And God Prepared a Worm
The story of Jonah in the belly of a whale for three days is well known to children but rarely revisited later in life. But it is later in life that the worm becomes a lifesaver.
Last Sunday, chapters 3 & 4 were read out in church, and chapter 4 verse 7 caught my attention.
‘But as morning dawned the next day, God prepared a worm, and it so damaged the plant that it withered.’
If nothing else, the concept of God ‘preparing’ anything, let alone a worm, is challenging to our material understanding of the universe. ‘Preparing a worm’ seems more at home in the surrealist humour of The Goodies or Monty Python’s Flying Circus than verifiable history. Not only does it challenge our sense of rationality (but then the Bible does this from the opening sentence of Genesis to the final words in Revelation), the detail is very specific. The following verse gives us a timeline.
And it happened, when the sun arose, that God prepared a strong east wind: and the sun beat down on Jonah’s head, so that he grew faint.’
The worm, then, was not only ‘prepared’ during the half an hour or so before sunrise, dawn, but was able to damage a large plant that God had prepared the previous day to shield Jonah from the sun.
The purpose of this post is not to debate whether this story is historically accurate or written to convey truth in a fictional form, but to think about the worm. Somehow, in less than half an hour, it had managed to damage and wither the plant.
In the New Testament, the apostle Paul wrote,
‘God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty’ 1 Cor 1v27
The Bible is replete with David and Goliath stories, the weak oddly victorious in the face of a stronger enemy, but I can’t think of a creature weaker than a worm, living in the dark, feeding on dead and decaying matter. Not much of a life. Not much potential to overcome adversity.
Isaiah the prophet had the dual task - as do all prophets – of announcing disaster if there’s no change of direction, no returning to the source of all goodness, God, but also promising God’s help and restoration if, specifically, Israel repents, returns to God, believing that God will fulfil His promises.
In chapter 41, Isaiah says of Israel,
‘You, Israel, are My servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the descendants of Abraham My friend’ v8
Every so often in the Bible, God shows us something of His love for Israel. Isaiah continues,
‘Fear not, you worm Jacob, you men of Israel…I will make you into a threshing sledge with sharp teeth…’ v15
The contrast between a worm and a threshing sledge is stark.
What struck me on Sunday morning was the humour. Surely ‘God prepared a worm’ must rank as one of the funniest verses in the Bible? Perhaps the humour is lost within the story of Jonah, a Jewish prophet, and his calling to preach the message of repentance to the capital city, Nineveh, of their enemies. One individual sent to the enemy stronghold. Can we imagine God calling an Israeli today to take such a message to Tehran, or a Ukrainian believer to the Kremlin?
The point, however, is pretty obvious.
At times, we may not only feel weak and helpless, not much better than a worm, designed for limited tasks, with little ability. Our confidence and joy in life have leaked away, and we are left struggling to put one foot in front of the other. But in our anguish, we read Isaiah 41v15 and Jonah 4v7. A glimmer of hope is born. A tiny seed of faith is sown. A private battle hidden from the external world of other people has, if not been won, then turned a corner. We look in the mirror and find eyes looking back at ourselves with some life in them; the dullness that was there receding.
Another verse we used to know has become fresh food for us, and we’ve found a way not of giving mere intellectual assent to it – ‘it’s in the Bible so it must be true’ - but consuming it, ‘God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty’ 1 Cor 1v27. We start, unbelievably, to actually give thanks for our weakness. We end up chuckling, knowing that somehow, we’re right in the centre of God’s will, even though we are weak and always have been held in His arms of love. For the first time in ages, we look up, not down.
In one sense, nothing has changed. The circumstances may not have changed, but inside, everything has changed. It may be gradual, but it is unstoppable, like a threshing sledge. Things that appeared to be mountains obstructing our path are turned to dust.
‘I will make you into a new threshing sledge with sharp teeth. You shall thresh the mountains…you shall winnow them, the wind shall carry them away…you shall rejoice in the Lord’ Is 41v16