Asleep in the Ship

Something that has always bothered me about the story of Jonah: In Jonah 1:5, it says that Jonah fell asleep in the bottom of the ship. During a storm. The text indicates that God sent the storm specifically because of Jonah. So here he is, on a ship, running from God, and God sends a storm after him, and he falls asleep. The other men on the ship woke him up, and wanted him to pray to his God. It seems that he almost missed the point.

There is another story in the Gospels about a man sleeping in a ship during a storm: In Matthew 8 (and Mark 4), it says that Jesus and the disciples were crossing the sea in a ship, and a storm hit, but Jesus was asleep. The disciples woke him up, in much the same way that Jonah was awakened, and asked him, “Don’t you care that we’re all going to die?” (my paraphrase). Jesus rebuked them for their lack of faith, and then he rebuked the wind and the waves, and the storm cleared up. Then the disciples marvelled, saying, “What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the waves obey Him?”

The thing that has always bothered me about the story in Matthew, if the disciples didn’t think Jesus could calm the storm, then why did they bother to wake Him up? Of course, maybe they felt like the men in the book of Jonah, they just wanted Jesus to pray to His God, that God would save them. Either way, it seems obvious that they clearly didn’t understand who He was, yet.

Of course, Jesus wasn’t worried. He knew that He was doing God’s will, and He knew that God wasn’t through with Him yet. He knew that His fleshly existence wasn’t going to end by drowning. Jonah had no such assurance, though. Jonah was completely aware that he wasn’t doing God’s will, and at least a part of him was hoping that God was through with him. Perhaps Jonah was just so accustomed to being in God’s will, and under God’s protection, that it didn’t even occur to him that he might die in the sea. Even that, though, seemed to bother him less than the idea that his misdeeds might cause others to die. He told the men of the ship to throw him overboard (apparently not quite brave enough to throw himself into the sea), and once they did that, the storm cleared up.

Jesus once said that He was going to give us the sign of the prophet Jonah. Of course, He went on to talk about Jonah being in the belly of the whale for 3 days and nights, and said that He would be in the heart of the earth for the same time period. Apparently, there was more to the sign than just that, though. Both Jesus and Jonah were able to calm storms, and were willing to sacrifice themselves for the sake of other people.

I think that it is significant, though, that Jesus rebuked the disciples for fearing the storm. He called it a lack of faith. Previously, in Matthew 6:25-34, He talked about the lilies of the field, they toil not, neither do they spin, and tomorrow, they are cast into the fire, but Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed as one of these. He told the disciples then that they shouldn’t be worried about temporal things, what they should eat, or what they should wear. Does this mean don’t buy groceries, or do laundry? Of course not. It does mean that we don’t need to worry about those things, because God knows what we need before we are even aware of it. I suspect that if we just stopped buying groceries, then God would just let us starve. It does mean that He’s going to make sure that we get what we need. Notice I said ‘need.’ That doesn’t necessarily mean that He will give you money to buy food; He may simply open the door to a soup kitchen or charitable food pantry. He might even want you to fast more often (of course, if you aren’t fasting now, than any fasting would be fasting more often). The important thing is not to worry about, just trust God to take care of it. Again, in Matthew 10, Jesus tells us that God is aware of it every time a sparrow falls to the ground, and that we should not be afraid, because we are of more value than many sparrows.

It doesn’t mean that life will always be easy, but it does mean that we have a promise that He will always hold us, at least as long as we continue to want to be held.

Running From Your Calling

When Moses was in Egypt, he ran away to the land of Midian to avoid being charged with murder in Pharaoh’s court. He had a calling on his life to lead the Israelites out of Egypt, but he went the other way. Moses spent forty years in the land of Midian, when his calling was in Egypt. God had to put the exodus on hold, while He waited for Moses to be ready to fulfill his calling.
When God told Jonah to go warn Ninevah, Jonah caught a ship headed to Tarshish. Tarshish was about as far from Ninevah as there was in the known world at the time. God arranged for a whale to swallow Jonah, to bring Jonah to the understanding that he needed to fulfill his calling, and, eventually, Jonah went to Ninevah. God waited until after Jonah had preached to Ninevah before pronouncing His final judgment. In fact, God spared Ninevah because the people repented at Jonah’s preaching.
There is a story, I don’t know for sure if it is true, but the story is that a Christian man was in a restaurant, and felt it laid upon his heart to share about a hope in Christ with the waiter. He understandably (I say understandably—some of you may not understand, and that’s actually a good thing if you don’t. I won’t pretend that I don’t understand) felt awkward about doing it, so each time the waiter came by his table, he made an excuse to himself. Each time, God dealt with him a little stronger. Finally he couldn’t stand it any more, and he promised God that the next time the waiter came by, he would talk to him. The waiter didn’t come by for a very long time. The man finished his meal, and was waiting for the check. And waiting, and waiting. Finally the manager came by, asked if he enjoyed his meal, asked if he wanted anything else, and gave him his check. “Wait,” he asked, “what happened to the waiter?” The manager gave him an awkward look, and then, lowering his voice, said, “I don’t quite now how to tell you this, but, about fifteen minutes ago, he went out into the alley and, well, he took his own life.”
Moses ran from his calling, but God didn’t take his calling from him, He just delayed it for a time. Jonah ran from his calling, but God gave him another chance. Sometimes I think God gets tired of people running away, though. Just because God chose to use Moses and Jonah in spite of themselves, doesn’t mean that He promises to be so patient with any of us. Did you know that you can run from your calling without taking a single step? You can hide from your calling in your routine, or in your attitude. Your calling isn’t necessarily to go be missionary in some dark jungle somewhere; it’s more likely to be just to share with people that you work with or go to school with that don’t know Jesus. It may very well be that the biggest difference between what you’re doing now and what you should be doing is just the words that come out of your mouth. The Bible says that from the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh. If you truly love God, that’s going to be in your conversation, not just your words, but the way that you live your life. People should be able to see in you a heart for ministry, even before you open your mouth, but when you open your mouth, it should confirm what they already observed. Not fulfilling your calling, though, can have dire consequences, not just for you, but for those around you, also.

What Happened to Jonah?

There are several points that I would like to cover with regard to Jonah and the whale. First off, was Jonah swallowed by a whale? Some people say that he was not; it’s impossible, the way a whale’s digestive tract is set up, no whale can swallow anything as large as a man. Even if it could, no man could survive being in the stomach of a whale for three days, the digestive fluids would cause him to die a slow and painful death (although not three days worth of slow). Of course, God does the impossible; in fact, the Bible tells us that God prepared the whale for Jonah, so this wasn’t an ordinary whale.
Secondly, was it a whale that swallowed Jonah? The book of Jonah actually says it was a great fish. Biologists tell us that whales are not fish, because they are mammals. Of course, biologists also tell us that tomatoes are not vegetables, because they have seeds, making them, technically, fruits. They aren’t particularly fruit-like, though, so most of us just refer to them as vegetables, anyway (The US Supreme Court has actually ruled that tomatoes are vegetables, so that they can be taxed as vegetables—there is no import tax on fruits). My point is that, in simpler times, people just referred to anything that swam in the sea as a fish, whether it had gills or a blowhole. So, yes, the book of Jonah says it was a great fish, in the Gospels, Jesus says it was a whale. There is no contradiction there.
Thirdly, did Jonah actually survive the ordeal, or did he die and get resurrected? There are a couple of indications that he might actually have died: One, he said himself that he was in Hell, and two, Jesus makes reference to the story of Jonah as the archetype of His own resurrection. Now, was Jonah speaking literally or figuratively? In context, there’s not really any way to tell, that I can see, although it certainly highlights another Messianic prophecy, when David said, “Thou wilt not leave my soul in Hell.” Now, in the reference in the Gospels, Jesus said that there would be no sign given unto “this generation” but the sign of the prophet Jonah, that “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.” To be honest, that doesn’t sound to me like Jesus is suggesting that Jonah died and resurrected, more that He is comparing His own entombment with Jonah’s unusual mode of travel. In fact, it further seems to me that, God put Jonah in the belly of the whale to keep Jonah from drowning, and to give him a chance to consider his own actions. It seems to me that, when Jonah was first swallowed, he figured his time was up. He was going to die, and there was nothing he could do about it. It’s possible that, when he said he was in Hell, he was still alive and didn’t realize that he was still alive. After a few days, realizing that he not only wasn’t dead, but, that, against all probability, he wasn’t even dying, he came to an understanding that God wasn’t going to let him off that easy. I don’t believe that Jonah died in the belly of the whale, I think God kept Jonah alive specifically because He wasn’t through with him. I am honest enough to admit that my reluctance to accept the idea that Jonah died and was resurrected may be a result of my own feeling that once one is dead, then one is dead, and there is nothing more that can be done. I feel a certain finality with death, which isn’t necessarily true when God is involved. I can’t help but think that, if God was willing to let Jonah die, and then resurrect him, then the whale was a huge waste of time and energy: Let Jonah drown, explain to him face to face exactly what he needs to do, resurrect his body on (or near) shore, and turn him loose. And if Jonah tries to run to Tarshish again, then drown him again (I don’t really think that would be necessary—a face-to-face with God should straighten anybody out, even more effectively than being in a whale’s belly).

Making a Miracle out of a Molehill

In the book of Jonah (and I hope most of us are familiar with the story), God sends Jonah to go warn Nineveh that He is about to destroy them. Jonah, either out of a severe dislike for the Ninevites, or just a fear of being the sacrificial messenger (killing the bearer of bad news was not uncommon in those days), or maybe a little bit of both, went the other way. He caught a ship to Tarshish, but, on the way, a severe storm blew in, threatening the ship. Jonah, realizing that God had sent the storm because of his disobedience, instructed the ship's crew to throw him overboard. God prepared a whale to swallow Jonah (and that must have taken some preparation, because normally a whale, even as big as it is, cannot swallow anything even close to the size of a man) and keep him alive until Jonah repented. Jonah did repent, and went to Nineveh, and the Ninevites repented, and God spared them. Jonah, not quite getting it, went to a nearby hill overlooking the city, and waited for the light show that never came. God had to deal with him all over again about being grateful that his work had paid off.

Now, I have had some people try to tell me that there is a hidden miracle in Jonah. They use to verses together to show that Jonah was able to go three days' journey in one day. The second part of Jonah 3:3 says, "...Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days' journey." In Jonah 3:4, it says, "And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey..." So, apparently, Jonah was able to move at three times the speed that was humanly possible.

Or was he? Let's examine that a little more closely. First of all, a days' journey is not how far a man could run in a day; it's how far a man could lead a fully laden pack mule in a day (taking frequent breaks, stopping for meals, etc.). If it's urgent enough, you can maintain a pace three times faster than a pack mule (well, a lot of people could have, then, but with today's more sedentary lifestyles, not so much). It's generally considered that a days' journey was about thirty miles. For purposes of comparison, the Western States Endurance Run is an annual 'ultramarathon' held in California's Sierra Nevada. It is a 100 mile course, and you have to finish in thirty hours to get an award (a bronze belt buckle). If you finish in less than 24 hours, though, you get a silver belt buckle. Many people do. Think about that for a minute. Right here, in present-day United States, there are people that can run more than 3 days' journey in one day. Yet it's considered a miracle that Jonah ran three days' journey in one day.

Or did he? Let's look at the verbiage again. Jonah 3:3 tells us that Nineveh was an exceeding great city (how great was it?) of three days' journey. If the first part of the sentence is talking about how big Nineveh was, why would the second part of the sentence change the subject to how far away Nineveh was? I think part of the confusion here is cultural. We generally think of a city a bunch of buildings connected by roads. In ancient times, a city was everything enclosed by the city walls. What's the difference? Well, again, we don't think of farmland as being part of a city, but, if you leave the farmland outside the city walls, you're just inviting an attack at the beginning of harvest. If I have a grudge against you, or maybe I just don't care about you one way or the other but my crops aren't doing well, but your crops are outside your walls, all I have to do is attack you, and, while you and yours are huddled inside the walls, my troops and I can harvest your crops. Yes, you could put archers on the parapets, but I can have my archers shooting at your archers... The bottom line is, that Nineveh was a huge city, even by today's standards, but it was pretty much self-sufficient. They grew their own food, milled their grain, they had craftsmen building things that they needed, and all of that inside the walls of the city. That way, they could continue to live while under siege.

Now, Jonah 3:4 says that Jonah began to enter into the city a days' journey. Again, we are talking about a distance, not an amount of time. My best guess is that when Jonah got to the city, he got inside the gate, and (a) didn't find many people there (a soldier or two to make sure he didn't help himself to the food growing there), and (b) realized that if he started preaching fire and brimstone right there, one of those soldiers would draw a sword or pick up a rock to throw at Jonah, and he would be right back outside the gate headed for another whale... So he walked thirty miles into the city. Now there is a crowd to preach to, most of them don't have swords, and he's too far from the gate to make a run for it anyway. So he preaches; probably hoping that they will kill him quickly so that he doesn't have to suffer very long.