Jonah & Whale

It has been a while since my last article. I have been very busy. Sorry.

Anyway, sometime in November 2009 I led a group of tourists to South Africa. To my surprise South Africa is a very beautiful, developed and scenic country. It reminded me so much of the countries of New Zealand and Australia. There are places after visiting once is just enough; South Africa is not one of those.

During my tour from Cape Town to Johannesburg, we had an opportunity stop at a small town known as Hermanus. It is a major tourist destination in South Africa because it is simply the best place in the world to watch whales there. It was amazing watching the whales at such a close distance. I could not resist but thought of the story of Jonah in the Bible.

The story of Jonah and the whale is too important to be left as just a children’s story. There are lots of life lessons in the Book of Jonah for children and adults. Jonah’s story teaches us about obedience, willingness of spirit, gratitude, compassion and God’s patience and mercy.

God wanted him to preach to the Ninevites but he hopped on a boat headed for Tarshish instead, attempted to run away from God. During the night, a huge storm came and rocked the boat wildly. The crews were very afraid and beginning to pray to their gods. They started to draw lots to determine who was causing the uproar. The lot fell on Jonah and he requested to be thrown overboard.

As Jonah was sinking, a big fish (whale) swallowed him. Jonah sat in the whale’s belly for three days and nights. He spent that time in prayer, thanking God for saving him. He realized the miracle that God has effected to save him and he was truly grateful. Here we see God’s great mercy and compassion. He could have let Jonah suffer the consequences of his actions and drown. Yet, God intervened and spared Jonah’s life.

This same issue is with us today. We often complain to God about the consequences of our sins but do we ever wonder how often He has spared us from consequences? I rarely ever think about that. There are times where we even doubted God’s guidance in our daily living. We question God’s existence and power. We begin to lose the first love. How wretched we are!!!? “For the good that I would I do not; but the evil which I would not, that I do.” (Rom 7:19).

May God have mercy on us and may we be revived in Christ daily.