When was the last time you read Jonah? It is one of the Bible’s unique stories and perennially popular among children. A story is told about a college student in a class in which the professor was mocking the Bible and its stories of miracles. “Who can believe such!?” he asked incredulously.
A Christian walks up to him after class and tells the professor that he was offended at his attacks on the Bible. He said he was a Christian and followed the Bible. The professor asks, “So you believe the story that a man was swallowed by a big fish? Tell, me, what was it like to be swallowed by a big fish,” the professor jeered.
“I don’t know,” the student responded. “Maybe when I get to heaven, I’ll ask him.” “What if he’s not in heaven?” the professor shot back. “Then you ask him,” the student said.
What does the story of Jonah teach us? First, that God desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Tim. 2:4). He has always been the God of all the earth (Psa. 96:13). Nineveh was a city of foreigners. They lived on different soil. They spoke different languages. They worshiped idols made by man’s hands. They were the enemies of Israel – immoral, cruel, and slated for destruction. But is longsuffering by nature and He was with them. No one living today is more despised than Nineveh was to Israel. But God wants everyone to be saved. “In every nation whoever fears God and works righteousness is accepted by Him” (Acts 10:35).
Secondly, God expects people – His people – to be missionary people. That was His purpose for Israel. They were a kingdom of priests (Exo. 19:6), taking God’s message to the world. “You are my witnesses,” the Lord told Israel through Isaiah (43:10). But by and large, Israel shirked their responsibility. They turned inward and when they did, they turned away from God. “Declare His glory among the nations, His wonders among all peoples” (Psa. 96:3).
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You and I have been saved to save. “Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, the poor, the maimed, the lame, and the blind” (Luke 14:23). America needs evangelistic Christians. Christians with the mind-set of the apostle Paul: “I am a debtor to the Greeks, and to the barbarians, both to the wise, and to the unwise. So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the Gospel to you that are in Rome also. For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ; for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek” (Romans 1:14-16).
The examples are multiplied where God uses small things to accomplish great purposes. The manna in the wilderness (Exo. 16); the parable of the mustard seed (Matt. 13); the five loaves and two small fish which fed five thousand (Mark 6); the seven loaves and few fish which fed four thousand (Mark 8). A small band of mostly uneducated disciples filled Jerusalem with the doctrine of Christ.
Get out of the fish’s belly and go preach.
–Paul Holland
