I had to put my blog comments on the back burner for a while as I was swamped with other things. God scolded Jonah for being concerned about a vine, but not about Nineveh, which had 120,000 lost people. Required fields are marked *. They practiced all kinds of perversion which actually precipitated many of the donts in the Torah. It's not true." The girl says,"Oh yeah? In modern days, the village of Gath Hepher is now known as Mash Had. Also, another point of connection with this activity is when the big fish spit Jonah up onto dry land. The doctor ordered Bartley drenched with sea water, a treatment which restored his consciousness but not his reason, for he babbled incoherently. Jonah and the Fish/Whale. This isnt a gotcha post, I truly want to understand how you square a reading of Jonah as other than accurate with a belief in inerrancy. What Does It Mean That There Is No One Holy Like God? The experiences of the prophet represent a kind of death, burial and resurrection of Christ. God the makes the plant wither and asks him why he should not spare Nineveh which has six thousand people who cannot discern between their right hand and left hand. His fame also arose from the fact that he is the only prophet in the bible that made one prophecy and the same prophecy did not come true as God decided to spare the people of Nineveh after they repented. Thus we don't have to give it an explanation limited by modern experience or knowledge. And God won't give up on you either. 3. While many dismiss the story as a work of fiction, Jesus referred to Jonah as a historical person in Matthew 12:3941. They will fall by the sword, He was alive, but unconscious. What personal detail of Jonah's life does the Book of Jonah reveal about its protagonist? To some, the story of Jonah finds a place in the Scriptures, not as a factual narrative but as a myth or allegory. The shocking truth about "medicine", viruses and vaccines. They toss him overboard, and he is swallowed by a giant fish (the whale). And their pregnant women will be ripped open. 'height':'344', Both to Jonah (a struggling follower) and the Assyrians (an evil people). His tale is often referred to as Jonah and the Whale, but many people are unaware of the background of the popular Sunday school tale. The people of Nineveh heard, understood, and repented in sackcloth and ashes. These are extrapolations and conventions that have been passed down through the ages that have no basis in the original passages. Bible Based.We believe in solo-scriptura. If it is pure fiction, its author could have used this prophet as a character because he wanted to make a point about divine compassion: God, in showing mercy to the Ninevites, humbled this angry, super-patriotic, prophet. Jonahs disobedience to that command (v. 3). Matthew 12:40 "For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.". <> Freeze the ice cube fish. Christ in the Prophets - Jonah. 5 0 obj Keto (Ancient Greek: , Kt, sea monster) Latinized as Ceto is a primordial sea goddess in Greek mythology, the daughter of Gaia and Pontus. Jonah tried to run, but God stuck with him and gave Jonah a second chance. Another longboat picked up the survivors of this encounter, but two men were missing one of them the young apprentice, James Bartley. Verses 39-41 of Matthew 12 tell us, 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 the prophet Jonas: For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whales belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. Greg Laurie, Jonah: The Rebel God Used When God called Jonah to go and warn the violent and . Answer: Joppa. Not surprisingly perhaps, the biggest mothers on earth give birth to the biggest babies. Surprisingly, the Ninevites believed Jonah's message and repented, wearing sackcloth and covering themselves in ashes. God sent a great storm upon the ship and the men decided Jonah was to blame so they threw him overboard. Then, God had the big fish throw up Jonah onto the shores of Nineveh. It's also the only answer here that isn't an objection. What follows is my summary of the article The Historicity of the Book of Jonah (p.1474) taken from the NIV Archaeological Study Bible. But in the end, he learned a valuable lesson about the Lord's mercy and forgiveness, which extends beyond Jonah and Israel to all people who repent and believe. Cut a piece of string about 18 inches long. God had compassion on them and did not destroy them. You lay out an ambivalent response to this question at best, and unless I am misreading, seem in the end to agree with those who dont find the Book of Jonah factual. Growing faint in the sun, Jonah complained again. Jonah was required to walk to every neighborhood and proclaim his warning, thus the longer than normal time it took. Watch. var s = d.createElement(t), options = { Jesus did not consider the book of Jonah to be a fable or myth. I wrote this Jonah post about 5 years ago, so Im having to jog my brain a little bit and re-read it. }i$uJw_?'Ok]1M6`:]L2RO7oO~O9{?|LPAYcH>8Vyz~~>'y~"zC3mPR+%ZOkwOG]ao|VLGc4L~kc}[s-"U738V=: /3[O[7-2?6Py~>gO~nu|ef.R @,^JNC$ud;nx( @v_g?If=};tNO&|e;u])=P}_w5s?o1{8Yic97o>4 S.s~o?~x:~s_gYYg6# ?y'v/Oo?TSG^:R?zYOoO9?z)0l|ltl ^aO$j&LG3_96sd6IY,_g^ki?sYvL;&K_=_"~%_?&Owozo%L*?MWJ>gt_i's9.1?4{]^v@i5lS,nW?-_ They realized the power of God and offered a sacrifice to Him. Plus, a great fish/large whale would not normally have been found in the eastern Mediterranean. Noah is the founding pastor of Mosaic Church, a multi-ethnic church in urban Grand Rapids, MI. Is there some area of your life in which you are defying God, and rationalizing it? The point is, the story is not impossible. 10. "Out of the belly of Sheol I cried, And You heard my voice. Jul 18, 2013 - Play the Jonah and the Whale youth group games with kids pre-school through teen. If you feel an answer is not 100% Bible based, then leave a comment, and we'll be sure to review it. (NLT), Jack Zavada is a writer who covers the Bible, theology, and other Christianity topics. For You cast me into the deep, Into the heart of the seas, And the floods surrounded me; All Your billows and Your waves passed over me. Prophet Jonah- Wikimedia. Jonah feels that the people are his enemies and he believes God will not carry out his threat of destroying the city. He went down to the seaport of Joppa and booked passage on a ship to Tarshish, heading directly away from Nineveh. In the belly of the fish, Jonah finally descends as far as possible and hits (literal) rock bottom the bottom of the sea. In the belly of the whale, Jonah repented and cried out to God in prayer. 2. Instead, God teaches him a lesson. The captain shook him awake and told Jonah to call on his God, as the others in the ship had all called upon theirs. (NKJV text). Your email address will not be published. When Jonah influences the Nineveh people to repent, he is quite angry. The men of Nineveh shall stand up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and behold, a greater than Jonah is here (Matthew 12:38-41). Fill the fish tray with blue colored water (or use plain water). 6. min. They skinned captives and hung their remains on the walls of their cities. Jonah And The Whale: God Won't Give Up On You. Tagged With: Bible, Book Of Jonah, historicity of the bible, is the bible fact or fiction, jonah, jonah and the whale, Jonah: A Veggietales Movie, The Book Of Jonah. Jonah tried to run away from God in the opposite direction of Nineveh and headed by boat to Tarshish. Jonah is used in the bible to show the sovereignty of God in that even though he had refused the calling that he had been given, God still used him as a channel to bring redemption to the people of Nineveh. , This goddess should not be confused with various mythological beings referred to as ketos (plural ketea); this is a general term for sea monster in Ancient Greek. Its also pretty unrealistic that he didnt fall out of the animals mouth as it was chewing its food or that he wasnt chewed up for that matter and slip into the digestive tract where he would have been suffocated. God sent a huge fish to swallow Jonah. His story of Jonah and the whale is the story that was told to the kids in Sunday school and thus made it popular among the Christians. Jonah and the Whale. Biblical story of Jonah and the Whale: Jonah being cast from the belly of the whale. Jonah went to the city and delivered the message. Particular notice is taken, in the history of creation, of Gods creating great whales (Gen. 1:21 ) and the leviathan in the waters made to play therein, Ps. Unlike other prophets whose occupation, families, and time period are described (the life story of Moses, for example, is told in great detail), Jonah is essentially a blank slate. On the third day, God told the fish to spit Jonah out, and the fish spit Jonah out on the land. Ron: It's true that whales are rare in the Mediterranean, but whale skeletons have been found there. Thousands of Vietnamese may come to the burial and mourn the whale's death as if it were a part of their family. Many people miss a similar lesson when reading the Parable of the Prodigal Son. Connecting the reality of the gospel with the grit of life. A serious storm develops (at the hands of God) and the crew feels compelled to cast lots. The book of Jonah is the fifth book in the Christian canons and the Jewish Tanakh. From Jonah's home: {]);\?6/hR~7q`kqN?d:EqZ8*{oiLzt-nCO(Y |Mm`jGg+t{w/z|*O~ t?hm They come to the conclusion that Jonah is the issue with their journey. "Jonah and the Whale Bible Story Study Guide." This is the same term Jesus uses to recount what happened to Jonah and relate it to Himself in Matthew 12:40. Jonah 1:17, referenced as 2:1 in the Hebrew Bible, uses the Hebrew word dag to refer to a broad range of sea creatures. var rs = this.readyState; if (rs) if (rs != 'complete') if (rs != 'loaded') return; x&qy_OwM"spIwijMd(#*y;lmfKajF\K_8Sy3=W/_o~rey\p'zOc,Z,=u3Nyj33l{vig!&{_y>?/_L*iO_~u%6?9_AxX/_ov{?o}OW~_}OLo^U/xfrd>~pJyM%2oKY_[;%/w_t>xS[pG)u8ZS37q{owzW_7]`W%ze.Og>yGn{ oI8^wR}G^}}ZMj_mCT,?/_Q+uneYOOO}J}z(es*Dqr^/w?~_/.2Ttj3eYN9P(v[c_W~Ky&??OO~/YeS]MgYlcZ=vU$d?~_?*usx\C2%?;fCwsy*:*r/;D;-e=,.2_? He could breath, but the hot, fetid odor soon rendered him unconscious and the last thing he remembers was kicking as hard as he could at the soft, yielding stomach. Work together and do something for the record books! Jonah thought he knew better than God. God called out to Jonah and scolded him for being so concerned and worried about just a plant while God was concerned with the heart condition and lives of 120,000 people who lived in the city of Nineveh. If we take this literally (and we should) this was probably a rather unpleasant experience. The author greatly exaggerated the citys size in claiming it would take 3 days to cross it on foot (, There is no historical record that Nineveh experienced a mass revival or conversion. Throughout history, a Satanic Elite Buy on Amazon The ultimate conspiracy is also the most horrible: a Satanic Elite controls all access to power. I found a small mistake at the end of the quote of the seaman's story: "James Bartley -1870-1909 - A Modem Jonah." . The point of the story is that God can provide a supernatural means of rescue when his people are in trouble. Your email address will not be published. When God commands Jonah to go to Nineveh, Jonah initially does something no other prophet does after receiving a divine mission. When he finally repented, God had the whale spit him onto land near Nineveh. The next day, God sent a worm to eat the vine. Some scholars like Alexander Hislop believe that the worship of Dagon is reflected in modern sects like the Catholic Church with at least one example being quite striking: YHWH is the Chess Master. He is the author "Hope for Hurting Singles: A Christian Guide to Overcoming Life's Challenges.". But Nineveh lay across the desert to the east, in the opposite direction: on the Tigris river, north of the site of Babylon - in modern terms, it was in the northern part of Iraq, next door to Mosul. It is not good enough to pick and choose the parts of the Bible you wish you to apply and the parts you dont, nor is it good enough to fudge logic and tell people to believe things that dont stack up rationally. Pixabay. In response, God sent a violent storm, which threatened to break the ship to pieces. In the same way, Jesus died on the cross and spent three days and three nights in the grave, then resurrected. The information is then expounded by scholars for better understanding. God sent a big fish, some call it a whale, to swallow Jonah and to save him from drowning. The second takeaway from the story of Jonah and the whale is an encouragement. For the first six or seven months of life, a baby blue whale drinks about 100-150 gallons (380-570 liters) of his or her mom's fat-laden . God sent a storm to rock the boat and the sailors were distressed. "I'm sick of you guys bickering. 2:1 Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the stomach of the fish, 2 and he said, "I called out of my distress to the Lord, And He answered me. Here are 10 valuable lessons gleaned from Jonah's encounter with the great fish and the people of Nineveh. Confined to a cabin for several weeks and bound so he could not injure himself in his wild flounderings, Bartley gradually regained his senses. The Biblical figure of Jonah and the Book that bears his name are some of the most interesting in human history. He is a grad of Grand Rapids Theological Seminary. A whale, being a mammal, is a warm-blooded air breather that periodically resurfaces for air, so would have provided Jonah with oxygen, while its body heat would have prevented hypothermia. If you study the Bible in seminary, and study Bibles will usually lay this out as well, its pretty normal for the different theories (of any various question) to be laid out side by side. When God caused a great storm to engulf the ship, and the sailors were doing everything they could to save the ship, Jonah was fast asleep, down in the lower decks. Nineveh, the city to which he was sent, was a Gentile city. When a whale is found dead, it is buried on land, and in some cases, a shrine may be resurrected at the whale's burial. He always has economy of energy and when He does something there are layers to it that take generations to unravel, sometimes never. })(document, 'script'); 2023 Johnny Cirucci. Long-living Creatures. In other words, Jonah caught more fish in his net than ever before . They resisted that request, trying to row to shore first, but were unable to. The city was comprised of around 120,000 people. Within a month he was able to relate what had happened to him in his terrifying experience. Whales. var scr = d.getElementsByTagName(t)[0], par = scr.parentNode; par.insertBefore(s, scr); For three days and three nights, Jonah is inside the belly of the fish, where he says a prayer and repents his own sins to God. Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden - Bible Story, The Ten Commandments - Bible Verses and Importance Today, Parable of the Prodigal Son - Bible Story, The Resurrection of Jesus - Bible Story and Prophecy. They speculate that the whale's stomach acid bleached Jonah's hair, skin, and clothing a ghostly white. The fish then released him to dry land that was not far from Nineveh where he was to deliver the message. Jonah is known in the bible as the man who disobeyed God and refused to go to Nineveh as he did not think that the people in the city deserved forgiveness. The lookout spotted a huge sperm whale half a mile off the port bow and gave the cry There she blows! The ships sails were slackened and soon her small boats were lowered. Today. Labels for the sperm whale diagram are eye, head, tail fluke, blowhole, skin, flipper, and teeth. https://www.learnreligions.com/jonah-and-the-whale-700202 (accessed March 4, 2023). Pinterest. Thanks for the heads up and the encouragement, EG. In the midst of judgment God remembers mercy. These whales include the killer whale, narwhal, beluga whale and sperm whale. One scholar explains, "The Hebrew text of Jonah 2:1 actually reads dag gadol, or 'great fish,' rather than a technical term for 'whale.' But since Hebrew possessed no special word for 'whale,' and since no true fishas opposed to a marine mammalis known to possess a stomach as capacious as a whale's, it is reasonable to adhere to the traditional interpretation at this . If a man were to survive in the oral cavity of any fish especially a sperm whale which dives. He begs God to kill him, which He does not. You can read more in-depth Bible verses from the Scripture below and use the articles and videos to understand the meaning behind this teachable event in the Bible. Of course we could still believe that Jonah was indeed swallowed by a whale, but seeing the original message makes you wonder about the entire story and it's . Retrieved from https://www.learnreligions.com/jonah-and-the-whale-700202. Most prophets in biblical history only had a few converts who listened and believed in what they were sent to say. Jonah, that prophet that tried to run away from God, continues to bring us lessons on obedience, running away from God's commands, a hatred that stops one from sharing the Gospel, and many more. With these 60 interesting facts about whales, we will learn more about . God had prepared a large fish to swallow up Jonah, where he stayed and prayed for three days and three nights.