Have you ever noticed the white part of the page of a book, you know, the unprinted area around the letter? That’s called the “white space”, and should never be considered “empty”. You’ve heard the term “read between the lines”? Yea, that’s the white space, and from a scriptural perspective, there are library’s of God’s wisdom and insight hidden there. We should all realize part of possessing sound doctrine is that we can not make sound doctrine from a platform of silence, or what the Bible does NOT say. On the other hand, we can’t ignore the silences because they do help influence the narrative. You might ask, “Well, how do i get at these library’s?” Good question! i read the letters from the page, but in my imagination, there is a world of information in the unnoticed, taken for granted area around the dark letter. To me, existing in the white space are very plausible “unheard conversations” which lead up to the black letters we read. We are not privy to much of the back-room conversations, but they are certainly within our grasp in the white letter. As an example, Luke 24:13-35. Scripture says “They were talking with each other about everything that had happened”. We don’t know exactly what they were saying, nor the tone or emotion, but we do have a clue as to the topic at hand where it says, “… talking about everything that had happened”, which means we’d have to know something of the events prior to the time of their walking to Emmaus. BUT, with a few educated guesses, and some insight into ourselves, we can, probably, come up with a plausible story line as to how they gestured, their attitudes, how they may have sounded, etc, etc. Get the picture?

Looking at scripture, the Lord gives us ideas to grasp the intent of His heart better. Letting the Holy Spirit give us better vision to see into what we read is a lot like going to the eye doctor to get sharper vision. So often in scripture, things are written telling us of a situation which probably has had a conversation that happened at another time, and that unheard conversation is hidden in the white letter space. Do you get the picture? (yes we see) The more we pursue the Lord, the more evident He becomes, and that is the word “pursue” as a “driving thirst” rather than “sitting in casual repose waiting for God to do something”. He gives us better lenses to see and improves our hearing to perceive in a gradual connect-the-dots process which develops character at the same time.

When we go to the optometrist to get an eye exam, typically, they’ll have you sit down in the exam chair and then pull in front of your face a large set of lenses. You’ll be asked to look at a chart on the wall as the examiner starts with a common set of lenses that they’ll change several times, asking if you can see the chart better with lens A or B. Then they’ll change the lenses, and then change them again, each time asking which is better A or B as they get closer to finding the perfect lens variation for you to have excellent vision. This concerning “unheard conversations” is like that.

As another example, imagine the conversation which occurred after Jonah was tossed in the sea. Sure, throwing him overboard saved the ship and all it’s crew, but the sailors were very probably deeply affected at the idea of throwing someone over the side, as is evidenced by Jonah1:12-13, in that Jonah told them to throw him over the side in order to save their lives. They probably stared at him in disbelief as to his suggestion, paused, blinked, slack jawed at the horror of such an idea… then just went back to rowing with all their heart to avoid doing such a terrible thing. The sailors knew, they knew one of the great taboos of working on a ship was you never, ever through someone over the side. It was sure death and they probably didn’t want to held accountable, for another man’s death, in any fashion. When he finally told them he was a Hebrew and was on the run from God, with exasperation in their voices, i imagine they yelled at him, “Oh My Gosh! Are you nuts?! Don’t you know better than to run from Him?! What have you done?!!” i imagine after some deliberation, as seen in vs 14, the sailors finally resolved Jonah was right and called out to God to not lay Jonah’s life to their charge, then threw him over.

On a side note, if Jonah knew he was the problem, why didn’t he throw himself over instead of putting the weight and responsibility of the decision on the sailors?

Anyway, amazingly, after they tossed Jonah over, the sea miraculously calmed and they were all saved. i have imagined a conversation between two sailors after the wind and sea calmed. i see them afterwards, late in the evening, with only a small candle burning for light, two sailors, Kevin and Tommy are awake in their hammocks in silent, deep pondering staring at the overhead, replaying the events of the day. As they remembered and pondered, they could hear the waves washing against the side of the ship, and the sound of timbers slightly creaking to the gentle sway of the sea.

“Hey Kev, you awake?” Tommy says softly to his friend. Kevin replies, “Yea, i’m here.” After a pause Tommy says, “i can’t sleep man. i can still hear the wind howling and the mast nearly breaking, and then (sigh) it all went dead still.” “Me too. i keep seeing that guys face when we threw him over the side.” Tommy, from his haunted thoughts says, “Oh gosh that was terrible. So terrible.” In a moment, Kevin gets to the root of what’s on his mind, “I can’t get him out of my mind. i can’t stop seeing when he hit the water. Ohhhh… and did you see his face when that giant fish suddenly surfaced? Oh man, it seemed to come out of nowhere! i can still the man’s eyes looking back at us as he went into its mouth. We all locked eyes at his last moment.” Dread and trepidacious doom fill their minds as they pause to ponder the moment. Tommy says, “Yea, the eyes, the eyes of Jonah looking back at us from inside… right before it closed its mouth and disappeared. It just rolled it’s big eyes back in that awful head, closed it’s mouth and disappeared below the waves. Just gone.”

Silence follows as they re-envision that terrible moment in the turmoil of their own thoughts. From their place on the ships deck, they watched Jonah hit the water, then surface, gasp for air and start to drift away, up and over the white peaks of the waves. Then a fish of some sort, probably about the size of the ship appeared, opened it’s mouth and sucked him inside like he was just a crumb of bread. And the eyes, the desperate eyes of Jonah looked back at them, his eyes meeting their eyes with them standing on the safety of the ship, the sailors were the last thing he saw before that massive mouth closed, and was taken down to the depths to be alone with God, himself and his thoughts. At the surface, suddenly everything went quiet, as if God was saying, “think about it”, and put an exclamation point on the silence. The wind stopped howling, the sea settled into a gentle roll, and then the crew was left to silence in the wake of a spectacular miracle.

This is significant… the eyes of Jonah looking back at them as they stood on the deck of the ship, were burned into their memory forever. How will they deal with that? How did this one event affect the rest of their lives of those sailors, for surely the eyes of Jonah, God’s deliverance, and the miracle of the storm and sea becoming calm after they did one of the most taboo things to do among sailors, surely it turned everything they thought they knew to mush in their minds? In view of the miraculous events before their eyes, any neutrality towards God completely evaporated. Look at the sequence: miracle, astonishment, revelation, decision, and God had certainly revealed Himself to everyone, so the only thing left was a decision: is He God or not?

Here ends part 1 of Unheard Conversations. Catch the next program for the continuation of the conversation.