Wednesday, November 8, 2023
“For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matthew 12:40 KJV).
Let us consider one of the most misunderstood and most ridiculed accounts presented in the Holy Bible….
To fathom Jonah’s supernatural adventure, we must start in Jonah chapter 1: “[1] Now the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, [2] Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me. [3] But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish [Spain?] from the presence of the LORD, and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.
“[4] But the LORD sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was like to be broken. [5] Then the mariners were afraid, and cried every man unto his god, and cast forth the wares [cargo] that were in the ship into the sea, to lighten it of them. But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship; and he lay, and was fast asleep. [6] So the shipmaster came to him, and said unto him, What meanest thou, O sleeper? arise, call upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not. [7] And they said every one to his fellow, Come, and let us cast lots, that we may know for whose cause this evil is upon us. So they cast lots, and the lot fell upon Jonah.”
Jonah was a real character, a literal man, who lived around 900 B.C. He is also in 2 Kings 14:25—another historical context. Jonah was a prophet, talking as the LORD God gave him utterance. Yet, when God commissioned him to speak His words to distant Nineveh (a Gentile capital city), Jewish Jonah boarded a ship and went the opposite direction! The LORD responded with a sea storm, and Jonah’s shipmates have now exposed him as a wrongdoer….
333 Words of Grace 