Have you ever wondered why God had Jonah swallowed by a whale?
I have to admit I’d never given it much thought before, but for the past week my grandson chose the children’s version of that bedtime story and it has me thinking…
“Waldo the Whale,” is a sweet, sanitized version of the prophet Jonah’s story, focusing on how Waldo listened to God’s command to help Jonah while completely skirting the significant issue of the prophet’s rebellion.
The story never mentions how Jonah would probably have been a big hit at the local bar on karaoke night singing the blatantly ungodly lyrics of Frank Sinatra’s “I Did It My Way “—never realizing the three big reasons living life “my way” instead of God’s way was doomed for failure:
- You can’t hinder the ultimate purposes of God.
We may think doing it our way is the way to go, that we know what’s best, that we’re in control, but The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord scoffs at them (Psalm 2:4).
Even our best-laid plans can’t begin to approach the magnificent wisdom of God’s plans.
- Only God sees the whole picture.
We only see part of the picture God’s painting and our limited understanding often leads us to wrong conclusions and astray. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts (Isaiah 55:8-9).
- Like it or not—one day you will see things His way.
There’s a day coming says the Lord, when every knee shall bow before Me and every tongue shall confess to God (Romans 14:11). There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death (Proverbs 16:25).
God loves us just the way we are, but too much to leave us that way. He takes submission seriously and, though we may not end up parked in the utter darkness of a whale’s belly until we humble ourselves and get with His program, He longs for us to change our tune from, “I Did It My Way,” to “Trust and Obey.”
