Scripture Readings

"The LORD himself will fight for you; you have only to keep still" is sometimes one of the hardest thins we can hear. This is often because God often allows us to come to the brink of death before we see exactly how God will fight for us.

In the Exodus, this happened when the Hebrews were brought to the edge of the Red Sea with Pharaoh bearing down on them. Then God fought for them by opening up a way through what would have otherwise been certain death. They had to take those uncertain steps between the walls of water and find the new life that waited for them on the other side.

Jesus' step up to the brink of death is alluded to in Matthew's recounting of Jesus' words "Just as Jonah was in the belly of the whale three days and three nights, so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights." What did Jesus mean by the ‘sign of Jonah.’ Was the sign of Jonah that the Ninevites received and that Jesus’ generation would receive? Was it merely preaching and the proposal of ideas that Jesus and Jonah held in common? No. Jesus makes it clear that his time in the tomb will corelate with Jonas' time in the whale. I would add the thoughts of Dr. Brant Pitre to this. He proposes that we are not supposed to conclude that our childhood imaginings of Jonah alive in the belly are misconstrued. Rather, Pitre proposes, we are supposed to take from the Jonah story that Jonah died and was brought back to life to bear witness to the Ninevites. Thus the power of his preaching is derived from his restoration to life. The Ninevites heard not just fire and brimstone, but the witness of one who fled from God, even to the point of death, but in his repentance was brought to new life.

Where do we need to allow the Lord to fight for us? Where is God leading us to a brink where his power can be made evident? What unknowns do we need to step into to lead us to new life and bear witness to God?

- Spencer Hargadon