Sunday, February 16, 2014

Jonah Runs From His Responsibility

Today I read Jonah 1.  Like most little boys, I was always fascinated by the story of Jonah.  How awesome to a little boy is the story that someone gets swallowed by a fish?  As a teenager in school, I was homeschooled for part of my highschool and my Mother used videos from a school out in Utah for one year.  I remember the teacher telling us that there was a story of a whaling crew where a man fell overboard and they could not find him so he was presumed dead.  A few days later they caught the whale they were hunting and as they were cutting it up, they noticed the stomach was moving around like something was alive in it.  They cut open the stomach and there was the missing crew member!  His hair was bleached white and his skin had several burn marks from the acid in the whale's stomach but he was very much alive.  I can't remember how long he was in there if it was only 3 days or more than 3 days but again, very fascinating.  Of course we can make the obvious reference to the Savior's death and resurrection in that Jonah was in the belly of the fish for 3 days and 3 nights.

However, the most amazing part of this story to me has to be the sailors.  They are very superstitious and cast lots to determine who is as fault.  However, when they discover that Jonah is the problem, Jonah tells them to cast him into the sea and the sea will be calmed.  However, to their everlasting credit, the men refuse to do so.  They don't want to kill poor Jonah.  They keep trying to make it to port so they can be safe, they don't want to kill Jonah, even if he is the reason for their current troubles.  That is amazing!  I don't think I am more impressed with another group of people in the entire bible.  I have always been intrigued with the sailors in this story and would really like to meet them one day and see how many of them converted once they heard the Gospel message.  I'll wager more than a couple.  Until tomorrow.

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