the foundation ye saints of the Lord is laid for your faith in Is it possible to live three days and three nights inside a fish? Well, that’s a question that we pondered last time in our study of Jonah on Through the Bible. And as we continue our journey through God’s whole word, our teacher, Dr. J. Vernon McGee, asks another really important question. Could the God who raised Jesus from the dead do the same thing for Jonah? I’m Steve Schwetz, and as you hop aboard the Bible bus, find your seat, and let’s read a couple letters from our fellow passengers. Here’s an email from Charles. I hopped aboard the bus in the early 1990s, but when I retired in 1998 for health reasons, I fell off. A couple years ago, my doctor took me off an antidepressant I had been on for about eight years. He took me off because it began to do more harm than good. While I was adjusting to life without this crutch, I rediscovered the Bible bus through an app. I really needed the Bible bus at that time. When I felt low and depressed, listening to Dr. McGee teach the Word of God brought me peace of mind. I joined the World Prayer Team close to a year ago. Reading the daily stories and praying for individuals and nations often bring tears, but also a feeling of warmth that I am participating in something greater through the knowledge that many others are united with me, in this power of prayer. I pray earnestly for those living in the areas where being a Christian is dangerous. I pray daily for the Lord’s guidance and protection for us. Well, it’s great to have you on the World Prayer Team, Charles. Thanks for your faithful prayers. And then here’s an email. This one’s from Curtis. He’s in Texas. Being led by the Holy Spirit, I spent over 25 years in church bus ministry, hauling young souls to Sunday school and seeing many accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, and some parents too. After that, the Lord led me to serve as an adult Sunday school Bible teacher and other various ministry posts for over 20 years, and through it all, I’ve used much of Dr. McKee’s material. This is my first year traveling the world on my knees as we’ve journeyed I’ve become aware of the world’s hunger for the Word of God. I’m on my knees daily, praying and making a monthly donation to help get the Word of God out into the world. Well, thanks for your support, Curtis, and I agree. It’s such an awesome privilege to watch God work through these broadcasts in over 250 languages around the world. Now, if God’s calling you to partner with us by joining our faithful group of committed prayer warriors called our World Prayer Team, or by providing maybe a tank of gas to keep the Bible Bus rolling along, get in touch with us. You can call 1-800-65-BIBLE. You can email us at BibleBus at ttb.org or write to Box 7100, Pasadena, California, 91109. Or in Canada, Box 25325, London, Ontario, N6C.org. 6b1 you can also leave a note in the feedback section of our app let’s ask the lord now for understanding as we open his word together heavenly father would you bless your word as it goes out into all the world and as we study the book of jonah together help us to hear the message that speaks of you that prompts us to obedience and faith in the name of jesus amen here’s our study of jonah chapter 2 on through the bible with dr j vernon mcgee
SPEAKER 01 :
Friends, as we come back to this second chapter, and we have it on our timetable, as many of you know, we have divided the book of Jonah according to a timetable. And in chapter 1, its destination was Nineveh. And he left Israel, probably Gath Hefer, his hometown in the north, and he arrived in the fish. And we have in chapter 2 on the timetable that his destination is still Nineveh, and he leaves the fish and he arrives on the dry land. So chapter 2, we find Jonah inside of the fish, and the question arises, was Jonah dead or alive during those three days inside of the fish? Now, I want, first of all, to share with you a letter that’s come to me from Austin, Texas, in this regard. And it reveals the viewpoint, of course, of the popular interpretation of it. And I’m reading now this letter. It says, Thank you for responding to my letter concerning Jonah. It is a mark of your dedication that you take time to answer such letters, since I’m sure you get many. I believe you’re doing a fine work for the Lord, and in listening to you over the years, I think you’re not getting older, but getting better. Well, may I say to you, I’m getting older, and you’re not kidding me, and I’m not getting better. Now, let me continue. Your story about your fear of flying and how you conquered it brings meaning to a living faith. But as far as Jonah goes, you are, I believe, putting in a private interpretation. You’re straining the word to make it say something it doesn’t say. May I go on to say the fact that Jonah lived three days in the whale’s belly doesn’t do any damage to the reference in Matthew 12, 39 and 40. Why don’t you take your Bible and read it again? If we forget the chapter designation, it helped. Then he gives me, of course, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fish’s belly. He said he guessed that Jonah did a lot of soul searching during those three days. Now, it says if you interpret this passage like you do, you must believe the writer didn’t have enough sense to put the story down in the sequence it occurred. And then he goes on to tell about the story that I used as illustration. And then it says you state that it is assumed that Jonah was alive. Well, I don’t believe it is. But if you want to say that, I think your assumption is the greater assumption. And I hope you realize you’re only assuming. My question to you is why? Well, may I say I appreciate that letter, and I recognize that the general interpretation, the popular interpretation, is that Jonah was alive for three days and three nights inside of the fish. and that he had a very comfortable weekend inside of the fishtail instead of a motel. I don’t think he could have been as comfortable as you’d be in a Howard Johnson or Holiday Inn or Ramada Inn or Royal Inn or any Hilton Hotel. But at least he had three days and three nights in there alive. In fact, when I was a little boy in Sunday school, they gave me a card on which Jonah was inside of the fish, and he had a table there, and he was sitting at the table. I don’t know where that came from, but that was the way it was pictured, and that always, as a little fella, disturbed me because I had trouble with that, and I must confess I did. Now, if you hold a viewpoint that this man holds that Jonah was alive, you are with the majority today. And you’re also with the majority of the expositors of the book of Jonah. And you can feel comfortable in being with the majority. Now, of course, if you want to be right, you would want to go along with me, I’m sure. But anyway, I want to make this point very carefully. It’s not a question now of whether God was able to keep him alive or not inside of the fish. From my viewpoint, God could keep him alive. The question is, did God keep him alive? Is the miracle one of keeping him alive or was the miracle in raising him from the dead? And since this book illustrates resurrection, I’m of the opinion God raised him from the dead. Now, it’s not a question of the power of God. If I get to heaven and find out that Jonah was alive and after I’ve had a little talk with him, Some of you friends come around and say, I told you so. I will have to confess that I was wrong. And I’m not, as this man seems to think, that I’m taking an assumption and making a dogmatic statement. I’m not. But I am saying this. that I’ve had the privilege of teaching the book of Jonah on quite a few college campuses. Right here in Southern California, I taught it on the campus of USC, on the campus of UCLA. And I’ve had the privilege of teaching it not directly on the campus, but to the Berkeley students at Cal in Berkeley. And I have found that this gives ammunition to young people today and it gives them something to hold to. Now, if you belong to the old school and you want a hold of this, don’t get enraged and become absolutely irritated with this viewpoint. You must recognize that this has been very helpful to a great many students today. And it has been the means, as we saw in the case of that Georgia Tech student years ago. It was the means of bringing him to a saving knowledge of Christ. And I personally believe this. I hold to this. Now, it’s not a question of whether a man can live in a fish. Now, I want to give you today some illustrations of the fact that men have been swallowed by fish, whales, and they’ve lived to tell the story. And there’s some remarkable stories. So that leads me to say this to you, that if you believe that Jonah was alive inside of the fish, that’s not too great a miracle because of the fact other men have had that experience. And I want to give you those. Many years ago here in Pasadena, when I first came here, there was a very excellent Bible teacher by the name of Miss Grace W. Kellogg. And she gave me her little book, the Bible, today because she also held the old viewpoint that Jonah was alive inside of the fish. And she wanted me to see that Jonah could have been alive. And of course, my point is, of course he could have been. If that’s what God means, then I’ve really just misunderstood him and have rather misunderstood Jonah. And I’d certainly be willing to correct myself. But I’d like to give you a quotation now from Miss Grace Kellogg’s book that it is possible for a man to be swallowed by a fish and live. And there are many examples of it. I’m going to give you a few of those that she gave. And I’m quoting now. There are at least two known monsters of the deep who could easily have swallowed Jonah. They are the Bolinoptera musculus, or sulfur-bottom whale, and the rhinodon typicus, or whale shark. Neither of these monsters of the deep have any teeth. They feed in an interesting way by opening their enormous mouths. submerging their lower jaw and rushing through the water at terrific speed. After straining out the water, they swallow whatever is left. A sulfur-bottom whale, 100 feet long, was captured off Cape Cod in 1933. His mouth was 10 or 12 feet wide, so big he could easily have swallowed a horse. These whales have four to six compartments in their stomachs, in any one of which a colony of men could find free lodging. They might even have a choice of rooms, for in the head of this whale is a wonderful air storage chamber, an enlargement of the nasal sinus. often measuring seven feet high, seven feet wide by 14 feet long. If he has an unwelcome guest on board who gives him a headache, the whale swims to the nearest land and gets rid of the offenders he did Jonah. Now, here is another example that Miss Kellogg gives. The Cleveland Plain Dealer recently quoted an article by Dr. Ransom Harvey, who said that a dog was lost overboard from a ship. It was found in the head of a whale six days later, alive and barking. And here’s another. Frank Bullen, FRGS, who wrote The Cruise of the Catholet, tells of a shark 15 feet in length, which was found in the stomach of a whale. He says that when dying, the whale ejects the contents of its stomach. And here’s another. The late Dr. Dixon stated that in a museum at Beirut, Syria, there’s the head of a whale shark big enough to swallow the largest man that history records. He also tells of a white shark of the Mediterranean, which swallowed a whole horse. Another swallowed a reindeer minus only its horns. In still another Mediterranean white shark was found a whole sea cow about the size of an ox. These facts show that Jonah could have been swallowed by either a whale or a shark. But has any other man beside Jonah been swallowed and lived to tell the tale? We know of two such instances. Now listen to this. The famous French scientist, Monsieur de Parville, writes of James Bartley, who in the region of the Falcon Islands near South America was supposed to have been drowned at sea. Two days after his disappearance, the sailors made a catch of a whale. When it was cut up, much to their surprise, they found their missing friend alive but unconscious inside the whale. He revived and has been enjoying the best of health ever since his adventure. Now, here’s the other, Dr. Harry Rimmer. And I knew Dr. Rimmer well. President of the Research Science Bureau of Los Angeles writes of another case. In the Literary Digest, we noticed an account of an English sailor who was swallowed by a gigantic rhinodon in the English Channel. Briefly, the account stated that in the attempt to harpoon one of these monstrous sharks, this sailor fell overboard. And before he could be picked up again, the shark turned and engulfed him. 48 hours after the accident occurred, the fish was sighted and slain. When the shark was opened by the sailors, They were amazed to find the man unconscious but alive. He was rushed to the hospital where he was found to be suffering from shock alone and a few hours later was discharged as being physically fit. The account concluded by saying that the man was on exhibit in a London museum at a shilling admittance fee, being advertised as the Jonah of the 20th century. In 1926, Dr. Rimmer met this man and writes that his physical appearance was odd. His body was devoid of hair and patches of yellowish-brown color covered his entire skin. If two men could exist… For two days and nights inside of marine monsters could not a prophet of God, under his direct care and protection, stand the experience a day and a night longer. So why should we doubt God’s Word? Now, may I say that that demonstrates the fact that a man could live, but the thing that it does, it takes away from the unusual character of Jonah’s experience. That is, if these men lived and Jonah lived, then you have several instances and there may be others. And I’m told that there are other records of men who’ve lived, have been swallowed by fish. So that what you have is a record, not really of a great miracle. You have a record of an unusual instance, an incident that took place. Now, I personally believe that the greater miracle is the fact that God raised him from the dead. Now, I return back to our text. And again, I remind you, the question before us is not whether God could make a man live for three days and three nights inside of a fish. The question is, did God do that? Is that what the record says? Now, let’s look again at the text, and I’m going to pick up at chapter 2 at verse 1 again. Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fish’s belly. This individual that has written to me from Austin, Texas, puts actually his great emphasis upon the time word then, assuming that it means that after he’d been in the fish three days and three nights, He prayed. That’s not what it means at all. The record and the way the Hebrew has of describing anything is to go through it and give the full account, then come back and emphasize that which is important. Now, you have that same thing in Genesis at the creation. You have the six days of creation. Then God comes back and gives the detailed account of the creation of man, which adds a great deal. Now, that’s all that you have here. And to attempt to build your assumption on the little word then is very fallacious, by the way. It means that now that he’s going to tell you the story in detail, what really happened inside of the fish, all right? Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord as God out of the fish’s belly. Now, if you know anything at all about human psychology, you know that Jonah didn’t wait three days and do, as this man said, a lot of hard searching. He did a lot of searching to get out of the fish. And he prayed the minute that he got inside the fish. That man Jonah is really praying. Now listen to him. And I said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the Lord, and he heard me. God heard him. How? Out of the belly of the grave. Sheol. Jonah called the belly of the fish his grave. He said, cried I, and thou heardest my voice. Now will you listen? For thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas, and the floods compassed me about. All thy billows and thy waves passed over me. May I say that you can’t treat that lightly. You need to recognize that this man not only lived in a fish, but if he lived, he lived like a fish because he was swamped by water. He says, the floods compassed me about. All thy billows and thy waves passed over me. In other words, Jonah’s saying, I got wet. And I think that it’s all wet to try to say that the man lived three days and three nights. I personally think that the devil gets us off arguing about that when we miss the great truth of resurrection that is here. Now, will you notice? He says again, verse 4, Then I said, I’m cast out of thy sight. That’s death. Yet I will look again toward thine holy temple. He believed he’d be raised from the dead. He had been brought up on the Old Testament. And I think this means many things. I think it means, first of all, that Jonah was one of the many in the north who were faithful, who went down to Jerusalem to worship down there at the temple, for they knew that was the place to worship the living and true God. And he says, I’m going to look again at that holy temple. God will raise me up again. Now, verse 5. Now, listen to this. Does this sound to you like a man is alive? He says, the waters compassed me about, even to the soul. He’s saying, I got drenched. The depth closed me round about. The weeds were wrapped about my head. Now, this sea monster had been eating a bunch of seaweed. And if you know anything about them, I pull them out along the Pacific coast here. Some of them are 25 feet long. And this monster had this tummy full of these. And Jonah says, well, I was down there and I got these things all wrapped around my head. Now, do you think the man’s describing the fact that he’s having a very nice weekend inside of a fish? I don’t think so. I think that he’s trying to tell us that he went down to the very depths And he’s dead. I went down, listen to him, to the bottoms of the mountains. The earth with its bars was about me forever. Now, this is a very interesting translation because this is in Elizabethan English back in Shakespeare’s day. You will remember that Hamlet speaks of the fact when he saw his father’s ghost that the grave hath opened its bars. And that was the way death was spoken of. For its bars was about me forever. What kind of bars, Jonah? Death, of course. That’s what he’s talking about. And that’s the meaning of this translation. For its bars was about me forever. Yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption. Now, you remember when Peter, on the day of Pentecost, brought that message. He says now, the psalmist says that he would not see corruption. He says now we all know that David wasn’t speaking of himself because his grave is up yonder and he saw corruption. That’s death, friends. And the miracle about the Lord Jesus is that when he died, he did not see corruption. That body did not corrupt. And that was the difference. And that’s the difference between Jonah’s experience and our Lord’s experience. that Jonah’s body actually, in the three days and three nights, began to decay. Rigor mortis set in. And he says, you brought up my life from corruption. Oh, Lord, my God. I think this man’s talking about being raised from the dead. Now I see that I’ve exhausted my time here. I fully intended to try to finish this chapter today, but it’s so important. We’ll come back to it next time. Because, friends, May I say to you, I think it’s rather important that we have a book in the Old Testament that teaches the resurrection of Christ. That is important. Very important. That is one of the main pillars of our salvation. There are two pillars. And the ark of the church rests upon it. The death of Christ and the resurrection of Christ. And they both are taught in the Old Testament. This book teaches his resurrection. Until next time, may God richly bless you, my beloved.
SPEAKER 02 :
Listen to this message again or share it with a friend. It’s really easy, both from our app or over at ttb.org. Or to be in touch, you can call us 1-800-65-BIBLE. In our next study, Dr. McGee teaches us about the most important statement in the book of Jonah. I’ll give you a hint. It’s in chapter 2, verse 9. So if you’ve got some time, why don’t you read it ahead of time? This is Steve Schwetz, grateful for your company on the Bible bus and your partnership in taking the whole word to the whole world. Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain, he washed it white as snow. Through the Bible exists to take God’s whole word to the whole world. And we invite you to stand with us with your faithful prayer and financial support. Where will God’s word go today?
