WEBVTT

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Day 277 or October the 4th. God is bigger than

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you think. Our thoughts today are rooted in Matthew

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chapter 12 verse 40. For as Jonah was three days

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and three nights in the belly of a huge fish,

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so the Son of Man will be three days and three

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nights in the heart of the earth. And now the big

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picture surrounding this verse. Jesus continues

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his ministry in the northern area of Galilee.

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He could teach with extra freedom here due to

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its distance from the Jewish authorities in Judea

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to the south, and being further cut off by the

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intervening region of Samaria, which straddled

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the central area. Interestingly, Jesus was often

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referred to as a Galilean because he lived in

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Nazareth, even though he was born in Bethlehem

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of Judea. So he was really a southerner who spoke

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with a northern accent. And now today's action

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step. Jesus likens himself to perhaps the best

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-known minor prophet in the Bible, Jonah. Like

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Jonah, who went to the Gentile Assyrian capital

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city of Nineveh, Jesus also takes the good news

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of the kingdom to Gentiles as well as Jews. They

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both spent most of their lives living in the

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north. Jesus in Nazareth, and Jonah in nearby

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Gathhefa. Today, some scholars consider Jonah

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to be a mythical character rather than a historical

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one. But Jesus speaks of him as a real person,

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and surely he would have known better than anyone

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else, wouldn't he? Take this as a warning, that

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just because something in the Bible seems hard

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to believe, it doesn't mean it isn't true. It

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just means you don't understand it fully. If

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you investigate the possibility of being swallowed

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by a large fish, please note not a whale, you

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may be surprised at how such an experience is

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more common than you think, according to Google.

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In fact, it seems several men have suffered this

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fate and survived. There are times when we have

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to admit that we cannot explain some parts of

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the Bible. It doesn't mean we're dim. It means

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that we can't fully understand God. Now, there's

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a surprise.