Series: Simply Complex
Message: Complex Expectations
Preacher: Japhet De Oliveira
Daily Walk: Japhet De Oliveira

Refresh: Open with prayer. Ask God for the understanding through the Holy Spirit.

Read: Jonah 1-4 (ESV). As you re-read the text for the final time this week in the English Standard Version, what new insights did you discover about God’s character?

Reflect: As you read this text for the last time this week, I wonder if you felt like I did. Jonah, I thought, how did you not see this coming? Clearly you heard the voice of God. Why even try all of this stuff? You had to get your passport photo taken, you made one of those emergency-same-day-appointment-passport-renewal deals, you bought the last ticket on the longest flight out of town with all your life savings shoved into a duffle bag. All because you did not want to tell your neighbor that Jesus loves them and it is time to consider coming home?

It is easy to look at this story and stay focused at the Duplo level—to argue for years about the fish (was it real or not?). Many even consider rejecting the story entirely because of the incredulity of the fish element. But let us just for one moment remove the all-powerful God who can create life and Who sustains all things. Let us just take the story and allow it to confront us with the full complexity of the expectations. Could you handle these? Could you handle the reality of what God wants from you?

I think this is why the fish is in the story. Seriously! If the story of Jonah did not have a fish, it would be too intense for us. It would expose the deeply-rooted racism, sexism, ageism, and different kinds of abuses that are rampant today. It would reveal that God has seen people who do not believe in Him follow Him more faithfully then those who profess faithfulness. It would demonstrate that we like to huddle with each other in our towers of Babel, but don’t want to travel to the Promised Land. It would reveal we are deeply selfish and broken and in need of our savior, Jesus Christ, and without Him we are nothing. It would show that all our greatest discoveries in any field—without the love of God—have not even scratched the surface of their potential. It would show that our conclusions about the Bible are often not based on the Bible at all. It would demonstrate that we need much more time to process things slower and to be patient.

That is why the fish exists. To allow us some time to wink and nod. To skip a little, laugh a little—for on the day you realize that the fish was real, you also place the story into God’s hands and not into human hands. When the story becomes God’s story, we all have to brace ourselves for complex expectations.

Recalibrate: ​​​What are you prepared to do?

Respond: Pray for a spirit that is willing to follow Jesus.

Research: Read one of the recommend books in the bibliography.