A two year old accompanying his older brother for a clinic visit today admonished him: "You better behave or you will be swallowed by a whale!" Most of us get hung up on the fish story part. This kid gets the real story. That's the Kingdom of God. Mark ten fifteen.
The thing too many people find hard to swallow is that this fish story is about the grace of salvation. The judgment part of Jonah's flight from God was his being thrown overboard; nonetheless, in His grace, God provided a big fish to keep Jonah from drowning in the deep.
ReplyDeleteBehaving better would indeed be a good thing for the big brother to consider, but better behavior is best accomplished after one becomes swallowed up by the grace of God in Christ. Then and only then will all by whale ... er, well.