on that ship, a great storm arose, and the ship was in danger of being broken apart. The sailors all cried out to their gods for deliverance, all except for Jonah. Jonah was below in the hold on the ship asleep…snoring! The sailors then decided to cast lots to see whose fault it was for the storm, and the lot fell to Jonah.
Jonah had told the sailors that he was fleeing the presence of the Lord. Now, with the lots pointing to him, he tells them that he is the servant of the Lord Who made the sea and dry land. The sailors became afraid and asked Jonah what they should do with him to stop the storm. Jonah told them to cast him into the sea and when they did, the storm immediately stopped. The Lord then commanded a huge sea creature to swallow Jonah and he was in the belly of the sea creature for three days and three nights.
This is how Jonah ended up in the belly of a whale!
Tomorrow, we will look at the prayer of Jonah while he was in the sea creature.
In Christ
Fr. David