Let's open the Bible to Jonah, the book of Jonah. It's just four chapters, one of the minor prophets. And you know the story. We've gone through the story in years past, but in connection with the book, I want to reiterate it one more time to you. The opening chapter of Jonah is set in the midst of an intense storm, a really intense storm. Modern meteorology has documented the development of tropical cyclones in the Mediterranean Sea, which is where this takes place. A violent tempest, we know from meteorological records, can reach an excess of 90 miles per hour--that is hurricane level and even beyond that--and create surging waves as a result of those kinds of horrible, terrifying winds. And this is the kind of storm that one might assume was going on in Jonah's story. But really it was something qualitatively different than that...
