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. - Jonah 1:17

Jonah for Skeptics

Everyone knows about God's whale of a fish tale. So there's nothing much I need to say about that.

There's not much else of interest in Jonah, except maybe that:

• Jonah fled "from the presence of the Lord." (There are some places where even God can't find you.) 1:3, 10
• God made "a great fish" swallow Jonah, who stayed in the fish's belly for three days and three nights. 1:17
• Jonah prays to God from his fish-belly hell. 2:1-2
• "The LORD spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land." 2:10
• After hearing Jonah preach, everyone in Nineveh turned to God, including all the animals. Jonah must be one hell of a preacher! 3:5
• All the animals in Ninevah covered themselves with sackcloth and cried "mightily unto God." 3:8
• "God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them." 3:10
• God prepared a gourd to shade Jonah's head, a worm to destroy the gourd, and then a drying wind and baking sun that made Jonah wish he was dead. 4:6-8