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Jonah And The Whale

The Bible story of Jonah and the Whale is too important to be regarded merely as a children’s story. There are lots of life lessons in the Book of Jonah for children and adults. Jonah’s story teaches us about obedience, willingness of spirit, gratitude, compassion and God’s patience and mercy.

Jonah was a prophet from Galilee and his story takes place somewhere between 780 B.C and 760 B.C. During this period of history, Assyria was a powerful, evil nation and Israel’s most dreaded enemy. The Lord spoke to Jonah and told him to go to Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, and preach to the Ninevites. (Jonah 1:2) Jonah was supposed to warn the Ninevites to repent or suffer the consequences of their wickedness.

Jonah had other ideas, though. Instead of heading for Nineveh, he took off for Tarshish in Spain. His motives could have been fear or revenge or both. The Assyrians had committed terrible atrocities against the people of Israel: traveling into their midst would have been frightening. Jonah also despised the Assyrians and probably would have liked to see God punish them. Yet, Jonah knew God’s nature. He knew that if he preached repentance to the Ninevites, they would repent and God would spare them. (Jonah 4:2)

Jonah hops on a boat headed for Tarshish, attempting to hide out from God. At night, a huge storm comes up and tosses the boat wildly. The sailors are afraid and all start to pray to their gods, while Jonah sleeps soundly below deck. (Jonah 1:4-6) The captain goes down to Jonah’s cabin and pulls him out of bed. “And they said to one another, "Come, let us cast lots, that we may know for whose cause this trouble has come upon us." So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah.” (Jonah 1:7 NKJV)

The sailors all question Jonah about what he’s done to bring this storm on them. He confesses that he is running away from the Lord’s will and tells the sailors to throw him overboard to spare their lives. This they do. (Jonah 1:8-15)

As Jonah is sinking into the sea, a big fish (or whale) swallows him. (Jonah 1:17) Here we see God’s great mercy. He could have let Jonah suffer the consequences of his actions and drown. Yet, God intervenes and spares Jonah’s life.

Jonah is in the whale’s belly for three days and nights. He spends that time in prayer, thanking God for saving him from drowning. He realizes the miracle that God has effected to save him and is truly grateful. He doesn’t complain. He is sincere in his prayer and God tells the whale to spit Jonah out on shore. (Jonah 2:1-10)

Then, the Lord tells Jonah again to go to Nineveh and preach repentance. Imagine being Jonah, walking into a city of your enemies and preaching a message that is bound to be unpopular. It must have been terrifying! But this time Jonah does as he’s told and amazingly the people repent. The king orders everyone to fast, put on sackcloth and beg for forgiveness. (Jonah 2:1-10) And Nineveh is spared !

Imagine all those lives spared by one willing voice! Think of all that would have perished if that voice had not been there. Thanks to Jonah the Ninevites lived happily in God's Love ever after.

And the moral of the story is - you just can't keep a good man down.

How To Write

It was a hot August afternoon in the year 1599 in London (England), long before global warming had been invented. Times were hard so William Shakespeare and Ben Jonson were sharing an office in which to write their latest masterpieces.

On this particular day our pair of playwrights were both working hard at their desks, despite the oppressive heat. Both were scribbling away at a furious pace, but whilst Ben was whistling happily as he wrote and his pile of completed pages grew and grew, William was having a hard time of it. He was suffering from a classic case of writer's block. After he'd finished a page, he would read it through, invariably swear loudly, screw up the piece of paper (not cheap in Elizabethan England) and throw it in the bin. He was red in the face and perspiring heavily.

And then he ran out of ink. Furious, he slung both his empty ink bottle and his quill out of the window to the busy street below. Ben glanced over, but seeing the look on William's face hastily went back to his own work.

William got up and stomped around the office for a while, muttering to himself. He wasn't looking forward to the commute back to Stratford upon Avon this weekend and having to admit his lack of progress to Anne. Then he sighed and sat down at his desk again.

He took a deep breath. 'Ben,' he said. 'I wonder if you could do me a favour ? I appear to have run out of ink. Could I possibly borrow something to write with ?'

Ben smiled broadly.

'Why my dear William, of course you may ! I have some fine writing implements in reserve, set aside for exactly this kind of emergency.'

He held up two pencils.

'Now which one would you like - the 4H or the 2B ?'

Lamb shanks recipe

I am a big fan of the writer Bill Bryson. If you haven't heard of him, here he is on wikipedia.

Whilst browsing a related forum this afternoon I came across this wonderful post from Dr Joseph Prankle to Mr Bryson. Amazing. Thank you, Dr J.