How could Jonah sleep?

Jonah 1:1-5,
Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah  the son of Amittai saying, "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before me." But Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. He went down to Joppa, and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid the fare, and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. But the LORD sent out a great wind on the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship was about to be broken up. Then the mariners were afraid; and every man cried out to his god, and threw the cargo that was in the ship into the sea, to lighten the load. But Jonah had gone down into the lowest parts of the ship, had lain down, and was fast asleep.


How could Jonah sleep? Not only was there a huge storm, but he was also running from God. God is Peace, and how could Jonah sleep when running from Peace?

How many times do we sleep when in the midst of disobeying God? In the midst of not listening to Him? If we could do it, then why couldn't Jonah? It doesn't matter how small or how great the disobedience is or what it is--it's still disobedience. And how can we sleep? Beats me, but we've done it. At least I have.

Dear Jesus, wake us up, keep us alert!

Bread, Fish, and Oil: Jesus Christ is More Than Enough

Bread, Fish, and Oil: Jesus Christ is More Than Enough

by Rachael Ann Clanton, April 2012

I have heard and read the account of Jesus feeding more than five thousand people with just five loaves of bread and two fish a number of times (Matthew 14:13-21; Mark 6:30-44; Luke 9:10-17; John 6:1-13). I’ve also heard and read the account of Jesus feeding more than four thousand people with seven loaves of bread and a few small fish (Matthew 15:32-39; Mark 8:1-9). Once back in 2008, when my youth pastor was preaching about the feeding of the five thousand, a specific part caught my attention, and it still does. One of the verses that exhibit this attention-getter is John 6:11. It says, “And Jesus took the loaves, and when He had given thanks He distributed them to the disciples, and the disciples to those sitting down; and likewise of the fish, as much as they wanted.”[1] Jesus provided a buffet of bread and fish for the people, including His disciples. They could all eat as much as they wanted. Considering there were at least 5,000 people, I’d say Jesus provided a lot of fish and bread. He actually provided more than enough, because there were twelve baskets of leftovers.

Why this stands out to me is because it reminds me of the account of the widow and the jar of oil in 2 Kings 4:1-7. A widow went to the prophet Elisha seeking help. The creditor was soon coming to take her two sons to be slaves as payment of her debt, because she had no money or other form of payment. Elisha asked the widow if she had anything in her house, and she told him she had a jar of oil. Elisha told her to borrow every available jar possible from all her neighbors and pour out her jar of oil into each of them. The widow obeyed and, “it came to pass, when the vessels were full, then she said to her son, ‘Bring me another vessel.’ And then he said to her, ‘There is not another vessel.’ So the oil ceased.” (verse 6). God provided enough oil to fill all the jars the widow could find.

 Each jar was full of oil, just like each person was filled with as much bread and fish as they wanted, but what if there were more jars? Would the oil have continued to flow? Or, what if the people wanted more bread and fish? Would there still be some left over?

My answer to these questions is yes. We’ll continue in 2 Kings chapter 4 to explore this further. In verses 8-37, God uses Elisha to raise a boy from the dead. The first portion of this account, verses 8-11, tells us that a certain woman talked with her husband and they decided to make a room in their house for the prophet Elisha. This way Elisha would have a place to stay when he was travelling nearby or through their town. Since Elisha was a prophet of God in the Old Testament, he was not only the word of God to the people, but he was also, in essence, God in the flesh to them. In a way, the family was not only making room for Elisha, but they were also making room for God. That room was even where the woman took her dead son and where God used Elisha to raise him from the dead. God filled that room through Elisha.[2]

This shows us that when we make room for God, He’ll fill the space. This fits with the feeding of the multitudes and the filling of the jars of oil. Which means, the more we give God to fill, the more space He’ll be able to fill—He’s still more than enough.

The last part of 2 Kings chapter 4 maintains this truth. Verses 38-44 describe how “the sons of the prophets” were in Gilgal with Elisha, and there was a shortage of food. Elisha tells them to make a pot of stew. One guy goes out and gathers some gourds from a wild vine, cuts them up, and puts them in the stew. What the guy didn’t know was that the gourds were not meant to be eaten, and while eating the stew, the “sons of the prophets” felt almost-suddenly ill, and said to Elisha, “Man of God, there is death in the pot!” Elisha tells them to put some “meal”, or flour, into the stew and then to serve it to everyone. Not only did God “heal” the pot of stew, but He also provided food for over one hundred men from that one pot. And guess what. There were leftovers. Again, God provided more than enough.

There’s a bit more to the account of the healing and multiplying of the stew, though. God “healed” the stew before He had Elisha tell the sons of the prophets to feed the other 100 men. God did something similar in Exodus 15:22-25 when He turned undrinkable water into a thirst-quencher with a hint of sweetness. God “healed” the bitter water before Israel could keep drinking. And, yes, I believe there was more than enough of that sweet water than Israel could drink. [3]

God sure knows how to give and provide more than enough. However, before God filled and overflowed, the people had to do something. The disciples had to obey, distribute the food, and gather the leftovers. The widow and her son had to obey by obtaining vessels—they had to walk all over town to ask their neighbors if they could borrow jars, and then they had to transport them back to their house—and they had to pour out their small jar of oil. The family had to make a room for Elisha, either by building it or clearing out a space. The sons of the prophets had to obey by adding flour to the stew and pouring it into over a hundred bowls. Moses had to obey by placing part of a certain tree into the bitter water.

 Psalm 81:10 provides even more insight into all of this. It says, “I am the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt; open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.” This requires an action from us—we have to do something.  We have to "open our mouths wide" in order for God to fill them. This makes sense, though. Feeding babies or young children is not easy when they don’t open their mouths. When their mouths are closed, the food ends up on their faces, their clothes, and the table instead of in their stomachs

How do we "open our mouths wide"?  What do we need to do?  Any action we take in being open to Christ, seeking Him, pursuing Him, and getting to know Him more can be seen as opening our mouths.  Things like reading the Word (the Bible), talking with Him (praying), seeking His will and not ours, memorizing Scripture, praising Him in all we do, etc.  There’s a difference between opening our mouths, and opening our mouths wide, too.  We can do the acts mentioned above and be opening our mouths.  But when we do them with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength—really digging in, going all out, pursuing Christ with passion, being transparent and totally honest with Him, being totally open to Him and His plans and timing—that's when we’re opening our mouths wide.

When we’re really hungry, we do more than just open our mouths. We usually open our mouths wide so we can fit more food into them. When we’re really hungry for Christ, we’ll do the same for Him. We can also choose what goes into our mouths. We can fill our mouths with junk food, healthy food, or a mixture of both. And some of those things don’t always make us full. What are we choosing to fill our lives with? We can "open our mouths" to education, the opposite sex, books, family, friends, church, TV, nature, etc., but none of that will fill us—only Christ can fill us up and make us full. Only Christ can fill our every need, not anyone or anything else. Only Christ can provide the bread and fish. Only Christ can provide the oil. Only Christ can heal the food and make the bitter waters sweet. Only Christ can fill the space we create for Him.

God tried telling Israel the same thing. In verses 8-10 of Psalm 81, Israel wouldn't turn back to God.  He wanted them to listen to Him and not follow, worship, or serve any other gods. He was trying to tell Israel that only He could fill them—only He could fill all their needs (material, physical, spiritual, emotional)—not the other gods. If Israel would have turned back to Him, God would not only have filled them, but He would have also filled them with the best there was—Himself, the Rock. Psalm 81:16 says, "He would have fed them also with the finest of wheat; and with honey from the rock I would have fed you." 

God wants to fill us with the very best—Himself, His Holy Spirit—but we have to listen to Him and obey Him. We have to take action to let Him know we sincerely want Him to fill us.  God says that if we open our mouths, He will fill them. In other words, if we open our lives (eyes, ears, mind, heart, etc.) to Him, He will fill us. But, He will only fill what we give Him to fill—what we allow Him to fill. If we only give Christ a part of us, that’s the only part He’s going to fill.  It’s just like with the widow and the jars. The widow wasn’t given any more jars; therefore she didn’t have any more jars for God to fill with oil.

Yet although there weren’t any more vessels, the miracle didn’t have to stop there. Verse 6 of 2 Kings chapter 4 says the oil stayed (stood still) when there were no more vessels to fill. It doesn’t say there wasn’t any more oil or that there wouldn’t have been more oil; it says the oil ceased—it stopped flowing. If there would have been more jars, there would have been enough oil to fill those jars. And, again, look at the feeding of the five thousand in John chapter 6. Not only were the people filled, but there was also food left over. The people ate all they wanted, and there was more food than they could eat. If they would have wanted more, they could have eaten more. If there were more people, there would have still been more food. Jesus provided more than enough.

Nothing’s changed since then; Christ is still more than enough for us. He’s still willing to fill us with the oil of His Holy Sprit and the bread and fish of Him and His Word—after all, He is the bread of life (John 6:35). All we have to do is open our mouths, bring Him the jars, give Him every part of our lives. When we stop bringing Him vessels, He’ll stop pouring His oil into our lives. When we say we’re full, He’ll stop giving us His fish and bread. The more we want, the more He’ll pour and give—and there’ll still be more of Him than we can hold.

            We’re not done; there’s still more. Matthew 15:21-28 talks about how a Canaanite woman went to Jesus crying out for Him to help her demon-possessed daughter. Jesus didn’t answer her, and His disciples wanted Him to send her away. This woman didn’t give up. Jesus said to her, “I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” Then she came and worshiped Him, saying, “Lord, help me!” But He answered and said, “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs.” And she said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table” (verses 24-27). Christ then told the woman that because of her faith, He’d give her what she desired of Him.

What does this have to do with Christ providing more than enough? Remember those leftovers? Crumbs can be leftovers, too, right? The Canaanite woman was satisfied with those leftover bread crumbs. She was thankful for whatever Jesus, the Master, gave her. And, check this out. People who were outsiders or not of a certain group were sometimes considered as dogs. In this case, the “dogs” were those who were not Jews—the Gentiles. Many of us are the “dogs”; we’re the outsiders, the Gentiles. “We Gentiles are nothing but a wild vine bringing nothing but bitterness to the pot. Yet don’t the nations—the outsiders, the dogs—get the crumbs, the leftovers, of Israel?”[4] Israel was, and is, God’s chosen people, but God allows us Gentiles to be grafted in and become a part of Israel because He doesn’t want anyone to perish (2 Peter 3:9). God has always sought to give Israel the best He has to give, and there’s always been more of Him left over.

This is shown even back in the book of Ruth. Ruth 2:1-3 says, There was a relative of Naomi’s husband, a man of great wealth, of the family of Elimelech. His name was Boaz. So Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi, “Please let me go to the field, and glean heads of grain after him in whose sight I may find favor.” And she said unto her, “Go, my daughter.” Then she left, and went and gleaned in the field after the reapers. And she happened to come to the part of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the family of Elimelech. The rich owned the fields of grain while the poor would often go behind the reapers and gather whatever leftovers they could for food. Christ is the rich Master who owns the fields, and He’s the One who provides more than enough for us to gather.

Oh if we would be like that Canaanite woman and seek Christ’s best, yet be thankful and satisfied with whatever crumbs He gives us. If we would open our mouths wide in anticipation for the abundance of the bread of Christ and be satisfied with the crumbs from our Master’s table that make us full. If we would give Christ every vessel we have so He could pour out His Holy Spirit into our lives. If we would be willing to glean in the fields for whatever bits of Christ we can gather and hold onto.

He’d still be saying, “There’s more where that came from.”

And there sure is. Take another look at the accounts of God healing the bitter water and the pot of stew. God healed the bitter water before Israel was able to drink, and He healed the death in pot of stew before He multiplied it and sent it out to the 100 men. Christ can fill us up, but if there’s bitterness in the water and death in the pot, He’s not going to be able to use us and work through us as He’d like to. But when we allow Him to heal our bitter waters and the “death” in our pots[5], that’s when He’ll be able to multiply us and send us out. That’s when we’ll be able to share what’s in us with others—we’ll be able to pour out into other vessels the bread, fish, and oil that has made us full.

Sharing Christ with others shouldn’t be nerve-wracking, either, because when we open our mouths, Christ will also fill our mouths with the words He wants us to say. In Exodus 4:10-12, Then Moses said to the LORD, “O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither before nor since You have spoken to Your servant; but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.” So the Lord said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes the mute, the deaf, the seeing, or the blind? Have not I, the LORD? Now therefore, go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall say. Again, we are the ones that have to do something, take an action. We have to be willing to open our mouths in faith that God with fill them with His words. It doesn’t matter if we’re not good speakers, or if we don’t know what to say. All we have to do is open our mouths. And the wider we open our mouths, the more Christ will give us to say.

Jesus gave the multitudes as much bread and fish as they wanted. He filled as many jars as the widow and her son found for Him to fill. The Israelites drank deeply of that sweet water. Over one hundred men, plus the sons of the prophets, ate a satisfying meal of stew. Ruth gathered an abundance from the leftover grain. The Canaanite woman feasted on the crumbs from her Master’s table. And there continued to be more of Christ than each of them could ever want or need. He was more than enough for them.

And He’s more than enough for us.

Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen. (Ephesians 3:20-21)

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[1] All Bible verses stated are from the New King James Version

[2] My comments on 2 Kings 4:8-37 are thanks to the Holy Spirit through Pastor Jeffrey L. Whittaker in “his” sermon entitled Making Room for God, God Making Room for Us from Sunday evening March 25, 2012, Michiana Christian Embassy

[3] Inspired by Healing and Feeding: From Moses to Christ, Pastor Jeffrey L. Whittaker, Sunday evening April 8, 2012, Michiana Christian Embassy

[4] Pastor Jeffrey L. Whittaker from Healing and Feeding: From Moses to Christ Sunday evening April 8, 2012, Michiana Christian Embassy

[5] Bitterness is fairly self-explanatory. “Death” here refers to whatever may cause harm in our lives or the lives of others. It refers to what causes spiritual “death” in our lives. It also refers to sin.