Jonah 1:17 (NKJV)

Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

Why do people try to explain this as a natural event? It’s a miracle. Jonah couldn’t have survived three minutes in the stomach of any creature that ever lived (other than the one the LORD had prepared specially for this event). Stomachs are designed to dissolve things, not preserve them.

The explanation for this miracle is simple. It’s a miracle; the laws of nature aren’t supposed to hold.

And that’s the point. It’s silly to try to explain something that’s designed to be impossible to explain.

There’s one exception though—the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The point of trying to find a natural explanation for the resurrection is that you can’t. One of the most useful exercises a Christian can go through is to try to find an explanation for how Jesus didn’t rise from the dead. It’s so valuable, it should be standard at some level in Christian education. We should all know what crucifixion is and how it kills, and how the first Christians knew that’s what had happened to Jesus.

That’s why we produced the Faith in What series. Working through all the attempts to explain away the resurrection takes some time, but a great benefit comes when you’ve exhausted the list. Then you understand why the first Christians were so solid in their faith.

But that’s just the beginning. Intellectual assent to the resurrection is great, even essential, but then what? After confessing Christ as your Lord, what’s the next step? Is it training in the Christian disciplines?

Not exactly. Behaviors aren’t the core issue. That’s not the next step, and that’s not what the book of Jonah is about. It’s about a change in perspective.

Before learning to act like a Christian, we need to learn to think like a Christian. Otherwise, training in Christian practices is just operant conditioning—like you’d do with a dog. That doesn’t glorify God at all.

Thinking like a Christian begins with seeing ourselves as parts of a larger whole. The LORD chose us to participate in a glorious operation known as the Kingdom of God. We need to think of ourselves in this way. Always be mindful of your role in the Kingdom. That takes some getting used to.

So, the next step is to get used to it. How should you respond to your boss? That depends on what’s best for the Kingdom. How should you talk to your neighbors? Same answer. Don’t know what’s best for the Kingdom? That’s OK. Just get used to thinking that way. That’s the beginning of Kingdom living.

This is what Jonah gets wrong. He’s a prophet, but he doesn’t think of being a prophet as his full-time identity. Thus, he’s not willing to prophesy just any old thing, just because God told him to.

Jonah isn’t practicing the kingship of the LORD. The coming attitude adjustment will be legendary.

All the weekly study guides, which include all five devotionals plus related questions for discussion or meditation, are available for download here:

https://www.ailbe.org/resources/itemlist/category/91-deep-studies

The Job book is on Amazon and is eligible for Amazon Prime. The Kindle edition will be out soon.

https://www.amazon.com/Higher-Purposes-Lesson-God-Job/dp/1684719534