Trivia questions:

Mork & Mindy was a spin-off of what show?

Laverne & Shirley was a spin off of what show?

There are good spin-offs…and there are not-so-good spin-offs. Sometimes, there are just side stories in a movie or show that, in your mind, would make a good movie or show of it’s own.

Or have you seen in that action movie how the good guy saves the innocent bystander from the bad guy when he was holding a gun to their head saying, “GET BACK! I SWEAR, I WILL KILL THE HOSTAGES!” Sometimes I wonder (call me strange but…) who is that hostage?…what do they do for a living?…why were they in that particular place at that time?…

Or…lol…when the Avengers are kicking the bad guy’s tails all over New York (it’s always New York or San Francisco…never Podunk, Mississippi.) Who owned the blue Chevy Malibu that the Hulk just threw at the bad guys? Is insurance going to pay for a new car? Or will the city (through the citizen’s tax dollars) pay for it? Or will Tony Stark pony up the cash?

You see, I wonder about stuff like this…lol. If there is a rabbit hole, my mind will find it.

My mind did it during Pastor Robert’s sermon Sunday morning. Pastor Robert is in the middle of a series on Jonah.

I got to thinking. What if Jonah had just done what God told him to do? The usual point stressed when the story of Jonah is discussed the fact that bad things can happen to you when you are outside God’s will. I am not saying this is not a valid point but…

Let’s, for the sake of argument, say that Jonah just went ahead and went to Nineveh when he was told to. Would the people of Nineveh have listened to him? This is debatable. He would have been just one more nutcase shouting nonsense on the street corner probably.

Why did they pay him any attention once he DID get there? Well, having been in the belly of the fish, what condition do you figure Jonah was in? And, once the fish puked him onto the seashore, he still had to journey to Nineveh.

So Jonah travels on to Nineveh (which was located around what we know as modern day Mosul, Iraq today) to tell them they are going to be destroyed.

On the way, there were no Holiday Inns along the highway. You, generally, stopped at a house and knocked on the door. Folks gave you a place to stay and something to eat. Compensation was not charged customarily. This would be a good thing being as Jonah probably didn’t have anything with which to compensate anyone.

No real form of currency was widely accepted by all yet so most transactions were of the barter type. What would Jonah have with which to barter? You will remember that Jonah was chunked overboard in a storm a few days previous. Whatever managed to stay on his person after being thrown into the sea probably didn’t fare too well when the digestive juices of a giant fish saturated it for three days…lol. ew.

Speaking of the digestive juices in the big fish…what do you think being saturated in it for three days did to Jonah’s complexion? What happens to your skin when you stay in the shower too long? Now add to that, not only being in water for THREE DAYS…but being mixed with the digestive juices and all the other stuff this fish had eaten in varying stages of decomposition!

So Jonah may not have had the easiest of times finding someone that would let him into their home and give him a place to stay for the night. More than likely though, he found some kind soul because God does look out for our physical well-being most of the time. They may have provided him with some clothes to replace the ones that would not have been in the best of shape after the ordeal at sea.

You would figure that there was probably a little bit of conversation at the dinner table also. You know, stuff like, where are you from?…where are you going?…to be honest, you look like crap…lol. I would assume that Jonah would have answered the questions honestly.

How do you think the encounter these people had with Jonah effected their lives afterward? Maybe they became believers in the One True God…maybe not. But what about others that they told about the night they had the crazy guy in their house?

It is about 300 miles from Nineveh to the closest shore of the Mediterranean Sea. In those times, it would take roughly three weeks to make that journey.

Jonah probably encountered quite a few people as he was making his way to Nineveh. I would think his appearance would either cause folks to be curious about him or go out of their way to avoid Jonah.

Once he gets to Nineveh, he walks around this large city crying out that they will be judged. Scripture tells us that Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a three-day journey in extent. This indicates that it took him the three days to cover the comprehensive route through the city so that all might hear his message.

Once the people had heard his message, they believed him…wow. I think that the people of Nineveh realized that this was a prophet of the Hebrew God. And they had all heard stories about the Hebrews and their God. Added to the fact that this guy looked like he had returned from the dead probably made for a pretty intense presentation.

It sounds to me like Jonah’s appearance may have been the factor that pushed the message over the tipping point for these people. Had Jonah not disobeyed God, that tipping point may not have presented itself.

So God used Jonah’s disobedience in such a way that His plan would benefit from it. Being as God is in control of everything, does that mean God caused Jonah to disobey so that He could use the results of that disobedience to His benefit? Or did he just know Jonah was going to disobey, so He just factored it in to the benefit of His plan? Some might say that that is the same thing but I would disagree.

We will continue this in another post…lol.

Y’all stay safe and keep a round in the chamber…