Score One for the Home Team: Jonah 3:1-10

Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time: “Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.”

Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh. Now Nineveh was a very large city; it took three days to go through it. Jonah began by going a day’s journey into the city, proclaiming, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.” The Ninevites believed God. A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.

When Jonah’s warning reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust. This is the proclamation he issued in Nineveh:

“By the decree of the king and his nobles:

Do not let people or animals, herds or flocks, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink. But let people and animals be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence. Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.”

When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened. (Jonah 3:1-10) 

Matthew Henry makes a very interesting observation: “An apprehension [understanding] of God’s good-will to us, not withstanding our offenses, gives us boldness of access to him, and opens the lips in prayer that were closed with the sense of guilt and the dread of wrath.” [1]   

That is our Jonah.  He is so grateful for God and His mercy that he boldly sings and praises God inside the whale.  Once he stands on shore, picking seaweed out of his hair, he is filled with sheer joy.  Isaiah 40:27-31 puts this confidence beautifully:

Why do you complain, Jacob?
Why do you say, Israel,
“My way is hidden from the Lord;
my cause is disregarded by my God”?

Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
     the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
     and his understanding no one can fathom.
He gives strength to the weary
     and increases the power of the weak.
Even youths grow tired and weary,
     and young men stumble and fall;
     but those who hope in the Lord
     will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
     they will run and not grow weary,
     they will walk and not be faint. 

It is God’s character, Who He is, that Isaiah is able to be confident in, for He created the universe in all its majesty.  He alone gives strength to His weakened ones. It is also hope.  It is not any hope, floating around out there, but hope in the One Who made the eagles and the wind that they soar upon.  He will lift His children up.  Isaiah reminds God’s people of His immeasurable love for them:

But Zion said, “The Lord has forsaken me,
     the Lord has forgotten me.”
“Can a mother forget the baby at her breast
     and have no compassion on the child she has borne?
Though she may forget,
     I will not forget you!
See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands;
     your walls are ever before me.

Isaiah mentions how God has “engraved you on the palms” of His hands.  Have you ever considered that Jesus, in His resurrected body, still bears the scars of His crucifixion?  Why is that? 

Thomas, one of His disciples, could not fathom how Jesus could rise from the dead in the first place.  He demands that “Unless I see the nail marks in His hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe it.” (John 20:25 )

So, when Jesus appears to His disciples, He specifically says to Thomas (He knows what Thomas said earlier), “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”  Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:27-8)

So, when you are welcomed into Heaven, Jesus will reach out and embrace you with those nail-scarred hands. When He looks down at those scars, He thinks of you, and the love that drove Him to die for you.  When you consider those scars, never doubt that God loves you.

Jonah, standing on the beach, with the sun overhead and the wind drying out his hair, can now personally confirm the words of David:  “I am still confident of this:  I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.  Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.” (Ps. 27:13-14 NIV) 

Our Jonah is now a walking testimony about the power of the one true God.  He stands there, mighty not because of who he is (fish food, if the truth be told!) but because he is a child of the God.  Period.   

David implores God for deliverance not only for himself (he would certainly rather not perish at the hands of his enemies) but as a testimony to God’s power: 

Lord, see how my enemies persecute me!
Have mercy and lift me up from the gates of death,
     that I may declare your praises
     in the gates of Daughter Zion,
     and there rejoice in your salvation. (Ps. 9:13-14)

David knew his enemies were formidable.  But if he prevailed, it would demonstrate the mightiness and matchlessness of his God.  Likewise, Jonah cannot claim he had anything to do with his deliverance.  It was truly a God-thing.  Jonah’s deliverance makes him a walking message.  I am sure that word got around about this man of God whose disobedience caused a storm and then once in the ocean, an enormous fish swallowed him.  Away went the storm.  Ditto for Jonah.

Sailors get around and so do their stories. The sailors went to many ports of call and their story of the man from Israel got told over and over again.  Unlike other fish stories, this fish started out huge! 

Jonah, like David, is going to be a witness to God’s greatness by his very presence and words.  David saw his deliverance as an opportunity to praise God and then tell of His greatness: 

I will sacrifice a thank offering to you
     and call on the name of the Lord.
I will fulfill my vows to the Lord
     in the presence of all his people,
     in the courts of the house of the Lord—
     in your midst, Jerusalem.

Praise the Lord.

The method of how Jonah will reach the people of Nineveh was never really hammered out, due to that little detour into the whale’s stomach.  Now we see that “Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh.” (3:3)

God calls him again.  This time, Jonah listens and obeys. 

Quite a 180-degree turn from the man who couldn’t book a passage on a ship away from Nineveh fast enough.  Quite a difference from the man who was so afraid that he was willing to ignore God. What changed? 

Nineveh hasn’t changed one bit.  It’s still huge, scary and very heathen, with its violent armies and nasty kings.  Jonah’s attitude has changed.  He is no longer afraid.  His reputation precedes him.

I see him walking up to a city gate of Nineveh, looking like a fish out of water (pun intended!) because he’s a Hebrew in a pagan city. He boldly walks in and announces:  “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned.” (3:4) 

I am sure that the people around him stopped dead in their tracks.  Jonah is standing there, in the hot sun, looking like a man who has stood the test of his character and prevailed.  He repented of his disobedience and God restored him. God is now using him to reveal His truths through Jonah’s mouth and very presence.

It’s funny how God works in and through us.  He seeks our repentance, then our restoration and then He uses us for His revelation. 

Our fear leads us to disobedience.  We ignore God and His hand on our lives. Once we turn from ourselves to His power, we now center ourselves on His strength.  We can solely depend on Him.  We choose to obey Him.  Now we know that His ways lead to life, and our ways lead to darkness.  We are relying on the hope of His mercy and His strength.

Our lives are now a God-thing. 

As Matthew Henry puts it in his commentary, “God’s making use of us is the best evidence of his being at peace with us.”[2] He goes on to observe: 

"Hope of mercy is the great encouragement and reformation; and though there be but some glimmerings of hope mixed with great fears arising from a sense of our own sinfulness, and unworthiness, and long abuse of divine patience, yet they may serve to quicken and engage our serious repentance and reformation.  Let us boldly cast ourselves at the footstool of free grace, resolving that if we should perish, we will perish there; yet who knows but God will look upon us with compassion?" [3] 

He does!  Jonah can testify to that!  Look at Nineveh’s reaction:  “The Ninevites believed God.”  

What makes the people stand up and repent?  Is it the man standing before them?  Is it the power of his voice?  Is it the Power behind his voice?  Is it that big fish story? 

We don’t know, but they put feet to their repentance.  They declare a fast and everyone puts on the visible signs of repentance: sackcloth and ashes.

Then the king hears the news, takes off all of his royal apparel and dons sackcloth and ashes as well.  Whoa.  This is serious.  While Jonah was in the belly of the whale, the Lord wasn’t just working on Jonah’s heart.  He was working on the hearts of the people and the King of Nineveh as well! 

Remember I said that if God sends, He defends?  Part of the defense He is laying out for you is preparing the very path He is calling you to walk.  How does He prepare the path?  He softens the hearts of the listeners.  He allows them to see the situation with a new perspective.  Maybe there is that one person who no longer can stand how thirsty he or she is and you arrive with a cup of water just in time.  If you had come earlier, that person wouldn’t have felt that thirst so acutely and would have refused to listen to you.

Is the repentance of the people and the king sincere?  Perhaps it’s a case of “no atheists in foxholes.” They don’t want to perish, and they are placing their bets on this man from Israel and his God.  I believe in God’s timing: Jonah delivers the message and they repent.  That seems to be the way of Scripture.  How long will the message’s impact stick?  In other words, how long will the people stay repentant and walk in the knowledge of God?  Good question! 

This king knows exactly what he and the people must do:  repent and change their behavior.  These people have a reputation for violence.  Their enemies tremble at the very name of the Assyrians.  I am sure battles weren’t even fought because other kings didn’t want to face the Assyrian army. 

The king is giving up more than words here.  He is giving up his nation’s reputation and its fearful control over the region.  He is also challenging his people to ponder their evil ways.  Jonah is ready to share with them exactly what they need to do to stop acting in a manner abhorrent to God. 

God never just says “Stop being evil!” and then walks away.  In the Old Testament, He sends His prophets to elaborate on exactly what the evil is and how righteousness is to be practiced.  His prophets proclaim God’s holy character, which provides the basis for His laws. 

God’s holy laws are an extension of Himself.  Do not lie, for God does not lie, for only truth and justice fall from His lips. 

Do not murder, for God does not engage in murder.  Life is sacred, for God breathed into the very nostrils of Adam His own holy breath, and mankind bears His image. 

Do not commit adultery, for God is ever faithful to His people.    

Honor your parents, for honor undergirds respect.  We are to respect our ultimate Parent, our Heavenly Father. [4]    

In teaching the people about the righteous ways of God, the prophets teach them about His very nature.  God’s behavior is not distinct from His character. He truly practices what He preaches, and preaches what He practices.  This prophet, Jonah, will bear witness to this.  The king is seeking now to imitate the nature of the God of Israel by practicing His ways. The king seems to understand the connection between God’s justice and His mercy:  “God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.” (3:9) 

The king is carefully listening to Jonah’s teaching about God.  Now, looking within, the king thinks:  If I want my people to cease from their bad ways, I warn them first.  I then wait to see what they will do.  If they continue in their disobedience, I pronounce judgment upon them and punish them.  If I see change, then I stay my mighty hand, and honor my word to be merciful. Thus, I will presume that this God of Jonah will behave in a similar manner.  He will warn us and wait for our response.  Good call, king.

God, acting as the Mighty King, does just that:  He sees their repentance, how “they turned from their evil ways” and His compassionate Hand stretches forth.  Destruction is averted. 

But, wait!  This just in:

And now, ladies and gentlemen, back down on the field at the Nineveh Bowl!  As a cheer goes up from the crowd, we celebrate the score for our Home Team!  Go Nineveh!  Everyone is patting each other on the back and shouting, “Good job!”

But wait, what is this?  I see a man leaving the stadium.  Just a minute!  Hey, let’s get a close-up. Who is that?  Wait!  It’s that man from Israel!  The Mighty Fish Boy! Is he walking out of the arena to buy some fish and chips?  No!  He appears to be stomping out of the stadium! He looks furious!  What is going on?   All right, back to you up in the stands…

---

[1] Henry, p. 1179

[2] Henry, p. 1179.

[3] Henry, p. 1179.

[4]  Del Tackett, The Truth Project, (Colorado Springs, Col: Focus on the Family, 2008), http://www.thetruthproject.org.

"School of Hard Knocks" Diploma--Jonah 2: 8-10, Part II

Once you seek wholeness in the Lord, your resolve will be tested.  Along the Monterey Coast in California are the wonderful Monterey cypresses. They grow on the edge of the steep coastal cliffs, and instead of tall and erect like their fellow inland cypresses, they are bent away from the ocean, due to the high winds that pummel the coast.  Their very character has been shaped by the winds, and although they bend to the winds, they do not break. 

Jonah’s character has been shaped by his experience.  The winds will come. The Lord calls him a second time to go to Nineveh and preach His word.  But he won’t be afraid this time.  He has seen the mightiness of the Lord and has experienced His discipline.

Wait! His discipline?  How can that be beneficial?  It’s painful!  Look at James’ take on discipline: 

Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.  Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, Who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.  But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.  That man should not think that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does. (1:1-8) 

Perseverance is hanging in there through the tough times and it will grow your character.  What is this growth going to produce?  It produces maturity and completeness.  God’s discipline is to produce maturity and completeness in your character, so you can face life with confidence, not in yourself, but in Him alone. 

Teenagers are so challenging because they think they know enough to live life without any more guidance from their parents.  Their lack of wisdom, largely due to a lack of experience, and sometimes an unwillingness to learn from their mistakes, leads to the opposite of what parents want for their children: maturity. 

A mature attitude is truly wonderful.  It saves a person much heartache, for the decisions reached and acted on produce positive results, and keeps the person from negative consequences.

I once heard a high school girl tell her classmates about a night that forever changed her life.  She and some friends were drinking, and they decided to drive over to another friend’s house.  She was the driver, and was having trouble seeing the road, due to all the dust that was being kicked up by the cars in front of her. Her friend offered to drive, and although this girl hesitated, she finally said yes.

A few miles up the road, the new driver didn’t see the turn, and the truck flipped over and crashed, ejecting the driver from the vehicle and killing her.  I admired this young woman’s courage to share her story in front of her classmates, telling of a fateful decision. 

I looked around the room and wondered: How many of these students are actually taking her message to heart?  A few moments earlier I heard a few young men talk boastfully about their drinking exploits.  Did they really hear her?  Or did they assume that they would not make that mistake because they could handle their booze?

Wisdom comes from a humble heart, and if God has to discipline us to achieve that humility, you bet He will, for the consequences from arrogance can be deadly. 

Finally, let’s look at the Bible’s words on discipline, so that we understand God’s motives for His chastening hand on our lives.  Psalm 71:19-21 says,

Your righteousness, God, reaches to the heavens,
     you who have done great things.
Who is like you, God?
Though you have made me see troubles,
     many and bitter,
     you will restore my life again;
      from the depths of the earth
     you will again bring me up.
You will increase my honor
     and comfort me once more.

Do you hear what psalmist is saying?  It is because of God’s character, His love and His goodness, that he knows that he is not suffering at the hands of an evil tyrant.  God will lift him up in due time.  Salvation is on the way. 

David asks pleadingly of God in Psalm 6:1-4,  

O Lord, do not rebuke me in Your anger
     or discipline me in Your wrath.
Be merciful to me, O Lord, for I am faint.
O Lord, heal me, for my bones are in agony.
My soul is in anguish.
How long, O Lord, how long?
Turn, O Lord, and deliver me;

     save me because of Your unfailing love.

David knows he can ask for mercy and deliverance and he will be heard.  Why? God’s character is an utterly righteous character.      

Satan always tries to assassinate God’s character when we go through suffering.  Satan insinuates God doesn’t love you anymore, you’re past His forgiveness, and He doesn’t care. The satanic list of accusations is endless.  Remember:  it’s hard to argue with Satan.  He’s been around a long time, and he is an expert in the art of deceitful persuasion. 

So, go to the Psalms when you go through trials.  David and his fellow writers plead to God in their hurt and in their anger.  They always, however, reaffirm His character.  They make their appeals based on Who He is.  

In other words, you wouldn’t plead with someone who you know is incapable of mercy or love.  We plead to Him because He cares.  Period. 

David affirms in Psalm 25:8-12, 

Good and upright is the Lord;
     therefore he instructs sinners in his ways.
He guides the humble in what is right
     and teaches them his way.
All the ways of the Lord are loving and faithful
     toward those who keep the demands of his covenant.
For the sake of your name, Lord,
     forgive my iniquity, though it is great.
Who, then, are those who fear the Lord?
He will instruct them in the ways they should choose.

I love how David puts it in verse 15:  “My eyes are ever on the Lord, for only He will release my feet from the snare.”  Bingo!  Not clinging to his fear, David keeps his focus on his Deliverer, even though the going gets rough.  

The writer of Hebrews echoes this as well: 

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And have you completely forgotten this word of encouragement that addresses you as a father addresses his son? It says,

“My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline,
and do not lose heart when he rebukes you,
because the Lord disciplines the one he loves,
and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son.”

Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? (12:1-7) 

The writer of Hebrews then goes on to say that God disciplines us:

[F]or our good that we might share in His holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. (12:10-11)

When we’re vomited up on the beach, we now carry a badge of honor. We have been disciplined by our loving God.

God is looking to our future and the fruit we have yet to produce.

Our fear keeps us bound to the past and what we have miserably produced.

His eyes are on our future. His eyes are on what we will be. 

What is our part in all of this? We need to humbly seek His wisdom. Once we’ve know what He wants us to do, we need to be obedient and do it.

Don’t sit on the sand.  Pick the seaweed out of your hair.  Rise up and move forward.  

Nineveh awaits.  

Grab your diploma from the School of Hard Knocks on the way out!  You’ve earned it. 

A Little (Easter) Bunny Trail with Jonah and Jesus

When we read Jonah, we see how God wants to restore this sin-soaked planet. He calls His reluctant prophet, who is justifiably horrified at the people he's supposed to go and share the love of Yahweh with: the Ninevites.  Jonah is just fine with God working in and through His chosen ones, but THOSE PEOPLE?  C'mon, Lord, they are beyond the pale; they pillage, murder and stack up their enemies' skulls with impunity.  Yuck. 

But God's kingdom class both the oppressed and the oppressor:

Again I looked and saw all the oppression that was taking place under the sun: I saw the tears of the oppressed— and they have no comforter; power was on the side of their oppressors— and they have no comforter. (Eccles. 4:1)

God desires to see all come to repentance: 

Say to them, "As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die, people of Israel?’" (Ezek. 33:11) 

Jesus makes it clear the order of God's salvation plan: 

You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. (John 4:22)

Paul echoes it: 

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. (Rom. 1:16)

Jonah does not grasp the inclusivity of God's plan, for he is judging the behavior of a pagan people, not seeing them as fellow sinners, as part of the human family who desperately need the touch of Yahweh.   

What I love about the Scriptures is when you've read verses in the past and they suddenly jump out at you with a freshness and an urgency. I am reading through a chronological Bible these days. It fits how I think.  I am an unabashed history nerd, and so having the Scripture unfold in historical order (some interpretation is necessary, to be sure), I can better understand the trajectory of God's salvation story. 

I am reading Jonah now in this Bible (this blog comes from a study I did some time ago) and some familiar verses popped out! We just passed the momentous celebration of Easter.  We look once more  into the empty tomb and see what the apostles saw: He is not here! He is risen!  We also run to share this news about our risen Savior! 

So, when I read these verses, I realized just how much Jonah's experience echoes what Jesus is going to experience in His impending death. 

In Jesus' day, people knew their Hebrew Scriptures, and when they heard a small portion of Scripture, they could hear the rest of it in their minds.  The Pharisees were especially well-versed (pun intended) in knowing the larger context in which the verses were set. 

So, imagine the scene.  The Pharisees have asked Jesus for a sign. Jesus compares the tomb He will be laid in to the "belly of a huge fish."  The tomb will be in the "heart of the earth."  They get the implication Jesus is making between Jonah's experience and His own: He will not remain in the grip of death. 

Hmmmm.    

Let's set the scene from Matthew 12:38-41:

Then some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law said to him, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from you.”

He answered, “A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will 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 condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now something greater than Jonah is here."

Let me humbly insert some verses from Matthew and the Psalms into Jonah's time in the belly of the whale that echo Jesus' coming death and resurrection. The Pharisees know the verses from this portion of Jonah and will be greatly disturbed by Jesus' not-so-subtle comparison. 

From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God. He said:

"In my distress I called to the Lord,
and he answered me.
From deep in the realm of the dead I called for help,
and you listened to my cry.

"Then he said to them, 'My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.'" (Matt. 26:38) 

You hurled me into the depths,
into the very heart of the seas,
and the currents swirled about me;
all your waves and breakers
swept over me.
I said, "I have been banished
from your sight;
yet I will look again
toward your holy temple."

He went away a second time and prayed, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.” (Matt. 12:42)

The engulfing waters threatened me,
the deep surrounded me;
seaweed was wrapped around my head.
To the roots of the mountains I sank down;
the earth beneath barred me in forever.

"From noon until three in the afternoon darkness came over all the land. About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, 'Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?' (which means 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?')." (Matt. 27:45) 

But you, Lord my God,

brought my life up from the pit.

"For you will not leave my soul in Sheol, you will not allow your holy one to experience corruption." (Psalm 16:10)

When my life was ebbing away,
I remembered you, Lord,
and my prayer rose to you,
to your holy temple.

"Jesus answered, 'Destroy this temple and in three days I’ll raise it up.'” (John 2:19)

Those who cling to worthless idols
turn away from God’s love for them.
But I, with shouts of grateful praise,
will sacrifice to you.
What I have vowed I will make good.

"The angel said to the women, 'Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples: 'He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.' Now I have told you.” (Matt. 28:5-7)

I will say, ‘Salvation comes from the Lord.’”

She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus [the LORD saves], for he will save his people from their sins.” (Matt. 1:21)

And the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land. (2:1-10)

Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matt. 28:16-20) 

Jonah exited the fish.

Jesus will exit the tomb. 

We will, like Jonah, are directed to preach the good news:  Salvation is open to all. 

"School of Hard Knocks" Diploma--Jonah 2: 8-10, Part I

Those who cling to worthless idols
turn away from God’s love for them.
But I, with shouts of grateful praise,
will sacrifice to you.
What I have vowed I will make good.
I will say, "Salvation comes from the Lord."

And the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land. (2: 8-10)

Jonah, literally sitting in the depths of his despair, makes a stunning remark in 2:8: “Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs.” (NIV) Truly an idol is a “lying vanity” as the KJV translates. Jonah raises an interesting point: What idols are we clinging to?

Many of us cling to the idol of our fear. Fear gives us a kind of identity: “I can’t do that. I’m afraid!” Someone may try to talk us out of why our fear should not hold us back, but we cling even tighter to it. Why? Fear tells us who we are: We are victims. If we venture out, we will be victimized again. Our fear gives us permission to stay where we are. How could we possibly go out there and do well? We don’t even try. We remain in a state of inertia. Inertia means that if some object is at rest, it will remain at rest; likewise, if an object is in motion, it will stay in motion.

So, we are inert: We stay “at rest,” inactive and unresponsive. Our fear is the known. We know our past, the hurt we’ve suffered, and we draw a kind of comfort in knowing that the past is always there, answering for us.

The future is the unknown. We can’t know it, so we shrink back, and say, “No, I can’t do that!” or “I can’t be that!” 

We may be “at rest,” but we are not at peace.

That’s why Jonah realized the worthlessness of idols. They are safe. They demand nothing from us. When we cling to fear, we forfeit grace. How so? Grace is God reaching out to us. If we do not extend out our hand, we may miss His grasp.

I had a friend who worked for the Coast Guard. He told me that the most dangerous moment of rescuing someone stranded in the water was when he would reach out to grab the victim’s hand. The victim, panicking, would then try to pull him into the water, and would thrash around even more violently. The panic that the victim was experiencing meant that he or she wasn’t thinking, “Hey!  This man from the Coast Guard is here to help me.  I will stay calm and grab his hand, and he will hoist me up and we’ll ride up to the helicopter, hovering above us.” 

Instead, the panic and fear that the victim was experiencing clouded (very understandably so) the victim’s calm cooperation in the rescue attempt. 

Fear does that to us.  We could very easily miss the mighty Hand coming down for us to grasp.  What is the antidote to fear?  Fear is counteracted by the wisdom of God. The Word of God calls it the “fear of the Lord.”  Wait!  Do we fear Him and hide behind the cosmic couch, waiting for His mighty hand to strike us?  No, the “fear of the Lord” is defined as “A loving reverence for God that included submission to his lordship and to the commands of his word.”[1]

That’s not a cringing, clinging kind of fear.  It is a profound realization that the One Who threw the stars into space and wove DNA out of four basic chemicals loves you deeply.  Let’s look at how fear of the Lord and wisdom liberate us from our fear: 

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom;
all who follow his precepts have good understanding.
To him belongs eternal praise. (Ps.111:10 KJV)

“Good understanding:” that’s an important first step.  I was a teacher and I have taught in many different settings: university, junior high and high school.  The one thing all students in all grades have in common is (drum roll, please): The First Day of Class. Everyone walks in looking anxious and full of questions: “How can I get an A in this class?  Is there lots of homework?  How strict a grader are you?”

The lack of knowledge about the class produces a feeling of being lost and students do not like that!  Once I discuss the expectations of the class, a little about my experience and myself, the students seem a little less nervous.  It still takes time for students to become familiar with the pace of the class and what I am looking for in the assignments, but knowledge comes from experiencing the class.

Knowledge increases over time, as long as you stick with it and do not drop out of the process.  Here’s an equation that might help:

Experience + Time = Knowledge

That’s why we are disappointed with ourselves (or others) when we stop learning a particular task.  We wonder later that if we had only stuck with it, how much better we would be now.

Jonah’s time in the whale (yes, it is three days, but they are long days) and his experience of having no one but the Lord to turn to, gives him a kind of knowledge that allows him to reassert God’s sovereignty.  He missed God’s grace by clinging to his fear.  Now he can see that God alone will be his strength.  Proverbs 15:33 says, 

The fear of the Lord teaches a man wisdom, and humility comes before honor.  

Jonah is now humbled, sitting in the sloshing stomach juices of a whale.  He now sees how his fear contrasts with his knowledge of the living God.  Proverbs 28:26 affirms,

Those who trust in themselves are fools,
but those who walk in wisdom are kept safe.

Another way to interpret “walks in wisdom” is to see it as equal to one “who trusts in the Lord.”[2] 

It’s not just head knowledge.  It is knowledge of Who God is and what He desires of us. Proverbs 3:5-6 says it beautifully:

Trust in the Lord with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways submit to him,
and he will make your paths straight.                                           

Contrast that with our failure to trust the Lord: 

Whoever scorns instruction will pay for it,
but whoever respects a command is rewarded. (Prov. 13:13)

So, are we leaning on our limited knowledge or seeking with humility what the Lord would teach us and have us do? 

Sometimes I assume I am driving the speed limit, because I don’t think I am going all that fast.  My driving seems safe to me.  But the speed limit is not a “speed suggestion,” and how many times, when I have been pulled over, am I asked by the officer, “Do you know how fast you were going?” 

That question and my response allow the officer to determine how aware I am.  Did I even notice the speed limit signs, or better yet, did I even notice him sitting a ways up the road, with his radar gun pointing right at me?  Am I following the law in regards to speeding?  My lack of knowledge or awareness will not absolve me of a ticket.  My standard of “safe” is not a substitute for the vehicle code. 

If we scorn the Lord’s instruction, just like Jonah did in the earlier part of the story, we will have consequences.  The Lord’s correction is not done to hurt or humiliate us, but to teach us.

Look at Jonah now!  He now has wisdom born of the experience of sitting in the darkness, relying solely upon God.  Instead of grumbling about how unfair the Lord is, and playing the victim so he need not change, he sings, 

But I, with a song of thanksgiving, will sacrifice to You.  What I have vowed I will make good.  Salvation comes from the Lord. (2:9) 

That “But, I” is significant.  He’s contrasting himself to those who cling to worthless idols and lose out on God’s grace.  Here’s where experience can soften us and make us more sympathetic to others.  Jonah’s original call was to preach to those who cling to worthless idols: the people of Nineveh.  Instead of being scared by them, or degrading them for their heathen ways, he now sees how their belief in worthless idols is robbing them of God’s grace, the joy of knowing who He is and how much He loves them. Their lack of knowledge of God has made their existence lack true meaning.

My daughter, who is my spiritual hero, went through a severe battle in her teens with bipolar disorder.  She went into a mental hospital twice, and ended up in a rehabilitation center in another state for six months, for therapy and to finish school.  She checked herself into the hospital the first time for she knew that she was in serious trouble.  She struggled, cursed, cried and fought her way out of the darkness of mental illness.  She gained an insightful knowledge of suffering that many people will never truly know. 

What is she doing now?  She graduated with a Master’s Degree in Social Work, and now has her PhD. She dedicated time to obtaining these degrees where she could learn how to counsel people towards wholeness.  She told me that you couldn’t help others until you change how you see yourself. 

She sees herself as more than a survivor. She sees herself as having overcome tremendous obstacles. When she speaks to very troubled people, she sees the potential in them to overcome as well.

But, if she saw herself as a victim, she would see her clients the same way. She would be less inclined to tell them the truth about their fallacious thinking, destructive behaviors and attitudes that are hindering their recovery.  She has a no-nonsense approach.  She speaks the truth lovingly to them, because she sees their potential.  She remembers the potential in herself when she was a troubled teen.

Jonah now sees himself in the light of God’s grace, and not as a disobedient prophet and fallen follower of the one true God.  The focus is off himself and on God.  He makes a thanksgiving offering with a vow.  Vows are scary for people today, for what we speak in solemn ceremonies is often ignored later on when life gets tough.  Vows today have an elastic quality to them.  A vow is a promise to carry out what you say you will do, regardless of how you may feel down the road. 

Psalm 66:13-14 says, 

I will come to Your temple with burnt offerings and fulfill my vows to you—vows my lips promise and my mouth spoke when I was in trouble. 

It’s easy to promise God what you will do when you are standing in church or in front of a group and the bullets aren’t flying.  Our characters are tested when the bullets fly!  Suddenly our words, spoken in peace, become either a lighthouse for us to strive towards in the storm, or are a burden on our shoulders, soon to be discarded. 

Jonah vowed to the Lord out of a sense of gratitude, and this indicates a growth in his character:  I now want to show the Lord how thankful I am for revealing Himself to me. I will do better from now on. 

Jonah affirms that, “Salvation comes from the Lord.” He now knows he is in God’s hands.  He now knows God is in charge of his world.  Then, boom!  Jonah is vomited out onto the beach.  Salvation comes in many forms, does it not?  Have you ever been “vomited out”? 

The doors close even though you were so sure that you’d be walking through them. You lose the race that you were striving to win.  Sometimes salvation is not just a deliverance from sin and death; it is deliverance from circumstances that may have been an impediment to our growth.  We may not see that at the time, but God knows how much maturity we need to go forth and fulfill our calling.   

Jonah is growing inside the whale’s stomach, because he is in an intense “prayer closet” with no distractions.  God has work for him to do.  Jonah’s character will need some major fine-tuning before he can fulfill his calling. 

Out onto the beach he came, covered in seaweed and gastric juices.  Here is one man who will never be the same and whose fear was indeed a worthless idol. Salvation comes from the one true God, and while Jonah will have to learn that lesson again, he’s now on the sand.  He is standing in the clear light of day.

[1] NIV Study Bible, note on Proverbs 1:7.

 [2] NIV Study Bible, note on Proverbs 28:26.

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! 

 

---

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

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

Instead of falling into the ocean and remaining there, a great fish swallows Jonah. The chaos within Jonah’s soul is another matter, however.

Sometimes, God will bring us to a place of isolation, not as punishment, but for reflection. We need to sit, think, pray, cry. Our fears and anger can so dominate our thoughts that no other voice is heard. But in a dark and quiet place, we can hear God. He is always speaking, but we’re not always listening.

Suddenly, the question of what lurks beneath the water is revealed to Jonah as a place where God dwells.  Do you believe that there is a corner somewhere, anywhere, where God can’t be there with you? Look at what Psalm 104:24-26 says:

How many are Your works, O Lord!
In wisdom you made them all;
the earth is full of your creatures.
There is the sea, vast and spacious,
teeming with creatures beyond number —
living things both large and small.
There the ships go to and fro,
and the leviathan, which You formed to frolic there.

Suddenly the dark waters are not filled with frightening creatures lurking about, but are teeming with creatures placed there by God! Look at the leviathan happily swimming in the ocean. It’s no longer a dreaded and frightening creature, out to destroy. It frolics!

Wait a minute. What’s happening here? What about all those Bible verses about the “monster of the deep” and the “sinister serpent”? It’s a matter of perspective.

From our perspective, the unknown is indeed frightening. When you take the unknown, mix it with your fears, add the trauma you have suffered, pour in the pain you have endured, and add in the avoidance you’ve made part of your life, the dark is indeed frightening.

What’s lurking under there is far too scary to ponder.

Now, let’s step outside our point of view, and climb up to God’s.

Have you ever had someone give you a hand to get up on a rock and once you were there, you were awestruck?

We once went hiking in Utah in a place called Goblin Valley. It’s one of those places where the wind has sculpted the red sedimentary rock into odd and wonderful shapes, some of which look like little squat men — snowmen made of rock!

We decided to climb this one mountain to catch a view of the whole valley. Needless to say, we are not talented climbers. We were constantly saying, “Here, take my hand!” and struggling to scamper up sharp steep rocks. We were sweating profusely, because summers are hot in the Utah desert.

We finally cried, “Wow!” as we stood atop this mountain, and surveyed a valley filled with drifting clouds, shafts of soft yellow light and cool breezes.

We marveled at a rock formation way off in the distance aptly named, “Temple Rock.” It looked like a marble Greek temple in the afternoon sun. What changed? We were still in Goblin Valley, but atop that mountain, up and away from the desert floor, our perspective dramatically changed.

That made all the difference on how we saw this place.

Jonah’s perspective will change after being in the deep dark belly of the whale. His fears and anger caused him to forget this central truth: “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints” (Psalm 116:15). God takes no delight in watching Jonah suffer and die; He wants Jonah to change his perspective on how he sees himself and how he sees God. In that dark belly, he calls out to God. This time, it’s from a heart filled with faith. He has nothing to hide from God. Jonah is now seeking the greater purpose of his life.

He sees this dark belly as a kind of tomb and suddenly life is precious. The man willing to jump in the sea with a death-wish now sees life as a gift to hold on to. That old Joni Mitchell song, “Big Yellow Taxi,” puts it well: “Don’t it always seem to go, that you don’t what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone….”

Sometimes a change in perspective comes from a near miss.

Let’s hear what Jonah says. He’s being completely honest here:

In my distress I called to the Lord, and He answered me. From the depths of the grave I called for help and You listened to my cry (verses 1-2).

He is not out of trouble. He senses, however, that God has provided a safe place (relative to the turmoil of the sea and the creatures therein) for him to grieve in and cry out in.

It is “safe,” yes, but it’s also a kind of grave.

Interesting, isn’t it? The place where we might want to run and hide — a place of isolation and darkness — can also be a kind of grave. Maybe that’s how we want it.

But Who is in there with you makes all the difference! We are not alone in the dark place. He is there. Now, more than ever, Jonah’s heart is softening towards Him:

“You hurled me into the deep, into the very heart of the seas, and the currents swirled about me; all Your waves and breakers swept over me” (verse 3).

Jonah now sees the Lord’s hand in this whole affair. He tried to run away from God and find a spot where He could not possibly be. The oceans reflected his inner self, where he felt overwhelmed by all of the fear and hurt raging in him. Yet, it’s interesting that he still saw the waves, as scary as they were, as still being in God’s hands. While the storm raged, inside and outside of Jonah, God was showing Jonah that He was not distant or aloof.

Jonah comments, 

I said, "I have been banished from Your sight; yet I will look again toward Your holy temple” (verse 4).

Jonah insightfully observes it wasn’t God that banished him from His sight. He confesses he said that. He admits what his attitude is.

He is saying that his interpretation of what the Lord is doing is only his opinion; he is now searching for the truth about himself, God and his situation.

How often do we simply blame God, and leave it at that? Today many people will blame God, and then walk away, as if blaming Him absolves them of any responsibility for what happened, or having to seek out the truth of the matter.

It is true that sometimes bad things happen to good people. But there are many times where at some level, we have contributed to our woe by making poor decisions, ignoring warning signs, or having an unwillingness to seek or accept wise counsel.

The consequences are sadly real and pound at our front door. Sometimes that pounding lasts for years.

But Jonah is willing to say:

Look, I banished myself from God, and I hid myself in the dark below the deck of the ship. Here I am again, below deck, so to speak, sitting in the dark, smelling like seaweed. But now I know where to turn…

Hearing this from a man who was running away from God and is now turning towards the Lord’s holy temple is significant. Jonah’s “divine time-out” has captured his attention. He knows he must turn towards home.  This is a picture of repentance, which means to make a 180 degree turn away from sin. We are to then seek the Lord in overcoming sin.

Suddenly, Jonah’s dungeon is his deliverance. His darkness now “lights” his way to seek the arms of the One Who has been waiting alongside him the whole time.  This time Jonah is not asleep. He is fully aware of his condition, his need and his predicament. Most importantly, he knows where to look for salvation: God’s holy temple.

In Psalm 5:7-8, David says,

But I, by Your great mercy,
will come into Your house,
in reverence will I bow down
toward Your holy temple.
Lead me, O Lord, in Your righteousness,
because of my enemies —
make straight Your way before me.

It’s a matter of perspective. By bowing down in God’s holy house, David could sense God’s majesty, and ask for His direction in his life. David fought a lot of external enemies, but he also faced many internal ones as well. He needed God’s strength and perspective to carry on.

Jonah’s greatest enemies, for now, are on the inside. By bowing down towards God’s house, he is acknowledging God’s majesty and presence in the world and in his life.  Instead of looking to the past for answers or engaging in self-recrimination, he now has a future and a hope by looking to where God dwells. He is no longer looking at where his fear and hurt dwell.

Listen again to David in Psalm 27:4-5:

One thing I ask of the Lord,
this is what I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord
all the days of my life,
to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord
and to seek Him in His temple.
For in the day of trouble
He will keep me safe in His dwelling;
He will hide me in the shelter of His tabernacle
and set me high upon a rock.

This is a “perspective check” for David. He is seeking the Lord in His temple. By doing so, he is able to exult in his mighty and caring Lord.

Later in that psalm he exclaims, 

I am confident of this:
I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.
Wait for the Lord, be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord” (verses 13-14).

David’s son and the next king, Solomon, dedicated the majestic First Temple by proclaiming:

…and when a prayer or plea is made by any of Your people Israel — each one aware of the afflictions of his own heart, and spreading out his hands towards this temple — then hear from heaven, Your dwelling place. Forgive and act… (1 Kings 8:38-9)

Isn’t it interesting that while the Temple is acknowledged as God’s dwelling place, Heaven is as well? One as magnificent as God cannot be contained in a mere physical structure, no matter how awesome and beautiful it may be.  Therefore, no matter where you might be, bowing down like David in a beautiful place, or calling out to Heaven from inside a dark place, He is sure to hear and respond!

Jonah does not deny how dreadful his circumstances are:

The engulfing waters threatened me, the deep surrounding me; seaweed was wrapped around my head. To the roots of the mountain I sank down; the earth beneath barred me in forever. (verses 5-6)

Talk about feeling trapped. Hedged in. No way out. A terrible spot. He is looking at where he is, but he is pondering where he will be because of the Lord: 

But You brought my life up from the pit, O Lord my God (verse 6).

That “but” in the sentence is very important. It signals that although he fully recognizes where he is, he can now see that these forces — the waves, the sea, the sailors, the ship and the big fish — are all agents of God’s plan of rescue. God will take him out of the pit, the grave, and the darkness. He now has the one thing that eluded him earlier: hope!

It is a hope firmly anchored to God. Jonah is no longer anchored to his fear.

We will continue this next week...

The Prince of Whales/Wails: Jonah, Chapter One, Continues

Then they cried out to the Lord, Jonah’s God. “O Lord,” they pleaded, “don’t make us die for this man’s sin. And don’t hold us responsible for his death. O Lord, you have sent this storm upon him for your own good reasons.”

Then the sailors picked Jonah up and threw him into the raging sea, and the storm stopped at once! The sailors were awestruck by the Lord’s great power, and they offered him a sacrifice and vowed to serve him. Now the Lord had arranged for a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was inside the fish for three days and three nights. (1:15-17) 

Jonah, upon seeing the increased winds and the fury of the sea, suggests to the sailors that they give him the heave-ho, and the sea will calm down. But the sailors ignore his suggestion, and row like mad instead. But here’s where it gets increasingly interesting! The sailors now cry out to Jonah’s God, and beg Him in verse 14 to not “hold us accountable for killing an innocent man...”

Do we assume an ignorant heart is an unreceptive one, and being as the sailors did not believe in the God of Israel, they must not care about morality? Wasn’t that the idea originally hidden in Jonah’s heart? Why bother with those who do not know our God? And yet, here they are, crying out to Jonah’s God alone! They did not lump Him in with their gods. They are looking only to Him! This is a perfect moment for Jonah to capitalize on and share his message. But he chooses not to.

The winds are acting as a kind of messenger. They are, in fact, doing the very job that Jonah has failed to do. They are displaying the mightiness of God, thus causing people to turn to Him. As it says in Psalm 104:4: “He makes winds His messengers, flames of fire His servants.” So, these winds are also prophets of the Lord. The sailors are hearing the message. But is Jonah as well?

Because Jonah is fully occupied with himself, he chooses the harder way. By having the men throw him overboard, is he sacrificing himself because he feels guilty and thinks he deserves death, or is he seeking death as a relief? Either way, he will be out of the picture as far as the prophetic message is concerned. A dead prophet is not useful to God. Jonah is proposing to end it all: his message and his life. But the sailors fear the consequences of taking him up on his offer because they fear the Lord. Jonah’s Lord.

But, in verse 15, they throw him overboard, and the “raging sea grew calm.”

Bingo. Jonah’s God is truly God and now the sailors are probably quite open to this possibility. Or, it is possible that they just embraced Jonah’s God as the strongest One among many gods?[1]

Either way, it’s a start! Verse 16 says, “At this [the calming of the sea] the men greatly feared the Lord, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord, and made vows to Him.”

I wonder what the vows were. But sadly, Jonah’s message ended when he hit the water. He couldn’t follow up on their openness to Israel’s God. Talk about a Divine Appointment! These men were eager to understand Jonah and his God and where’s Jonah? Bobbing up and down in a calm sea.

But the sea wasn’t just a sea.

To the ancient world, the sea was a place of chaos. In cultures where people didn’t swim, probe the depths with submarines or scuba gear, the dark waters were a place of fear: the fear of the unknown. How would you know what is really down there? The forces that generated a raging sea could one day rise up and devour the land.

The Great Flood in Genesis was an ancient people’s worst nightmare: dark heaving waters did in fact swell up and utterly covered the land, destroying the people. Drowning was and still is a terrifying thought.

The Sea of Galilee in Jesus’ day was considered an abyss. Even though His disciples were fishermen, when the Sea of Galilee raged, they were terrified. Have you ever wondered why, in Matthew 14:25-33, the disciples thought Jesus was a “ghost” as He walked past them, as they struggled with the mighty waves of a storm? They were fishermen, and they were used to storms. The disciples feared that they were being tossed about over the abyss. Perhaps they feared that they were at the very gates of Hades itself, as many people in Jesus’ day saw the Sea of Galilee. It was seen as an entrance into chaos, uncertainly, fear.  So, what do the disciples see? A “ghost”! One of the occupants of Hades! Right? No. It was Jesus, walking over the abyss. He was walking over death, chaos and fear.[2]

Peter left the boat, and walked with His Lord for a few precious moments. He was then filled with doubt, and began to sink. Jesus “caught him,” and asked Peter why he doubted. “And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down” (Matt. 14:14-32).

Sound familiar? With this proof God’s mightiness exhibited by Jesus Himself, the disciples worship Jesus. They exclaim, “Truly you are the Son of God” in verse 33. The calming of the seas evoked awe and respect in the disciples. Jesus was not only the Master over the elements but also over their darkest fears about chaos and death.

The sailors, as they peered over the edge and saw Jonah in the dark waters, must also have felt awe and respect. But the sailors, like the disciples, were in the safety of the boat. Jonah had been thrown into the abyss. Into chaos. Into darkness.

Jonah is now in a place of uncertainty. He is in real danger.

Have you ever been in a place where it is just dark enough that you can’t quite see what’s out there? You know far more of “what’s out there” in our natural world today than did the ancients, but I am sure that you found that uncertainty very disconcerting.

Jonah is afraid to pop over to Nineveh, where he knows what the dangers are. Now, bobbing up and down in the dark waters, he faces unknown dangers. The sea may be calm, but it is still dark. He is terrified! Just think about the disciples of Jesus, who spent their lives on the water and the fears they had. Here is Jonah, a land-loving prophet out in a much bigger sea, without a hand or a plan! No one was walking up to him or inviting him back into the boat!

Our fears can drive us into even deeper waters, so to speak, and we can end up even more afraid.

I had a dear friend whose husband was sexually abused as a child. Their marriage was rocky for many years. When she would throw down the gauntlet of “Counseling or else!” he would go, staying just long enough to iron out the immediate issues to placate his wife. They’d soon settle back in to old the routine, and sure enough, something else would come along and start a new fire.

I asked my friend one day if her husband had discussed the abuse with the counselor. She said, “Oh no, it is just too painful for him.” So, year after year, he continued to manipulate her and hurt her because his pain was so great. Finally, many years later, she left him, and I am sure that the pain he experienced was tremendous. His unwillingness to face his own Nineveh (the sexual abuse, his anger at the abuser and the sense of betrayal by his parents) eventually led to an even greater pain. He was thrown into the abyss of a failed marriage, with little or no hope of reconciliation with his wife.

How often, when we avoid our Nineveh, do we end up in a scarier and lonelier place? We think by avoiding the pain that somehow we will be freer. This avoidance leads to more bondage. Instead of being free, we now have even more pain.

The sailors aren’t jumping in to rescue Jonah. They are afraid of the water as well. Once he is in, he is in. Their ship catches the gentle breeze and it sails away. But God is constantly reaching out to bring Jonah back to Himself. God devises a plan. He sends a “great fish.”

Now, picture this: You’re bobbing up and down, eyes at sea level, wondering what’s below you, and then, gulp…down you go! Are you being pulled down to drown? To be eaten? To enter the very gates of hell?

How about a charming combination of all three?

I am sure at this point Jonah is thinking: Great. Wonderful. I am doomed. No more second chances. I am being judged. For good. I wonder who’s having me for dinner?

Let’s look at this fishy candidate gulping down our Jonah. It is known by various names in the Bible. By the way, the word used in both the Old and New Testaments means “great fish.”[3]

Let’s be fair here. When a large whale carcass washes up on the shore, an ancient person isn’t going to know whether it’s a fish or a mammal. It’s just big and dwells under water.

I will use the word “whale,” because it is more familiar. Either way, no one wants to go down the gullet of some marine animal.

Another Old Testament prophet, Amos, called this occupant of the deep a “sinister serpent.” Amos warns his people who are seeking to escape God’s judgment what will befall them: “Though they hide from Me at the bottom of the sea, there I will command the serpent to bite them.” (9:3) However, even the scary monsters under the water are subject to God’s control.[4] They are not independent of His hand.

Another name of this creature is “Leviathan.” In describing another time of judgment, the Old Testament prophet Isaiah says,

In that day,
the Lord will punish with his sword—
his fierce, great and powerful sword—
Leviathan the gliding serpent,
Leviathan the coiling serpent;
he will slay the monster of the sea. (27:1)

Repetition is used here to get across not only how God mightily defends His own, but how He will vanquish those who come against Him and His people.

Another name for this creature is “monster of the deep.” Job complains in his suffering (which he sees as judgment) “Am I the sea, or the monster of the deep, that you put me under guard?” (7:12)

God holds the sea monster under His mighty hand, and Job resents being treated as such.[5]

Psalm 74:12-14 celebrates God’s mighty power to deliver His people and to provide salvation:

But God is my King from long ago;
he brings salvation on the earth.
It was you who split open the sea by your power;
you broke the heads of the monster in the waters.
It was you who crushed the heads of Leviathan
and gave it as food to the creatures of the desert.

This creature, who is trying to overcome God’s people, is controlled by His hand. It is on a divine leash (if you will) to remind His people that they need not fear. Why? God is mightier than even the mightiest of creatures.

So, Jonah, fearfully watching the blue sky and lighted waters recede from him as he plunges down into the whale, wonders if God is judging him through a monster of the deep. But is He? Consider this: “The Lord provided a great fish to swallow Jonah…” (1:17)

When I was little, I thought that Jonah was in big trouble and that’s why he got swallowed. Later, I thought that again when I heard that the little ones at our church were learning about Jonah. I would again think, “Wow, you blew it to get swallowed! Next time, Jonah, man up and do what is right!”

Now after studying Jonah, I see his descent into the belly of the whale not as a punishment but as a provision. God is not judging him. God is providing a “safe place” to go. It is scary, yes, but it is not a place without hope.

Jesus uses the story of Jonah when He tells His disciples that the belly of the whale is comparable to the tomb He will occupy after His crucifixion. While His death will be terrifying, it will not be without hope. Although it is dark inside the carved rock tomb where Jesus’ broken body will be placed, Jesus will walk out three days later into the light of that lovely spring morning.

Jesus uses Jonah’s story to instill hope in His disciples as He faces His impending death.

Jonah’s time in the whale’s belly is limited. He is there to learn of God’s mightiness, not His judgment. God is indeed devising a plan to call back His estranged prophet, even though it means sitting in the sloshing juices of a large fish’s stomach for three days!


[1] NIV Study Bible, note on Jonah 1:16.
[2] “Sea of Galilee”
[3] NIV Study Bible, note on Jonah 1:17.
[4] NIV Study Bible, note on Amos 9:3.
[5] NIV Study Bible, note on Job 7:12.