“Now the Lord provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish
three days and nights” (Jonah 1:17, NIV)
three days and nights” (Jonah 1:17, NIV)
A Cape Cod lobster diver has a big fish tale of the one that got away. Michael Packard was retrieving lobster traps from the sandy bottom off of Herring Beach when he claimed, “All of a sudden, I felt this huge shove and the next thing I knew it was completely black.”
To his disbelief, Michael was swallowed by a hump whale. Michael struggled to free himself to no avail. However, after half-a-minute or so, the whale thrashed its head side-to-side and spit out the diver along with a plume of water that rose several feet into the air. A charter boat captain named Joe Francis spotted Michael soaring high above the ocean surface and rescued the diver moments later.
While Michael Packard and Jonah share similar experiences, their stories are uniquely different. Packard was working when his mishap occurred, while Jonah was fleeing from the work God had called him to do. Jonah didn’t care for the job to which God had called him. So, Jonah attempted an escape to a place called Tarshish.
Tarshish is a mythical land that many ancient peoples believed to lie beyond the borders of Spain. Tarshish was a magical place of clear waters, white sandy beaches, and sunny skies. It was the utopia of its day.
I think there’s a bit of Jonah in all of us. Too often, we disparage our present and unwelcome state of affairs. Be it a difficult marriage, a hard-nosed boss, or an irksome neighbor. To our way of thinking, Tarshish is a more preferable location. In fact, any situation that is not our current situation is more appealing.
Yet as the adage goes, the grass isn’t always greener on the other side of the fence, or in Jonah’s case, the ocean. As Mordecai told Esther, “…who knows that whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:14, ESV). In other words, the very place we are called to be, may be the place in which we are presently living.
There are moments when God will ask you to do things that seem impossible. Yet God does his best work amidst impossible circumstances. And if God has call you to it, you must believe He will help you victoriously break through it.
Take it from Jonah. Tarshish isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Who knows that by staying put, you may have an even greater whale of a tale to tell?