okieinexile
Well-Known Member
Jonah Swallows the Whale
Jonah 3:1-5, 10
3:1 The word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time, saying,
3:2 "Get up, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you."
3:3 So Jonah set out and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly large city, a three days' walk across.
3:4 Jonah began to go into the city, going a day's walk. And he cried out, "Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!"
3:5 And the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and everyone, great and small, put on sackcloth.
3:10 When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them; and he did not do it.
/***/
There is a story that a young girl had told her teacher the story about Jonah and the whale. The teacher had said it was nonsense because a whale couldn’t possibly swallow a human.
The girl replied, “When I get to heaven, I will ask Jonah.”
“What if he didn’t go to heaven?” the teacher asked.
“Then you can ask him,” she said.
I have fond memories of the story of Jonah. It is one of the stories that my Grampa used to tell when I was a boy. He never referred to it as the story of when The Whale Swallowed Jonah but always as when Jonah Swallowed the Whale. But you have to know that Grampa didn’t say, “swallowed,” he said, “swallered”.
He knew better, of course, but when you hear the story, it is not much more ridiculous for Jonah to Swallow the whale than for the whale to swallow Jonah. Turning this around is fitting because so much about the story of Jonah itself is backwards. Jonah is the opposite of the ideal prophet. The ideal prophet is supposed to say, “Here I am,” when the Lord calls him. Jonah turns and runs the opposite way. He heads for Tarshish, which is at the opposite end of the known world.
God finally convinces him to go preach to Nineveh but has to put him through the digestive system of a whale to do it. Nineveh is the opposite place that you would expect any prophet to preach. The Ninevites are the hated oppressors. Jonah has no sympathy with them. He wants God to destroy them. You might imagine how enthusiastic he is when he goes out to tell them to repent. At the end of all this, he goes out on a hill above Nineveh and waits for God to destroy it. I’ve never seen an entire city destroyed before, but one might imagine that it would be quite a show. Maybe even better than the Super Bowl.
I can see Jonah sitting there underneath his gourd vine waiting for God to destroy the city. Maybe he had him some Doritos or maybe some Ruffles with French onion dip. He lay back underneath the gourd vine, sipping on his diet Pepsi, and waited for the show to start, but nothing happened. God did not destroy Nineveh because the people repented.
That is the miracle here. This is more amazing than a whale swallowing Jonah or Jonah swallowing a whale. For a person to decide to make a change and stick with it is something that only be done with God’s help.
There are lots of Jonahs in the world. I am a Jonah. God tells me things to do and I run the other way. I would just as soon see the evildoers destroyed than to go out and try to save them. I prize my own comfort and convenience above my fellow man’s soul.
Some of you might be Jonah’s too. That is ok. God has shown over and over again that He can work through a Jonah. He can take the least likely of any material and use it, and like the original Jonah, you don’t always have much of a choice as to whether God will use you. There is a whale out there with your name on it.
The good news is that we aren’t likely to be called to preach to Nineveh. That job has already been done, but there are other jobs that need to be done around here. There are more people that need to be introduced to Jesus. There are more people who need to be told about his wonderful life, and how he died to save us from our sins.
Jonah 3:1-5, 10
3:1 The word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time, saying,
3:2 "Get up, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you."
3:3 So Jonah set out and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly large city, a three days' walk across.
3:4 Jonah began to go into the city, going a day's walk. And he cried out, "Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!"
3:5 And the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and everyone, great and small, put on sackcloth.
3:10 When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them; and he did not do it.
/***/
There is a story that a young girl had told her teacher the story about Jonah and the whale. The teacher had said it was nonsense because a whale couldn’t possibly swallow a human.
The girl replied, “When I get to heaven, I will ask Jonah.”
“What if he didn’t go to heaven?” the teacher asked.
“Then you can ask him,” she said.
I have fond memories of the story of Jonah. It is one of the stories that my Grampa used to tell when I was a boy. He never referred to it as the story of when The Whale Swallowed Jonah but always as when Jonah Swallowed the Whale. But you have to know that Grampa didn’t say, “swallowed,” he said, “swallered”.
He knew better, of course, but when you hear the story, it is not much more ridiculous for Jonah to Swallow the whale than for the whale to swallow Jonah. Turning this around is fitting because so much about the story of Jonah itself is backwards. Jonah is the opposite of the ideal prophet. The ideal prophet is supposed to say, “Here I am,” when the Lord calls him. Jonah turns and runs the opposite way. He heads for Tarshish, which is at the opposite end of the known world.
God finally convinces him to go preach to Nineveh but has to put him through the digestive system of a whale to do it. Nineveh is the opposite place that you would expect any prophet to preach. The Ninevites are the hated oppressors. Jonah has no sympathy with them. He wants God to destroy them. You might imagine how enthusiastic he is when he goes out to tell them to repent. At the end of all this, he goes out on a hill above Nineveh and waits for God to destroy it. I’ve never seen an entire city destroyed before, but one might imagine that it would be quite a show. Maybe even better than the Super Bowl.
I can see Jonah sitting there underneath his gourd vine waiting for God to destroy the city. Maybe he had him some Doritos or maybe some Ruffles with French onion dip. He lay back underneath the gourd vine, sipping on his diet Pepsi, and waited for the show to start, but nothing happened. God did not destroy Nineveh because the people repented.
That is the miracle here. This is more amazing than a whale swallowing Jonah or Jonah swallowing a whale. For a person to decide to make a change and stick with it is something that only be done with God’s help.
There are lots of Jonahs in the world. I am a Jonah. God tells me things to do and I run the other way. I would just as soon see the evildoers destroyed than to go out and try to save them. I prize my own comfort and convenience above my fellow man’s soul.
Some of you might be Jonah’s too. That is ok. God has shown over and over again that He can work through a Jonah. He can take the least likely of any material and use it, and like the original Jonah, you don’t always have much of a choice as to whether God will use you. There is a whale out there with your name on it.
The good news is that we aren’t likely to be called to preach to Nineveh. That job has already been done, but there are other jobs that need to be done around here. There are more people that need to be introduced to Jesus. There are more people who need to be told about his wonderful life, and how he died to save us from our sins.
