Fairytales

Do you think that all of the Bible is true? Last week we read about Jonah. The Bible says that Jonah was in the belly of a big fish for 3 days and then the fish spit him out—alive—on the beach. That seems pretty hard to believe. Here’s a second hard-to-believe story: Noah and the flood. Here’s what the Bible says. People had become so evil that God was sorry He made man (Genesis 6:6). So, God decided to wipe man out. Start all over. Clean slate. Only one man in the entire world found favor with God: Noah. God had Noah build an ark. Noah’s family and all the animals got in the ark and then the great flood happened. God “blotted out every living thing that was on the face of the ground” (Genesis 7:23). Only Noah and those with him in the ark survived. Sounds like a fairytale, doesn’t it? What about the story of God creating the world? God created everything in six days. Everything. Does this sound too far-fetched to be true?

These are just a few examples of events in the Bible that many people don’t believe actually happened. Did a man really survive in the belly of a fish for 3 days? Was the whole world really flooded? Did Noah and all those animals actually live on an ark for over a year and survive? And what about Creation? Let’s see what Jesus had to say. First, let’s look at Jonah. Here’s the scenario: the Jewish leaders asked Jesus to do a miracle. Jesus refused. Instead, Jesus said that the only miracle they would get would be like that of Jonah the prophet. Wow, Jesus spoke about Jonah! Jesus told the leaders that just as Jonah was in the belly of the great fish for 3 days and 3 nights, so would Jesus Himself be in the heart of the earth for 3 days and nights (Matthew 12:40). What about Noah—did Jesus talk about Noah? Well, just before His death, Jesus spent time teaching His disciples. One of the things He taught about was what would happen in the end times. Jesus told His disciples how people acted in the days of Noah—they ate and drank without any concern even though Noah kept warning them again and again that disaster was coming. Jesus talked about Noah and the flood, saying “the flood came and swept them all away” (Matthew 24:39). Would Jesus, who never sinned therefore never spoke a lie, talk about what happened to Noah if Noah never existed and the flood never happened? Finally, what about Creation? Did Jesus ever make mention of God creating the world? Yep. Here’s the situation. As usual, the Jewish leaders were testing Jesus and they asked Him a question about divorce. Jesus responded by asking those leaders if they had not read that God created humans from the beginning, and made them male and female (Matthew 19:4). Now if God did not create Creation, why would Jesus talk about God creating humans?

It's remarkable to me that I randomly chose these examples, without realizing that Jesus specifically spoke about each one of them!! What seems most important in this lesson is Jesus’s own incredible, hard-to-believe truth…that He was born of a virgin, that He lived a sinless life, that He performed all kinds of miracles, that He took God’s wrath on Himself for believers’ sin, and that He rose from the dead. Most people will say they believe in Jesus. But in what Jesus? The Jesus of God’s Word, who spoke only truth including talking about Jonah and Noah and Creation? He’s the only Jesus that’s real. You know, God doesn’t consult with us about what we will find believable or not. God works according to His will. He works wondrous deeds and performs mighty miracles. He operates on His timeline. It is His prerogative to use a fish or a flood or a man or any other part of His creation for His purpose. God sent Jesus. We can believe in Him or not. I pray you will believe. If you need prayer or a Bible, let me know.