“And the Lord spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land.” Jonah 2:10
Dear Ones:
There are a great many folk who do not believe in the story of Jonah being swallowed by a fish. And yet, there are accounts of such an event happening with other people. What is more “unbelievable” from a humanistic standpoint is that God spoke to the fish, and “…it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land.” The Psalmist, David, tells us: “…The voice of the Lord maketh the hinds (the female deer) to calve.” (29:9) Though we do not have explicitly expressed in Scripture that God spoke to the rooster that crowed to alert Peter of his threefold denial of Christ, most certainly the Lord did speak to it, and it crowed at the precise moment of God’s choosing. Perhaps one of the most remarkable instances of when the Lord spoke to, and THROUGH an animal, was that concerning Balaam’s donkey. Balaam, a rebellious prophet, defied God. God sought to destroy him by sending the “angel of the Lord, with a sword drawn in his hand.” (Num. 22:23) Three times the donkey sought to turn aside from the angel of the Lord, and three times Balaam beat her. God would then “…open the mouth of the donkey, and she…” would speak to Balaam. Why did God speak to Balaam in this manner? Balaam’s heart was so very hard that, even after hearing the donkey speak to him, he accused the donkey of mocking him, even saying to him that he would have killed him had there been a sword in his hand. God would use a donkey as a last means to save the life of the rebellious prophet. He would seek to arrest his attention, and reveal to him God’s sovereign power and authority as Lord. Though God will use of a very original means of speaking to Balaam, WILL He hear?
David would use the illustration of sheep to portray to us in part what our relationship to God must be. In John’s gospel, see the Lord Jesus portraying Himself as the Shepherd of the sheep. (Jn. 10) He will call them by name, and they WILL HEAR His voice…and follow Him. Why is it that God would even choose to speak to a sheep, even us? The greater question related to Him speaking is this: Why would a Shepherd give his life for that of a sheep? The answer is that LOVE sets value and worth, and that LOVE is God. The value of that sheep is such to the Shepherd that He chooses to not only die for the sheep, but to speak to the sheep. So, how much does God desire to speak to us as the sheep we are? How much does the Shepherd love the sheep that He should give His life for them? If God spoke to a fish to save Jonah, and by a rooster to reveal to Peter his heart’s need, how much more does He desire to speak to US, for whom He died? Are we listening to hear His still small voice, as revealed in His word? The hymn-writer wrote: “Speak Lord, in the stillness, while I wait on Thee….hushed my heart to listen in expectancy.”
Dear Father, how great is Thy love and wisdom in choosing to speak to us! You call each of us by our names, and make us to hear Your voice. Open our hearts to hear Thy voice, to recognize it, responding to you with the quiet, and yet resolute, “Yes, Lord.” In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Love, Dad