When taking any story into account as absolute 100 percent literal, or fictional, the point is this: What is the purpose of the story? Has anyone ever read a great work of fiction that was so moving that in a sense it was real? Ask yourself what it means to you for a story to be real. Take Adam and Eve for example. Were there literally two humans that started the species that we are? If there is a defineable point in evolution where the species became the same as we are today, then by definition, Adam was the start of our rational mind. Whether or not the actual event happened, the point that I am making is that the consequences of the event DID happen. Namely, our species was introduced to God, was given the choice to choose, and chose wrongly.
This is the literal belief behind that story. So what about Jonah?
What is the message behind the story? More to the point, what is the source of the wisdom of the message behind the story?
Jonah 1:1-2=The word of the LORD came to Jonah son of Amittai: "Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me."
In other words, truth(absolute truth) from a divine source(Monotheistic God) is given to a man, Jonah.
Jonah 1:3=But Jonah ran away from the LORD and headed for Tarshish.
This man, wh it appears was a believer in God, chose to run away from the unction of the Spirit.
Jonah 1:4=Then the LORD sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up.
On the one hand, many laugh at a story of a God who causes havoc. What is really going on? In life, we have storms. Does God cause them? Sure. He causes us to breathe this very moment. He allowed us to choose whatever it is that we choose to say, think or do every day, yet He by sending His Son has also allowed us to choose His way.
Jonah 1:5=All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god.
Literally? Perhaps so, perhaps not. The point is that each man sought a source of wisdom to solve the problem at hand. Jonah, a believer, knew his source. He fell asleep in a storm. But the sailors were puzzled. Why was this bad vibe happening?
Jonah 1:8-9=So they asked him, "Tell us, who is responsible for making all this trouble for us? What do you do? Where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you?" He answered, "I am a Hebrew and I worship the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land."
In other words, they tripped out because he was calm during a storm. They wanted to know why Jonah felt such calm when they were trippin. What was his source?
Jonah 1:10= This terrified them and they asked, "What have you done?" (They knew he was running away from the LORD, because he had already told them so.)
In other words, it scared the sailors that Jonah admitted that he ignored his source of wisdom from time to time.
I could go on, but my point is that a literal meaning does not have to equal a literal fish or a literal 6000 years. The Bible is literal in unction. The Spirit of God speaks through the words.
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