<TITLE>08. Par 78-89</TITLE>L-78   I remember, not long ago, in Louisville, Kentucky, where I used to live across the river in Indiana. They had a whale over there, on a--on a flatcar. Some little Ricky that had more intelligence than he knowed how to control, he said, "Now you've heard the old fable of the whale swallowing Jonah." He got a baseball, took it back to the esophagus of the--of the whale, and he said, "Looky here." Said, "It's, a baseball won't even go through it." He said, "The old fable of--of Jonah being swallowed by the whale," he said, "just a fable." That was too much for me to stand.

L-79 I said, "Just a minute, sir." He explained it, tell how impossible for a man to get into that throat. I said, "You fail to read the Scripture, sir. And that is not a fable. It's the truth."
He looked at me and said, "Who are you?"
I said, "I'm Reverend Branham, from just across the river."
He said, "Oh, I see, a preacher that believes that."
I said, "With all my heart, with all my heart."

L-80 And he said, "Well, you know," he said, "looky here, sir, not disputing. And I--I admire your stand, and so forth, but," said, "scientifically," said, "you couldn't put a man's hand hardly in his throat."

L-81 I said, "Sir, you don't read the Scripture right. The Bible said this was a special 'prepared fish.' That's right. God said He 'prepared a fish.' He's a special."

L-82 I believe what God says is the truth. This is a special. Switched his nose up-and-down, with his glasses on, two or three times, and went on with his lecture. A spec-... And everybody laughed. It was special fish. God prepared a fish to swallow Jonah. My! I believe it with all my heart. Now, we find out, that on his... He swallowed him.

L-83   Anything, a fish, after it eats, it goes right down to the bottom. Feed your little goldfish and watch what happened. They go right down at the bottom of the little container you got them in, and rests their little swimmers on the bottom. Their little belly is full, and so they're down there resting.

L-84 So when this big fish swallowed Jonah, he must have went down to the bottom, to rest, out of the waves and out of the storm. He was looking around through the revival, to see what he could find; and the revival on the sea, you know, swishing up-and-down, you know, the winds. So he found this preacher and swallowed him, and went down to the bottom.

L-85   Now here, Jonah down there in the belly of this whale, with his hands and feet tied, laying in the vomit of the whale.

L-86 Now I've often heard people say, "I was prayed for last night, and--and my hand is no better. It's still crippled. I still have the stomachache. My eyes, I don't see good yet." Oh, my! Then holler at Jonah? My!

L-87 If anybody had a case of symptoms, he ought to have had it. If he looked this a way, it was the whale's belly; that way, was whale's belly. Everywhere he looked was whale's belly, and his hands was tied behind him. He was in the--the whale's belly, in the bottom of the sea, probably forty fathoms deep, in the bottom of the sea. Now talk about symptoms! And then you called him backslid.

L-88 But you know what he said? "They are lying vanities. I won't even look at them. But once more will I look to Thy holy temple, Lord."

L-89   Now, Jonah knew that when Solomon dedicated the temple, he prayed and said, "Lord, if Thy people be in trouble anywhere, and look to this holy place, then hear from Heaven." And he had that much confidence in the prayer of a man that backslid, that made a prayer. How much more...


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