Day 255, or September 12. Real self exposed. Our thoughts today come from Jonah chapter
2 verse 1. From inside the fish, Jonah prayed to the Lord his God.
Now the big picture surrounding this verse. Jonah was a prophet to the northern tribes
when King Jeroboam II ruled. He prophesied at a time when the major superpower of the
day, Assyria, was making threatening noises to the small nation of Israel, who stood
in their way of easy access to another superpower, Egypt. The sliver of land we call Israel today
was the strategic strip that linked the three continents of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Imagine
Jonah's consternation when God called him to go to the capital city of Assyria, Nineveh.
Add to that the fact that his name means pure, and he is being told to go to the impure Gentile
heathen of Assyria, and you have a glimpse of the dilemma that Jonah faced. He opted
for the easy solution of ignoring God and looking the other way. In fact, he sailed
the other way. Asked to head northeast, he proceeded due west to the end of the world,
or Tarshish, which was probably Kadiz, which is in the region of the Gibraltar Strait.
There was nothing further west except the end of the world. That's how much Jonah
didn't want to follow God's guidance. God had other ideas, however, and sent a fish
to bring him back. Despite this account usually including a whale, there is no doubt that
it was really a big fish.
And now our action step for today. When we are in serious trouble, our real self tends
to show, doesn't it? How would you have reacted to being swallowed by a large fish? I have
to admit that praying may not have been my first thought. However, we find that Jonah
prays, quoting various psalms as well as the book of Lamentations. The Bible is so
much a part of him that it naturally comes out when he is under pressure. This would
be more likely in our lives if we put the Bible in. We fill our lives with so many useless
things, do something useful and read the Bible every day.