If I Could Ask One Question of Jonah, I Would Ask “What Did it Smell Like Inside the Fish?”

“The Lord said to Jonah son of Amittai, “Go immediately to Nineveh, that large capital city, and announce judgment against its people because their wickedness has come to my attention.” Instead, Jonah immediately headed off to Tarshish to escape from the commission of the Lord. He traveled to Joppa and found a merchant ship heading to Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went aboard it to go with them to Tarshish far away from the Lord. But the Lord hurled a powerful wind on the sea. Such a violent tempest arose on the sea that the ship threatened to break up!

He said to them, “Pick me up and throw me into the sea to make the sea quiet down, because I know itʼs my fault you are in this severe storm.” Instead, they tried to row back to land, but they were not able to do so because the storm kept growing worse and worse. So they cried out to the Lord, “Oh, please, Lord, donʼt let us die on account of this man! Donʼt hold us guilty of shedding innocent blood. After all, you, Lord, have done just as you pleased.” So they picked Jonah up and threw him into the sea, and the sea stopped raging. The men feared the Lord greatly, and earnestly vowed to offer lavish sacrifices to the Lord. The Lord sent a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the stomach of the fish three days and three nights.” Jonah 1:1-4, 12-17

The story of Jonah is a story about the limits we try to put on our calling from G-d, and the lengths G-d will go to reduce our limits. Jonah tried immediately to limit the length he would go to accept a calling from G-d. As soon as G-d said “Jonah, Go to Nineveh!” — Jonah went the opposite direction. As soon as he began running, Jonah experienced trouble. The men on the ship to which he had retreated soon discovered that someone on board was responsible for their bad luck and bad weather, and Jonah confessed that his G-d was angry. Finding no other way to appease G-d — Jonah was thrown off the ship and immediately swallowed by an enormous fish (or mammal or Leviathan). The text does not say that he was chewed up and swallowed — just that he was swallowed whole and descended into the belly of the beast.

Have you ever cut open a fish? I have — it is not a pleasant smell. Actually cutting up any living mammal, fish, or mullosck is not necessarily pleasant smelling. Now imagine you have been swallowed by a large “thing” and descended into their gastrointestinal playground. It must have sounded awful, looked awful, felt awful, and smelled awful. In three days Jonah would be vomited up on the beach. Imagine sitting in the stinking, foul, pool of undigested matter of a large creature/mammal for three days, praying to G-d and hoping you do not agree with their stomach — and then becoming the vomit.

No wonder Jonah went right back to doing what G-d asked him to do — preach to the people of Nineveh. Imagine if he decided to flee once again. Most likely G-d would have had him swallowed by a Pelican, or some other immense bird — imagine becoming bird vomit.

That is the question I would ask Jonah. What question would you ask?

Pastor Dave

If I Could Ask One Question of Eve, I Would Ask “What kind of fruit was on the tree?”

“Now the serpent was more shrewd than any of the wild animals that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Is it really true that God said, ʻYou must not eat from any tree of the orchardʼ?” The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit from the trees of the orchard; but concerning the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the orchard God said, ʻYou must not eat from it, and you must not touch it, or else you will die.ʼ” The serpent said to the woman, “Surely you will not die, for God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will open and you will be like divine beings who know good and evil.”

When the woman saw that the tree produced fruit that was good for food, was attractive to the eye, and was desirable for making one wise, she took some of its fruit and ate it. She also gave some of it to her husband who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them opened, and they knew they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.” Genesis 3:1-7

I have talked about Adam and Eve in some of my devotions in the last few months. The story of Adam and Eve is again, one of the greatest stories in the Bible — one that continues to be debated and argued between theologians. Not only do people wonder if Adam and Eve really existed, or if they were just a way for people to give voice to questions about their origins, but there are many, many different questions we might ask — especially ask either Adam or Eve. For example, I might ask Adam or Eve: “What was the Garden of Eve really like?” Or, “What was it really like to be in the presence of G-d?” But this is the one question, if permitted, I would ask Eve: “What kind of fruit was on the tree?”

Now, I realize this is not a very probing question. But look, the kind of fruit that grew on the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil is, as I mentioned before, hotly debated. For many, many years, the fruit was depicted as an apple. In fact most people, if you ask them, they will tell you that the Bible says it was an apple. Of course we know the Bible does not say that. Some commentators suggest the fruit was figs, since they made loin cloths for themselves out of fig leaves. Others suggest the tree was not only a fruit tree with good tasting fruit, but it was a fruit tree that was “pleasing to the eye”. That would suggest a particular kind of tree, or leaf, or trunk. The fruit would have had to have been good smelling, as well as good feeling and good tasting. Why? Well, if once Adam and Eve ate the fruit, then they could see, after they ate the fruit their eyes were opened, then it had to have enticed their other senses for it to be something they would eat.

To me, THE question to ask Eve is what kind of fruit was it that the serpent told her to eat. It is the question of the Bible — for out of the action of eating it, paradise was lost, and humanity was changed forever.

That is the question I would ask Eve. What question would you ask?

Pastor Dave