NOTE: You will find this week’s series far more meaningful if you take 6-7 minutes to read the full book of Jonah.
But the Lord provided a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was inside the fish three days and three nights. (Jonah 1:17, NIV)
How would you answer if I asked you, “What is the most critical question someone can ask you about golf?”
From your friends, it might be, “Are you having fun?” From your teacher, you may hear, “Did you practice what we worked on last week?” And to yourself, you might ask with a shaking head, “Why don’t I get any better?”
For three days, we are going to explore three questions from the little book of Jonah. We’ll call them the non-critical question, the critical question, and the most critical question.
Today we’ll start with the non-critical question, which is, Really? You expect me to believe there is a fish out there that can swallow a man whole and allow him to survive in its stomach for three days?
This is an antagonist’s question, of course, brought by someone who may not challenge the God-loves-you parts or the love-your-neighbor parts of Scripture, but who wants you to prove that Moses parted the sea, or Jonah survived the fish, or Jesus fed thousands with just a basket of provisions.
Many theologians and Christian biologists have set up a defense against the Jonah detractors. The answer is yes, there are known fish in the sea that can swallow people whole and sustain them in their innards for 72 hours (though you can’t exactly demonstrate this in a series of peer-reviewed lab tests!).
But the problem when we get caught up in non-critical questions like this—even when they are worth answering—is that we can so easily miss the more important things God is trying to show us on the pages of Scripture. And that’s precisely what we have to realize: that the purpose of Scripture is not to be “God’s instruction book” or “God’s manual for living.” Rather, Scripture is the very revelation of God, and thus it chief purpose is to reveal to us the person and work of God himself.
When you read the Bible with this in mind, two things happen: (1) you find yourself moving to the often frightening question of, “Would he do something like this in my life?” and (2) you see just how the Word of God is living and active, cutting deep into your own experience and—when it really takes hold—deep into your heart.
Looking for who God is and how he works sets us up for our critical question, which we will explore tomorrow.
—
Jeff Hopper
April 29, 2014
Copyright 2014 Links Players International
The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.