Skip to main content
He answered them,
"I'm a Hebrew. 
I worship the Lord, 
the God of the heavens, who made the sea and the dry land."

Then the men were seized by a great fear and said to him, 
"What have you done?"

The men knew he was fleeing from the Lord's presence because he had told them. 

So they said to him, "What should we do to you so that the sea will calm down for us?"
For the sea was getting worse and worse. 

He answered them, 
"Pick me up and throw me into the sea so that it will calm down for you, for I know that I'm to blame for this great storm that is against you."
Jonah 1:9-12 CSB
Are you waiting for the highlight of the story?
Where's the whale and 3 days and vomiting Jonah up on the beach?
While we wait for that the author makes this outrageous claim that the storm, everyone's lives being at risk was just because of Jonah! 
Does that mean that all bad things happen because of someone not being obedient to God? 
Who is that person?  
If we could chuck them overboard then everything would be all right?
That doesn't gell with what Jesus taught, or what Paul taught, so this story must be about something else. 
Could this story be pointing to Jesus?
Jonah in the last line of this passage says that the storm is "against you" - the sailors, not us, but you. 
Sailors who all worshipped other gods. 
Sailors who had heard of Yahweh, yet weren't following Him. 
Maybe this is not a children's story about a whale, but a story to help us see something of who God is, where we are with Him, and the hope that we have in Him.
#jonah
#somethingtochewon

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation,  for through him God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can't see - such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world. Everything was created through him and for him. Colossians 1:15-16 NLT OK so this is an English translation of a letter Paul wrote to a church 2,000 years ago, but does it feel like Paul is wrestling with words and ideas to try and capture all of who Jesus is, of who God is, of how does it work that the walking around Jesus was also there before the beginning of the beginning of everything we can see and touch and know. Not only that but Jesus was somehow the agent of everything that has been made in the physical, social, and spiritual.  Jesus is at the centre of it all.  Walking around Jesus. Cooking fish for breakfast Jesus. Heart aching as he ...
As Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside privately and told them what was going to happen to him.  "Listen," he said,  "we're going up to Jerusalem, where the Son of Man will be betrayed to the leading priests and the teachers of religious law.  They will sentence him to die. Then they will hand him over to the Romans to be mocked,  flogged with a whip,  and crucified.  But on the third day he will be raised from the dead." Matthew 20:17-20 NLT Jesus wanted his team, those closest to him, to know what was going to happen next.  It seems he wanted them to be prepared.  To be able to hold the hope of what's at the end as they go through the watching him be betrayed, sentenced, mocked, abused, and killed.  I wonder if Jesus needed to tell them, to let those he knew best what was ahead because he needed them with him. Jesus wanted community in the most difficult of times. It's no wonder that we do too.  We're in...
Now rescue your beloved people. Answer and save us by your power. ... Who will bring me into the fortified city?  Who will bring me victory over Edom? Have you rejected us, O God?  Will you no longer march with our armies?Oh, please help us against our enemies,  for all human help is useless. With God's help we will do mighty things, for he will trample down our foes. Psalm 108 6, 10-13 NLT After the most beautiful and uplifting worshipful first half to this song, David takes us somewhere completely different in the second half.  It's all about victory, power, winning, it's all about him. The "mighty things" he wants God to do are all on the outside, all about power, and David's writing sounds like he's a bit lost in his quest to win. And I do the same thing. Praise God and ask him to fix my problems. Fix the classroom/online/workplace bully, fix my finances, fix my relationships, fix my problems. So as I sit with this psalm of 2 halves, its a bit of a mir...