Sing to God, sing praise to his name, extol him who rides on the clouds—his name is the LORD—and rejoice before him. A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling. Psalm 68:4-5
Recently a friend commented he didn't believe in some old man sitting on a cloud telling him how to live. Well, neither do I.
We've had thousands of years to study Scripture, yet for many there exist these erroneous ideas and there remain pop images of spiritual things. Don't you sometimes wonder where they came from, especially when they get used to mock our beliefs?
A lot comes from honest mistakes or people intending to be helpful. An Artist will try to render the un-seeable as a picture the human eye can perceive. Thus the idea of God riding the clouds in Psalm 68 can becomes Michelangelo's Old Man poking through the clouds to point down at Adam. We can be grateful artists did not read the literal translation of Psalm 68:
Sing ye to God -- praise His name, Raise up a highway for Him who is riding in deserts, In Jah [is] His name, and exult before Him. Father of the fatherless, and judge of the widows, [Is] God in His holy habitation. (Young’s Literal Translation)
Otherwise, we may have had endless representations of an old man chasing down widows on a Camel.
Just as much of what we think is real history comes from movies, much of what we accept as in the Bible just comes from popular media. When I was a child, I used to sing a song called "I was Born About ten Thousand Years Ago". (It is also known as The Bragging Song.)
I saw Satan when he looked the garden o'er,
Then saw Adam and Eve driven from the door,
And behind the bushes peeping,
Saw the apple they were eating,
And I'll swear that I'm the guy what ate the core.
Obviously, the core got caught in man’s throat and we’ve called it Adam's Apple ever since.
Solomon's beloved may have envisioned him: "Like an apple tree among the trees of the forest is my lover among the young men" (Song of Solomon 2:3), but nowhere in Genesis when it speaks of the Garden of Eden does it mention apples.
Now the LORD God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. And the LORD God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Genesis 2:8-9
When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. (Genesis 3:6)
We only know the tree had fruit pleasing to the eye and was good for food, but no description of exactly what the fruit looked like. Why someone somewhere at sometime tagged the fruit as an apple, I do not know. Maybe they didn’t like apples. Since some try to turn the whole temptation and fall scene into some sort of repressed sexual myth, it might have been more apropos to make the fruit a pomegranate.
The next verse of "I Was Born About Ten Thousand Years Ago" touches on another misconception:
I saw Jonah when he embarked within the whale,
And thought that he'd never live to tell the tale.
But old Jonah'd eaten garlic
And he gave the whale a colic,
So he coughed him up and let him out o' jail.
Here is a case of an error by earlier Bible translators, most notably in the King James Version. Out of the choices for the Greek, ketos -- sea monster, whale or huge fish -- they choose whale. Perhaps the translators thought only a whale was large enough to swallow a man whole, but this was not consistent with the Hebrew, dag (pronounced dawg) used in the book of Jonah, which means big fish. They should have chosen the word that matched the book being quoted in Matthew.
This simple wrong choice has caused some sniping at Scripture by critics ever since. I recall reading many years ago an attack on the story of Jonah in which the writer stated whales really had small or restrictive throats given their size and would not be able to swallow a man. I don't know if this is fact or not, any more than stories I have read about people who were swallowed whole by such fish as Great White Sharks and lived to tell the tale. I remember one such story told of a sailor so gulped down. His shipmates managed to capture the shark and sliced it open to free the man and he survived the experience. I also read of supposed experts who said a person might survive a period of time in the stomach of a large fish, but would be bleached white by the digestive juices. No wonder the Ninevehians repented. Imagine the appearance of a white ghost before them shouting their doom!
One thing sometimes overlooked is we can't approach such events purely from a human perspective. There is no need to feel we must provide some scientific or natural explanation to miraculous events. Scripture describes God as providing or producing a huge fish to swallow Jonah. This fish may have been a one-time deal, a creation of God's for this singular purpose; that is, an ability to swallow Jonah, hold him prisoner within it's belly for three days and three nights, and spew him out upon the beach unharmed, if somewhat shaken.
Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. (Jonah 1:17)
Is it important whether the popular images of these events are correct? Does it really matter if Jonah was swallowed by a whale or by a big fish? I suppose in some ways, not at all, as long as the story is understood to have happened and the significance of it is understood. Still, even if one small detail isn't of much import on the surface, I think the correct version should be emphasized. Some of these misconceptions do make a difference and some distract from the truth.
And certainly the truth of Jonah in the belly of a wh...uh...big fish is important. Maybe we should take a look at why.
Then some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law said to him, "Teacher, we want to see a miraculous sign from you." (Matthew 12:38)
He answered, "A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a miraculous sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah". (NIV)
And he answering said to them, `A generation, evil and adulterous, doth seek a sign, and a sign shall not be given to it, except the sign of Jonah '. (Young's Literal Translation)
But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of Jonas. (King James Version)
But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given it but the sign of Jonah. (American Standard Version) [Matthew 12:39 from four translations]
Let's walk up to anyone at random on an American street.
"Excuse me for asking, but who was Jonah"
"He was the guy got swallowed by a whale."
"And then what?"
"Oh, it's a whale of a tale. He built a little fire on the raft he was on and when the whale sneezed he whooshed out on the wave."
"I believe you're thinking of Pinocchio. I'm talking about Jonah in the Bible."
"Oh, that old fish story."
"Well, you're getting warmer. He was swallowed by a big fish, not a whale."
"Okay, big whoop. So, how'd he get out?"
"The fish vomited him out onto the shore."
"EEEEouuuuu!"
"And if you don't understand the sign of Jonah, God might vomit you out, too!" (Well, I probably shouldn't actually say that, it might be considered offensive. I admit it sounds yucky. On the other hand, if it is an important point do we pull our punches; soften our blow, just because someone might find it a bit gross? If it does seem somewhat unscriptural to put it this indelicate way I suggest you read Revelation 3:14-16.)
14 And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God;
15 I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.
16 So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.
Most people remember Jonah being swallowed because as children it was a popular Sunday school lesson or they have seen many illustrations of some bearded guy being gulped down by a whale. I don't know how many actually read Jonah. Perhaps they think he is a character in Moby Dick. Admittedly, Jonah can be a hard book to find in the Old Testament being so few pages long. If you haven't read it, go do so now. It shouldn't take more than five minutes to read once you find it. There are only 4 chapters, 33 paragraphs and 1,751 words in the NIV translation. It's tucked in there between Obadiah and Micah. (That should make it easier to find, right? I used to have a minister who every once in awhile would refer the congregation to a verse in Hezekiah. Boy, you should have heard all the pages turning and he'd just chuckle, hee hee hee!)
But why is this strange little story even there? And what's all this vine and worm stuff at the end? Why should we care about this guy Jonah at all?
Because there is a lot of important information compressed into this little story, ideas that should concern you and me.
First let's familiarize ourselves with the story.
We first hear of Jonah in 2 Kings 14:23-25 and learn he was the son of Amittai (name means My Truth). Jonah (whose name means Dove) was a prophet from Gath Hepher serving under King Jeroboam II of Israel. Jeroboam II ruled from 793 BC to 753 BC. Jonah's adventures with the big fish probably occurred around the year 785 BC. (As an aside, Jonah also appears in the Qur'an [Koran] in Sura X, which is kind of long and boring to read quite frankly.)
One day "the word of God came to Jonah" with an assignment. Get up to Nineveh post haste, Jonah! (Nineveh was an important Assyrian city, one that would become the capital of the Assyrian Empire in about five decades after Jonah's trip. It was at the site of modern day Mosul, Iraq, where my daughter was for awhile when deployed to Iraq in 2003.) This wasn't a pleasure trip; it was all business. God was unhappy with the wickedness there and Jonah was to tell the people to straighten up and fly right or God was going to do a Sodom and Gomorrah on them.
Jonah packed his bag and jumped onto a boat at Joppa -- heading in the exact other direction. He had no intention of warning those people. They were bad. What kind of bad? Nahum tells us they were making evil plots against God, were exploiting the helpless, exceedingly cruel in war and if that weren't enough, they were hip deep in prostitution, idol-worship and witchcraft. Jonah wasn't going to go one mile out of his way for such folk, let alone 500.
Jonah, as a paying passenger, went to his quarters and slept. While he was snoring, God hit the boat with a furious storm. The seaman were scared enough to start praying to their own gods, which didn't help at all. It got so bad the ship captain roused Jonah and told him to get up there and pray to his God, too.
Meanwhile, the sailors were casting lots trying to figure out who might be responsible for what had befallen them and all signs pointed to Jonah. They already knew he was on their ship in disobedience to his God, because he had told them so when he bought his ticket. Figuring this might have something to do with the problem, they asked him what to do. Give Jonah some credit. He said, "Pick me up and throw me into the sea."
Give those sailors some credit, too. Bad as things were, they didn't really want to kill the guy. They did everything possible to row out of the storm, but realized it wasn't going to happen. After some heartfelt prayers to The God, they tossed Jonah overboard.
Soon as they did, the sea grew calm and you had a bunch of guys who recognized who the real God was.
This didn't help Jonah, though. He was sinking like a he had a heart of stone (which maybe he did). Looked pretty bad for Jonah, flailing around helplessly in open water, but God had a plan; God always has a plan. God had prepared (noticed, PREPARED) a big fish to swallow him and for the next three days and three nights Jonah got to think hard about what he could have done and should of done and wished he would have done.
Jonah spent his time praying; always a good idea in tight situations, besides what else is there to do inside a fish? He prayed for forgiveness with thanksgiving and he promised to make good on his mission. With that, God caused the fish to throw up and Jonah found himself back on dry land. He must have been a mess.
Well to make a short story even shorter, Jonah went to Nineveh and spent the next three days telling them to repent or perish. Then he stood back to see what would happen.
What happened was the people of Nineveh did repent and turned to God for mercy and were spared destruction (at least for this time. They kind of backslid later and didn't fare so well as a result, but that's neither here or there.)
Jonah wasn't happy about this. He was angry. He wanted to see those Assyrians get theirs. He wanted the big pyrotechnic ending. He didn't get it and just sat and mumbled about it. He was so mad he told God that was why he never wanted to come here, because he knew God was forgiving and merciful. Jonah was so absorbed in self-pity over not getting his own way he suggested God let him die. God simply asked him what right he had to be angry?
Jonah went off to brood. And what did God do? He provided a vine to shade the man so he'd sulk in comfort. Jonah was pretty happy about that. He adored that nice cooling vine, but then God had a worm chew down the vine at dawn and when the sun began beating down Jonah wanted to die again.
But God said to Jonah, "Do you have a right to be angry about the vine?"
"I do," he said. "I am angry enough to die."
But the LORD said, "You have been concerned about this vine, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. But Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about that great city?" Jonah 4:9-10
Who made the vine? God. Jonah had made a little shelter, but it was the cooling vine, which really provided him with protection from the heat. Who made the worm that chewed down the vine? God. Then the sun blazed down on Jonah because man is never as adequate in what he builds for his own salvation, as is what God provides. But did Jonah express appreciation for the time the vine did give him comfort? No, he felt he was entitled to that vine and he was angry and sulking again. Jonah was a pretty self-absorbed fellow. Here he was thinking only of himself, angry over a vine he had nothing to do with and not caring a fig about the fate of one hundred and twenty thousand people and their animals. And God had even told him those people were ignorant of right and wrong and needed guidance to know their right hand from their left. Jonah had a duty to try to show the people the way.
And what is God saying? You worry about your own comfort and things you didn't raise a hand to tend or make. God made and tended those people, all people. They may have been mean and nasty people, but despite that God cared about them. He wasn't going to wipe them out without giving them a chance to change. He made them, he tended them, he had a right, like the vine, to grow them or dispose of them as he saw fit. It wasn't what Jonah wanted; it was what God willed.
We're all a lot like Jonah if we're honest with ourselves. How many Ninevehians have you wanted to wipe out in your life?
"Hey, look at that fool drive. He cut me off. Now he’s driving too slow in the left lane! I hope he slams into a tree and kills himself."
"Man, those Wall Street guys don't deserve to make that much more money than me. I work hard. They probably got it by cheating or because of whom they know. Look, they're taking that CEO out in handcuffs. Oh, I'm lovin' it. Hope he gets life at hard labor."
"Did you see that? That guy jumped the line and got the last Dove Cameron concert tickets. What'll I tell my kid, I promised her...hey buddy, drop dead!"
"I hate comedians making all those jokes about my faith. Using all those four-letter words to do it, too. I wish lightening would strike them."
"Those people over there, always trying to kill anyone who doesn't agree with them, even blowing themselves up to do it. I hope they all rot in hell!"
Are we any different than Jonah? Do we see beyond our own comfort zones? Do we look at what others do and stop and pray for them? Do we care about their life or soul? Can we get beyond our own hate to love those who hate us? Can we get beyond our own love of self to love others, for that matter?
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