WHEN the word of the Lord came to Jonah, saying, "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me," Jonah was frightened, and fled,—fled from the presence of the Lord to Joppa to find a ship for Tarshish, where other gods ruled, and where Jehovah might not be able to reach a disobedient servant (just as error constantly suggests that we shift to another base to escape the demands of Truth): but the Lord sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was like to have been broken (fear and disobedience still raise such tempests in the sea of mortal mind). But Jonah, self-mesmerized into a belief of security, lay fast asleep and heard not the cries of the mariners, each to his own god, nor their wails as they cast into the sea the wares that freighted the ship, till the ship-master came beseeching him to arise and call on his god, who, peradventure, might think upon them and save them.
We are not told whether' Jonah called on his God or not, but we know that when lots were cast to see who was the occasion of this unusual manifestation of supernatural power, and the lot fell upon him, Jonah owned up to his sin like a man, and told what they must do to quiet the sea that still wrought and threatened. His manliness must have made a strong impression upon those rough mariners, for they rowed hard to bring the ship to land, but in vain; the sea was stronger than they; wherefore they cried unto the Lord not to let them perish for this man's life, and not to lay upon them innocent blood; then they took up Jonah and cast him into the sea, and the sea ceased her raging.
Whatever refuge is typified by the great fish the Lord had prepared for Jonah (the figure of a fish is found in ancient monuments to typify spirit, as the butterfly typified soul), we are told he spent three days and nights (a perfect period of time) in solitude, in thought and penitence that are expressed in most stately poetic phrase.
