Title Jonah 2 (Jon 01:17)
Contents 1. Sequel to Jonah
Everyone, do you like movies? When a movie is a huge hit at the box office, a sequel is released soon after. This is the second volume in the words of children. In some cases, there are even 3 or 4 episodes. However, if it is not a film originally planned as a series, the first film to be released has a complete composition and story in its own right. In other words, there is no need for a sequel. The soap opera is not. If you watch a soap opera once, you must see the next one. Because the story is not over. However, the sequel of the movie does not continue to show the unfinished story, but creates a new story with the success of the previous film on its back.
Let's take the movie 'Superman' as an example. In the first part, the administrator of a planet named Krypton imprisons the bad villains in a special glass-shaped prison and sends them into outer space. This is not very important in the Superman story. The important thing is that after a while Krypton was destroyed, and this magistrate sent his young son to Earth to save him. Then, the baby becomes Superman on Earth and does dazzling activities. Fight villains, save people from disasters, and fall in love with a pretty girl. And the movie ends. It could have ended like that, but the movie was a hit and a second part was made. Part 2 tells where the story begins, and the prison of the villains that was blown into space in part 1 is broken because a nuclear test is carried out in outer space. And the fight between the villains and Superman is the main story. If Part 2 had not been made, no one would have remembered those villains who were banished to outer space.
Jonah 1 is a perfect movie. Jonah disobeys God's command and succeeds in boarding a boat to Tarshish after an operation that surpasses 007 in order to disobey God. So Jonah went down to the bottom of the boat and slept comfortably, but the sudden attack from God reached the point where not only Jonah but all the people on the boat were killed. Conflicts between people, crisis, and the climax that occur in the extreme situation, the sailors throwing Jonah into the sea at the climax, the dramatic reversal in which the storm stops when Jonah is thrown into the sea, and the scene where the sailors offer sacrifices to God. The curtain falls. The film ends with a deep impression and unforgettable lesson.
That alone makes for a great scenario. But if you read 1:17, it is like the beginning of a sequel to a movie. Meanwhile, what happened to Jonah when he was thrown into the sea? Without a sequel, Jonah would have drowned or turned into shark food in the imagination of the readers. But this sequel doesn't allow that. Rather, this is where the main plot of the film begins. So, the first part was just a prelude, and the really interesting story starts now.
2. God's judgment on the righteous
God's judgment may come upon God's people. But this judgment will never destroy the righteous. God's judgment on the wicked is to destroy them. Noah's flood was also intended to destroy the living creatures on this earth where iniquity prevailed, and the judgment of fire on Sodom and Gomorrah was also intended to destroy them because of their sins. But when David sinned before God, God judged David, but it was not to destroy David. David expressed that he shed tears of repentance to the extent that his bed floated in tears before God's judgment. Through that judgment, David was able to break down the wall that had been blocked by his sin and restore his relationship with God. After the rain, the ground hardened. For the wicked, judgment will be rain that sweeps away everything, but for the righteous, it becomes rain that strengthens the earth, confirming God's love and reminding them of God's salvation.
God saved Jonah by putting a big fish on hold and swallowing Jonah as he fell into the water. They left the dangerous and dangerous ships of the Phoenicians and were transported to God's sturdy and safe submarine. However, many people at this point question the historicity of the book of Jonah. How can a man enter the belly of a fish and live for three days without dying? It is also said that no matter how large a whale or shark it is, it cannot swallow a person whole because its esophagus is narrow.
But not necessarily. A whale called sperm wale that lives in the seas near Argentina has a very wide esophagus that can even swallow humans. In fact, there have been reports of people who have been swallowed by this whale and survived. So, was the fish that swallowed Jonah the sperm wale? I don't know that. First of all, it was a fish that swallowed Jonah, and the whale is not a fish, so you could say it was something else.
The question is, how do we view this issue? The question is whether we will accept it only when it has been scientifically confirmed and accepted by our reason, or whether we will believe it as a supernatural miracle from God. A student came and asked a theologian named Kanzo Uchimura from Japan. 'Teacher, if we remove the miracles that are not easily accepted by human reason from the Bible and believe only the rest, can't Christianity be established? How about emphasizing only the Sermon on the Mount, for example?' Then Uchimura Kanzo replied: 'Young man, if you remove all the miracles from the Bible, there are only two things left. There will be one front cover and one back cover of the Bible.'
It could be the swarm wale that swallowed Jonah, or it could be that God created a fish that did not exist at all and made him swallow Jonah. It was said that God prepared it. There is no need for us to limit God's power and actions within the limits of our abilities and reason. And neither should it. In doing so, we will never be able to understand this Bible, the record of God's revelation.
3. Rewarded Pain
So Jonah spent three days in the belly of the fish, and although it was the submarine that Jonah had saved from drowning, it was not a comfortable and comfortable place. First of all, it must have been dark. Being in darkness for three days would not have been much of a pain. Light was created on the first day when God created the heavens and the earth. Where there is no light there is darkness. So, there are many places in the Bible where light and darkness are used symbolically. David sang, 'The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?' (Psalm 27:1). On the other hand, Proverbs 4:19 says, 'The way of the wicked is like darkness, and when he stumbles, he does not understand what it is'. John says that Jesus came to this earth as light, but darkness did not understand it, and people loved darkness and hated light because they did evil.
In some cases, the light went out, and one of God's plagues on Egypt of Pharaoh who continued to resist God was darkness for three days. When Jesus died on the cross, the sun lost its light and darkness fell on the earth for three hours. So darkness symbolizes fear, iniquity, judgment, death, etc. The fact that Jonah was in the darkness of death for three days became an event that foreshadowed the death of Jesus. Jesus also said, 'As Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a great fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the earth' (Matthew 12:40).
The three days Jonah spent in the belly of the fish must have been the longest and most painful time in Jonah's life. But it was also the most precious time. Because it was a time to meet God who forgave sins and called us anew. It was a time to renew my calling and commit myself again. Moreover, without knowing it, he had the honor of being a type of the Savior, Jesus Christ. The tribulation and suffering we face can thus make us more mature and dedicated disciples of Christ. God never gives us unnecessary suffering. When we face trials, I hope that Job's confession, 'But he knows the way I go; after he has tried me I will come forth as gold' (Job 23:10).