SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/24/2015
9:44 PM
My Worship Time Focus: Redemption
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Jonah 2:10
Message of the
verse: “10 Then the LORD commanded
the fish, and it vomited Jonah up onto the dry land.”
I suppose this was an experience for Jonah that he would
never forget and talk about for the rest of his life. One of the things that I have heard about
this is that because of the digestive juices that were found in the stomach of
the fist Jonah would be a different color and so the people of Nineveh would
notice him and wonder what happened to him, it would be a good attention
getter.
At this time I want to quote from John MacArthur’s Study
Bible from “Interpretive Challenges.”
The primary challenge is whether the book is to be interpreted as
historical narrative or as allegory/parable.
The grand scale of the miracles, such as being kept alive 3 days and
nights in a big fish, has led some skeptics and critics to deny their
historical validity and substitute spiritual lessons, either to the constituent
parts (allegory) or to the book as a whole (parable). But however grandiose and miraculous the
events may have been, the narrative must be viewed as historical. Centered on a historically identifiable OT prophet
which lived in the eight century BC., the account of whom has been recorded in
narrative form, there is no alternative but to understand Jonah as
historical. Furthermore, Jesus did not
teach the story of Jonah as a parable but as an actual account firmly rooted in
history (Mt. 12:38-41; 16:4; LK 11:29-32.”
I have to say at this point that I have no problem with
the fact that Jonah lived in the belly of a prepared fist for three days and
three nights. After all God created this
entire universe that goes so far that man cannot tell how far it does go in six
short 24 hour days so why could He not prepare a fist to swallow a disobedient
prophet and then take him for a ride in his belly and listen to the call of God
to spit him out in the exact place where God wanted him to go in the first place.
Another thing we need to remember that Jonah was a sign
to our Lord and that sign was that just as Jonah was in the belly of the great
fish for three days and nights so Jesus Christ would be buried for three days
and nights before He was resurrected from the dead. I have to say that the Jews treated a part of
a day as a whole day and so it is not said that Jonah was there for exactly 72
hours, nor does it say that Christ was in the grave for 72 hours but at least
three days in number. This does not mean
that Jonah was not in the belly of the fist for 72 hours and that Jesus was not
in the grave for 72 hours as I have heard sermons stating that Jesus was
crucified on Wednesday or Thursday so that He would have been in the grave for
72 hours. We are not here to discuss the
length of time other than to say it was three days either partial or whole.
Now we leave Jonah on the
beach at Nineveh where he is where the Lord wants him to be and so in our next
SD we will begin looking at the third chapter.
Dr. Wiersbe entitles his last chapter on Jonah which covers both the
third and fourth chapter of Jonah “Preaching and Pouting.” I look forward to looking at these two
chapters.
11/24/2015 10:08 PM
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