The Jesus Fish

I can never find a good reason why Christians use a fish symbol on their cars to represent Jesus. I know Jesus called His believers to be "fishers of men", but this doesn't seem like He was desiring to be associated with a fish. Well Angela recently did a Bible study on the book of Jonah and what she found has changed my view of the "Jesus Fish" symbol in a good way. I'm going to try and explain her thought process and explain why we now believe the big fish in the Jonah story is a representation of Christ.

Charles Spurgeon (one of the world's greatest preachers) said that when he reads the Old Testament he makes a "B-line" towards the cross. In other words he believes the Old Testament is written to forecast the coming of Christ and, knowing that, we should be able to find Jesus in all the stories and events. I believe this to be true also. But when I thought about the story of Jonah and the whale, this truth about Jesus was not obvious to me. I assumed the whale was a punishment from God and after 3 days Jonah had learned his lesson and straightened up. After all, this is parental discipline at it's best...when a child misbehaves the parent should punish until the behavior is corrected....right? But this does not line up with the Gospel message. Jesus did not come to punish but to save. So how can this story be about Jesus?

The answer lies in Jonah chapter 2 during his prayer inside the belly of the fish (or whale). It's easily over-looked, but his prayer inside the fish is in the past tense. It is documented word for word because it is in quotations, but he is referring to the past as he is presently in the belly of the whale. This sounds insignificant but it changes the text entirely. Jonah was dead in the ocean!...then the whale that "God provided"(Jonah 1:17) brought this man back from the dead into a re-birth. The whale was Johan's savior, Jonah's salvation. And it was provided to him by God through Grace (Jonah did nothing to deserve it).

Jonah's prayer inside the belly of the whale is one of gratitude and praise. Not two things a person would feel in the midst of a punishment. And only after recognition of, and appreciation for, God's gift of salvation is Jonah set free to do the work God originally called him to do. So punishment did not change Jonah's heart, but God's grace changed his heart.

So with this understanding of the story of Jonah, we have Jonah (the sinner). We have punishment (death by drowning in the sea). We have the whale sent by God (Jesus). And we have a heart that's been changed (Jonah's re-birth). That's a pretty good representation of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and a pretty good reason to have the symbol of a fish to represent Jesus. So have you been swallowed by the "great fish" yet?..or are you still in the sea?

A Time Out

Well I think my on-line Bible study idea has not found it's right place or time yet. I've made a couple attempts to get a group to regularly read the Bible and journal their thoughts on the Internet, but both the attempts found a decline in interest. It's not only tough to regularly read the Bible, but to journal thoughts for the world to see in addition is proving to be more than my encouragement can fuel. I'm beginning to realize that a lot of people are not comfortable with this form of interaction, and I don't want to be responsible for adding discomfort to reading the Bible (that's the church's job...just kidding). So I'll call a "time out" for now on my Blog Bible study, but I'll keep my feelers out for an opportunity in the future. I still believe it can have it's benefits in the right time and/or place.

So I'll go back to posting random thoughts and things of my interest, and hopefully entertain a few readers along the way. It's interesting to see the "traffic" that logs onto my blog. My post about Oprah and "The Shack" has linked people from all over the country and the world to my site. Apparently if you "Google" that topic, my blog will show up. I'm almost famous...except their visits only average about 2 seconds or so. I keep waiting for Oprah to comment.