Hey! It's Dark in Here! Jonah, Chapter 2:1-6 Continued

We are pondering how God used a large fish to swallow Jonah, and how we could see that as punishment for his disobedience.  

It's not so farfetched to think that. 

He has been disobedient by not following God's call to go out and preach repentance to the Ninevites. He booked a ship going in the opposite direction and thought taking a snooze below decks would be the end of it. 

Then he gets hurled over the side of the ship (he deserved that too!) and went into a raging sea.  In the ancient world, the sea represented chaos. The once and future prophet is in the sea and it then calms down.  Did Jonah catch the idea that he will bring the One who calms the sea--Who brings order and hope--to those tossed about by sin's sea?

I don't think so. 

The key verse here is: "Now the Lord provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights" (1:17). 

The fish was a provision from God. An agent of rescue.

Has God sent you an agent of rescue?  Perhaps it was or is a pastor; a friend; a family member; a doctor or a counselor.  Maybe many people.  Maybe just one. 

But God is in the business of providing those who will stand alongside us, offer us comfort, guidance or just a good listening ear. 

How often we forfeit hope when we isolate away from the very ones that God is sending to assist us to get up and out: 

Walk with the wise and become wise,
     for a companion of fools suffers harm. (Prov. 13:20)

We lose His blessings when He has heard our pleas and sends out agents to minister to us.  Do we slam the door in their faces?

Many years ago, my mother started sliding into deep dementia, due to twenty-six years of alcoholism.  The doctor took a scan of the frontal lobe of her brain, and instead of brain tissue, there was just fluid, fluid from the dead brain cells.  The doctor told me her symptoms would mimic Alzheimer’s, and within a year after being reduced to an infantile state, she would be gone. 

Sure enough, she soon started having trouble swallowing her food, and speaking.  She had trouble remembering things, and grew more and more confused as the days wore on.  She started salivating on herself, and her shirt would grow wet from the drool. 

As she grew worse, I grew more and more isolated.  I was embarrassed to take her to church, and when I did, I was startled at how little people seem to care.

Then I stopped going to church. 

One day, I heard a knock on my door.  My very sweet pastor was on the doorstep, and I asked him in.  He seemed a little guarded and then asked me what was wrong.  I finally blurted out that I didn’t think that his church cared about what I was going through!  Wasn’t it obvious that my mom was going downhill?

He quietly looked at me and said, “Rhonda, the church is many things, but one thing we can’t do is read minds.  You haven’t shared with us exactly what is wrong with your mother, and you haven’t shared your pain as her caregiver.  Please tell me what is happening.” 

At that moment, what was so obvious to me wasn’t clear to others.  I had not told anyone, including my pastor, the long sad story of her illness. 

So, I shared my story with this saintly man.  Sure enough, that Sunday, I noticed gentle looks from many people and received some desperately needed hugs.  My perspective changed.  I felt I was now with people who would help me get through this. 

My mother’s situation and mine had not changed.  My perspective had.  I now had hope, because I had opened up and sought counsel with something other than my own sad and angry thoughts.

Jonah declares, 

When my life was ebbing away,
I remembered you, Lord,
and my prayer rose to you,
to your holy temple. (2:7)

Oh Lord, help us, even in the depths of our darkness, to remember You!

Jesus is described in the Gospel of John as being the very dwelling place of God:

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. (1:14) 

Do you see it now?  God remembered us, and dwelt among us in the fullest and most complete way possible: He wrapped Himself in flesh, and walked among us. 

The word in the Greek that John uses for “made His dwelling” is associated with the “Tent of Meeting” where the children of Israel and Moses met to commune with God in the desert.  This tent was filled with God’s glory.[1] 

Christ, “dwelling” in the flesh, had the glory of God dwelling in Him:

For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. (Col. 1:19-20)

We are not alone.  Jesus knows all too well the pain we go through.  The writer of Hebrews, proclaiming Christ to be the ultimate high priest, says,

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way as we are — yet without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. (4:14-16)

As we draw near to God, seeking a new perspective, we gain the ultimate hope:  God is right there in the belly of the whale with us. Jesus is the ultimate Agent of Rescue.  But we have to listen and follow  what He says.  If He sends us a "fish"-- someone to stand with us--then we need to thank Him for this provision.

We may still be in the dark, to be sure. Sometimes we sit there for our "three days and nights." But, look up and in the darkness you will see the face of Jesus.  He also went into the darkness—the darkness of a tomb—and now He constantly encourages us that Easter morning is coming! 

 

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[1] NIV Study Bible, note on John 1:14.