00:00:00:12 - 00:00:22:52 Clint Loveall Hey, everybody. Thanks for being back with us on this Tuesday as we continue through the book of Jonah. We are at the end of chapter one. We left verse here. That is in some ways the signature verse, at least if there's a thing that people know about the character Jonah, and therefore the book of Jonah, it's got to be this part. 00:00:22:53 - 00:00:49:08 Clint Loveall So let me just read this one verse, verse 17, then we'll stop and we'll move forward from there. But the Lord provided a large fish to swallow up Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. Just if you've been with us in the study, you've heard us make the case that the word great is important. 00:00:49:08 - 00:01:14:11 Clint Loveall And just so want to be clear that when the Lord provides in my translation, it says Large, it's great. A great fish. So that that use of that word continues. And interestingly, Michael, I think in the context of the story, this is not a particularly important detail. Right? Right. It gets one verse. 00:01:14:18 - 00:01:14:45 Michael Gewecke Correct. 00:01:14:52 - 00:01:46:06 Clint Loveall It's a narratively it is a transition. What happens now is that Jonah is in the sea. Now, Jonah is going to be in a protected place, and and that mechanism is going to deliver him to the place he was supposed to go in the first place. And yet, no detail of this story has been maybe more controversial or more studied or more argued than this. 00:01:46:21 - 00:02:18:52 Clint Loveall Then this verse that what we make of this idea, I've literally heard people engage in arguments whether this is fish or whale. And in Hebrew, it's the word fish. There is a word for whale. It's not used here. It it's it says great fish. But Jonah's not arguing. North American scientific classification of ocean life. Right. I mean it. 00:02:18:57 - 00:02:35:47 Clint Loveall We make such a big deal of this, which is fascinating, because it's really such a little deal in the context of the story. It's really interesting how much we've dug in on this particular place, I think historically. 00:02:35:49 - 00:02:52:15 Michael Gewecke Another way to frame that, another way to spin it and this just makes me smile, is that we're going to have many, many people who we're blessed to have joined us over the course of a study like this. They're going to find a particular passage that's interesting to them or they're going to be scanning through YouTube and the video is going to come up. 00:02:52:15 - 00:03:17:22 Michael Gewecke And I think, Clint, the really funny thing is this is pretty much the only study that in the course of this book people have likely given any thought to or are likely to know the details of. But throughout the rest of the story, lots of people don't know about the plant at the end of Jonah. Lots of people don't know about the thing that Jonah says in the city of Nineveh and his disappointment at what happens there. 00:03:17:36 - 00:03:17:49 Michael Gewecke this. 00:03:17:49 - 00:03:19:18 Clint Loveall Psalm that's about to come. 00:03:19:22 - 00:03:53:38 Michael Gewecke Right. But even more, they don't know the song that's about to come. And I just think what's amazing about this particular text and here we're looking at just a razor thin, slim amount of words here, this idea that the Lord, the God of Israel, once again calls a great fish to swallow up. Jonah. And this is not the thing itself, though we have in our imaginations allowed this to be the saying that dominates in the children's Bible and in our telling of the story that fish or whale? 00:03:53:51 - 00:04:16:40 Michael Gewecke No, actually, the thing that comes up after this is Jonah is in the belly of the fish for us are determined amount of time, three days and three nights. And when you have things like that in Scripture, when the details of dates and times are included, you need to understand it's not just giving us a quantitative understanding. It's teaching something. 00:04:16:40 - 00:04:48:46 Michael Gewecke And as it turns out, in ancient Israelite culture, this time frame, three days and three nights, is the amount of time it takes to get to the realm of the dead. It's the amount of time it takes to get from the living to the other side of living. And so here you have Jonah being swallowed in the water by a vessel, a creature capable of then taking him to the very deepest part of the water, continuing this trend of going down, down, down, down. 00:04:49:01 - 00:05:14:40 Michael Gewecke Now he's going to go down to the farthest place imaginable, both literally in the water and then spiritually in death. And the idea is that Jonah's been willing to go the whole way. He's willing to test the limit of how far God will be. And this is the mechanism that the story is using. It's the way that it's being told to help us understand that that's the furthest extent possible. 00:05:14:45 - 00:05:30:03 Michael Gewecke But to your point, Clint, the biblical author, has no interest in telling us it's the spotted Mediterranean, whatever, whatever fish. That's not the point of this. The point isn't the scientific classification. It's the spiritual meaning of what's happening to. 00:05:30:03 - 00:06:00:18 Clint Loveall Jonah, in fact. So disinterested is the author in this. And we don't see this in English, but the word fish is used three times here in this verse and then once in the Psalm or before the psalm, and once when the fish spits Jonah out. Two of those usage, two of those words are male. It would describe a male fish, and the third is female. 00:06:00:19 - 00:06:28:26 Clint Loveall The author changes the gender of the word, and that has more to do with the poetry that we'll talk about in today and tomorrow. But the the writing itself even further than than we can see in English, detracts from the idea that it's about that thing. That thing is just the thing that God uses. And so the great fish, the whale will probably call it both swallows. 00:06:28:26 - 00:06:54:58 Clint Loveall Jonah. Three days, three nights, and we'll get there in a minute. Michael. But I want to preface something you said preface by going to something you said. The idea of being swallowed up by death. You know, we in the New Testament, we see Jesus say something about the sign of Jonah. It it's not simply the three days that is the sign. 00:06:55:03 - 00:07:20:08 Clint Loveall It's the idea of being delivered from death to life. And that's really the kind of meaning that overhangs this next part of the story. So with that kind of lengthy introduction, we move into chapter two, and chapter two stands out in Jonah as unique. It is a chapter entirely devoted to what we would call a psalm a prayer. 00:07:20:13 - 00:07:47:21 Clint Loveall It's uses different words. It's of a different style substance. Some have suggest that it was added later or came from an outside source. I don't know that there's a reason to make that case here that that those arguments are out there if you want to see them. It fits beautifully within Jonah. So however it got there, it is an incredible passage. 00:07:47:25 - 00:07:55:13 Clint Loveall And I think in its own way, maybe the most beautiful part of the story, but ironically, by far the least known part of the story. 00:07:55:15 - 00:08:22:29 Michael Gewecke I think the argument you would make against this, at least initially, would be that it's such a different tone and it's a different way of presenting the story that that is a kind of shift that we don't often see in the biblical writings. We have a book related to Psalms with a book related to the prophetic stories. Those books don't get interwoven, but here we just see in an instant that transition happens and now suddenly we're thrust into song. 00:08:22:30 - 00:08:47:36 Michael Gewecke So I think it's the diversity of that that may strike us as odd, but quaint as we're about to jump into this. I'd just as a word of advice as we come into this. If you look at this and look in this for what this has to teach us about, first of all, Jonah's relationship to God, and then ultimately you hold over this story asking what is John actually saying? 00:08:47:36 - 00:09:11:44 Michael Gewecke Not just what is his prayer, but what what is his actual actions pointing us towards this psalm does something that just a simple narration couldn't do. It lets us into this divine conversation between Jonah and God, and it lets us wonder, is Jonah in fact, finding this compelling move from God? I think that's going to change his life. 00:09:11:49 - 00:09:28:45 Michael Gewecke Or will he leave this experience and will he remain in some part of himself still arrogantly or stubbornly convicted that he needs to run the other way? And I think that this psalm does it in a way that we couldn't imagine any other way of writing it could do. 00:09:28:49 - 00:09:54:18 Clint Loveall There's a timelessness to this because we're told in verse one here, Jonah prayed to the Lord, but then we don't really hear a prayer. We hear Jonah's account of praying until the very end. These words are less directed to God and more to the reader, or at least they're the encapsulation of Jonah's story. So let me read a few of these verses. 00:09:54:18 - 00:10:17:03 Clint Loveall Then we'll come back and talk our way through them. Then Jonah prayed to the Lord His God from the belly of the great fish, saying I called to the Lord out of my distress and He answered me out of the belly of shell. I cried. And you heard my voice. You cast me into the deep, the heart of the sea and the flood surrounded me. 00:10:17:07 - 00:10:44:31 Clint Loveall All your waves and billows passed over me. Then I said, I am driven from your sight. How shall I look again upon your holy temple? The waters closed in over me The deep surrounded me Weeds were wrapped around my head at the roots of the mountains. I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever. Yet you brought up my life from the pit. 00:10:44:36 - 00:11:11:33 Clint Loveall Lord, my God. Maybe we can pause there. Michael thinks so again. This beautiful expression of praise is it? It assumes, or at least it leads us to assume that either in the water or on the way to the water. At some point in his sinking, Joe cries out to our job. Jonah cries out to God. Jonah says as much. 00:11:11:33 - 00:11:34:30 Clint Loveall I called out to the Lord in my distress and he answered me and out of the belly of Sheol. And the word here is probably better translated Womb and shale. If you're not up on your obscure Old Testament words, which is not a problem, it means the place where the dead go. Shale isn't what we would think of as heaven or hell. 00:11:34:35 - 00:12:00:21 Clint Loveall It's it's just the place of the dead. It it is. It's not associated with value. The righteous and the unrighteous are all there. It's simply probably the simplest way to think of it. Michael, is just. It means dead in the womb of death. I cried. In other words, as I was passing from life to death, I cried to the Lord and you heard my voice. 00:12:00:21 - 00:12:14:10 Clint Loveall And this is the most we've heard Jonah say. It's the most intimate thing we've heard Jonah say. And it's the first time we've heard Jonah give anything that could really be constituted as praise. 00:12:14:15 - 00:12:53:15 Michael Gewecke It is in some ways a very sobering text, I think, because when you look at this closely, it is unbelievably dark. If you read this idea that in in distress in the the depths of darkness, even in death itself being cast into the deep, the very heart of the sea, the flood surrounds, billows and waves are passing over in this very it's not poetic, poetic in a Western sense, but it's poetic in that it is casting all of these different perspectives and angles upon Jonah's experience. 00:12:53:20 - 00:13:24:16 Michael Gewecke And what we're seeing so very clearly here is that Jonah is experiencing separation from God being sent to that place where one continually goes down and down and down and down farther and farther and farther. And yet and yet this idea that as this is closing upon me forever, we have here in verse six, we have at the end of that, you brought up my life and the pit. 00:13:24:21 - 00:13:52:53 Michael Gewecke Lord, my God, it's a statement of faith, but it's wrapped in a moment that is full of seaweed. It's a moment of perfection. But yet in the midst of that profession is the confession of reality. Yet Jonah is in the most God forsaken state and yet able to claim a name and see God's place in it. And part of what makes this so sobering and dark for me, Clint, is the fact that Jonah has put himself here. 00:13:53:06 - 00:14:16:44 Michael Gewecke It's not that God sought out Jonah's ill. It's that Jonah's stubbornness and in ability or unwillingness to allow God to move him to complete his chosen task. In Nineveh, Jonah has chosen a path at the bottom of the belly of the boat that's now led him to the throes of the bottom of the sea and at the bottom of this place of his life experience. 00:14:16:44 - 00:14:36:21 Michael Gewecke It's here that he can make this claim in verse six that God has brought him up from the pit. I mean, that is both a compelling statement of faith, but it's also, if we're going to be honest, I think a very sobering reflection of someone whose choices have put them in this position in an adversarial conflict with God. 00:14:36:27 - 00:15:03:25 Clint Loveall We've tried to make the case that the word down is important throughout chapter one. You know, he goes down into the ship, he goes down to the port, now he goes down in the sea. And and here we have the ultimate culmination of that. I went down to shale, went down to the depths, went down to death. And the spiritual lesson here, I think, is subtle but profound. 00:15:03:30 - 00:15:34:40 Clint Loveall Jonah is fleeing the presence of God. And where does fleeing the presence of God lead in the context of the book? It leads to death. It leads away from life. It leads to that place where one is covered and one is hopeless. And the water closes in. And the the seaweeds were wrapped around my head and I was at the root of the mountain, the land whose bars closed upon me. 00:15:34:40 - 00:16:09:56 Clint Loveall It's unfortunate that this psalm is not also in the Book of Souls, because this is one of the more beautiful kind of lent and personal suffering psalms, and then turns to a wonderful praise. So this is in this is an opinion. This is not I'm not seeing this as truth. In my opinion. This is as beautiful as nearly anything in the Book of Psalms, and yet it is largely unknown because of its kind of obscure place in this strange story. 00:16:10:01 - 00:16:38:58 Clint Loveall But it is a wonderful rockhold, it is a wonderful handhold for anybody who finds themself in that moment of I just feel like I'm sinking. I feel like I'm drifting, like I'm at the bottom and headed down to the very depths. We join Jonah there and I and I think in many ways we can come back to this at the end of the study. 00:16:38:58 - 00:17:02:13 Clint Loveall But I think I'd make the case, Michael, that this is the most human portrait we see of Jonah in the book. I actually think this is Jonah, at his very best, is when he's in the belly of the fish. I wish that it was going to stay on that high note, but I don't I actually don't think it does. 00:17:02:13 - 00:17:08:36 Clint Loveall I think the story goes a different, different way. But this is this is extremely beautiful poetry. 00:17:08:47 - 00:17:28:39 Michael Gewecke I don't know if you would agree with this, but I think that this moment both has gotten more attention than it deserves and less attention than it deserves. We've given it more attention because we've become obsessed with the mechanics of the fish and the whale and the swallowing and the how long can one be alive and how is he not digested yet? 00:17:28:44 - 00:17:58:53 Michael Gewecke We've been fixated in these technical components of the story, and when we do that, we make ourselves uninterested in what is, I think, an underappreciated aspect of this story. And that is what we do with the reality of human suffering, that we admit the honest truth that we discover in our lives, moments, sometimes even seasons in which the darkness overwhelms us, in which it feels like we continually sink lower and lower and lower. 00:17:58:53 - 00:18:21:34 Michael Gewecke And in that moment, we are missing this moment, this opportunity that we have in the life of Jonah, to see someone who's gotten there for good and even more so bad reasons and is having this conversational encounter with God and come back tomorrow because the conversation's going to take a very different turn from what we've had here today. 00:18:21:34 - 00:18:49:44 Michael Gewecke But up to this point, confesses the reality of the darkness and the struggle and the foreboding ness of human life. We've experienced that, and it's now being told through Jonah's story. So the question is, how does God work even amidst this situation? And what implication might have that that have for you and for me, the readers of this story also finding faith in the midst of the difficulty of life. 00:18:49:44 - 00:19:13:32 Michael Gewecke And all of that is written into this story. When you overfocus on the technicality of a fish, you're going to miss it. When you under emphasize the importance of these words of God and God's presence in dark places, then you're going to miss it. So I would encourage you, spend some time here, appreciate these words, because there's a depth of wisdom in there that you will miss if you fail to do so. 00:19:13:37 - 00:19:41:37 Clint Loveall Yeah, I think my take on on what you're saying, Michael, is maybe that we've been so obsessed with trying to explain this text that we've not encountered it, that we've not actually listened to the words of a man whose flight from God has led him to the depths and and who now cries out to the very God he was running from, which right. 00:19:41:42 - 00:20:04:49 Clint Loveall This is this is also humanity. One on one. We don't we have no interest in God. When God asks us to do something we don't want to do. But when we're drowning and need him, we inevitably call out for him. And Jonah is certainly no exception to that. Jonah is the epitome of that. But I think that's something we all do. 00:20:04:49 - 00:20:43:40 Clint Loveall I don't want to demonize Jonah. I think Jonah is very much a part that all of us carry around a person in whom we find ourselves at some level. And so a very interesting part of the story, it if you've never slowly read through the second chapter of Jonah, I hope you'll take the time to do it, because it is it is staggering, beautiful, and it is deeply profound and it is so much more important than fish or whale and how and when. 00:20:43:40 - 00:21:15:11 Clint Loveall And it the text, Jonah from the belly of the great fish in the depths of shale certainly doesn't care what the answer to those questions are. He wonders where is God and will I? Will I emerge? Is this the end? And so if you've never done that, if you never read through it, I would I would encourage you to try it, because I think you'll find that it is surprisingly, surprisingly good. 00:21:15:16 - 00:21:42:16 Michael Gewecke And chapter two is not over yet. So we hope you'll join us for that conversation tomorrow. The best way to do that is to subscribe. If you want to get instant notifications when these come out on YouTube, you can hit that little bell icon after you subscribe. That helps you get know this of those. But certainly like the video, if you found this helpful, if you've made it this far, hope that you might share it with someone else who it would bless them and we would love to see as we continue on through the second chapter of Jonah tomorrow. 00:21:42:21 - 00:21:43:08 Clint Loveall Thanks, everybody.