Jonah accused, then the sea and the fish

So I'm going to read from verse 1 down to verse 9, and then we're going to look at 10 through 17 today. So we need to set the stage here. Jonah's only four chapters, and we're going to be covering this through the end of the year. And then 1st of January, right, Roger, we're in the booklet. All right, I'm in the New King James Version, so bear with me, everyone. Verse 1.

Now the Lord of the Lord came to Jonah, the son of Amittai, saying, Arise and go to Nineveh, that great city, and crawl on against it, for the wickedness has come up before me. But Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish, and so he paid the fare and went down into it. to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. Isn't that interesting? He's going to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. I mean, never mind. I'm not going to apply that to the day. All right. Verse four, but the Lord sent out a great wind on the sea and there was a mighty tempest on the sea. So the ship was about to be broken up.

And then the mariners were afraid, and every man cried out to his God and threw the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten the load. But Jonah had gone down into the lowest parts of the ship and laid down and had fallen asleep. So the captain came to him and said to him, what do you mean here, sleeper? Arise, call on your God. Perhaps your God will consider us so that we may not perish.

And they said to one another, come, let us cast lots so that we may now know for what cause this trouble has come upon us. So they cast lots and fell on Jonas. That surprised everybody here. Anyway, so then they said to him, please tell us for whose cause is this trouble upon us? What's your occupation? And where do you come from? What's your country? And of what people are you? And so he said to them, I'm a Hebrew. And I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.

So that's the background about what we're going to be looking at today. So my first question of the class, was Jonah really a prophet? He's included in the minor prophets. What we know about Jonah thus far, was he a prophet? Well, God wants to make him a prophet. But was he a prophet? I think he was at this point, but I think the Lord was going to use him. That was his plan. Would it be reasonable to consider more of him as a historian than a prophet?

What prophecy, I mean we haven't finished the book yet, four chapters, we're going to be done with one here today. Is there anything prophetic about Jonah? The only thing I think that can defend his being a prophet is what the Lord Jesus Christ had to say about Jonah. So in a sense, that's the element of prophecy that I think Jonah represents.

But for the most part, he's more of a historian than he is a true prophet. Bob, go ahead. I'm sorry. The passage in the Pentateuch, I can't remember where, wasn't he called a prophet then? I don't know that he was called a prophet. I'm not criticizing the term. I'm just saying we should consider the fact that his prophecy is retrospective when we look at the words of the Lord Jesus Christ. We're going to read those words today, Bob, so we'll come back to that.

You said we loved it. Absolutely. That's a milestone. All right. We've got a lot to cover today, so let's keep going. Secondly, what kind of place was Nineveh? What do you think? It was a heathen place. Yes, very much so. Right. This is Babylon of the day and age in which Nineveh was being called to to be preached to. So anyway, we're talking about a very worldly place. Part of Assyria, that whole area of the Middle Eastern world at that time, and really was a place that was heinous and really not consistent with God's calling to the people. And these people in Nineveh, were they Hebrews?

No, probably not. Let's review John 1 through 9. We kind of did this. So let's revisit his decision to modify God's, was it direction or directions? Both. Okay. We're not going to spend much time on that. So here's the map. And I think the map is kind of informative in that we, you know, here's Joppa down here. And here is the actual route that God had planned for him to go up the Nineveh. And here's Joppa and the anticipated route that he chose was Tarshish.

And I think the interesting thing here is that Nineveh was 550 miles northeast of Israel. But Jonah headed to Tarshish located on the coast of Spain. Look at this. and that's 2,500 miles to the west. Not only did he make a decision not to go to Nineveh, this guy's traversing now nearly 3,000 miles in a different direction.

Yeah, did you listen to Andrew's, did you listen to the previous lessons? The question is where's Tarshish at? Yeah, right. Yeah, but actually that's even farther than 2,500 miles. It could be. Well, his intent was to go to Tarshish, right? All right.

So the storm was severe and likely would have really torn the ship into shreds. Moreover, I think the experience of these mariners was doubtful in this setting. So if we think about the boat they were in, the boat that Andrew, I mean, this was a flat boat that Andrew portrayed. I would think a wind of 20 miles per hour would blow that thing over. But I don't know whether, nobody knows what the boat looked like. But this maybe would sound a little bit more realistic to think about surviving in a boat despite the storm, at least up to a certain point. But look what was going on. when this wind was at the sea.

Jonas, down below, somber as can be. So, sombering or slumbering, Jonah had no opportunity to tell the Mariners that he was on a mission of the God of Israel to go to Nineveh. And in the terrible storm, the Mariners had forgotten that he was down there. Actually, I think initially we don't have any evidence that they really were aware of this. What they learned of why he was on board, they were terrified. So ultimately, what do you think the mariners were thinking after Jonah stated the following?

I'm a Hebrew and I fear the Lord and the God of heaven who made the sea and dry land. What were they thinking at that point? Well, Baba, you know, if you read verse 10, it almost seems like they had heard of the Lord, the God of Israel. They knew about this God, and He was a powerful God. And they were frightened about, here's this guy running away from Him.

And verse 10 is so beautifully written. Before we go to 10, why don't we think of 9 and what was stated by Jonah? Well, you're right. I think it's probably from other sailors. They had heard that If the Lord was angry, the sea could be angry. I mean, you know, if the Lord was after you, it was not a good thing. But this statement reverts to Genesis 1, doesn't it? He fears the Lord, the God of heaven.

That's enough. But then he goes on to say he made the sea and the dry land. Right. And we think of the magnitude of his creation. I mean, have you seen some of the recent pictures from these telescopes that now go almost infinitely into multiple universes? Yeah. I mean, it's incredible what exists out there.

But here, you know, Jonah, despite his really not following God's guidance, is really sharing the Lord with them in a very abrupt way. And so now we're going to read the verses that are before us. We're going to dissect them one at a time. So we're going to read the whole section first. And it's going to take a minute or two, but then we're going to come back and look at this more in detail.

Then the men were exceedingly afraid and said to him, why have you done this? For the men knew that he fled from the presence of the Lord because he had told them. Okay. Right, Roger. He'd already told them. Then they said to him, what shall we do to you that the sea may be calm for us? for the sea was growing more tempestuous. And he said to them, pick me up and throw me into the sea, and then the sea will become calm for you. How did he know that by the way? We'll come back to that. Let's leave bad words out right now. I know that this great tempest is because of me.

Nevertheless, the men rode hard to return to land, but they could not, for the sea continued to grow more tempestuous against them. Therefore they cried out to the Lord and said, We pray, O Lord, please do not let us perish for this man's life, and do not charge us with innocent blood for you. O Lord, have done as if you pleased. as it pleased you.

Okay, so forgive me. So they picked up Jonah and they threw him into the sea. And what happened? Well, the sea ceased from its raging. And then the men feared the Lord exceedingly and offered a sacrifice to the Lord and took vows. Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. And I'm going to come back to that next week as we approach this next week.

Alright, let's look at verse 10. Then the men were exceedingly afraid and said to him, why have you done this? For the men knew that he fled from the presence of the Lord because he had told them so. Okay, when do you think Jonah told the men that he fled the presence of the Lord?

We're speculating here, but it's kind of fun to speculate. He must have told them before. You think he told them when he got on the boat? I think he had to have told them. that he wanted to go to Tarsus and maybe he told them why he wanted to go. Why had they forgotten this? Obviously they hadn't forgotten. Well it came up that they didn't forget it after a while.

Or could it be Bob and we don't have all the conversation that they had with him. So maybe that was the expanded conversation. So if you were going to flee the Lord would you be telling the people that you're fleeing from the Lord? We don't need to spend a lot of time there.

It's kind of interesting to think whether when he got on the boat, he told him or there had been conversations subsequent to that. But new is third person perfect. I mean, and, you know, interpreting the Hebrew verbiage in terms of its tense, it's a little bit more complicated, at least for me.

But it indicates he told them that this is something that was continued knowledge after he had mentioned it. So ultimately, they do remember this. So why were they exceedingly afraid when they learned about this? I think they all knew about the heathen god. Okay. You know, from the time they went to Egypt, the Red Sea, the whole land knew how powerful the Jewish god was. Very good, Bob. And I think ultimately we're going to find out more that these were polytheistic individuals. They knew of a God.

Think about today. How many people, you know, deny that there's some God? Probably a significant minority of people. But most people think there's a God of some sort. And so polytheism, which makes it unclear what kind of God. They're aware of some God entity. And I think that's why they were so afraid because of what Jonah had stated. Good. Okay, and this reminded me of a couple of other people in the scripture.

Is this like Nebuchadnezzar or Pilate? So Nebuchadnezzar, when he was having a problem getting his dream interpreted, said then the king's countenance was changed and his thoughts troubled him. so that the joints of his loins were loose and his knees spoke one against the other. His knees are not. So it looks like he's kind of afraid too, doesn't it?

And then in John, when Pilate therefore heard that saying, he was more afraid. What saying did Pilate hear that made him more afraid? That the Jewish people wanted the Lord Jesus Christ crucified. That was the news he got from the Jewish nation. And what's he going to do? We're talking about somebody being polytheistic and not having a clear understanding of what was happening at the cross. Ultimately, Pilate, I'm sure, was very afraid, having been told that as a Roman ruler, he now had to put this man who he thought was really an honest man and an innocent man to death.

All right. But did they understand that the Lord was the creator of the sea? I think Bob's comment really I think is right on. I think they did. They had some knowledge that there's an omnipotent, omnipresent God that controls earthly scenarios, including its creation and ultimately things that happens here. So let's turn to verse 11, then. Now again, think about the boat here. Andrew, I'm not being critical. That boat you showed, I would think, would be downwind of a short wind, but who knows what the boat looked like.

So why do you think they asked General what they should do? Well, maybe they figured that he knew more about this God than they did. This is not rocket science. Well, we certainly have evidence that he did have some connection with the Heavenly Father, don't we? Well, Cosmo says this, they had no idea what would placate the creator of the sea in such a case, as they asked Jonah, since he knew his gods.

So, anyway, I think they have some you know, experience interacting with Jonah to think that maybe Jonah could communicate a little bit better than they could. All right. Perhaps this is like the Philistines in Samuel. I'm kind of going in various directions here. First Samuel 6, 12.

And this relates to the Ark of the Lord. And it was in the country of the Philistines for seven months. And the Philistines called for the priest and the dinners saying, what shall we do to ask of the Lord about the ark and tell us wherewith we shall send it to this place. So, I mean, this is just an example of kind of the non-believer, the Gentile nations or the polytheistic individuals about being put in a position to ask what they should be doing.

And here it's the ark of the Lord. All right, so let's go ahead. Verse 12, it says, And he said unto them, Take me up, and cast me forth into the sea, so shall the sea be calm unto you. For I know that for my sake this grace-tempest is upon you. How's that for self-selection kind of thinking here? Anyways.

Jonah thinks he's slow. The thing that strikes me, Bob, and it's pretty obvious to this, Jonah knows exactly where he should be. I mean, he knows exactly what he's doing. He's saying no to the Lord and he's running away from him. He knows exactly where he should be, what he should be doing, but he's not doing that. It's an interesting thought process for us today as we think about what does the Lord want us to be doing? And do we do the same thing? We say, well, I want to go here. And the Lord says, no, I want you to go there.

Now, of course, we don't have quite the dialogue as Jonah possibly had. Well, he talks to us through his word, right? Exactly. Jonah had a different kind of communication. That's why it's so instructive. It is very interesting to look at that dialogue. Go ahead.

It feels like this is his point of repentance. What's that? It feels like this is his point of repentance at this point. Well, except he really doesn't repent. Yes, this could be at least his recognition that he's made the wrong decision. Well, it looks like he's less afraid of the sea than he was of Nineveh. How did Jonah know that the sea would be calm when he was tossed into it?

And by the way, know here in the Hebrew is a very strong term. It's an absolute knowledge. It's kind of like the indicative case in the Greek. very solid knowledge that he knew somehow the Lord had communicated to him how focused he was in this whole sequence of events. And he's doing the opposite, see that's what's so astounding.

But the Lord's not giving up on him there, right? We know he has a true minister ahead of him, right? I'm wondering why Jonah had to have them throw him into the sea. Did he have the courage to jump in himself? Are you raising your hand here? All right, let's go ahead. Would God punish the innocent because of one person's sin? Well, we don't know that they all would have perished. No, we don't know that. He might have saved them. We don't, you're right. We don't. But we're told several times the sea was more tempestuous. It doesn't sound like a very kind of calm setting out there on the water, right?

Well, I think of Elizabeth and Joshua's time when Achan was stolen and all the people were, I mean, they were all defeated. There was punishment because of one man's sin. Well, you know, one verse doesn't make it a doctrine, but, you know, if you go to Deuteronomy, many places in Scripture, the father shall not be put to death for the children, whether shall the children be put to death for the fathers, every man shall be put to death for his own sin. So, I mean, you know, for all sin fallen short of the glory of God. So the idea that maybe at times innocent people do die. Yeah. as a consequence of an earthly event. The innocent always are suffering, it seems like. We see that picture over and over again. I mean, what about abortion? Oh, my boy, I'll tell you. Well, isn't Deuteronomy 24-6, is that talking about like a punishment, like a capital punishment that's put on somebody? It's not just that God is going to punish everybody in the room kind of thing.

Well, the idea is that the sin of someone doesn't get carried over to another. This is simply children and their father and that relationship. It may not be a verse that's really worthy of serious consideration, but I think the innocent sometimes do suffer. Yes. For the sin of one individual. We don't need to think about specific examples, but all are condemned, right? I mean, all of us have fallen short of the glory of God. So that's the point here. Now, Constable has something to say here.

He says, Jonah's answer reveals the double-mindedness of the prophets. He could have told them to sail back to Joppa if he really intended to obey the Lord and go to Nineveh. So that was one option, right? His repentance surely would have resulted in God withholding judgment from the sailors, just as the Ninevites' repentance resulted in his withholding judgment from them.

That which ultimately is Jonah's future, right? Still, Jonah was not ready to obey God yet. So again, this is Constable's view of the world. Dot, dot, dot, dot. He answers some other things and says, why did Jonah not end his own life by jumping overboard?

I suspect that he did not have the courage to do so. So anyway, you quote other people who can say things better than we have can as teachers. So anyway, so that's Cosimo's view. Cosimo's pretty right on, I think, in terms of his interpretation of this whole section of scripture.

Or, you know, here we're looking at the potential prophetic value of Jonah. Or was Jonah a type of Messiah here, that one man would die to save others? Now, this is a small example. And, of course, we know in John, not considered that it is expedient for us that one man would die for the people and that the whole nation would not perish. I mean, that's Christ, of course. It's more than one nation.

Go ahead, Jim. You know, we have to remember that I think one reason why Jonah did not want to go to Nineveh is because the Israelites probably would have persecuted him for doing that. Where? The Israelites where? In Israel, per se. Where he came from.

You know, if they would have known, figured out that Jonah went to Nineveh to save all those great, wonderful people. I say that sarcastically. They probably would have wanted to stone Jonah. Do we have any hint, though, that Jonah's decision not to go there related to that? I mean, I think you could speculate. No, we don't. We can speculate that.

You know, the Babylonians were hated by all of Israel. They would have found out that Jonah would have gone there. And they would have been saved. They probably would have hated Jonah for that. Okay. So Jonah was probably afraid of that also. And that's probably why he did not want to obey God.

Relate that to us today. Oh, yeah. How about an Israelite going to the God's strip preaching the gospel? That would be a tough one. Boy. Isn't it also interesting that Jonah, his only prophet in the Old Testament, that was called to go to a heathen country. All the other prophets just dealt with Israel. They really did, you know, Amos and Obadiah. Obadiah we know very little about, but, you know, Zechariah and certainly Jeremiah for sure. All right, let's go to verse 13.

Nevertheless, the men rode hard to bring it to the land, but they could not, for the sea was growing more tempestuous against them. That keeps coming up, doesn't it? So why did the mariners decide to head towards land? Get away from the sea. They didn't want to just throw John overboard. Yeah, they didn't want to. That's murder. Okay, that's what I'm going to attempt. That's murder. They didn't want to commit murder.

In Proverbs 21, I love this. There's no wisdom, no understanding, no counsel against the Lord. You can throw Proverbs at people whenever you want. The wisdom of God is superior to any wisdom that we have, for sure. So on to verse 14, wherefore they cried unto the Lord and said, We beseech thee, O Lord, we beseech thee, let us not perish for this man's life and lay not upon us innocent blood, for thou, O Lord, hast done as it pleased thee.

Doesn't this remind you of the desperate prayer of a non-believer today or perhaps even some believers? Think about, you know, how many people who don't know the Lord based on the crucifixion and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ paying for their sins. and dying for their sin nature. How many people reach out to God desperately to pray for some outcome? And I think believers do that too.

We think of ourselves rather than the ultimate circumstances for growth of the tribulations and trials we fall into. I think we can just pause here for a second and just think about how the world system responds in prayer when they're desperate. And I think that's what's being represented here by the martyrs at sea. The sailors do not wish to perish for the sin of another, nor on the other hand do they wish to be guilty of the shedding of innocent blood. Ultimately, they're protecting themselves, which if you think about the earthly existence, I mean, for us who know the Lord, we tend to protect ourselves. We don't want to be subjected to undue trials and tribulations that might result in death. Any other thoughts about that? Well, they didn't want God to take vengeance on them for killing John. But you can understand from a human perspective their position here, right? I mean, or should we say their condition? Here's a thought. Okay. Jonah might have...

You know how someone would say, oh, I'll do this, I'll sacrifice myself for this, hoping that everyone will say, oh no, no, we won't let you do that. Maybe he was hoping that they wouldn't throw him overboard. Then they did, and then they were like, oh no, we made a mistake, you know, so... Well, they did throw him overboard. We're going to get to that in a second in terms of the consequences of that, but it's kind of interesting to see what they did after they did. So, they cast him forth into the sea, and the sea ceased from her raging.

So, it probably took a millisecond, right? The sea was no longer tempestuous. I love the term. Doesn't this remind you of the disciples' experience on the Sea of Galilee? And he arose. and rebuked the wind. Remember that they're ultimately having the tempestuous wind on the Sea of Galilee. And Christ rebuked the wind and said unto the sea, peace be still. And the wind ceased and there was a great calm.

So, you know, again, this is the Lord Jesus Christ. And presumably maybe even he was the one who enacted the will of God in calming the sea there too, likely. I mean, Christ probably did many things in the Old Testament as a mechanism for God to bring that to the attention of the Israelites. And the Old Testament gives similar attention to this power of God.

Just some verses from Psalms. Thou rules the raging of the sea when the waves thereof arise and you still them and he makes the storm a calm so the waves thereof are still. So I mean, you know, the scripture talks about God's power over the sea. Okay, verse 16. Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly. I would think they feared him before, but we're going to interpret fear in a second. It offered a sacrifice unto the Lord and made vows. How does this response to trials relate to today's experiences? Just like 9-11, after 9-11, so many people turned to me.

There's no atheists in Foxholes. What was that? There's no atheists in Foxholes. Well, let's think about this a bit more. Macaulay has some thoughts here. The most common meaning of the word fear is not fright. It's respect. But this is doubtless that it's the meaning here and it does not imply that the sailors rejected their polytheistic beliefs.

Their respect for the Lord is demonstrated by their sacrifices made to him. So in Psalm 116 it says, I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving and will call upon the name of the Lord and I will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all his people." Now presumably that's of David. How about what kind of sacrifices and vows were these guys making? They were just trying to appease a God whom they had learned about and didn't really trust. as believers.

Jim, what about this? I'm raising the point here. Could these vows indicate some conversion, at least on part of these individuals? I mean, conversion in the Old Testament is a little bit tougher to interpret in terms of what it is in the New Testament, for sure. What are your thoughts? Are some men going to turn their lives over to God here based on this? As polytheistic as they were, I doubt it. You know, they were just acknowledging that this is a God that's in control of the sea, at least. You know, so I don't think so. Okay. I think there could have been other versions from this.

Remember when Christ was crucified, everyone hated him. But after he was crucified, there were like 5,000 in one place that believed. And there were many Jews, Nicodemus is a good example, pretty close to him before the crucifixion. And you got the idea there were faithful Jews who before the cross really presumably continued to be part of the new church.

I think that's right. Yeah, I think what's conversion of the Old Testament? I mean, salvation is based on what's faith. Faith is believing what God has revealed. And that's true from Genesis all the way to Revelation. We in the New Testament are very privileged to have the written word of God. In the Old Testament, it was through the prophets and the high priests that ultimately people were brought to God, but that was a period of atonement only.

I mean, it was not the kind of conversion we have today. So you can speculate, was this ultimately taking the power out of the sea, which was immediate, when Jonah hit the sea. Could that have changed lives? And we can just speculate that maybe it could have.

All right. Verse 17, which will lead us into next week is, Now the Lord had prepared or ordained a great fish to slow up Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. Notice what the verse says. It just says he was in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights. I love J. Vernon McGee, and I've got to bring something to your attention that McGee had to say. He lists some extravagant theories of the critics of this part of Scripture.

And here they are. I'll read them. Number one, there's a theory that Jonah fell asleep during the storm and had a dream. And the Book of Jonah is the account of the dream. All right. Number two, by the way, this is a great story for children. They love the story. Number two, there are those who relate the Book of Jonah, the Phoenician myth of Hercules and the sea monster. You like that one, huh? Okay, three.

It's claimed that Jonah was picked up after the storm and shipwrecked by a boat that had a fish for a figurehead, which gave support for the record in the Book of Jonah. And McGee's fourth bullet point is others resort to the wild claim that a dead fish was floating around and that Jonah took refuge in it during the storm. Which one of those do you like best? Can I say none?

No, but seriously, I mean, people that are critical of the Word of God just claim that this couldn't have occurred. I mean, people select the miracles they think were possibly explained scientifically. But those that weren't, dismissed. There are very few Jewish people who really believe in the Lord God that believe that the Red Sea was really parted. I mean, it's amazing why they pick and choose. You know, but the whole, you know, how many laws of the Old Testament they followed to the T. I'll never forget this guy who was studying at Yeshiva University in New York.

I was on a flight, Margaret and I, on a flight to, I think, to Sydney at that time, and he had his little skullcap on, and he was, the Lord put him next to me. And so, I asked him about keeping the law, and he said... He didn't have to remind me. Okay, that's enough. What a chance to have a great conversation. This guy thought he was keeping every Jewish law.

And, you know, we had a young woman at our home this week who spent some time with us who was raised under law, and she's really now fighting that in a major way. And it's really a shame. But anyway, law is there to convict us of sin. Remember what Paul said in Galatians, the law is our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. The law was never meant to be kept. And God knew that from time eternal. So but the story becomes validated when referenced by the Lord. This is what I was mentioning earlier. And we'll read it here.

Matthew 12, 39, 41. But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and there should be no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, So shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation and shall condemn it because they repented at the preaching of Jonah. And behold, a greater than Jonah is here. Now there's the prophecy, I think, that we can call Jonah a prophet.

But if this were here, I think we would think of him more as a historian. So I'm going to end with Constable and Macaulay and sequence. Constable, the Jews were familiar with a mythical sea monster, the Leviathan, that symbolized both the uncontrollable chaos of the sea and the chaotic forces that only Yahweh could manage. The Hebrews did not believe that the Leviathan really existed anymore than we believe in Santa Claus.

Yet the figure was familiar to them and they knew what it represented. For Jonah to relate his experience of deliverance in his cultural ancient Near Eastern context would have impressed his hearers that a great God had sent them unto them. It's probably for this reason that God chose to save Jonah by using a fish.

Interesting. And Macaulay, the verb translated appointed is mara. and means to ordain. I think this is really important here. So the idea of appointed is probably a misinterpretation. It's used four times in the book of Jonah and in each case God is the subject of the action. God ordained a fish. God ordained a plant. God ordained a worm. We'll be coming to those sections. And finally, God ordained a wind.

This reveals the sovereignty of God behind the events that take place in the Book of Jonah. All right, so we've covered a fair amount of text here today. We speculated some, but we hopefully have been entertained by what God has to share with us in the Book of Jonah. Comments, questions?

For those who cannot believe the literal book of Jonah, how could they possibly believe that Christ said he would die and rise again in three days and then actually do it? Absolutely. You know, the world system who are not biblically saved really pick and choose what they want to use in the Bible. I grew up, I didn't get saved until I was 30, and I grew up very skeptical of Scripture. because I thought anyone could choose a single verse to defend any position of the Word of God. And that's not rightly dividing the Word of Truth. And what became clear over my years of being with the Lord is that The whole Bible works as a theme and can be intertwined in a very, very major way.

So it's, but, you know, as a non-believer, you can be very critical because you see the way Christians live and act at times and be very critical of that. But ultimately, when you get into seed, we're all saved by grace. And that's the only avenue and platform to a relationship to God.

Thanks, Bob, for your comment. Any other thoughts or comments about this section? All right, well, we'll take this on next week again and good. Roger, could you close us a prayer, please? Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for our time today, Lord. Thank you for the example of Jonah, how significant it is, the prophecy of Jonah and his reluctance and then his, through your divine appointing him, Lord, he carried out his mission to go to Nineveh, Father. Thank you for that. In Christ's name, amen.