JONAH & THE WHALE (4)
(Message by Tanny Keng)
1. Jonah and the whale
a) As for the whale, the Bible doesn’t actually specify what sort of marine animal swallowed Jonah. Most people assume that it was a cachalot (also known as the sperm whale). It may very well have been a white shark. The Hebrew phrase used in the Old Testament, gadowl dag, literally means “great fish.” The Greek used in the New Testament is këtos which simply means “sea creature.” There are at least two species of Mediterranean marine life that are known to be able to swallow a man whole. These are the cachalot and the white shark. Both creatures are known to prowl the Mediterranean and have been known to Mediterranean sailors since antiquity. Aristotle described both species in his 4th-century B.C.
b) So we now have three of the four major players: Jonah, Nineveh and the man-eating fish. All that remains is the fourth major player: God. Skeptics scoff at the miracles described in the book of Jonah as if there were no mechanism by which such events could ever occur. That is their bias. We are inclined, however, to believe that there is One who is capable of manipulating natural phenomena in such supernatural ways. We believe that He is the Creator of the natural realm and is not, therefore, circumscribed by it. We call Him “God,” and we believe that He sent Jonah to Nineveh to bring about their repentance.
c) God has made Himself known throughout history in many diverse ways, not the least of which was His incarnation in the Person of Jesus Christ. Not only does Jesus give us reason to believe that there exists One who is able to perform miracles, He gives us every confidence that such events have, in fact, occurred.
d) Jesus spoke of Jonah’s ordeal as a real historical event. He used it as a typological metaphor for His own crucifixion and resurrection, itself a miraculous event. Matthew quoted Jesus as saying, “For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea creature, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will stand up with this generation at the judgment, and will condemn it because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and behold, Someone greater than Jonah is here” (Matthew 12:40-41; Luke 11:29-30, 32).
e) The evidence is such that any Christian should have confidence to believe and any skeptic should think twice before dismissing Jonah as a fairy tale.
The End ...
1. Jonah and the whalea) As for the whale, the Bible doesn’t actually specify what sort of marine animal swallowed Jonah. Most people assume that it was a cachalot (also known as the sperm whale). It may very well have been a white shark. The Hebrew phrase used in the Old Testament, gadowl dag, literally means “great fish.” The Greek used in the New Testament is këtos which simply means “sea creature.” There are at least two species of Mediterranean marine life that are known to be able to swallow a man whole. These are the cachalot and the white shark. Both creatures are known to prowl the Mediterranean and have been known to Mediterranean sailors since antiquity. Aristotle described both species in his 4th-century B.C.
b) So we now have three of the four major players: Jonah, Nineveh and the man-eating fish. All that remains is the fourth major player: God. Skeptics scoff at the miracles described in the book of Jonah as if there were no mechanism by which such events could ever occur. That is their bias. We are inclined, however, to believe that there is One who is capable of manipulating natural phenomena in such supernatural ways. We believe that He is the Creator of the natural realm and is not, therefore, circumscribed by it. We call Him “God,” and we believe that He sent Jonah to Nineveh to bring about their repentance.
c) God has made Himself known throughout history in many diverse ways, not the least of which was His incarnation in the Person of Jesus Christ. Not only does Jesus give us reason to believe that there exists One who is able to perform miracles, He gives us every confidence that such events have, in fact, occurred.
d) Jesus spoke of Jonah’s ordeal as a real historical event. He used it as a typological metaphor for His own crucifixion and resurrection, itself a miraculous event. Matthew quoted Jesus as saying, “For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea creature, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will stand up with this generation at the judgment, and will condemn it because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and behold, Someone greater than Jonah is here” (Matthew 12:40-41; Luke 11:29-30, 32).
e) The evidence is such that any Christian should have confidence to believe and any skeptic should think twice before dismissing Jonah as a fairy tale.
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