[Originally published in The Fort Bend Herald]

 Perhaps no Old Testament narrative receives quite the beating Jonah does by those who are unable to accept its account.  It is, after all, the story of a great miracle.  Strangely enough, most of those who reject it as truth are denying the wrong miracle altogether, as Jonah’s story is not the commonly cartooned account of a man making s’mores inside the belly of a whale by campfire.

The key issue of the account by most who reject it seems to be oriented around the fact that a man cannot live for three days in the digestive system of a great fish.  Of course, that which cannot be done – yet is – is the very essence of a “miracle.”  Yet, the real miracle of Jonah has nothing to do with a man living in a fish.  It is, for the doubter, actually much worse.

If one looks carefully at the Hebrew text of the story, the book in no way depicts a man “living” in a fish for three days, but rather a man dying and being resurrected three days later.    The miracle of Jonah is resurrection, not extreme survival “fish edition.”

The gist of the story is commonly upheld correctly:  Jonah, in disobedience to God’s call to preach to Nineveh (a large Syrian city, Israel’s greatest enemy of the time), flees by ocean in the opposite direction where he is cast overboard and swallowed by a great fish.  He prays to God and is three days later regurgitated onto dry ground by the fish, after which he returns to complete his mission.  Jonah was alive when cast from the boat.  He was alive when he was regurgitated onto dry ground.  The incorrect assumption is thus that he was alive for the duration of the ordeal.  He was not.

Chapter two accounts that Jonah, “prayed to the LORD…from the belly of the fish.”  In fact, Jonah was in the belly of the fish, but his account goes on to inform the reader that his body was in fact quite dead there while his spirit went to the “place of the dead.”  Verse 2 notes Jonah’s prayer (after the fact), “out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice.”  Sheol is the Hebrew name for the spiritual abode of the dead.  While the term can be used metaphorically, continued reading of this text informs us that a literal usage of Sheol is in fact what Jonah intended.  Verses 3-5 note Jonah being surrounded by flood waters, which “closed in over me to take my life” (v5) and that weeds (which would be on the bottom of the sea) “wrapped about my head.”  Finally, in verse 6 he notes “I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever; yet you brought up my life from the pit.”

“The pit” is translated from the Hebrew term shahat (shakh’-ath), which is another term related to Sheol in the Old Testament (Ps 55:23, Isa 51:14).  It is where the spirits of dead people went; the “place of the dead.”  Jonah clearly depicts his condition as that of having drowned, then having been swallowed by a fish, and then having been “brought up from the pit,” or resurrected at some point (likely immediately) before being spit out onto dry ground by the fish.

The story of Jonah is that he died and was resurrected on the third day.  Any other understanding misses the whole point of what Jesus later said to the Pharisees:

(Matthew 12:39-40 (ESV))  …“An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.
⁴⁰  For just 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.

Jesus did not build a campfire and make s’mores in the grave any more than Jonah did.  He was dead and raised, just as Jonah was dead and raised.

The message of Jonah is one of resurrection from death.  For this reason alone it was a worthy archetype for Christ to fulfill in full view of his generation of unbelieving Jews.

May our generation understand that denying one miracle – especially in light of Jesus’ own acceptance of it – is to deny the power of the same God who performed the latter as its fruition in Christ.

To deny Jonah because of its miraculous claims is to deny Christ of his.  But if one can believe Christ was dead and three days later raised to life, one should have no problem with Jonah – whose story Christ referenced as his own script.

[Originally published in Fort Bend Herald]

 It seems we all have pursuits in our lives which honestly are of no measurable eternal consequence.  Simply put, we collect things that we perceive to enrich our lives in some tangible way, but that will most certainly be left behind for others to fight over when we depart from this Earth.  From the time of our first job a wish list is started of things that we will pursue and draw satisfaction from owning, using and maintaining; with the latter being the most difficult commitment of product ownership of all.

The fleeting nature of “stuff” has been recently illustrated to me through a classic Robalo boat.  I’ve been around boats all my life and from young adulthood have continually either pursued or endured boat ownership.  My current claim is a twenty five year old vessel that has truly surprised me with its quality, durability – and constant upkeep.

Being a salt water boat, rust is a constant enemy.  I recently acquired and rebuilt a trailer to haul the thing around at great expense of both finance and time invested.  That trailer has now been to the water three times and is already showing that faint, tell-tale sign of fresh rust on the springs, which I coated exceptionally well in a rust-blocking agent.  The clock is ticking.  I have three years before redoing the suspension.

If the trailer were the only maintenance concern I would probably gain two years of livelihood by the end.  But, the fact is that every single portion of this blessed mission of mine deteriorates with a vengeance.  Trailer lights are rewired every few years due to salt water infiltration destroying the copper wiring.  The exterior of the boat must be regularly deoxidized, waxed and repaired from sun damage, nicks and scrapes.  The gauges take turns in monthly increments giving up the ghost while the engine could write its own factory service manual at this point.  The simple fact is, I actually plan out – to the best of my entirely ignorant reckoning – what I expect to break next and how I will have the funding, time and knowledge to repair it when it does.  If I were not a bit of a masochist, actually enjoying my labors on this eternal project of a possession, I might be inclined to let her win quickly and just sink her to the bottom of the ocean.

It is no wonder to me that Jesus said, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Matthew 6:19-21 (ESV)

There exist irreconcilable differences between every atom in this created universe and our own eternal nature and calling.  As it has wisely been stated, “you can’t take it with you,” we might also consider the question, “why would we want to?”  The scriptures teach us that we who are in Christ will one day be resurrected to new bodies, impervious to degradation or death.  We will be ushered into an eternal dwelling place likewise equipped with interminable wealth requiring no maintenance whatsoever.  Until then, Jesus informs us that we have the privilege of storing up true treasure for that day.

When the gospel is shared, eternal treasure is built.  When we serve others in Christ’s name, every hour spent yields countless benefit compared to beating our heads against our temporal projects.  How ironic that so often we find ourselves serving our Lord in ministry capacities only if we perceive ourselves “to have the time” from our pursuit of fretting over that which perishes.  May we rather pursue first that which is eternally rewarding, and only then “if we have time” turn our attention to that which we bother to hang onto for a little while. (Mat 6:33)  May our desires be to keep those things – and our true treasure – in their proper perspectives.  The stuff we can take with us is all that will matter on that day – even while others haggle over the remnants of our rotting possessions left behind.