Jonah 2
August 31, Year 2
[2] “I called out to the LORD, out of my distress,
and he answered me;
out of the belly of Sheol I cried,
and you heard my voice.”
As noted in the previous post, Jesus himself says that Jonah’s story symbolizes his own.
Jonah’s prayer in this chapter gives us even more detail, such as calling the sea monster “the belly of Sheol.”
Thus once again the sea symbolizes death and the netherworld, and this sea monster is another manifestation of the serpent/dragon, Satan.
But notice: Satan is not a peer rival of God, but God’s creature, and servant, though unwillingly. So how much more the sea creature here symbolizing Satan!
While it may have seemed that Satan and death had triumphed over Christ, they were, in the end, mere creatures and servants under God’s complete control and plan.
See also Jonathan Pageau, “Jonah: Resurrecting the Body and Saving the City” Orthodox Arts Journal May 23, 2014
