Three days Jonah sits there in the belly of the fish. What was he thinking and what was he doing? I always get the picture of Pinocchio in my
mind thinking about him there alone, sorting out what was happening and what
was going to happen next. He is finding the
truth that if he goes down to the depths there is the presence of the Lord and
trying to come to grips with that reality but for three days he seems not to
make a move until he prays. When he
prays he proclaims that God cast him into the deep and swallowed him up and
then God heard Jonah's prayer and delivered him when he said the magic words,
"Salvation belongs to the Lord."
At that moment the fish spit him up on dry land, a strange sight
indeed. What will Jonah do next? Has he learned anything at all? Sometimes we get deliverance from our
difficulties and forget the mercy we have been shown. Jonah has received mercy after mercy without
seeming to recognize that he needed mercy.
The Lord could easily have sent someone else to do this job, someone who
was actually willing to go and do the work.
The disciples go out, preaching and healing. We take it for granted because we are so
familiar with this scene but in truth it was an odd thing to do. These men had only recently been fishermen,
zealots, tax collectors and such who had never met this Jesus of Nazareth and
now they are itinerant preachers and faith healers. It isn't surprising that there might be a few
places they weren't welcomed into the town.
While they are away Herod is trying to sort out this Jesus
phenomenon. He appeared on the scene
with power just as Herod had John the Baptist killed so it seemed to him that
Jesus must be the re-incarnation of John while others believed Jesus to be a modern-day
Elijah. When the disciples return, all
are overjoyed but the crowds won't allow them time to process their experience
and they aren't prepared for Jesus to do this miracle of feeding the multitude
and are certain they can't do so themselves.
Who indeed is this man?
Pretty reasonable decision by the centurion to pay more
attention to the pilot and owner of the ship rather than Paul, the tent-making
evangelist who was a prisoner wasn't it?
Paul foresaw great problems with the journey they were about to
undertake and counseled the centurion to not make the trip but the soldier
chose to go with the voices of experience.
As they deal with exactly what Paul had promised, he stands in the midst
of the chaos of jettisoning cargo and rolling seas and says, don't worry, we're
all going to live, an angel of the Lord appeared to me and told me so. Contrast this with Jonah's shipboard experience. Paul was definitely the man for the job he
had been given. He had faith.
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