The Messengers of God

1.  An Amazing Paradox

As if some mischievous, mysterious logistics officer had been planning the trip, Jonah readily found a ship to take him in a different direction from the purpose of God.  To stop him, “the LORD sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was like to be broken” (Jonah 1:4).  Alas, the amazing paradox: the Lord sent Jonah, he disobeyed; the Lord “sent” a wind, it obeyed, promptly; one faithful messenger commissioned against the other straying messenger.

2.  The Messengers of God

The messengers of God are not only angels and prophets.  Some are winds and storms (as those that stood in the way of Jonah’s rebellious trip to Tarshish), some are birds (as those that regularly supplied Prophet Elijah with food in his wilderness days – 1 Kings 17:6), some are donkeys (like the eloquent four-legged ‘prophet’ that God quickly ordained to restrain the straying Prophet Balaam blinded by greed – Numbers 22:27-30), and some are plagues (like those that Jehovah “sent” upon Egypt and Pharaoh their king, to “let my people go” – Exodus 7:5).

Usually, the nature of the journey (whether towards God or away from Him, whether to Nineveh or to Tarshish) determines the messengers He ‘sends’: storms to slow a stubborn Jonah down, or great fishes “prepared” as alternative vehicles to an impossible destination, or plagues to bring the rebellious to their knees, or a killing angel – like the one that promptly smote the bloody and proud Herod (Acts 12:23).

3.  The Language of Nature

In the story of Jonah, we are taken behind the curtain and shown that the winds he faced on the failed trip to Tarshish had a mystical Origin: “the LORD sent out a great wind ….”  So, can winds be sent?  Can they hear?  Does nature have ears?  What kind of ears?  Whom does it hear?  How?  It is reported that in witchcraft, people sometimes ‘send’ rain and lightnings against their targets.  That’s surely a counterfeiting of the divine original.

In the short story of Jonah, we see God deploy nature on several occasions.  But for our privileged access to the backend, those details might have been dismissed as “coincidences” or “natural phenomena.”  For example, Jonah 1:4 reports that God “SENT out a great wind.”  That storm was an obedient messenger, and the mariners on Jonah’s ship were careful to note that it was no ordinary storm, like any they had known in all their lives on the sea.  They were strongly persuaded that it had originated from a spiritual Source, with a strange agenda.

When Jonah was ready to go (or probably ready to drown rather than go to Nineveh – was that an act of contemplated suicide or sudden radical obedience? whichever …), God “PREPARED a great fish” to take him to the determined destination (Jonah 1:17).  How did God ‘prepare’ that fish?  How did He book the ride?  I pray, whatever it will take, may God convey you to where you are headed in destiny, and may our Nineveh’s messiahs not be stranded at sea or altogether lost in this stormy season.  Amen.

4.  The Ears of Nature

At the end of Jonah’s submarine ride, God “SPAKE unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land” (Jonah 2:10).  What language did God ‘speak’ to the fish? Hebrew? Spanish? English? Swahili?  Can fishes hear?  Can they hear me?  Does nature respond to spiritual stimuli?  What mysteries was the Psalmist trying to unveil when he wrote,

1 The heavens declare the glory of God …

2 Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge.

3 There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard:

4 Their … words to the end of the world… (Palms 19:1-4)?

In Jonah chapter 4 verse 6, it says that God not only “PREPARED a gourd” but He “MADE it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shadow over his head.”  Note the words “prepared” and “made.”  In chapter 1, He had “prepared” a “great fish” to transport Jonah.  In the present case of the gourd also, the sudden growth of the plant had its explanation in a supernatural Cause; in other words, nature on supernatural assignment.

A verse later, it says that “God PREPARED a worm” that so terribly devastated the gourd that it withered (Jonah 4:7).  A Spirit unseen had been behind both the sudden agricultural boost and the sudden disaster.  After that, we see another instance of a supernatural finger in the expressions of nature as “God PREPARED a vehement east wind; and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah” (Jonah 4:8).  The news channels of the day may have reported what they could see: the observable phenomena of a strange strong wind and the sudden heat of the sun – but those were merely the visible signs of an invisible Hand in human affairs.  A prophet may have differently announced: “Messengers at Work: Sail Cautiously.”

5.  The Uncommon Jesus

Jesus spoke to a tree (Mark 11:13-14).  It was uncommon.  In the open street that afternoon, a grown man talking aloud to an ‘inanimate object’ must have struck observers as mad, but the tree heard Him, although I can’t say with what kind of ‘ears.’

On another occasion, Jesus rebuked a troublesome wind, then “said” to the troubled sea, “Peace, be still.”  The reaction of the witnesses on that occasion is what amazes me with its insight into our present theme.  They said, “even the wind and the sea OBEY him” (Mark 4:39-41).  What strikes me there is the word “obey,” a word that suggests intelligent, ‘living’ response to definite instruction.  If those elements obeyed, then they heard.  If they heard, they had ears and they had intelligence.  If that murderous wind that threatened to drown Jesus with His disciples had intelligence, then it was no ordinary wind; it was a spirit, or had been possessed by a spirit.

6.  Visible Spirits

All winds are not natural.  Some are spirits, or are carriers of spirits, like the whirlwind that transported Elijah to heaven (2 Kings 2:11), and the “bright cloud” that ‘spoke’ to Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration (Matthew 17:5), or as when the invisible God took the form of a visible pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night to guide His people towards Promised Land.  Natural eyes saw a cloud, but it was merely the visible form of an invisible Spirit (Exodus 13:21).

On a different occasion, the invisible God took the form of visible smoke and fire that “descended” upon Mount Sinai.  People saw smoke and fire, but it was a Spirit (Exodus 19:18).   At the baptism of Jesus, people saw a dove that behaved in strange consoling ways.  It was no mere bird.  It was a spirit, the invisible Holy Spirit, that had taken that visible form (Luke 3:22; John 1:32).  On Pentecost day, humans heard “a rushing mighty wind” and actually saw what looked like flames of fire, but it was a Spirit in audible, visible form (Acts 2:2-3).  In other words, invisible spirits sometimes take on visible forms.  That is to say that spirits may not always be invisible, especially when they have an assignment in the sphere of mortals.  May your eyes be open to ‘see’ them when they come, in whatever form they come, as benevolent doves or as a destructive storm.  Amen.

Prophets and apostles are not the only messengers of God.  Nature still hears.  This day, may God instruct fishes and birds and winds and plants for your benefit and for the salvation of a pitied land in danger of divine disaster forty days hence.  Amen.

From The Preacher’s diary,

December 10, 2025.