The Real Meaning of Life

https://biblehub.com/nkjv/jonah/1.htm

Please. Read about Jonah. I know it’s one of those Bible stories that everyone knows; Jonah was swallowed by a whale and was in his belly for three days before God saved him. Or at least that’s the story they tell to little children to try to hold their attention in church. But the Book of Jonah is much more than just a children’s story.

Jonah was what we call a “minor” prophet. God basically used him for just one task, and that was it, or at least, that we know of. There may have been other things God called Jonah to do, but aren’t recorded in the Bible; we don’t know.

God called Jonah to go to a place called Nineveh and warn them about their behavior. And this is the character of God, the same as Jesus. Jesus came to earth to teach, to show us how to live properly. Most think all He came for was to save us from our sins by dying on the cross, but I think His main purpose was to show us the true character of God (not the character that had been portrayed and recorded by the authors of the Old Testament), and also to show us how to live. Jesus was a teacher. He began teaching in the temple when He was just a child. He used parables, parables that can be applied and interpreted in many ways to fit life in various situations.

Even when tested, Jesus didn’t simply “give the correct answer”, He taught the correct answer, showed us where we had it all wrong. God had sent prophets to warn us of the result of sin, to teach us the right way to live, to correct us and get us back on the right path. But as it is referred to in the New Testament, “we killed those prophets” (not all, but some). And guess what, Jesus was a prophet as well, and yes, we killed Him too.

To get to the point, God called on Jonah to go to the people of Nineveh and warn them of the result of sin (He didn’t just sit on His throne and wait for the right opportunity to rain fire down and slaughter them all…okay, I’ll stop), He loved the people of Nineveh and wanted to correct them before it was too late.

And Jonah ran. He didn’t want to be a prophet. He didn’t want to go to Nineveh. You can read various accounts as to why he didn’t want to go, but the Bible itself isn’t specific. We just know that Jonah ran from God’s assignment, and later was angry that the people of Nineveh had actually repented.

Jonah hops on a ship, not a cruise ship like we know today but likely a very crude large wooden boat, and was asleep in the hull when a big storm came up. We are all taught that God sent this storm, but I have other ideas. In everything I read, I look at the love God has for us and when something bad happens, I blame the Biblical character. So I believe the storm came up as a natural result of Jonah running from God.

Scripture says that the other shipmen began praying to their gods, so apparently they were idolaters. Would a storm have came up if Jonah hadn’t been on the boat? Who knows? When you turn from God, a wide variety of things can happen to you, family, financial, work, etc. All I know and believe is that this storm came up because Jonah was separating himself from God.

Long story short, they throw Jonah overboard, because even he knows the storm is because of him, and the storm dies. When we have problems in life, is our first thought that the problems were caused because we have distanced ourself from God? Since I started this method of Bible Study, I do. When something doesn’t go as I had planned or when I face an obstacle in life, my first thought is me. And usually I can trace it back to a sin I committed, a sin I knew I shouldn’t have done, but did it anyway. And let me tell you, that can keep you on the straight and narrow. I want a good life, the kind of life you can only get by keeping close to God. And yes, He is wonderful.

There is a story about a drowning in a lake or reservoir in the northern part of Kansas, the state where I’m from. The Dive Team went under to search for the body and they quickly came up, quite rattled. As they took their mask off, they explained that there were catfish at the bottom of the lake that were big enough to eat a human being. The world record catfish was caught in Poland and was 9.7 feet long (I’m 6′ 3″) and there is a breed of catfish that can reach 770 lbs. (I’m 320). So yes, there are catfish that are very likely big enough to attack and eat a human.

The story is that Jonah was eaten by a whale, but the Bible simply says is was a fish. And is it a coincidence that he was in the belly of the fish for 3 days and 3 nights? Jewish history says that Moses was in his grave for 3 days and 3 nights before God resurrected him and took him to heaven, and we all know that was the length of time Jesus slept in His tomb. Wouldn’t it be amazing to discover that both Moses and Jonah rested in their places on the Sabbath, and that the fish belched Jonah up on a Sunday morning?

What can we learn from today? God may call on you to do His work for Him. If God calls, will you obey, or will you try to run? (You can run, but you can’t hide.) And if you run, are you prepared for the consequences? If you sin, are you prepared for the consequences? If you run, are you prepared to stay in the belly of a great fish for three days, with stomach acid and other half-digested fish? I would venture to guess that Jonah did not have a good time during those three days. And you know our God is an awesome God because He kept Jonah safe from being digested with the other stomach contents as well. Bill Murray thought he had it bad when he was “slimed” in the movie Ghostbusters; imagine how Jonah was “slimed”.

I’ve done enough rambling for the day. We’ll continue talking about Jonah tomorrow. God bless everyone!