A Whale of a Plan [Part1]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright. Two-year-old Bennett interrupts me and said, No, Daddy. He said the whale doesn't eat, Jonah.

The whale saves him. That's Pastor Alan Wright. Welcome to another message of good news that will help you see your life in a whole new light. I'm Daniel Britt, excited for you to hear the teaching today in the series called Providence as presented at Reynolda Church in North Carolina. If you're not able to stay with us throughout today's entire program, I want to make sure you know how to get our special resource right now. It can be yours for your donation this month to Alan Wright Ministries.

So as you listen to today's message, go deeper in your study as we send you today's special offer. Contact us at PastorAlan.org. That's PastorAlan.org. Or call 877-544-4860.

877-544-4860. More on that later in the program. But now let's get started with today's teaching. Here is Alan Wright. Are you ready for some good news?

When you are at your worst, God that is best. It's a radical thing to say. A lot of people, including Christians, believe the opposite. A lot of people think that when you start moving away from God, He's gonna move away from you. But it's not true.

Because you are infinitely valuable to God and no matter how far down you might go, your value remains the same. A man was driving down a road, saw a country store with a sign out front that said, talking dog for sale. Talking dog?

He pulled in and went and asked the store owner, he said, what does this sign mean? A talking dog for sale? The man said, yeah.

Looked over there was a lazy dog lying in the corner. He said, dog for sale? He said, yeah but I mean you said he's talking? He said, oh yeah, he can talk talk to him. So the man said, hey dog. The dog lifted up his head and said, hey man, dog can talk. Looked up at the store owner and said, yeah he loves to talk.

You know, ask him some questions. The man said, well tell me about yourself dog. The dog said, well I'm lying around here most of the time. He said, but before that, the dog said, I was just a canine in the police force.

Really? The man said, yeah. He said, I'm just, you know, drug sniffing dog and stuff like that, just minor things. Wow, the man said, and the dog said, yeah but after that I went to work for the CIA. The man said, wow. The dog said, yeah I was a spy dog.

It was amazing. He said, I could lie in the corner in government offices in Russia and North Korea and listen in on top-secret conversations and come back to the Pentagon and report my findings. The man was like, wow. And the dog said, yeah. He said, after that I went to work for NASA. Says, a little known fact, we dogs can tolerate outer space in a way that humans can't. So he said, don't tell anybody but I've been on Mars, the dog said.

Walked around on Mars, came back to tell them all about it. The man was like, wow, this dog is talking, you know. He turned to the owner, he said, how much, how much do you want for this dog? And the store owner said, ten dollars. The man said, ten dollars?

That's all? He said, this dog can talk. And the owner said, yeah but you can't believe half what he says.

The reason that's funny, supposed to be funny, the reason that that's ridiculous and funny and surprising is because if a dog is a talking dog it is infinitely valuable even if it's a lying dog and you're much more than a dog. And when you're at your worst you are infinitely valuable to God, so how could God ever give up on you? You don't give up on treasure, you pursue it as far as you need to pursue it. We're learning about providence. It is to think about the goodness of God and the sovereignty of God and how God loves you so infinitely and has such good intentions towards you that though you might be far from God, He is able to orchestrate circumstances and people and events for your good and His glory in ways that might defy your imagination right now. And we've learned how God could even work through others wickedness like Joseph's brothers that sold him into slavery and God used it for good. Well today we come to even a deeper revelation.

What about the moments when you're at your worst? The darkest valleys, you feel like you've got the least faith you ever had. Where's God then? I want to show you the providence of God in the familiar story of a depressed wayward prophet named Jonah. Jonah chapter 1 verse 1. The word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai. Jonah was a famous successful prophet.

We know this from a passage in 2nd Kings chapter 14 where we're told that Jonah prophesied about the extension and securing of the borders of Israel under the reign of Jeroboam. So Jonah was powerful in the spirit. He had accurate prophecies. He was in the royal court. The people knew who Jonah was. He was well known.

He was an amazing man of God. And at verse 2 the Lord gives him a word. Arise and go to Nineveh, that great city and call out against it for their evil has come up before me. Nineveh was the chief city of their arch enemy Assyria. The primary at that season enemy to Israel. People that would invade and overrun their nation. They were idolatrous. They worship false gods.

They had no respect at all towards the people of Israel. They'd just as soon devastate them and Jonah was told to go and preach to them. You'd have to think about your worst enemy to begin to envision what this story of Jonah is about. And notice that word great, that great city. I bring your attention to it because one of the thematic literary elements in the book of Jonah are repetitive words and themes. It is all by itself just beautiful literature and this word great, which means not only large but important, is something that is going to recur throughout the story.

A story about a great city and we'll read about a great fish and we'll read about a great wind and a great evil and a great tempest. And the wickedness is great and that word for wickedness occurs eight times in our story of Jonah as well. Verse three, Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord, went down to Joppa, found a ship going to Tarshish so he paid the fare, went down into it to go with him to Tarshish away from the presence of the Lord. Literally away from the presence of the Lord means from away from the face of the Lord. In Hebrew the idea of the presence of the Lord is almost always in this phrase the face of the Lord. Because when the Lord lifts up his countenance, he's like a father whose child comes in the room and the father lifts up his face with the light.

May the Lord make his face shine upon you and lift up his countenance upon you. That's the presence of God and so Jonah is fleeing from the face of the Lord, doesn't want to see the Lord's face, doesn't want to be in his presence because of this command to go preach to the enemy, doesn't want to do it. And you'll notice that he's going down to Joppa, that's going to be another thing that's going to occur over and over. He's going down to Joppa, he's going to go down into a boat, he's going to go down into the sea, he's going to go down into a belly of a whale. This is a depressed prophet who is going down. If you were to imagine where he's trying to go and looking on a map, it's almost comical because he's told to go 550 miles to the northeast of Nineveh, but instead he goes 2,500 miles to the west, essentially to the farthest known place in the world at that time to Jonah. He wants to get as far away as he can and it's interesting if you notice again at verse 3, the repetition of Tarshish three times, flee to Tarshish, ship going to Tarshish, go with them to Tarshish, Tarshish, Tarshish, Tarshish, away, away, away.

It's about a depressed prophet who wants to get as far away, away, away as he can get from God. Verse 4, the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea and there was a mighty tempest on the sea. There's our word great again, great wind, and that same word appears, great tempest. The ship was threatened to break.

It is no ambiguity here. The Lord is the actor. He has hurled the wind and that's important to the story. The phrase about threatened to break up is really wonderful in Hebrew because it is alliterative and it is what we call, I think, onomatopoeia, where a word sounds like what it is doing.

Like the word crash in English sounds like a crash and that's the way this sounds in the Hebrew about this ship threatening to break up. You can almost hear the storm. That's Alan Wright and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. Unlock the power of blessing your life. Discover God's grace-filled vision for your life by signing up for Alan Wright's free daily blessing. If you want to fill your heart with grace and encouragement, get Alan Wright's daily blessing.

It's free and just a click away at PastorAlan.org. God's love. You've heard about it with your ears.

You've believed it in your mind. Now experience it in your heart with Alan Wright's beloved book, Lover of My Soul. The Bible is a love story from beginning to end. You are the spiritual bride of Christ, the perfect bridegroom. The Bible tells about a God who has gone to unimaginable lengths to woo you, to win you, and to walk with you hand in hand. For any man who has fallen in love with a woman, you've tasted the sweetness of what God's love for you is like. For any woman who has searched for true love, what you long for can only be found fully in God. Gary Chapman, renowned author of the five love languages, says, the incredible reality that God pursues us in love comes to life in Lover of My Soul. Ancient biblical accounts explode in the heart. Accept Christ's proposal, enjoy His embrace, revel in His love.

After all, it's a match made in heaven. It's Lover of My Soul by Alan Wright. The gospel is shared when you give to Alan Wright Ministries. This broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support. When you give today, we will send you today's special offer. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Alan Wright Ministries. Call us at 877-544-4860. That's 877-544-4860. Or come to our website, PastorAlan.org.

Today's teaching now continues. Here once again is Alan Wright. Verse five, the mariners were afraid and each cried out to his God. And they hurled cargo that was in the ship to lighten it, getting ballast out that will potentially help save the ship. But Jonah had gone down, there's our word, into the inner part of the ship and had lain down.

Here it is again, was fast asleep. So they're crying out to their false God, strategically unloading the boat. Jonah's gone down as asleep. There's only two ways that anybody could ever be asleep in the middle of a hurricane on a boat that's about to capsize and that is either you've got perfect peace and faith or you are so depressed you don't care anymore.

And that was Jonah. I've never been depressed to that level, but I've counseled and prayed with many who have and report that it gets to a point you don't care about anything. When it all feels hopeless, you just don't care anymore. Let the storm kill me and I don't care.

What's the point? A mighty man of God in the bottom of the ship, sleeping. And at verse 6, the captain came and said, what do you mean you sleep or arise? Call out to your God. Perhaps the God will give a thought to us. We may not perish. It's like our gods aren't working, maybe your God will work. How can anybody be asleep at a time like this? Verse 7, they said to one another, come let us cast lots that we may know on whose account this evil has come upon us.

So they cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah. And they said, tell us on whose account this evil's come upon us. What's your occupation? Where do you come from?

What's your country? What people are you? So this is throughout the history of the world what every religion apart from the gospel has done. That anytime things look like they're going in the wrong direction, that life seems scary and uncertain or painful, what must we do to appease the gods so that we would find favor and get a better sense of security in the world? That's what religion does and still does. And desperate to find an answer, they're looking, well maybe this guy has a God, maybe we could sacrifice to His God.

What do we need to do? And they cast lots, ancient practice of trying to discern the mind of God and we don't need this as Christians, you don't see anything like this in Christianity because we have the Holy Spirit of God Himself and we share in the mind of Christ and we have an anointing from the Holy Spirit that will lead us into truth, we can talk to God. They cast lots and falls on Jonah and they say, who are you?

What's what's going on here? Verse 9, he said to them, I'm a Hebrew, I fear the Lord the God of heaven who made the sea and the dry land. This is not the mighty prophet who is saying, I am a Hebrew and I serve the one true living God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob who is the creator of the ends of the earth and the master of the wind and the waves and he can, no this is Jonah depressed going, okay I might as well tell you.

This isn't weird, this isn't depressing, it's like if he hasn't abandoned his belief in God, he's just depressed. I'm a Hebrew, I serve the one true God who made all of this and I am. They said to him, verse 11, what shall we do to you that the sea may quiet down for us? What do we need to do so that we would move your God on our behalf?

That is the spirit of religion. What effort do we need to make? What offering do we need to make? What sacrifice do you need to make?

Obviously, we need to do something to move your God so that we don't die. It is the opposite of the gospel and Jonah who knows better in his depression says, verse 12, pick me up, hurl me into the sea and the sea will quieten down for you, which is prophetic, that's what's going to happen but it's not for the reason he thinks. He's not being offered as a human sacrifice.

He says, for I know it's because of me this great tempest has come upon you, which is true but not in the way that he thinks. There's never a place in Scripture ever anywhere, not in the Old Testament or New Testament, that any human sacrifice in any way appeases or pleases God. God finds the sacrifice of a human being the greatest abomination and there's no way that that's what this story is about. God doesn't want Jonah in the water to kill him but he does want him in the water because he's got a plan to save him. Verse 13, nevertheless, the men rode hard to get back to dry land but they could not. They were like, we're probably gonna have to throw him in but that's a last resort, let's try harder ourselves and then we'll make the sacrifice, the human sacrifice.

They rode, they couldn't do anything about it. Verse 14, then they called out to the Lord. They called out now to this God that Jonah had introduced him to, the Lord, Yahweh. Oh Lord, let us not perish for this man's life and lay not on us innocent blood.

We wash our hands of his blood. For you, O Lord, have done as it pleased you. And so they picked up Jonah, they hurled him in the sea and the sea ceased from its raging. And the men, of course, figured that we just made a sacrifice of this human and obviously pleased this God named Yahweh and the sea has stopped. And so, in verse 16, the men feared the Lord and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and they made vows. All for misunderstanding who God is. They thought they just killed Jonah and that their human sacrifice had pleased God and so it says they feared the Lord. Remember that verse that says, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

I love what my uncle Stanley used to say, it's the beginning but it's not the end. All they knew was his God must be real. That's all they really understood at that point. They didn't know how to have a relationship with God. So at verse 16, they feared the Lord and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and they made vows. They just assumed that this God must be like their God and that it was all about their vows, their sacrifices and what they didn't know God.

But that's what they started doing. Verse 17, and the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. It might be that this should be translated, some scholars say, had appointed, which I like. The Lord had long before appointed a great fish. It wasn't a fish that happened to be swimming by. It wasn't an accident. Alan Wright, our good news message.

It's a whale of a plan from the series Providence. Hey, stick with us. Pastor Alan is joining us back in the studio sharing a parting good news thought for the day here in just a moment. Unlock the power of blessing your life. Discover God's grace-filled vision for your life by signing up for Alan Wright's free daily blessing. If you want to fill your heart with grace and encouragement, get Alan Wright's daily blessing.

It's free and just a click away at pastoralan.org. God's love. You've heard about it with your ears.

You've believed it in your mind. Now experience it in your heart with Alan Wright's beloved book, Lover of My Soul. The Bible is a love story from beginning to end. You are the spiritual bride of Christ, the perfect bridegroom. The Bible tells about a God who has gone to unimaginable lengths to woo you, to win you, and to walk with you hand in hand. For any man who has fallen in love with a woman, you've tasted the sweetness of what God's love for you is like. For any woman who has searched for true love, what you long for can only be found fully in God. Gary Chapman, renowned author of the five love languages says, the incredible reality that God pursues us in love comes to life in Lover of My Soul. Ancient biblical accounts explode in the heart. Accept Christ's proposal, enjoy his embrace, revel in his love.

After all, it's a match made in heaven. It's Lover of My Soul by Alan Wright. The gospel is shared when you give to Alan Wright Ministries. This broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support. When you give today, we will send you today's special offer. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Alan Wright Ministries. Call us at 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. Or come to our website, PastorAlan.org. Back now with Pastor Alan and a whale of a plan, I have to say for being the story that most people learn in Sunday school as a small child. As an adult, I have heard, had more eye-opening stories come from the book of Jonah. This little, little book and this message today that we're going to continue with is no different. Well, I think as we'll continue to see the story of Jonah, real prophet, powerful prophet and beloved and respected who goes through such a depression.

So it's a real story. And yeah, I believe it's a real fish, but the theological weight of this and the power and symbol of the providence of God and Daniel, what I want listeners to see if you don't see anything else is God is so merciful that even when his own prophet flees to try to get as far away as he possibly can, God still has a plan. God still has a purpose.

And the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time. How much more so is God coming after you? Even as you're trying to sail away from him, he swims after you and swallows you up in his grace. So the learning I've got, Daniel's providence says to me is might as well relinquish my life into the hands of God.

He's going to capture me anyway. Thanks for listening today. Visit us online at pastorallen.org or call 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. If you only caught part of today's teaching, not only can you listen again online, but also get a daily email devotional that matches today's teaching delivered right to your email inbox free. Find out more about these and other resources at pastorallen.org. That's pastorallen.org. Today's good news message is a listener supported production of Allen Wright Ministries.