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Life Lessons Based on...Fables?
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 Sometimes folks who don't believe the miraculous accounts recorded in Scripture will tell us things such as whether they are factual or not is not the important consideration, but that the lessons they teach us are. One such example is Jesus' miraculous feeding of the five thousand men plus women and children. Some who doubt the fact that this actually happened will tell us that the little boy's generosity in sharing his lunch is the main point, and when others saw his willingness to share, then enough people did the same so that everyone had enough to eat! Knowing human nature, this account takes more blind faith to believe it than to just believe what the Bible says! But, of course, they have it wrong from the beginning anyway. The point of the account is not to show generosity but to show the fact that Jesus is the divine Son of God who can save the lost when they come and believe in Him for their eternal salvation.
Another account that is often doubted is the so-called Fish Story recorded in Old Testament Book of Jonah. The rest of the account is usually thrown out due to the fact that people refuse to believe that Jonah could have been swallowed by a great fish and then lived. They would have us believe that though the fish story is not really true, we can still learn some great life lessons from the Book anyway. The obvious question then comes, how can we learn from something that we know is not true, though it is purported to be so? We know that children's fairy tales are not true, but they are not given as truth but as fables. The Word of God, on the other hand, is given as truth and we who know its Author realize that it is true. We can trust the Word of God precisely because we can trust its Author.
Well, what are some of the life lessons we learn from Jonah? One is that the Word of God always makes moral demands on the reader. Once Jonah knew God's will, he had to make a choice. Unfortunately he made the wrong one to begin with. But, though Jonah went through some awful and terrible things as the world would view it, the wondrous truth is that the awful things that God brought into his life was for the purpose of preserving him! Through God's miraculous preservation of His disobedient prophet, Jonah finally made the right choice and an entire city of wicked sinners was saved! One final truth we learn from Jonah is that though you can get out of the will of God, thankfully we cannot get out of His concern for us. Dr. Howard Hendricks teaches us some great lessons from the life of Jonah in course number 40800 at our BBN Bible Institute, http://www.bbnradio.org/wcm4/bbnbienglish/Home/tabid/257/Default.aspx (all courses free of charge). We hope that you will be so encouraged that you will share this resource with your friends. |
Written By:
David Wyatt
Date Posted:
7/29/2009 11:13 AM
Number of Views:
1293
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