Watershed Moments
'Now the Lord provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.'
Jonah 1:17
Have you ever been through a circumstance or experience that redefined you? You often hear people talk about these watershed-type moments, an event that changed them forever. What do these moments look like? I think it rarely happens that a watershed moment in life comes through a 'positive' experience. That was certainly true for Jonah!
The story of Jonah is both a foretelling of the grace of God towards humanity and a reflection on the human condition. It's a great book to read in 5 minutes! There are so many lessons to learn, and I think we can all see aspects of ourselves reflected in Jonah and his response to the situations that confront him. Whether it be hiding from confrontation, procrastination, apathy, denial, cowardice, outright disobedience, self-pity, blame, it's all there in 4 short chapters. When I read Jonah I feel immensely challenged that any judgment I might pass on him for his response to situations is judgment that could be passed on me; I have to face facts, that I am often similar in my own responses.
But coming back to that watershed moment, for Jonah this looked like spending 3 days and 3 nights in the belly of a whale. Is this even possible? It has to be acknowledged that no recorded incidence of this ever happening exists (except in the book of Jonah), but as this was an event orchestrated by God I think we can allow for the miraculous! But whether this story is factual, or metaphorical, the lessons are the same. And the biggest reflection I have found when rereading it is that it took a truly terrible situation to bring about positive change in Jonah's life. I've read and heard this story many times, but never really given extended thought to just how horrible it would be to be stuck in a whale for 3 days and 3 nights. Completely isolated, pitch black, soaked through to the bone, with no escape route and saturated with the stench of decomposing fish! Not exactly a dream long-weekend stay. But it was exactly this experience that Jonah needed. Jonah wanted to run away, but what he NEEDED was a few nights stuck in the depths of despair. I imagine Jonah thought that this would be it for him, he was as good as dead.
But then 3 days and nights later he gets regurgitated on a beach, and putting aside just how bad he would have smelt, his vision and outlook had shifted dramatically! No longer was he running away from his God ordained destiny, he was embracing it. No longer was he consumed with self-pity but with a desire to be obedient. Jonah prays this amazing prayer when trapped in the whale, a really wonderful declaration of repentance and heart change.
'“In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me.
From deep in the realm of the dead I called for help, and you listened to my cry.
You hurled me into the depths, into the very heart of the seas, and the currents swirled about me; all your waves and breakers swept over me...
But you, Lord my God, brought my life up from the pit...
“Those who cling to worthless idols turn away from God’s love for them. But I, with shouts of grateful praise, will sacrifice to you. What I have vowed I will make good. I will say, ‘Salvation comes from the Lord.’ ”
Isn't that an amazing prayer! I particularly feel challenged by the concluding verses, "Those who cling to worthless idols turn away from God's love for them." Jonah realises that God's love is never turned away, never cut off, never taken back. It's we who turn away from God. We are the ones who replace God's love in our lives with 'idols', and even when we do, God is still pursuing us, even if it does look like trapping us in a big fish until we get the wake up call we needed! This journey into the depths, only to re-emerge a NEW man, is prophetic in nature - it tells of Christ. Jesus says as much to the pharisees in Matthew 12:39, ""A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah." Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites, declaring a message of repentance to the people, emerging from 3 days and nights in a whale to declare God's way. Jesus spent 3 days and nights in the grave, overcoming death and hades, raised to life by the resurrection power of God and declaring the dawn of new life for all who believe. And this process is still happening today. Many times in my own life I have had to undergo 'watershed moments'; sometimes they've lasted a lot longer than 3 days and nights, but nonetheless they have been orchestrated by God to bring about repentance and transformation in my life.
But Christs death and resurrection are the ultimate watershed moment - a watershed moment for all creation. This is a watershed we can all be included in, through faith in Christ. Sadly Jonah finishes his story again feeling sorry for himself; it feels like the effect of his time in the whale wasn't lasting. But Christs victory over the grave is for now and all time! It doesn't depend on what we will do, but on what Jesus has already done, and that will never change. Sometimes God's grace to us looks very different to how we would imagine it, sometimes it looks like a long weekend stay in a whale! The most important thing to remember is that God never turns His love off. Sometimes Him pursuing us looks like the opposite of what we want, but it will always be what we need.