Faith and Certainty?

There is a story about a man and his son. The son was on his way to seminary and the father was worried that some liberal school would undermine his son's faith. "Don't let them take Jonah out of your Bible." The older man urged. By this he meant that unless the story of Jonah is historically true in every detail, the slippery slope of liberalism had begun.

Two years later the son returned. Eager to see if his faith had been preserved the father asked, "is Jonah still in your Bible"? To this the son replied, "yes it is, but father is it in yours"? Confused, the father reached for his Bible, turned to the correct page only to find the pages had been carefully removed.
"You see," the son said, "while I was away those two years, while you worried about me and my faith, my trust in scripture, you hadn't come across those very pages that mean so much to you." Ashamed, but understanding the father understood that unless the word is alive in the heart, the pages mean little.

To me, a great irony surrounding the book of Jonah is that the very means of deciding that it is God breathed and useful are the same means used to discredit it.  The scientific approach takes things apart and asks is it possible, likely? The scientific approach wants certainty. So whether the search tells us that no fish could swallow a man, let alone have him survive three days. Or whether the same method tells us that given certain factors it is entirely possible, haven't we missed the point entirely?

Jonah is the story about God's love for all people. Is that truth clear and evident in Jonah and the rest of scripture? Is that truth more important than the size of Nineveh or the type of vine that sprang up? I hope so. Do believers need certainty to believe Jonah and keep it in their Bibles? I hope not! Isn't faith all about suspending disbelief and embracing a God who loves, guides, directs and accomplishes what's best for believer and unbeliever alike?


Are the words of 1 Corinthians 1 true, and don't they describe this issue so well? "Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength."


Whether a man lived inside a fish or not is not the right question. A better question, I think, is do you see evidence of such a loving God - "a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity," (Jonah 4.2) working in your life and in the lives of those you know? If our trust in scripture is based on certainty, is faith even possible?