Then the crew cast lots to see which of them had offended the gods and caused the terrible storm. When they did this, the lots identified Jonah as the culprit. [Jonah 1.7]
Why didn't they just check the Weather Channel?
In ancient times. people actually believed the weather was controlled by gods. Imagine that! Little did they know about high and low pressure systems, the sun and the moon, and all the weather conditions arising from their interactions.
Also, what were the chances that "casting lots" would implicate Jonah as the culprit responsible for the storm?
The thing is, these people, not even knowing the LORD God, did not believe in chance ...and, it saved their lives. These men, who did not know God, were convinced that the weather was not just a random phenomenon, and, they were right. They furthermore so understood the "spiritual" nature of their existence that they believed "casting lots" could genuinely explain circumstances. And, again, it did - once they threw Jonah overboard, the storm immediately stopped - so quickly that apparently Jonah witnessed it before being swallowed by the whale.
The implications of Jonah's story are serious upon modern "believers in God." So serious are the implications of Jonah's story that many "Christian" people have concluded that his story is so far-fetched that it must have just been an allegorical writing and did not really happen. With modern knowledge and technology, few, if any (Christians included), actually believe that God (let alone any other god) controls the weather with purpose.
So, here we are in the 21st Century A.D. with the Bible in one hand and the TV remote in the other. Sadly, we trust the information from the "world" (television, radio, social media, advertising, etc.) far more than the information from the Bible. The world tells us it will rain tomorrow, so we change our plans. The world tells us we can have what we want before we can afford it, so we buy it. The world tells us we need protection for what we bought that we cannot afford, so we insure it. The world tells us we can take a pill to get better (because we have bills to pay and rightly must keep going to pay them), so we take the medicine. The world tells us "there's an app for that," so we mindlessly let a machine do all our thinking. And all we have to do is just keep the money flowing ...which seems to keep most people so busy working that they don't have time to breathe, let alone know and ponder the deep things of God.
And, we think the people in Jonah's story were gullible!
Jonah's story teaches one important lesson: God controls everything (believe it or not).
If God's people TRULY believed God controls everything, their lives would look entirely different than the world.
If God's people TRULY believed God controls everything, they would have zero hesitation obeying Jesus' demand to "have faith in God" (Mark 11.21-23).
If God's people TRULY believed God controls everything, they would believe nothing but the Bible, and boy, would they be ostracized for it!
If God's people TRULY believed God controls everything, they would do everything in their power to reject the world's solutions so that God's power might be evident in and through their lives ...even if it means dying for it.
If God's people TRULY believed God controls everything, they would give up their own way, take up their cross, and follow Jesus (Matthew 16.24).
That about sums it up for me today...
Father in heaven, our actions speak so loudly that we do not believe You that our words mean nothing...
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