Fish – Daniel N. Lee

03/10/2019

FLY AND SWIM | 40 Days of Focus, Day 5

And God said, “Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the vault of the sky.” So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living thing with which the water teems and that moves about in it, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the fifth day.
(Genesis 1:20-23)

On day two God separated the waters above from the waters below. Now on day five God filled the waters below with fish and the sky with birds. For the first time the Earth is inhabited by creatures that can breathe and move and mate and fight and hunt and forage and multiply and spread out and start families. There is something of free will within the order of creation.

These living creatures are the first to receive a blessing from the Creator – to be fruitful and multiply, fill the waters and the sky. God’s blessing is one of permission and encouragement to do what his creatures are made to do. There is a freedom to living within the order of creation.

Is there something special about birds and fish in particular that they would get their own “day” devoted to them?

Looking back to Genesis 1:2 again, we see that the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the deep. That word “hovering” is also the word for “fluttering”…you know, like a bird. Then at the baptism of Jesus, we once again see the Spirit of God descending like, wait for it… a bird.

And then who could forget the awesome passage in Isaiah:

Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;
but those who hope in the Lord
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.
(Isaiah 40:30-31)

Birds factor prominently in the story of Scripture, but what about fish?

Obviously I think about the story of Jonah in which God creates a “great fish” to swallow Jonah and save him from drowning. After three days, the fish vomited Jonah up onto dry land, and he then goes on to complete his mission to the city of Nineveh. Nineveh, coincidentally, means “house of fish.” And Jonah’s name, coincidentally, means “dove.” Crazy, right?

I think it would be hard to think about fish in the Bible without skimming through all the fish stories in the gospels. It seemed like Jesus was always around fish. His first disciples were fishermen whom he called to “fish for people.” One of his first miracles was an overwhelming catch of fish. He used fish and bread to feed close to 10,000 people all together. Then there was that odd story where Jesus told Peter to go catch a fish and inside the fish would be a coin to pay the Temple tax…that was weird. Even after the resurrection, the disciples met Jesus on the shore of Galilee as he was cooking up a fish breakfast.

There’s something unique about birds and fish. Have you ever found yourself jealous of them? Flight is one of the most often requested superpowers. Everyone wants to fly. Nearly 500 years past between the flying machine drawings of Leonardo Da Vinci in the late 1400s and the first manned airplane developed by the Wright brothers in the early 1900s. We take flight for granted now, but we’ve only been able to soar above the clouds for just over 100 years of human history. We dream of flying cars and jet packs and hover boards. We want to be able to do what the birds can do naturally.

And what about swimming? We’ve been sailing the oceans for thousands of years, but submarine technology has only been around for a couple hundred years. Even today, something like 80% of the oceans have yet to be explored thoroughly. Will we ever have our own personal submarines? Not likely. But we still want to do what the fish can do naturally.

God’s creation has a design and a purpose. Each piece of it falls neatly into place. God brings order out of chaos, and in that order there is freedom. If we try to do what birds do, we will fall off the roof and break a bone. If we try to do what fish can do, we will drown.

Birds were created to fly. Fish were created to swim. So what were you created to do?

You have made [humans] a little lower than the angels
and crowned them with glory and honor.
You made them rulers over the works of your hands;
you put everything under their feet:
all flocks and herds,
and the animals of the wild,
the birds in the sky,
and the fish in the sea,
all that swim the paths of the seas.
(Psalm 8:5-8)

__________________________

Why do you think humans have tried so hard to fly throughout the ages?

Would you rather be able to fly like a bird or swim like a fish? Why?

What significance is there in the Holy Spirit appearing in the form of a dove?

12/10/2018

Jonah: A Second Chance to Screw It Up

I love the way Jonah 2 ends. Right after the prayer concludes, it says this:

And the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.
(Jonah 2:10)

Can you imagine what that would feel like? It’s one thing to be swallowed, but to be vomited up? I can’t even handle it when one of my children throw up. I get nauseous and feel like I’m going to puke, too. Thankfully my wife has a stronger stomach and less of a gag reflex. The thought of actually being thrown up – along with all the bile and remains of undigested fish food….

But it’s really no different than what Jesus says about lukewarm, stale, tepid Christians.

I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.
(Revelation 3:15-16)

When God commanded the fish to regurgitate the rebellious prophet, the fish was probably relieved. Jonah was that tepid, wishy-washy fence-sitter that Jesus warned about later in Revelation. Jonah probably didn’t set will in the fish’s stomach.

LET’S TRY THIS AGAIN

Then we see what I consider to be one of the most amazing sentences in the entire story as we being chapter 3.

Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time.
(Jonah 3:1)

If I were God, I think I would have just left Jonah on his own and went to find someone else. There has to be someone better than Jonah – less racist, less spiteful, less flighty, more willing to take God’s word to people who aren’t just like him. But God didn’t give up on Jonah. God is a God of second chances. The sailors were given a second chance. The people of Nineveh would be given a second chance. And Jonah is given a second chance.

As a society we used to love good redemption stories. We like to see people who messed up get a second chance at life. But I don’t think we’re that way anymore. We want justice! We want people to get what they have coming to them! If someone is pegged as a racist, then that could be the end of their career. We’re so willing to dish out judgement and punishment that lives can be ruined for good based on a few Tweets in their past. We aren’t willing to help them work through their issues and give them a fresh start.

That’s the whole point of Philip Yancey’s book Vanishing Grace from a few years ago.

But I’m eternally grateful that while society may be short on Grace, God is overflowing with it. In the story of Jonah, it’s Jonah himself who is in most need of God’s grace. I think that’s the point.

The Bible is full of men and women who were given a second chance at life because of God’s grace. Just to list a few – Jacob, Moses, Samson, David, the Woman at the Well, Mary Magdalene, Peter, Paul. Each of these people had demons in their past (figurative AND literal). Jacob was a con-artist. Moses was a murderer. The Woman at the Well had a really checkered sexual history. Peter denied knowing Jesus. Paul used to persecute Christians.

Did any of these deserve a second chance? If they didn’t, then neither do I.

Jonah got a second chance because I think he hadn’t learned his lesson yet. Sure, he’s learned about God’s justice through the storm and about God’s mercy and salvation through the fish. But Jonah needs to learn more about God’s grace and love.

I know plenty of people demand justice for being wronged but then expect mercy when they are in the wrong. That’s Jonah’s outlook. Jonah was thankful to receive mercy for his own sinful actions, but he was still demanding justice to be done for the people of Nineveh.

GOD’S WORD, NOT YOURS

God says, it doesn’t work that way. God gave him these instructions:

“Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.”
(Jonah 3:2)

If Jonah were able to proclaim his own message, I wonder what he would say. Actually, I don’t have to wonder. All I have to do is get on “Christian” Twitter to see what the modern-day “Jonahs” are saying to their own “Ninevehs.” It’s not pretty. And it’s not good news. And it’s not changing any hearts.

We’ll get to what message Jonah gave to the people in Nineveh next time, but I don’t want to skip over this sentence:

Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh.
(Jonah 3:3a)

Does obedience indicate a change of heart? Nope. But it’s a start.

Imagine being covered in slimy fish bile and then having to make the 500+ mile overland journey to a foreign city. I bet Jonah had some interesting conversations along the way.

But here’s something you would miss if you didn’t do a little research into the ancient city of Nineveh. I’m just going to quote the Wikipedia article about it here. What do you notice about it?

The English placename Nineveh comes from Latin Ninive and Septuagint Greek Nineuḗ (Νινευή) under influence of the Biblical Hebrew Nīnewēh (נִינְוֶה[2] from the Akkadian Ninua (var. Ninâ) or Old Babylonian Ninuwā. The original meaning of the name is unclear but may have referred to a patron goddess. The cuneiform for Ninâ (𒀏) is a fish within a house (cf. Aramaic nuna, “fish”). This may have simply intended “Place of Fish” or may have indicated a goddess associated with fish or the Tigris, possibly originally of Hurrian origin. The city was later said to be devoted to “the goddess Ishtar of Nineveh” and Nina was one of the Sumerian and Assyrian names of that goddess.

That’s right. The name of the city literally meant “Place of Fish.” The symbol for Nineveh was a fish in a house. And they worshiped a god/goddess represented by a man-fish hybrid!

Tell me God doesn’t have a sense of humor. Jonah spends three days inside a fish. He is then vomited out of the fish and makes a three-week journey on foot just to be greeted by…images of a man-fish in the “Place of Fish.”

Welcome to Nineveh!

11/28/2018

Jonah: Head Above Water

When we left off, our rebellious prophet was recruiting the pagan Gentile sailors to assist him in committing suicide.

“Pick me up and throw me into the sea,” he replied, “and it will become calm. I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you.” (Jonah 1:12)

But the sailors didn’t buy into this crazy scheme and tried for Plan A.2 – row to shore. But they couldn’t. God/the storm wouldn’t let them. Jonah tried to force God’s hand in overthrowing the Assyrians by running from the mission. Now God is forcing the sailors’ hands to throw Jonah overboard – Jonah’s idea, not God’s, just so we’re clear. God never asked this of Jonah.

Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard, and the raging sea grew calm…Now the Lord provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. (Jonah 1:15, 17)

FINALLY! Here’s the fish! Now we get to pull out the flannel graph board and sick a kneeling/fetal-position Jonah onto a cutaway felt image of a ~~whale~~ fish. We get to sing the songs and put in the Veggie Tales movie!

This is where so many of us stop with the story of Jonah. It’s always David and Goliath, Daniel and the Lion’s Den, Jonah and the ~~Whale~~ Fish. But the story of Jonah is not about a big fish. The story of Jonah is about a God who is big with a big plan. The fish is mentioned in a whopping 3 verses – 1:17; 2:1; and 2:10. That’s it. And the whole fish scene isn’t even the most impressive miracle of the story. But we’ll get to that later.

JONAH’S PRAYER

Can you imagine drowning in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea? Drowning is one of the top fears among humans. A lot of people are hesitant to swim or get in a large body of water for fear of drowning. What a terrible way to die! I get panicky just thinking about it.

Jonah wanted to die. It wasn’t a heroic self-sacrifice to save the lives of the sailors. It was a selfish get-out-of-mission-work-free card. It was a last ditch effort to run from God. It wasn’t martyrdom, it was suicide.

So God gave him a taste of what Jonah said he wanted. Sometimes the worst thing God can do is to give us what we want. Look at this prayer of Jonah’s that we have recorded in chapter 2.

“In my distress I called to the Lord,
and he answered me.
From deep in the realm of the dead I called for help,
and you listened to my cry.
You hurled me into the depths,
into the very heart of the seas,
and the currents swirled about me;
all your waves and breakers
swept over me.
I said, ‘I have been banished
from your sight;
yet I will look again
toward your holy temple.’
The engulfing waters threatened me,
the deep surrounded me;
seaweed was wrapped around my head.
To the roots of the mountains I sank down;
the earth beneath barred me in forever.”
(Jonah 2:2-6a)

Maybe we have a hard time feeling sorry for Jonah, but I think we’ve all been there. Maybe you haven’t had the physical experience of drowning, but most of us have felt like we’re drowning figuratively – from stress, depression, broken relationships, pressure from school or work, the demands of everyday life that keep adding up. Maybe you’ve felt like you were drowning under the weight of some sin that has pulled you down – addictions, anger, lies, etc.

Every sin has a consequence. Sometimes we bring them on ourselves, and we have to face the natural consequences of our own dumb choices. Other times we have to pay for our actions through punishment or retribution. Or maybe we’re suffering under the consequences of generational/societal sin that we really didn’t have anything to do with, but we’re still negatively affected by it.

Every sin has a consequence.

I’ll say this. I don’t think God causes bad things to happen. But I believe God allows bad things to happen as a wakeup call. God didn’t cause Jonah to be thrown overboard. But God used this experience of drowning as a wakeup call to this rebellious prophet. God definitely got Jonah’s attention. It only took a trip to literal rock bottom. But for some people, like Jonah and like the younger brother in the Story of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15), that’s what it takes for them to come to their senses.

UNEXPECTED SALVATION

FINALLY the prophet of God actually prays to God – the first time in the whole book so far. Even when the sailors were crying out to their own gods and urged Jonah to do the same, Jonah kept silent. Jonah refused to even utter a word in prayer to God until his life was on the line. And when he finally decides to pray, what does he talk about?

He thanks God for saving him. He recounts his terrifying experience of drowning, sinking down to the “roots of the mountains.” The imagery Jonah uses to describe his underwater experience is quite similar to how other writers and poets describe Sheol, aka the grave or realm of the dead. Jonah is coming to terms with the reality of his watery grave.

But not so fast. What’s that? A giant mouth opening in my direction and sucking me in like a spaghetti noodle!

“But you, Lord my God,
brought my life up from the pit.
When my life was ebbing away,
I remembered you, Lord,
and my prayer rose to you,
to your holy temple.
Those who cling to worthless idols
turn away from God’s love for them.
But I, with shouts of grateful praise,
will sacrifice to you.
What I have vowed I will make good.
I will say, ‘Salvation comes from the Lord.’”
(Jonah 2:6b-9)

The punishment was the near death experience as he was sinking into the salt water. The salvation came in the form of fish guts. The “great fish” was God’s chosen means of salvation for his runaway prophet.

What a weird story.

And what a testament to the fact that God’s modus operandi for saving people is constantly changing. I’m glad this story never caught on in religious rituals. “In order to experience God’s salvation you must be swallowed and vomited up by a fish.”

PRAYING FROM ROCK BOTTOM

Anyway, God saves Jonah. Jonah at least has the decency to acknowledge his need for God and his utter helplessness apart from God.

When you feel like you’re drowning – by sin, by stress, by life – this is a great prayer to go to. Read it. Reflect on it. Make it your own. We all have been at rock bottom before. We all know what it’s like to desperately cry out to God. This prayer in Jonah 2 is a great way to find the words if you don’t have them.

In fact, a song came out recently by Avril Lavigne. I hadn’t heard anything from her in years. Turns out she was battling Lyme Disease, an absolutely debilitating illness. In an interview she recalled a time in the hospital when the disease affected her lungs in such a way that it literally felt like she was drowning in that hospital bed. She fought through the disease, and is in a much better place now. But her first single released is called “Head Above Water.” The first time I heard it, I thought this is straight from Jonah’s prayer. If you haven’t heard it, check it out. It’s amazing.