What Is The Story Of Jonah And The Whale?

Jonah and the Whale is a story from the bible.

Jonah was sent one day by God to Nineveh to tell the people there to stop being bad.  Jonah didn't want to go though as he thought that the people of Nineveh should be punished for their mistakes.

So instead of doing what God asked him to do, he ran away on a ship that was going away from Nineveh.

While he was asleep, a big storm tossed the ship around, and the crew became very frightened.  They believed that the storm was Jonah's fault.  Jonah told them that he believed in the one true God and told them to throw him into the sea and then the storm would stop.  After they did this, the storm did indeed calm, and the men on the boat realised that what Jonah said was true and then they prayed for him.

As the crew looked, a whale came and swallowed Jonah ~ the whale had been sent by God.  Jonah stayed in the whale for three days and three nights during which time he asked God to forgive him for running away and thanked God for not allowing him to drown.  

God told Jonah to return to Nineveh and tell the people there to stop being bad, this time Jonah did as he was told.  He told the people of Nineveh what had happened to him and told them that if they didn't stop doing bad things, the city and everything in it would be destroyed in forty days.  The people of Nineveh did as they were told; they prayed to God and said sorry for all the bad things that they had done.  The message of the story was that God would rather see bad people start doing good things than be destroyed.