| In the city of Nineveh the people were not listening to God and were being very bad. God told a man name Jonah to go and tell the people there, to obey him or they would be punish. Jonah decided he didn't want to listen to God either. So he took a ship and to try and run away from God. After a short time on the ship, the wind began to blow hard and the sea had great waves and all the sailor's on the ship were very afraid they would die. They knew someone on the ship had done something very bad. Jonah told them that it was him who the God of heaven, who had made the sea and land was angry at. He told them to throw him into the sea and the sea would became calm again. They didn't want to throw Jonah into the sea, they prayed to God to not punish them because of Jonah but the waves were still big. They tossed Jonah into the sea, as soon as he was in the water, the sea was calm again. God had prepared a big fish to swallow Jonah now we don't know if it was a big whale or maybe a special fish God had made, could be a fish that is extinct today. We do know that the fish swallowed Jonah whole and did not chew him up. Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights. Do you think Jonah was afraid inside the belly of the fish? Sure he was, it was probably dark, smelled bad, water all around him and maybe other things from the sea was in their too. When he was afraid he remembered God was there and he felt better. God finally knew Jonah was sorry for disobeying him and he told the fish to spit Jonah out on to land. Jonah had to be reminded that God knows everything we do, everywhere we go and everything we say or think. In other word's we can never can run or hide from God. God does many, many good things for us and he loves us so very much, that he gave us the most special gift he had which was he son Jesus. Just like Jonah as long as we have God and Jesus in our life's we don't have to be afraid either. |
