In Jonah 2:1-10, Jonah is trapped in the belly of the great fish. He prays for salvation, and in the end, after this terrible trial, he is vomited forth onto dry land.

Before a new church -- either a state of good and truth with a group of people, or a new state of good an truth in ourselves - can come into existence, a period of temptation, of struggle, must occur. During this time a remnant of good and truth from prior states, will be preserved. This happens to us. When we really don't want to do something that we know we should do, we get into a state of spiritual temptation. That's what this chapter is about.

In Arcana Coelestia 756, it says: "In Jonah, 'The waters closed around me, even to my soul, the deep surrounded me. Here... 'the waters' and 'the deep' stand for the full extent of temptation.

This chapter also prophesies, or foreshadows, the combats that Jesus Christ would have with the hells, and his most grievous temptations at the time. The “three days and nights during which Jonah was in the bowels of the fish,” signify the entire duration of the combat with the hells.

In the New Testament, in Matthew 12:39-41, there's a reference back to this story:

"No sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and will condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah. And now One greater than Jonah is here.

For us, then... what? When we've turned away from the Lord, and we're in "the belly of the fish" - in temptations, struggles, combats, and everything looks pretty hopeless - then if we really pray, and seek the Lord's help, he can help us.

Here's a link to an interesting (audio) sermon on this chapter, by Rev. Todd Beiswenger.

Here, too, is a link to Rev. McCurdy's study guide for the Book of Jonah, which is available for free as a .pdf, for your use.

406. And a third of the ships were destroyed. This symbolically means that concepts of goodness and truth from the Word that are serviceable for application to life, in them had all been destroyed.

A third means, symbolically, all, as in nos. 400, 404, 405 above. Ships symbolize concepts of goodness and truth from the Word that are serviceable for application to life. Ships have this symbolism because ships travel the sea and bring back the necessities that the natural self needs for its every endeavor, and concepts of goodness and truth are the necessities that the spiritual self needs for its every endeavor. For out of them is formed the doctrine of the church, and in accordance with that a person's life.

Ships symbolize these concepts because they are vessels, and in many places in the Word a vessel is used to express what it contains, as a cup for wine, a dish for food, the Tabernacle or Temple for the sacred objects in it, the Ark for the Law, altars for worship, and so on.

[2] Ships symbolize concepts of goodness and truth in the following places:

Zebulun shall dwell by the seashore, and serve as a haven for ships... (Genesis 49:13)

Zebulun means the conjunction of goodness and truth.

Your builders (O Tyre) have perfected your beauty. They made all your planks of fir trees from Senir; they took a cedar from Lebanon to make you a mast. Of oaks from Bashan they made your oars; they made your beam of ivory, your deck of pines from the isles of Kittim... Inhabitants of Sidon and Arvad were your oarsmen; your wise men were... your shipmasters... All the ships of the sea and their sailors were in you to market your merchandise... Ships of Tarshish were your companies in your commerce, by which you were filled and honored greatly in the midst of the seas. (Ezekiel 27:4-9, 25)

This is said of Tyre, because Tyre in the Word symbolizes the church in respect to its concepts of truth and goodness, as can be seen from the particulars about it in this chapter, and in the following one, chapter 28, understood in its spiritual sense. Moreover, because the church's concepts of truth and goodness are symbolically meant by Tyre, therefore the ship is described in its various parts, and each part symbolizes some aspect of those concepts leading to intelligence. What does the Word have in common with ships of Tyre and its commerce?

[3] The devastation of that same church is afterward described in the following way:

The common-land will shake at the sound of the cry of your shipmasters, and all who handle the oar will come down from your ships; all the sailors and shipmasters of the sea... because of you will cry bitterly... (Ezekiel 27:28-30; see also Isaiah 23:14-15)

The devastation of Babylon is similarly described in respect to all its concepts of truth in the following verses in the book of Revelation:

...in one hour such great riches were devastated. Every shipmaster, and everyone traveling on ships, and sailors... cried out... saying, "Alas, alas, the great city (Babylon), in which all became rich who had ships on the sea...." (Revelation 18:17, 19)

See below for the exposition.

[4] Ships symbolize concepts of truth and goodness also in the following places:

My days have been swift...; they fled away, they saw no good. They passed by with ships of longing... (Job 9:25-26)

Those who go down to the sea in ships, doing work on many waters, they see the works of Jehovah, and His wonders in the deep. (Psalms 107:23-24)

...the coastlands shall trust in Me, and ships of Tarshish will be first to bring your sons from afar... (Isaiah 60:9)

...the kings assembled...; fear took hold of them... With an east wind You will break the ships of Tarshish. (Psalms 18:4, 6-7)

Wail, you ships of Tarshish! (Isaiah 23:1, 14)

And so on elsewhere, as in Numbers 24:24, Judges 5:17, Psalms 104:26, Isaiah 33:21.