Many questions come up around the whale of Jonah’s Story. How big are these whales? How do they live and what do they eat? Why didn’t Jonah die when he was in the belly of the whale for three days? I will try to answer these questions in this article.

+ First, we need to establish that the story of Jonah is a real and historic event. The Lord Jesus mentioned Jonah’s story in His teaching more than once, He emphasized that Jonah being in the belly of the whale resembles the burial of the Son of Man in the belly of the earth. As Jonah came out of the whale alive, likewise the Son of Man will rise from the dead after three days.

+ There are many species of whales, but it is more likely that the one that swallowed Jonah, and it is in agreement with the Bible, is the blue whale. It is like a huge submarine that was prepared by God to embrace Jonah and to save him from death, then bring him to the shore safely. Let’s explore some information about this type of whales to see how wondrous God is in His creation and in His provisions for saving His children.

+ The blue whale is a marine mammal; it is the largest known animal to have ever existed on earth, it is larger than dinosaurs. The blue whale spans about 65 to 98 feet in length and weighs between 90 to 180 metric tons, its tongue weighs nearly as a moderate size elephant and its heart weighs about 1,300 lb (weight of a car).

+ The blue whale has no teeth; its skin is dark blue or gray. Its head is about quarter the length of its body, when its mouth is open, it can swallow a truck. The interesting thing about this giant animal is that it exhibits calm and shy behavior.

+The blue whale swims near the surface of the oceans with a speed ranging between 6-20 mph and lives in small or large groups. Blue whales live a long life of 80-90 years on average. They are able to produce the loudest sound a living creature can produce, they can hear each other up to 1000 miles under water.

+ Blue whales feed on small crustaceans known as krill (small shell fish like shrimp). It fills its mouth with a large amount of water, then it closes its mouth and uses its tongue to push the water out. The water passes through its baleen (bristles made of keratin) which acts as a filter that keeps the food inside its mouth.

+ It is unfortunate that blue whales were overhunted in the first half of the 20th century, their numbers dwindled until this giant whale species was almost to extinct. The remaining number of whales roaming the oceans today are somewhere around 10,000-25,000 from nearly 300,000 blue whales at the beginning of the 20th century. The international whaling commission put a ban on hunting blue whales in 1966 to protect the remaining population as much as possible.

+ Perhaps we can now see how God prepared this giant animal to swallow Jonah and keep him safe without any harm. It’s a whale that swims near the surface of the water not deep in the ocean. It has no teeth so as to not hurt him, and its belly is large enough for several people. It breathes like humans not like a fish, so it takes in large quantities of air on regular bases allowing Jonah to breath..

+ This giant whale was like a fleshly submarine that was prepared by God to save Jonah from drowning and to bring him safely to the shore. Even if he knew how to swim well, he would have not been able to reach the shore because of the distance, strong wave, and poor visibility.

+ This wondrous submarine was the best option to bring Jonah to safety. While in the belly of the whale, Jonah had a chance to calm down and repent, to fast and pray, and to regain his spiritual fervency crying with praises form the depth of his heart. Thus he was prepared to begin a new life, raised from the dead, ready to serve faithfully and fervently.