Insightful Musings on the Scriptures

by

Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67

Good afternoon, dear ones.

I can’t believe it! I was able to squeeze in time to assemble another production. This is not to presume that you’re sitting by your computer with bated breath. That reminds me—I probably already shared this with you—Question: Do you know why the cat ate the cheese? Answer: So he could crouch by the mouse hole with baited breath. Please don’t hurt yourself when you fall off your chair laughing.

And speaking of cats, Becki just came home from Salem with a new cat where she intercepted Andy. We’ve been without one for a few months. Andy’s parents-in-law found this young black cat tied up on their front porch this morning. We agreed to take her in. We’ll call her “Dolly.”

I better keep moving. Blessings on the rest of your day.

Love, Dad/Ray.

The last verse of chapter one reads, “But the LORD provided a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was inside the fish three days and three nights.” Of course, whether it was day or night didn’t matter much while in that gloomy space. A key word there is “provided.” That’s consistent with one of the descriptive names for the LORD—Jehovah Jireh—“THE LORD WHO PROVIDES” (Genesis 22:14). Lesson: If the LORD can provide this big fish, and provide for the survival of this disobedient prophet inside that big fish for three nights, we should not have any question about His ability to provide for us—especially when we prioritize living in obedience to Him.

The last verse of chapter two reads, “And the LORD commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.” Yes—it was a miraculous deliverance—more divine providence, but now we have another problem—another mess to clean up. Can you imagine lying in a slosh pool of fish vomit? Yuk! I’m sure he took a bath before reaching the Tigris River. (And I’m sure the LORD has a video file of the Jonah story all nicely recorded in HD available in His historical archives. I’ll definitely want to check this one out when I get to Glory.) Lesson: The LORD will provide what we can’t, but expects us to use resources we have available to do what we can. Jonah had to take his own bath and figure out how to get his own body to Nineveh.

Jonah finally exercises some sound reasoning—“It is probably not in my best interests to disobey the word of the LORD this time.” So he now takes off for Nineveh. How far was that? We are in error to imagine Jonah being burped up onto the beach at Nineveh. That destination was 400 plus miles to the east—a very long walk indeed.

We are not told what in the world Jonah said at Nineveh, or how he presented his message so as to produce the incredible revival of godly repentance that resulted. But here again, “the LORD provided.” I can only imagine that the message was accompanied by the gracious convicting and convincing power of the Holy Spirit. It sure didn’t flow out of Jonah’s expertise or compassion. He didn’t really want to be there. And it appears that he didn’t much like these people and would have preferred to see them burn. Don’t you agree that these are pretty lousy attitudes for an effective missionary? This is absolutely wild! But Jonah’s message was so widely received that the very King of Nineveh issued a proclamation that ordered fasting, prayer, and repentance. It’s like God moved in spite of Jonah, not because of Jonah. The populace responded, obeyed, and sought God. “When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction he had threatened” (3:10).

Let’s review Peter’s great announcement once again: “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).