When God Swallows Me

The principle is when evil swallows you, pray to be vomited out, but when God swallows you, pray that you will remain in the house of the Lord forever.

Some years ago, I was speaking at a conference in Oregon on the book of Jonah. I argued that evil is constantly swallowing people in the Bible. The serpent swallows Adam and Eve in the Garden, fire devours traitors in Israel, swarms of flies devour people, the sword devours, the earth devours, the devil is seeking whom he may devour. In Jonah, a sea creature swallows our prophet. Jonah prays, and then the creature vomits him out into dry land, where he begins his ministry to the Ninevites. After the talk, a little girl comes up to me and says, “Pastor Brito, if evil swallows people, does good swallow people too?” I said, “What do you mean?” She said, “Does God swallow us?”

I gave her a tentative yes.

But the more you think about it, human beings are created as living sacrifices. They are a sweet-smelling aroma to God. Just as the sacrifices of the Old Testament tasted good and were acceptable to God, humans are swallowed into God’s life daily. To be in Christ is to be in God.