Jonah

A humpback whale briefly swallowed a kayaker off Chilean Patagonia before quickly releasing him unharmed. The incident, caught on camera, quickly went viral. Adrián Simancas was kayaking with his father, Dell, near the San Isidro Lighthouse when a humpback whale surfaced, engulfing Adrián and his yellow kayak for a few seconds before letting him go.

Dell, just yards away, captured the moment on video while encouraging his son to stay calm. “Stay calm, stay calm,” he can be heard saying after his son was released from the whale’s mouth.

“I thought I was dead,” Adrián said. “I thought it had eaten me, that it had swallowed me.”

He described the “terror” of those few seconds and explained that his real fear set in only after resurfacing, fearing that the huge animal would hurt his father or that he would perish in the frigid waters.

Despite the terrifying experience, Dell remained focused, filming, and reassuring his son while grappling with his own worry. After a few seconds in the water, Adrián managed to reach his father’s kayak and was quickly assisted. Despite the scare, both returned to shore uninjured.

Reports of such incidents are rare but not unheard of: In 2021, a Massachusetts lobster diver said a humpback whale had scooped him up and spit him out. But, unlike the Old Testament's Jonah, these men didn't spend three days and nights in the belly of the whale — they didn't even reach it, nor could they have. Experts say it's just not possible for a whale to swallow something as large as a person. While their mouths are massive — as wide as 10 feet — their throats are much smaller, roughly the size of a human fist.

You can watch the short video clip here

Editor’s Note: We know that the Bible does not state that Jonah was swallowed by a “whale” but by a “great fish.” (See Addendum below). Still, the video makes a graphic illustration for the true story of Jonah, regardless of what type of “great fish” swallowed him.

Addendum:

The Bible actually does not teach that Jonah as swallowed by a “whale.” The Bible doesn’t specify what sort of marine animal it was. The Hebrew phrase used in the Old Testament, gadowl dag, literally means “great fish.” The Greek used in the New Testament is këtos, which simply means “sea creature.” There are at least two species of Mediterranean marine life that are able to swallow a man whole. These are the cachalot (also known as the sperm whale) and the white shark. Both creatures are known to prowl the Mediterranean and have been known to sailors since antiquity. Aristotle described both species in his fourth-century-BC Historia Animalium. Jesus spoke of Jonah’s ordeal as a real historical event. He used it as a typological metaphor for His own crucifixion and resurrection (Matt. 12:40-41).

When fisherman Michael Packard dove into the ocean to check on his lobster traps, he found something bigger than one of the live crustaceans he was hunting. Much bigger.

Without much warning, Packard was suddenly swallowed by a giant humpback whale. Inside the maw of the great mammal, Packard was preparing himself for the end. “I thought to myself, ‘Hey, this is it. I’m going to die.'” But he didn’t die. “He was in a whale’s mouth for 30 to 40 seconds, and then he was spit out,” said his mother, local painter Anne Packard.

As it turns out, humpbacks don’t usually like to eat people, according to marine mammal expert Peter Corkeron. He said, “Humpback whales are ‘gulp feeders’ who eat by unhinging their mouths and taking big lunges through the water. And when you’re 50 feet long and weigh 30 tons, sometimes you don’t really have too much fine control over where you’re headed.” He added that, since the whale swam toward the surface before spitting Packard out, it’s possible that the whale was trying to help him out.

As astonishing as this latest adventure was, Anne says that’s not even the first time Packard’s life was miraculously spared, noting that he’d survived a plane crash in Costa Rica. She’s encouraged her son to write a book about all of his adventures, but he demurred, saying he’s not much for all the attention. His mother said, “He doesn’t want to make a big deal out of it, but it’s becoming a big deal. I mean, how many people have been in the mouth of a whale?”

Possible Preaching Angle:

God is able to provide deliverance for us. As evangelist George Whitefield said, “We are immortal until our work on earth is done.” This is not only to show us divine favor but also to empower us to walk in our calling and accomplish the good works for which we were created.