What's not to like about an hour and fifty minute movie where half of it is about a young man trapped inside a whale? My wife really didn't' like it. She wanted to leave half-way through the film....but I had warned her beforehand that half the movie would be with a guy's head stuck between a whale's spleen....and the giant arm of an octopus..
The film was the newly released.....Whalefall....with Josh Brolin. I wanted to see it for two reasons....as I knew that it was about a father/son relationship....and secondly....I seem to remember another story somewhere about a man swallowed by a whale....or a great fish....which was probably a whale.
Now....can a man survive inside of a whale? The consensus seems to be no....but there is a story from the 1800s I believe....where a man did just that. So....I don't know if a man can survive being swallowed....even for a short time.....but I know this as truly as I know my own name....Special Dog....that God....prepared a great fish....and if God prepared the fish....then the whole White House National Security Council could survive inside....and be spit out safely!
Actually....I liked the film. Not only wasn't it a Christian film....but the philosophies were more pagan....but the father/son relationship....and Jonah....as that big elephant in the room....were worth the price of the seats we were sitting in....that shook every time the whale passed by.
I posted these words a month ago....when I heard that this film was coming out...."Now I would expect that neither the movie....or any of the reviews forthcoming....would give any (reference) to Jonah....but I don't care....for the concept alone of a man swallowed by a great fish....at this biblical time in history....put before the American public....is encouraging. May God if it be in His perfect will....make us think through this film....no matter what it might try to say!"
I haven't heard Jonah mentioned anywhere in the reviews....yet....but I'll tell you....at some point the people seeing this film.....will think about Jonah....and when they do....may God if it be His will....bring back to them the whole story of Jonah.
We are Nineveh folks....not in that when God instructed the prophet to go to Nineveh and warn them....that he was also thinking about a future United States of America....but that the story warns every single nation....or even every person....that there will be a judgment....and it is coming soon! I posted the following in October of....2011....
"There indeed was a great fish that swallowed Jonah only to vomit him alive on a shore....and that man went on to give a warning to Nineveh....the America of it's day. That nation heeded the warning but years later another man was sent to Nineveh....(Nahum)....and this time not with a warning but a proclamation of impending judgment. Our prayer today, in America, should be 'God let us hear from Jonah and not Nahum but if it be Nahum, give us strength to go on'."
Those sailors that threw Jonah overboard....had heard the whole story. With no cargo anymore....they probably returned to Joppa....that would be Jaffa today....Tel Aviv. That story would surely have spread like wild fire....especially the part where the sea calmed down as soon as they threw Jonah into the water....and it would have reached Nineveh. The young man in the film today looked pretty bad...(spoiler here....but not really)....as he finally got out of the belly of the whale. As I wrote above....the theater seats vibrated....but there was no way for the audience to smell the stench of a man who just came out of the belly of a fish The people of Nineveh would have figured it out by looking at him.
We here in America have had plenty of Jonahs....at least forty years of them....Billy Graham and John MacArthur and David Wilkerson and many others.....but we did not listen....and God took these men home....and is now sending others....Nahums....no longer telling us of this great window of opportunity....but rather telling us to prepare....prepare!
It is 8 PM as I type this....about twelve hours before men start entering their pulpits. My God....if it be His will....cause them this night to toss and turn....and fill their beds with sweat....as they would rather take a slow boat to China then go into their pulpits and give the message that God wants them to give....may they then fall out of bed....as Jonah was thrown out of the boat....and resign themselves to tell their congregation what He wants them to hear!
