Sterry
Memorial Church
Shooting Straight
Pastor Mark Cox ,
MORE THAN A FISH STORY
With
fishing on the minds of many, I think about Jonah.
The Bible says Jonah was in the belly of a great fish for three days and
lived to tell about it.
Some
people regard the book of Jonah as an allegory – a pretend story with a
purpose. However, according to 2
Kings 14:25, Jonah was not only a real person but an accredited prophet from
Gath Hepher near
Further,
Jesus treated Jonah’s experience in the belly of the fish as factual (Matthew
12:39-41). And, of course, the book
reads as a straightforward historical account.
I
personally believe that Jonah was a real person, a prophet of the Lord Most
High, and that one of his life-experiences was that of being swallowed by a
great fish (Jonah 1:17). Nothing is
impossible for God (Matthew 19:25-26).
However,
the story of Jonah in the Bible is not just another fish story.
According to one writer (J. Vernon McGee), the fish is merely “dressing
and cake trimming.” Instead of a
fish story, it is actually a prophecy about the resurrection of Jesus Christ
(Matthew 12:39-41). It also shows that the God has concern for the whole
world, even sinners like those in the City of
The same is true in the 21st century. God cares about sinners, like you and me. And God is still performing miracles, like saving people who are lost. In fact, God desires every single person to come to a saving knowledge of the truth (1 Timothy 2:3-5). And this is no fish-story.
Pastor Mark