So then, the Book of Jonah has not got to do with a man being swallowed by a whale! But the prophecy of Jonah has got to do with a spirit of unyielding opposition and disobedience to the Will of God by the Children of God.
It is one of the most searching books, in fact in the whole of the Old Testament – and the New Testament as well. And small wonder that Satan has spent so much time and energy on deflecting the believers' heart and minds away from the essential message of its pages, lest their heart and their minds should be duly searched in the reading of them.
You know the kind of thing that happens, and has happened with so many in the past apparently? Along comes one of the world's sceptics who wants to down the testimony of the Word of God in the life of a professing child of God. Invariably the Book of Jonah comes under the lash of his tongue: “You don't mean to tell me,” he says “that a person like you believes that story about a man being swallowed by a whale?” The believer doesn't have a ready answer, perhaps – especially in the young years of his Christian profession when he is most likely to be met with this opposition – and so, off he goes to make one or two enquiries, and read up on one or two authorities on this kind of question. Yes! Of course he discovers, a fish can swallow a man just as that fish swallowed Jonah so many years ago. Why, the history of the sea, even up to this present time, is full of incidents like that recorded in the Book of Jonah. And so, back he goes to his assailant armed to the teeth with his shattering information! He's got the victory! He's laid the devil low! And what's more, he has at last uncovered the mystery of the fifth book of the Minor Prophets, and he goes on his way rejoicing!
And the devil– You say. Ah, the devil rubs his hands with glee; for yet another believing child of God has fallen for his well-tried bait. The poor believer thinks that the has landed the greatest fish in the world, but it's he himself that has been reeled-in by the greatest angler in the world. And the soul-searching message of the Book – the message of the evil of failing to render heart obedience to the will and to the purpose of God – is left unread and unstudied in the life of yet another professing child of God.
(From our Introduction to the Book of Jonah.)
This Page Title – “More than the tale of a whale” thoughts from the introduction to the book of Jonah by Jack Seaton The Wicket Gate Magazine "A Continuing Witness". Internet Edition number 85 – placed on line July 2010 Magazine web address – www.wicketgate.co.uk |