When The Fish Fished a Man

I’ve always loved the Jonah-fish/whale/sea creature story. As a kid, it gave my wild imagination a lot to chew on (we shall not go into my, err, very crazy wild imagination today). So when I got to Church today and my pastor asked us to turn to the book of Jonah, I was like preach it pastor! After having read and heard that story countless times (I even remember a picture book in which Jonah had a desk and a candle in the belly of the fish!), I was quite surprised at the whole new level my pastor took it to and I had several Eureka moments.

The first was the controversy surrounding the fish and how anatomically impossible it is for a whale to swallow a grown man. On one side of the controversy is the school of thought that the entire story couldn’t have happened, hence disproving the authenticity of the Bible. On the other side are the Bible scholars who, maybe in attempting to redeem the reputation of scriptures, say that scripture’s reference to the fish was just metaphorical and could have meant that Jonah went through a difficult and life-threatening situation after he was thrown from the ship. Now, what if it really is impossible for any sea creature at all to swallow a grown man alive? What if it is totally impossible for a man to survive in a digestive system for three long days without maybe getting digested? How was he able to breath? How did he survive three days without at least water? The questions are endless, all pointing to the impossibility of the situation but I think that is the very best explanation for that bit of scripture, it was impossible! And God is a God who shows up and makes the impossible possible. Maybe we don’t need an explanation for the fish or whatever, maybe that is where exactly faith has its work, believing in a God who makes the impossible possible. Maybe it is exactly when we reach the very constraints of reason that faith steps in.

Next Eureka moment was when the pastor said this: there is a BIG difference between discipline and punishment. In fact, they are two totally different things. Punishment is the infliction or imposition of a penalty as retribution for an offense. Discipline on the other hand is training that corrects, moulds, or perfects the mental faculties or moral character. The purpose of discipline is to teach or train, to mould and build character. It is easy to say that God punished Jonah for turning tail and running in the opposite direction, but what God did instead was discipline him. That was huge for me. I can now get rid of the picture in my head of God being this man with a stern look on His face and his fist raised, waiting to punish me when I sin. Instead, I should see Him as a Father who disciplines me in love when I go wrong because He knows that my sin hurts me just as it hurts Him. And besides, God does not need to punish us for our sins anymore because guess what? Christ already took the punishment on Himself on the cross. It is finished already.

In Jonah 2, Jonah cried out to God from the belly of the fish/whale/sea creature and in verse 1 he said “in my distress, I called to the Lord, and He answered me.” The original Hebrew word translated to “distress” here is Tsarah which actually refers to the distress a woman goes through during labour. It seems like an interesting term for Jonah to use but you know what? He described his pain as one that had a promise at the end of it. It has been argued that the pain you feel when you have kidney stones is the closest thing to labour pains but you don’t get a baby at the end of that! Lesson to learn from this? Jonah prayed with understanding, he didn’t just say a prayer of hopelessness. It is one thing to cry and say “Oh God, I don’t have a job and my bills are pilling, what am I going to do? Life is hard.” It is something else entirely to say “Oh God, I don’t have a job and my bills are pilling but I know You’ll supply my needs. Life is so hard right now but You’ll always make a way and You’ll never leave me nor forsake me.” I realized today that it isn’t just enough to cry out to God, it matters how I cry out and what my understanding of God is as I cry out. Am I crying out hopelessly or in bitterness or in faith, even in the face of the most impossible of situations (ask Jonah, he knew a thing or two about impossible). One thing I need to always remember is this: God will ALWAYS come through, always. I don’t need to stress about the how or the what, He will. Who knows, maybe it just might be an ant swallowing a man next, what does it matter? God will always come through!