Keith Battle - The Jonah Story - Part 2

I’m in a series called «Jonah: The Jonah Story.» This is part two. Thank you all for being with us today. In Jonah Part Two, we’re going to pick it up beginning at the end of Chapter 1, verse 17. So, if you have access to a Bible, go there now, and we’ll get into this study together. While you’re turning to Jonah, let me give you some background information about the book of Jonah, particularly this 1:17 verse of Chapter 1, which talks about Jonah being swallowed by a fish and being inside that fish for three days and three nights. That is probably the most popular verse in the whole book of Jonah, along with Chapter 2, verse 10, where he was expelled from the large fish. Those two verses are also the most controversial in the book of Jonah. In fact, they are so controversial that many people don’t believe the story is authentically biblical because of these two statements. There are two verses about the whale—or not the whale, but the big fish. The Bible doesn’t call it a whale; it refers to it as a big fish. Some people think that because it doesn’t make rational sense for someone to survive for three days and three nights inside a fish, the entire story must be bogus. However, if you took out Chapter 1, verse 17, and Chapter 2, verse 10, many of those people would be comfortable with the story because it would mean that Jonah was saved from the ocean. But how do you survive in the ocean for three days and three nights, and how do you just get propelled onto the sand? Here’s my response to all the criticism and higher criticism surrounding the story of Jonah: You have to understand that the entire book of Jonah is full of miracles, and what happened to Jonah in Chapter 1, verse 17, and through Chapter 2, verse 10 was a miracle. Miracles by nature defy logic; they are not rational, they are not reasonable, and they are not easily duplicated. They are not something that human ingenuity can accomplish; they are supernatural. It’s a God thing—it is when the impossible becomes possible because God got involved. When it hits a rational mind, it doesn’t add up; it doesn’t make sense; it’s a miracle. It’s similar to if I told you right now that I went to Horace and Dickies in the DMV area and got a two-piece fish sandwich. I asked for three extra pieces of bread, and I told you that I ate that two-piece fish sandwich meal with the three extra pieces of bread, and I couldn’t finish it—I got full and ended up with 12 doggy bags left over. I started with one bag and ended up with 12, and I was full. You would say, «That doesn’t make sense.» Then I would say it gets even better than that; I say 15,000 people actually shared that two-piece fish sandwich and those three extra pieces of bread. They actually shared it, and all 15,000 people were also full, and we still had 12 doggy bags left over as a result of it. You would say, «Man, get out of here. Stop playing. That doesn’t make sense.» That’s fantastical, and I’m saying that’s what miracles are. And that actually took place in the Bible. God can do some great things with fish. In fact, the whole story of Jonah causes people to trip over this whale or fish incident, but the whole book is filled with miracles. Back in Chapter 1, that storm that hit the sea, which targeted that specific ship, was timed, unexpected, and tracked down a runaway prophet; that was a miracle. Moreover, when the sailors didn’t know who was responsible for the storm, they played a game of rock-paper-scissors and found out it was Jonah, as he wasn’t giving up any information—that was a miracle. Then, a storm that was escalating minute by minute stopped as soon as Jonah’s body hit the water—that’s a miracle. The fact that he survived in the water for three days and three nights and then showed up on the beach in Nineveh the next chapter—that’s a miracle; it doesn’t make sense. Then he gets to Nineveh and, with a bad attitude, preached a reluctant message, and the whole city repented—that’s a miracle. From the king to the animals, they were repenting—that’s a miracle. Finally, in Chapter 4, God makes a plant grow to produce shade for him, then sends a worm to eat the stem of the plant, and the whole plant dies, leaving Jonah upset. That’s also a miracle. And I’ll tell you, an even greater miracle, despite Jonah’s terrible attitude, rebellion, and disobedience, is that God still loved him and still wanted to use him—that’s a miracle! The whole book is full of miracles. I don’t understand why people are tripping over God orchestrating a fish that could live in an environment where Jonah would have died to hold him—not to chew him, but to keep him from going through the digestive system and eliminate him.