Day 277 or October the 4th. God is bigger than
you think. Our thoughts today are rooted in Matthew
chapter 12 verse 40. For as Jonah was three days
and three nights in the belly of a huge fish,
so the Son of Man will be three days and three
nights in the heart of the earth. And now the big
picture surrounding this verse. Jesus continues
his ministry in the northern area of Galilee.
He could teach with extra freedom here due to
its distance from the Jewish authorities in Judea
to the south, and being further cut off by the
intervening region of Samaria, which straddled
the central area. Interestingly, Jesus was often
referred to as a Galilean because he lived in
Nazareth, even though he was born in Bethlehem
of Judea. So he was really a southerner who spoke
with a northern accent. And now today's action
step. Jesus likens himself to perhaps the best
-known minor prophet in the Bible, Jonah. Like
Jonah, who went to the Gentile Assyrian capital
city of Nineveh, Jesus also takes the good news
of the kingdom to Gentiles as well as Jews. They
both spent most of their lives living in the
north. Jesus in Nazareth, and Jonah in nearby
Gathhefa. Today, some scholars consider Jonah
to be a mythical character rather than a historical
one. But Jesus speaks of him as a real person,
and surely he would have known better than anyone
else, wouldn't he? Take this as a warning, that
just because something in the Bible seems hard
to believe, it doesn't mean it isn't true. It
just means you don't understand it fully. If
you investigate the possibility of being swallowed
by a large fish, please note not a whale, you
may be surprised at how such an experience is
more common than you think, according to Google.
In fact, it seems several men have suffered this
fate and survived. There are times when we have
to admit that we cannot explain some parts of
the Bible. It doesn't mean we're dim. It means
that we can't fully understand God. Now, there's
a surprise.