Live Free with Josh Howerton - The Rescue of God | Ep. 187 | Tuesday, October 24, 2023

Episode Date: October 24, 2023

Jonah’s attempt to escape God landed him in the belly of a big fish. It may have felt like punishment to Jonah, but that fish was God’s way of rescuing him. The three days Jonah spent in the fish point to a greater Rescuer, One who will always be with us when we feel like we’re in too deep. For more information, visit lakepointe.church/dailydrive

Thanks for tuning in to today's Daily Drive with Lake Point Church, a daily dose of God's word for your morning drive. When the word, not the world, becomes the majority of your week, your life will start to change. For that reason, our prayer is that God will speak to you through today's devotional. For more digital content to feed your faith, visit lakepoint.comit. And now let's dive in to today's devotional. Hey, welcome to the podcast. My name is Mike. Thanks for tuning in. Yesterday we began binge watching a story about a guy named Jonah. So let me begin with a previously on Jonah. He's a prophet. He's a spokesperson for God. And God gives him an assignment that he just does not want to do. And Jonah is this guy filled with nationalistic pride for the nation of Israel. And God tells him to go warn their enemies that they need to repent. They need to turn it around, stop their extremely wicked ways or God himself was going to take them down. So he sends Jonah to warned them that they needed to turn around or else. Well, Jonah refuses to do it. He hates, quote-unquote, those people. So he attempts to run from God. We saw him in the last episode boarding the ship and

heading in the opposite direction. God pursues him, causes a storm on the open sea. The sailors know they're in big time trouble. They discover that Jonah is the reason they're all going to die. Jonah tells him that it was his fault, that if they would just throw him overboard, the storm would stop. They reluctantly do so, and the storm stops. And Jonah sinks. Episode 2. In Too Deep. You know, I can't imagine drowning.

That'd be a terrible way to go out. I mean, just a sheer panic you feel when you're losing air. Ever felt that desperate feeling? Ever had a near-drowding experience? You know, surfers, maybe you get thrown under the waves. You start to panic. You know, I'm going to make it out of this wave. Can you imagine what's going through Jonah's mind?

As the ocean absolutely swallows him up. I mean, he was really thinking he could outrun, God. He deliberately disobeyed him, and as a result, the consequences of his actions not only put himself, but lots of other people in danger. And you know our sin has a way of doing that, doesn't it? And you know about right now as a prophet, someone who's supposed to be close to God? As he's struggling, sinking, he's feeling like a complete failure. His arms are shot. He can't tread water any longer. He's running out of air. His lungs are burning. It's dark. It's desperate. It's over. Man, what a way to go.

But God's pursuit does not stop there. Verse 17 of chapter 1. Now the Lord had arranged for a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was inside the fish for three days and three nights. Now this great fish was probably a whale. And before you start thinking finding Nemo, finding Dory, Moby Dick, or Free Willy, this is a true story. You say, all right, that's not even possible.

I was watching that show called Millie. busters and they totally disproved it. Well, is this possible? Now, first of all, the Hebrew word translated belly does not necessarily mean stomach, simply a place where he was completely engulfed. Some believe he may have been in the oral cavity and a whale which is a warm-blooded oxygen-breathing mammal

periodically surfaces for air which would have provided Jonah with much-needed oxygen, while the inside body heat would have protected him from hypothermia. I don't know how it all works. But I do know there are just certain things you cannot logically prove or disprove. They fall into the category of supernatural miracles. I mean, you'll never see the Red Sea parting on Mythbusters, nor manna from heaven, nor the sun standing still, nor the walls of Jericho falling, nor the feeding of the 5,000, nor water turning into wine,

or walking on the water, nor calming the storm, or the calling of Lazarus from the dead, they all lie within the realm of the supernatural. Now, in case you're wondering, all of those things I just mentioned, were viewed by eyewitnesses, and they were recorded and passed down from generation to generation, not as fable, not as fiction, but as factual events. Talking about all the amazing supernatural things that Jesus did, a close friend named Peter wrote this, we did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His Majesty. We saw amazing things. We saw him take crooked, at legs and make him straight. He opened blinded eyes. He cured leprosy. He walked on water. He calmed a storm.

He rose from the dead. He is the word of life. And as far as this Jonah fish story, Jesus himself acknowledged the validity of it. Over Matthew chapter 12 and Luke chapter 11, he refers to Jonah actually being in the whale for three days as a foreshadowing of himself being in the grave for three days and rising again. The crowd all knew the miraculous story of Jonah, and they would soon experience the miraculous story of the resurrected Jesus. I mean, if you believe the first words of the Bible, in the beginning God created, then the rest is pretty easy to believe. Because we're talking about the one who spoke the world into existence,

the genius who somehow set the ocean tides to the lunar schedule, the one who made lightning bugs and giraffes, the creator of DNA, the designer of photosynthesis, the astronomer who flung the stars into the sky and knows everything. one of them by name. So if he can do all of that, I think he can arrange for a great fish whom he created to change his migration pattern and show up the exact right second to scoop up one of his priceless kids. Now, some people who really haven't read the story think they'll be swallowed by the whale was how God punished Jonah. I mean, just the contrary, this great

fish was how God rescued Jonah. It saved his life. I mean, kind of a cool thought that even in Jonah's disobedience in his rebellion, God loved him so much that he would supernaturally call like Enterprise Rental Whale because they pick you up. He speaks to a great fish and says, go get him. The God of second chances pull this whole thing off. Jonah deserved death. And God showed extraordinary mercy. You talk about pursuing somebody. Did you know that he pursues you like that too?

You might think that you're one of those that's just too far gone. You might think that you too are just in too deep. But you need to know that you can't outrun God's grace. His grace reaches lower than our worst mistakes. So let's just pause episode two. And we'll pick it up tomorrow, but I'm praying the day that you would walk grateful for the way God has pursued you, for the way God rescued you.

I'm confident it wasn't through a fish, but you do have a rescue story. So why not pause right now? and just thank God for it. And name all the players involved in it. Bring them to mind. Maybe it's a praying grandma or a football team mate. Or maybe an AA sponsor or a girlfriend or a neighbor or a pastor, a coach, a teacher,

somebody that just seemed to scoop you out of the deep at the right time and bring you to Jesus. So spend some time thanking God for the way he has rescued you and then come back tomorrow and we'll pick up episode two. Have a great day. Thanks for tuning in today. For more biblical teaching and worship, join us for our church online live weekend services on Saturdays at 6 p.m.

and Sundays at 9.30 and 11 a.m. Central Standard Time. Also, if this podcast was helpful to you, would you be sure to rate, review, and share this podcast to help get the word out? For more information about all digital ministries of Lake Point, visit lakepoint.compt.com. church slash daily drive.