The Whale Express!

 From time to time I think about things that I have thought about in the past and I think to myself that maybe I could either rethink it or let the first thought be the last one. Today, I was remembering a time when the birds of the air obeyed an order from God, and they fed the prophet in order to bring not only nutrition for the man but also an awareness that birds will, even if people won't, obey God.  Well, for the record the seas will also obey God. Inside those seas (oceans) and other places on our green ball of life, are other animals and creatures who, when humans won't, have demonstrated their innate ability to do exactly that which God has commanded of them. What's funny is, that humans, like to think we're above the animals, and in most ways we are, but we have a lot to learn when it comes to being obedient to His call.

    Baalam's donkey refused to move forward to allow her rider to go to an area where he had been paid to deliver a curse to God's people. The donkey saw the angel that the man could not see, and though she was punished without cause, she did not budge. In the end, the man saw the way of God as well, and instead of a curse, he delivered a blessing on the people, which truly upset his employers. The bottom line is; that you will do what God asks whether you do it willingly or at the end of an exhaustive battle with your own ass, but you will do what you are told you will do. EVERY TIME.

    Animals were not hunted in pairs and drug by the neck to the Ark when it came time to be rescued and preserved for the future. God had already picked the pairs (and the 7 for the clean animals) that He would have on the boat, and they came from all sorts of places, walking, running, flying, perhaps on the backs of others, but they instinctively, obediently, made their way to the Ark.  People like to say that the unicorn did not make it onto the boat, but I disagree; they just got off the boat a bit early and can still be found all over the moors of Scotland. Prove me wrong.

    When Jonah was hiding from God, running away from God, he had boarded another boat to go in the opposite direction of where God had directed him to go.  The seas roared and clamored so that the men on the boat, who were not God-fearing men, knew there was something going on.  They questioned their demon gods to find out who it was that was causing the problem. Their lots fell upon Jonah, and he, knowing he was disobedient to God, knew the entire ship to be at peril. Jonah then, either asked to be thrown overboard, or he found himself being thrown overboard, but his message of who God is wasn't lost on the men who threw him!  They saw him being swallowed by a fish and then the very seas they were fighting calmed allowing them to move forward.  Jonah had mentioned it was his God who was in control of the waters. Such a witnessing moment.

    While the whale or big fish was not necessarily expected by anyone that day, it obeyed the call of God to be where it was supposed to be when and exactly at the time a man was being thrown overboard for disobeying God. Keep in mind, that God told Jonah to go to Nineveh. He didn't ask him to go.  God TOLD Jonah to go.  One way or the other Jonah was going to go to Nineveh; be it on a boat going that way, perhaps he could have walked the trails and roads, maybe he could have ridden a horse or camel, but nope, he went by Whale Express! I hear it's a beast of accommodation, but at least it's both economically affordable and it likely had a direct non-stop passage to the final destination.

    Can you imagine the people who may have witnessed Jonah being vomited upon the shore of the very place he was told to go, and how they must have felt seeing a live man walking, stumbling, falling out of a whale's mouth covered in seaweed and membrane?  Let me just say that if that man started talking about what God wanted me to do, I would not want to argue with that man - - not after seeing what he went through and how it was that he came to be able to claim what he could claim! I think I would KNOW at that point that whomever this God was, He was in fact GOD if He could keep a man alive inside a fish for 3 days and nights and have him delivered EXACTLY where He needed the man to be delivered. The simple fact that the whale obeyed God is reason enough to fear Him. We will get to our own Nineveh one way or the other - - perhaps it may behoove us to go when we're told!

    If God said yes, He means yes.  If God said no, He means no.  If God asks you to wait, the answer will always be yes but it will take a minute. He's not going to ask you to wait to be told no. You'll know fast fast if the answer is no. No doors will open, no signs will be available, and the only light that is being shown to you didn't start in Heaven.  Here's something a pastor said once that has stuck with me. He said (paraphrasing) "If God said it, He meant it, and your arguing with Him isn't going to change His mind. You're going to do what He said, whether you want to or not, but the better choice is to stop belly-aching and realize that it wasn't some nimby-whimsy, fly-by-night who asked you or told you to do something. It was Almighty God! It was the Creator of the entire universe! Just know that if He thinks you're capable, you are either capable now or you will be! He doesn't send you out there without proper training. Just say yes. It spares you the first-class seat on the Whale Express!"  

Do you know a Jonah? Are you on a boat headed for Tarshish?

Photo Credit:  HealthyLifeBox.com