Hi there,
I got this idea by combining Jesus words that "greater than Jonah is here" and "remember Lot's wife": resulting in the words "is your religion, an empty whale?" since we can remember Jonah's whale, the same way we remember Lot's wife, but we can also question whether our recollection of a people under judgment meets Jonah's standard (he went to the people he was supposed to, eventually). You may wonder "why share a common theme, between what Jesus said here and there?" - the answer to that is simply, "scripture interprets itself": there is more to be had by meshing the word, than there is by reading it verbatim and it is a good litmus test for what we actually believe.
So what is an empty whale? And how does it apply to religion? The answer here is simply "has the time God set aside in the whale, come to an end?". This is sort of the hidden message behind Buddhism, actually: you are supposed to wait until waiting is all consuming - the difference of course being, that with God, we are expelled from the wait, with the decision of the fish, to spit you out (you may undergo a spiritual spitting out, psychologically speaking, when you meditate, but if you are snared by the dogma of Buddhism, you may not exit the whale, when the opportunity presents itself!). The point being, there are degrees of confidence, in everything that we believe, be it people, scripture or spiritual practice (religion). We should be mindful that once the time in the whale is up, clinging to the dark in which we dwelt is over.
There is an Old Testament parallel to this, actually, which puts a different twist on the same concept, saying (Isaiah 50:2): "their fish stink because there is no water, and die for thirst". That is, the will of God is not that fish preserve the message of God, but deliver up the messenger to deliver what he has been told... and where there is no messenger: they die (thirsty)! Elsewhere, further into the past, the Bible talks about those dwelling in Egypt not being able to drink or use the water, because of the dead fish in it. In the context of the whale, then, it has a reason to live, because it has a messenger and the messenger being delivered, blesses the fish with a long life (we may presume). But the messenger does not bless anything, before he is delivered from the whale - the empty whale, must preceed the message!
If the empty whale must preceed the message, then we - as messengers - should assess ourselves and our circumstance and ask "is the whale I was destined for, now empty?" We are all bloated with ego and sure of our own way, only by asking something like this can we begin to assess our situation. Even false prophets have a chance, of being less false or less prophetic! The empty whale for them, is a life of false prophecy, to the harm of the people. This is not to say you hang around people who don't know whether their whale will be as empty as it is going to be: as Jonah and any other prophet of old will tell you, if the Lord opens the whale's mouth, you had better walk in the fear of God, lest He really turn on you! If you expect the whale to follow you, so will its stink.
The joy of course, is a people like the Ninevites, who for every reason wanting to rebel against God, heard the message and turned and were saved - there is a lesson in this for everyone: the former things are cast away, together in renewed faith no one asks "bring back the whale, you came from?" but "give us the message you came by empty whale for". Behold olds things have passed away, I will do a new thing (as is the gist of the message there). We can trust, if we have the message, that the empty whale, is not coming back: albeit overlooking the delicacy it is to eat its fat (note the context, if the reader is willing).
In time, you will come to know when you are doing justice to the empty whale; it is a story that the Bible will never part with.
Hope this stirs your appetite, to convert the people (not merely pander to them).
I got this idea by combining Jesus words that "greater than Jonah is here" and "remember Lot's wife": resulting in the words "is your religion, an empty whale?" since we can remember Jonah's whale, the same way we remember Lot's wife, but we can also question whether our recollection of a people under judgment meets Jonah's standard (he went to the people he was supposed to, eventually). You may wonder "why share a common theme, between what Jesus said here and there?" - the answer to that is simply, "scripture interprets itself": there is more to be had by meshing the word, than there is by reading it verbatim and it is a good litmus test for what we actually believe.
So what is an empty whale? And how does it apply to religion? The answer here is simply "has the time God set aside in the whale, come to an end?". This is sort of the hidden message behind Buddhism, actually: you are supposed to wait until waiting is all consuming - the difference of course being, that with God, we are expelled from the wait, with the decision of the fish, to spit you out (you may undergo a spiritual spitting out, psychologically speaking, when you meditate, but if you are snared by the dogma of Buddhism, you may not exit the whale, when the opportunity presents itself!). The point being, there are degrees of confidence, in everything that we believe, be it people, scripture or spiritual practice (religion). We should be mindful that once the time in the whale is up, clinging to the dark in which we dwelt is over.
There is an Old Testament parallel to this, actually, which puts a different twist on the same concept, saying (Isaiah 50:2): "their fish stink because there is no water, and die for thirst". That is, the will of God is not that fish preserve the message of God, but deliver up the messenger to deliver what he has been told... and where there is no messenger: they die (thirsty)! Elsewhere, further into the past, the Bible talks about those dwelling in Egypt not being able to drink or use the water, because of the dead fish in it. In the context of the whale, then, it has a reason to live, because it has a messenger and the messenger being delivered, blesses the fish with a long life (we may presume). But the messenger does not bless anything, before he is delivered from the whale - the empty whale, must preceed the message!
If the empty whale must preceed the message, then we - as messengers - should assess ourselves and our circumstance and ask "is the whale I was destined for, now empty?" We are all bloated with ego and sure of our own way, only by asking something like this can we begin to assess our situation. Even false prophets have a chance, of being less false or less prophetic! The empty whale for them, is a life of false prophecy, to the harm of the people. This is not to say you hang around people who don't know whether their whale will be as empty as it is going to be: as Jonah and any other prophet of old will tell you, if the Lord opens the whale's mouth, you had better walk in the fear of God, lest He really turn on you! If you expect the whale to follow you, so will its stink.
The joy of course, is a people like the Ninevites, who for every reason wanting to rebel against God, heard the message and turned and were saved - there is a lesson in this for everyone: the former things are cast away, together in renewed faith no one asks "bring back the whale, you came from?" but "give us the message you came by empty whale for". Behold olds things have passed away, I will do a new thing (as is the gist of the message there). We can trust, if we have the message, that the empty whale, is not coming back: albeit overlooking the delicacy it is to eat its fat (note the context, if the reader is willing).
In time, you will come to know when you are doing justice to the empty whale; it is a story that the Bible will never part with.
Hope this stirs your appetite, to convert the people (not merely pander to them).
