Charles Spurgeon Commentary Jonah 1:17

"And Jehovah 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 (ASV)

Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah.

He prepared a storm, He prepared a fish, and we afterward read that He prepared a gourd, and He prepared a worm. In the great things of life, and in the little things, God is ever present.

The swimming of a great fish in the sea is, surely, not a thing that is subject to law. If ever there is free agency in this world, it must certainly be in the wanderings of such a huge creature that follows its own instincts and ploughs its way through the great wastes of the wide and open sea.

Yes, that is true; yet there is a divine predestination concerning all its movements. Over every motion of the fin of every minnow, predestination presides.

There is no distinction of little or great in God's sight; He that wings an angel guides a sparrow. 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.

So round about the truant prophet was the preventing grace of Jehovah.