The Fish Story That Made Me Question the Bible

Hey friends, welcome back to becoming a boss. Today we're wondering did Jonah really get swallowed by a whale? Because a person being swallowed by a fish is impossible, isn't it? If I'm being honest, it's stuff like this that kept me an unbeliever because I wouldn't even consider the Bible to be a viable source of information for like a really long time. But guess what friends, I changed my mind and so can you because healthy minds are open to change. Now if I can get over my own small-mindedness, you can do because your girl is very stubborn. For the longest time, I used to think Outback Steakhouse was the fanciest and classiest restaurant in the whole entire world. Really? But you know what? When I was a kid, my family did not go to Outback Steakhouse. We didn't even go to McDonald's. So I really did not have a lot of contacts for eating out at all. And then when I was a teenager, started to get a little money on my own, I bought my own McDonald's. They used to have double cheeseburgers for like a dollar. Do you remember that? But then after a couple of years, I had a kid myself and I got smacked right back into the poverty that I was fighting so hard to climb out of. What I'm trying to say is that my own personal experiences did not allow for me to realize that there was more in the world for me. No shade to Outback by the way because I will go there right now and try to eat a whole entire blooming onion all by myself. I don't know what your circumstances were growing up, but that's the thing. We all have different experiences which can lead us to different conclusions. So it's good to share with other people and get a new perspective. None of us have brain patterns that are 100% correct 100% of the time. I also used to think that credit cards were free money. Shoot, some of y'all still think that. Y'all need Jesus. And ma'am, no, you didn't need to buy that other scarf. You have 27 scarves in your closet and you don't even wear them. They're like closet decorations basically. Okay, okay. I know changing your mind can be super scary, but not changing your mind can be even scarier. I thought like a child when I was a child, but at some point we need to grow up because the Bible says that we should renew our minds. Renew meaning to renovate. We're walking around and stuff gets stuck to us on accident. Like you know when you hear a song and it's stuck in your head the whole day, but you literally heard it for 5 seconds. It's stuck on you. So, that's why it's important for us to renovate our minds. We can't walk around with that same song being stuck in our head until we're 97. Let's get back to my own confession here. After a really long time of believing the Bible was a whole bunch of crap, also some divine intervention, I opened Jonah again and saw it in a whole new way. But, here's the thing. I kept reading it and I kept on seeing it in a new way, which is totally nuts because it's only four chapters. How complex could it really be? But, the answer is you're about to find out cuz we're going to go through them. So, hold on to your butts. First things first, if you haven't read Jonah for a long time or you've never read it at all, let me give you a quick recap so that you know where we're at. Jonah level one. You can follow along in your Bible with me, but I'm in the Meglish version, so keep up. Okay, so chapter one tells us that Jonah is a prophet, which is basically like somebody who communicates for God in the olden days. God's first round draft picks, if you will. In the opening line of the book, he's told to go and preach to the great city of Nineveh because they are behaving so wickedly, and they are super wicked in fact, which might be why Jonah doesn't want to go. Instead of following God's direction, what does he do? He gets on a ship that's headed in the complete opposite direction. Jonah is taking a power nap below deck when a violent storm kicks up. This wasn't a regular storm though, it was an extremely violent storm. So, the sailors start panicking. After they do all the things that they know how to do, they start crying out to their little G gods and they're throwing cargo overboard. None of these things does the trick though, so they resort to casting lots, which is pretty much like rolling the dice for supernatural intervention. And guess what? The lots fall on Jonah. Shocker. So, the sailors go to Jonah, they start interrogating him, asking him all types of questions. Where are you from? Where are you going? Why are we in this violent storm? And Jonah admits that he worships the Lord, the big G God, the one who made the land and the sea, the creator of heaven and earth. Jonah also confesses that this whole big storm is because he was running from what God told him to do. So, the sailors plead with Jonah trying to get him to tell them what to do. And Jonah says, "Just throw me overboard. After you throw me overboard, the sea will calm down." But, the sailors do not want to do that because he will surely die. And they especially probably don't want to throw him overboard because now they know he's a prophet and he worships the big G God. They don't want to kill this dude. So, I don't know why, but they try rowing back to shore one more time, but of course it doesn't work. So, they give up and they toss him over, but not before crying out to the big G God for forgiveness. So, Jonah sinks to the bottom, but he doesn't drown because the Bible says that the Lord provided a great big fish to swallow him. Immediately, the storm dies down, which then causes the sailors to start freaking out. They start making sacrifices immediately to the big G God of Jonah, and they even make vows to him and everything. In chapter two, we learn that Jonah was in the fish for three days, where he finally cries out to the Lord for help. He thanks God for not abandoning him, and he promises to go do his job now. And just like that, the big fish barfs him up right on shore. Jeez. So, now we're in chapter three, and God tells Jonah again, "Go and preach to the city of Nineveh." But, this time, Jonah obeys. Well, I don't know if I would call it preaching because his whole entire sermon is five Hebrew words. I don't know about you, but I've never been to church where the preacher just says five words and then walks out, but hey. At least he's there. This is a really big city, and Jonah has barely moved through it at all when word reaches to the king. And the king, who has this terrible reputation of putting people's heads on sticks and skinning them alive and all types of crazy and disgusting things, he immediately makes a declaration that the whole entire city should fast and repent immediately. So, they're not going to eat, they're not going to do anything fun, they're going to sit in sackcloth and ashes, and even orders the cattle to repent, too. And so, the Lord relents. He doesn't bring the destruction on them after all. He just forgives them after everything that they've done. And Jonah, y'all, he loses his mind. He is so mad at God for forgiving them, it's crazy. And the Bible says he basically stomps his feet and hollers at the Lord and says, "See, this is why I didn't want to come here in the first place. I knew you would forgive them. Just freaking kill me now, why don't you?" And I know what you're thinking, Jonah, calm down. But you know, God is chill because nothing surprises him. He already knows it all. God responds to Jonah with a simple question, saying, "Is it right for you to be angry?" But Jonah doesn't answer. Not a word. Nothing. It's like European baseball, crickets. Instead of getting a response back from Jonah, we learn that Jonah has set up camp outside the city to see what would happen to them. I don't know what he's expecting, but it's hot out there, and he is sweating the Ninevites, and he's also sweating bullets because it's really hot. And God sees how uncomfortable Jonah is, so he overnight grows up this big leafy plant to provide shade, and Jonah gets comfort, and he's very happy about the plant. But the next morning, God sends a worm to eat the plant, and it died overnight. Just as quickly as it arose, it dies. Just like that. Jonah, again, is furious and also wishing to die again. He's a very emotional prophet. And so, God, again, poses another question to Jonah. It's almost exactly like the first one, and he says, "Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?" And Jonah does reply this time, and he says, "Yes, it is right for me to be angry about the plant. In fact, I'm so angry, I just want to die. Just kill me right now. But again, God is not triggered. Calm and cool as a cucumber, God responds one last time, and this is how the book ends. He says, "Jonah, you didn't have anything to do with growing this plant. You didn't feed it, you didn't water it, you didn't tend to it, nothing. Plus, it was only here for a day. And what you're telling me is that it's okay for you to care so much about this plant, which you have zero investment in, but it's not right for me to care about the 120-plus thousand people in Nineveh, plus the animals." And that's it. It ends right there, on a cliffhanger. We have no idea what's going to happen. Will Jonah decide to accept God's sovereignty along with his mercy, or will he choose to remain prideful and angry? That's it for now, friends. Come back next time for Jonah level two.