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| Michaelangelo's Jonah on the Sistine Chapel Ceiling |
"I shall not die, but I shall live, and recount the deeds of the LORD" (Psalm 118:17).
"'But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay. Salvation belongs to the LORD.' And the LORD spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land" (Jonah 2:9, 10).
God kept Jonah, who thought he knew better than God and who thought he could get away with it, safe in a death trap— the belly of a fish big enough to swallow a man whole. Three days and three nights in a horror of darkness were required in which Jonah learned to fear God, to "remember the LORD" (repent), to be brought to a vow. To see what before had only been heard of: that salvation is of Yahweh.
Then and only then did the fish spit Jonah out upon the dry, ready land.
(Here's a nice article on Michaelangelo'splacement of the painting of Jonah in the Cistine Chapel: Jonah, The Lynchpin Of The Cistine Chapel Ceiling. I think Michaelangelo understood.)
