Last weekend we started our series—“The Deep,”—a journey through the book of Jonah.
People struggle with this book more than any other in the Bible—not sure why? Seriously, I’m not.
Genesis begins with the Almighty God, Creator of the universe who had no beginning and will have no end—shaping our little planet and filling it with all kinds of living things in a literal 7 days. Polls show that most still believe this—despite what that 60’s, hippy prof at the enlightened university told you–everyone believes.
However, Jonah’s story–a man being swallowed by a big fish? That’s a deal-breaker for some.
And for the hippy prof? He has no problem considering the single cell larva in a primordial swamp as his great, great, great, great, great…grandfather—and the chimpanzee as his long lost brother, but he too will cringe at the thought of Orca swallowing a man at sea.
Go figure.
I say we all have faith. Even the Atheist has faith—faith that everything came from nothing, faith that order came from disorder. Faith that the universe, the stars, moons and planets with all their intricacies, humans and creatures of all kinds with all it takes to sustain them—all appeared by random chance. I say, “Wow! Talk about faith!”
So I applaud the atheist. He is a man of great faith. I don’t have that much. Certainly not enough to be an atheist.
On the other hand, I have no problem with a great big grouper, or whale swallowing a man. That just seems like a no-brainer for a hungry mammal like a giant 70 foot long, sperm whale, weighing in at nearly 20 tons—to see a man struggling in the water as a fairly easy snack option. So I’ve moved past this hurdle and on to the powerful lessons we can all learn from the life of Jonah.
I hope you do too—because week two of our ‘Jonah’ series has some life-changers for anyone willing to listen!