The great fish story…….

I bring greetings to all our dear children in the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.  May God bring you all success in your studies and may the Lord bless you to have a joyful vacation.

As the title goes, most you as diligent Sunday school children would have already  guessed it right that this is about the great prophet Jonah. During my young days I used to enjoy reading the adventures of Tom Sawer and Huckleberry Fin. Mark Twain, the great author of those days wrote these immortal stories which happens along the Mississippi river coast. Well, as we all know, the disobeying prophet Jonah  too had an adventure in his sea voyage and swallowed by a big fish. The difference is this is true life story of the prophet and God’s love for people, even bad people like the Ninevites of those days.

Interestingly enough, I heard about a  conversation that happened between the prophet cast away into the sea,  and the big fish swimming in the area. As he went into the sea, the prophet was surprised to see the big fish in the sea in the turbulent storm near the surface of the sea. The fish, sent by the Lord himself for his safety, just asked him : What are you doing here  in the ocean ? The beleaguered prophet told “ I have disobeyed the Lord and so landed here in the ocean”. Then he retorted back to the fish : “ What are you doing here in the turbulent sea? “ for which the fish dutifully replied : “ I have obeyed the Lord and hence I am here” and then swallowed the prophet to the safety of its belly.

Jonah’s prayer from the belly of the fish is that of a reformed man, repenting for his disobedience and praying to the Lord to redeem him back to safety, which the Lord had already done by asking the fish to take him to safety.

As we all know, after three days, the fish safely landed Jonah in the sea shore and he found his way to Nineveh where God originally asked him to go.

Children, now I want you to open the Book of Jonah in the Bible and go through the story once again. How many times the big fish is mentioned in this Book ? Are you not surprised to see that only a few  times ! But whenever we tell the story of Jonah , we talk  a great deal about the fish : What type ? How long ? How big ? How did it swallow ? How can a man live safely inside it for three days etc.,

I want to tell you a small secret :  Prophet Jonah’s story is not about the big fish. It is  about several other bigger things. Here are some important facts for you :

• The city of Nineveh in its times ( about 6^th century BC) was the largest city in the known world !
• The city of Nineveh was well protected and the city’s outer wall was so wide that more than three big chariots can travel together in a line on it !
• This was God’s first mission to the gentiles (other than Jews) as the prophets of old testament times lived for the jewish community.
• The big miracle is not the big fish swallowing Jonah, but  the entire  population of 1.20 lacs people of Nineveh repented and saved from the wrath of God , by the preaching by one man : Our Jonah. It has not happened before or after.
• Finally,    an interesting fact for you children: In  Aramaic language of those days,                 “ NUNA ” means fish ! The cuneiform (  pictorial writing ) “NINA” is a fish within a house ! Any connection with the big fish rescuing Jonah and the city of Nineveh where he preached ?

Shall we close with a Bible verse : 

Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right.

(Ephesians 6:1).

This is what we learn from this story of the disobedient prophet.

Prayer :  Our dear Lord Jesus, thank you for all your blessings. We thank you for the story of Jonah. We shall obey our parents, elders and also fear and love You, our Father and the almighty God in heaven. Teach us obedience and make us good children to live for you. Thank you for the good parents, teachers and elders in our lives.

In Jesus name we pray.

Amen.

God’s Love Missions Family