We all likely have heard the story in the Bible about Jonah and the whale. First, let me ask, do you actually believe it? Sometimes it’s hard to be a person of deep intelligence and faith at the same time because some things just don’t make sense. How did this real man end up in the belly of a real whale, and survive for 3 days? There are stories in the Bible that are known as parables and those are nothing more than teaching points made practical by made up stories. But let’s be clear, this isn’t one of them.

Jonah lived 700 years before Jesus. He was a prophet of God. The book of Jonah in the Old Testament tells his story. Then Jesus reminds everyone of his story in Matthew 12:40 and says, “For as Jonah was in the belly of the great fish for three days and three nights, so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights.” Jesus is saying, “Yes, as unbelievable as that was, it really happened … and now, something totally unbelievable is going to happen with me too.” Jesus would be crucified on the cross and he would hang there for all to see he was dead, his body would be put in a secure tomb, and three days later women would come to the tomb and find the stone had been rolled away and Jesus was no longer there, for he had risen.

It really happened. These are not made up stories. However, because they seem nearly unbelievable, faith is required here.

Did you know there was recently a lobster diver off the coast of Cape Cod who was swallowed by a humpback whale? For real. It happened. He was on the news being interviewed from the hospital. Now that man has a testimony! How absolutely incredible!

But, my guess would be it didn’t feel incredible while it was happening. Here this guy is swimming around on the bottom of the ocean catching lobsters and all of a sudden things just go dark. He never saw it coming. He initially thought he had been eaten by a shark, but in the darkness he realized he wasn’t injured. If it were a shark, he would have been shredded. So where was he? He could feel movement of his surroundings so he knew whatever he was in was moving in the water. He starts moving around as violently as he can. Hitting, kicking, desperately doing everything he can to get out of whatever he’s stuck in. And then, the whale surfaces, shakes his head and spits him out! INCREDIBLE!

None of that felt incredible while it was happening. And really, that’s the thing about a testimony … going through it is not incredible. It’s dark. It’s scary. It’s likely the opposite of what you were hoping for or had planned for your day. But girl, when you make it out …. hallelujah! That’s your testimony.

This man’s recent testimony reminds us Jonah and the whale is a real story. Yes, it happened … but have you ever asked WHY it happened?

Why was this prophet of God swallowed by a whale? Do you know? We don’t have to guess because scripture tells us plain and clear. Jonah 1: 1-3, “The Lord gave this message to Jonah, ‘Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh. Announce my judgment against it because I see how wicked the people are.’ But Jonah got up and went in the opposite direction to get away from the Lord.”

Well, there’s the problem right there. Jonah was running from God. Running from God ended him up in the belly of a whale for a couple days where he could get his head and his heart right and try again in obedience to God.

Girl, have you been running from God? Maybe you don’t really think so because you have valid reasons for doing the things you’re doing and not doing what you’re not doing. You felt that prompting from God, but you dismissed it because it seems impossible. You felt his nudge, but you didn’t respond because you thought it would make you look silly. You heard his whisper in your spirit, but you hushed it because surely someone more qualified than you could do that instead. You read his word that brought a holy conviction, but you pushed that feeling down and continued on your way telling yourself it’s really not that big of a deal.

That’s running. That’s avoiding. That’s delaying. That’s dismissing. God doesn’t like it.

Jonah ended up in the belly of a whale because he didn’t do what God told him to do. Why didn’t he do it? Because he didn’t want to.

Sometimes we don’t want to go. We don’t want to be the one to say something. We don’t want to go first. We don’t want to change. So we make excuses, we dismiss the prompting and we create delay tactics. Delayed obedience is still disobedience. A world class fantastic excuse is still an excuse. A prompting has a timeline … it’s prompt. It’s not a later-ing, it’s a PROMPT-ing.

So, the question is, why are we like Jonah and sometimes disobedient to God’s call? Is it fear? Is it doubt? Is it laziness? Is it sin? We constantly dismiss ourselves from the power of God working in and through our lives. Why do we do that?

With some self-examination, I realize the real root of the problem for me is often, I just don’t want to. I don’t want to do what I don’t want to do. I don’t feel like doing what I don’t feel like doing. So I dismiss it. I avoid it. I delay it. I create some sort of justified excuse for me to sit it out. And most of the time I just assume nobody noticed and God moved on to someone else.

But what if some of the messes I find myself in today are a result of my own disobedience? What if this is my time of sitting in the dark, being stuck in the yuck, and God is working on my heart and mind so that when I do get out of this I will do it right this time?

What if this is your time of sitting in the dark and stuck in the yuck because honestly, you have only been doing what you wanted to do. You’ve only been going where you could see and like what you saw. You’ve only been showing up for what you could control. You’ve only been following your feelings. That’s a problem.

Jonah was impulsive. He knew God told him to go to Nineveh but he didn’t want to go there. That wasn’t on his bucket list. Nope, not those people and not that job. Not it, God. So, he impulsively jumps on a ship going in the absolute opposite direction.

Are you impulsive? Are you fast to jump? You’re all in, then you’re all out, and it happens in an instant. You speak before you think. You buy before you consider. You commit, then you totally uncommit. Proverbs 28:26, “Those who trust their own insight are foolish, but anyone who walks in wisdom is safe.” Really, impulsiveness is the opposite of wisdom. You’re trusting a temporary feeling over an eternal God.

Girl, calm down. Your impulses are guided by circumstances, not by God. Circumstances make you feel some sort of way and your decisions in the moment cannot be trusted. The devil loves to deceive us with impulses. He knows he can wreck your life with a few impulsive feelings and thoughts in circumstances you’re trying to avoid.

The devil surely thought he had won when impulses led Jonah to jump on that ship going in the opposite direction of where God told him to go. But here’s the great news about our Almighty God: He doesn’t give up easy!

You may be running and avoiding, but God can still see you. Psalm 139: 7-12:

“I can never escape from your Spirit! I can never get away from your presence! If I go up to heaven, you are there; if I go down to the earth, you are there. If I ride the wings of the morning, if I dwell by the farthest oceans, even there your hand will guide me, and your strength will support me. I could ask the darkness to hide me and the light around me to become night – but even in the darkness I cannot hide from you.”

Jonah discovered he simply could never escape from God. He was running, but God was chasing. He was hiding, but God was forever finding. He was dismissing, but God was calling.

So you know how the story goes, right? Jonah’s hiding on this ship going in the opposite direction, and a great storm comes nearly sinking the boat. The men on the boat realize Jonah is running from God, so they throw him off the boat into the sea and the storm immediately stops. Then here comes the whale and just swallows Jonah right up.

And there, on that far ocean, in darkness that hid Jonah, God brought light in his heart and mind. He brought him to a place of surrendered impulses.

Yes, surrendered impulses.

And when that whale spit Jonah out, he went straight to Nineveh to do exactly what God had told him to do.

If you’re running, it’s not working. You really suck at hiding from God.

If you’re ignoring him, you failed because he’s speaking to you right now and you simply can’t deny it.

If you’ve been impulsive, he’s asking you to surrender those impulses, stop making rash decisions, and sit with him. Just sit with him. Don’t run. Don’t jump. Don’t hide. Just sit. Sit in the darkness if the darkness is where you are. He will be your light. He will show you the way. If you are weak, he will strengthen you. If you are lost, he will guide you.

If the belly of the whale is where you are, then the belly of the whale is where he’ll work. Surrender the impulses that got you here to the God who can get you out.

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