Jonah - 9
Jonah as a Picture of Christ
This time we are going to view the prophet in a different way. That he was a servant of God is undoubted, but we have seen so far in these talks that he is in fact running away from God's commission. We have seen him on board a ship bound for Tarshish when God had sent him to preach against Nineveh. Tarshish was in the opposite direction. We have seen that the Lord sent a great storm that threatened to swamp the ship and drown all on board.
While the storm was raging Jonah was fast asleep below deck seemingly oblivious to the danger they were all in. He is challenged by the captain of the ship and asked to pray to his god that they may all be saved. Finally Jonah has to admit that it is because of his disobedience that God has sent the storm. He confesses that he is a Hebrew and that he worships the Lord, the God of heaven who made the sea and the land. The seamen are even more afraid and ask what they must do. Jonah tells them to throw him overboard and then the storm will cease. And so Jonah was cast into the sea and it grew calm.
The verse we are looking at is Jonah chapter 1 and verse 17. This is what it says: "But the Lord provided a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was inside the fish three days and three nights.” In chapter 2 of Jonah we have Jonah's prayer, his cry of distress to the Lord, and in verse 10 we see that the "Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land."
Now I said at the beginning that we are going to look at Jonah in a different way. We are going to see him as a picture or analogy of the Lord Jesus Christ. There are many pictures, or types as they are called, of Christ in the Old Testament. For example we have Joseph, David, Elisha and Adam. In various ways they are all types of Christ and Jonah also can be looked at in this way. We have the authority for this in the words of the Lord Jesus Himself recorded in Matthew chapter 12 verses 38 to 41.
"Then some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law said to him, "Teacher, we want to see a miraculous sign from you.” He answered, "A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a miraculous sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgement with this generation and will condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now one greater than Jonah is here."
So, according to the Lord Jesus Himself, Jonah's experience is a picture of the death and resurrection of the Saviour. In Jonah chapter 2 verse 2 we read the beginning of Jonah's prayer from inside the great fish that had swallowed him: "In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me. From the depths of the grave I called for help, and you listened to my cry.” Again, in verse 6, he says: "But you brought my life up from the pit, O Lord my God", referring to deliverance from death. Compare this with the prophetic language used of the Messiah in Psalm 16 and verses 9 and 10 where we read: "Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay.” The Lord heard Jonah's prayer and the fish that had swallowed him came to the shore and disgorged him onto the beach. To all intents Jonah had been dead, but now he was alive again. So here we have a graphic illustration of a death and a resurrection.
Secondly, as we consider this analogy between the experience of Jonah and of the Lord Jesus Christ, it is very evident that Jonah had been thrown into the sea and swallowed by the great fish as a result of the purposes of God. Neither the punishment of Jonah in this way, nor the death of the Lord Jesus can be described as normal, natural events. Both events were the sovereign work of God acting as judge and in both cases the demands of His justice were met.
As soon as Jonah submitted willingly to be cast out of the ship into the sea, and seemingly to his death, we read that the raging sea grew calm. Jonah said to the sailors, "Pick me up and throw me into the sea, and it will become calm.” Because of his submission to the judgement of God the lives of all in that ship were saved. So the Lord Jesus submitted Himself to the judgement of God, not against His own sin, for He was sinless. For your sins and mine He willingly went to the cross and was punished in our place so that we might be saved from the wrath of God.
So in this analogy, this picture, we see a sacrifice that satisfied divine justice, abolished guilt, restored peace and brought about reconciliation. As soon as Jonah submitted to the justice of God peace was restored and the storm abated. This picture, this analogy, helps to show that the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ completely satisfied the righteous and just demands of God Who is utterly holy and the judge of all men. His justice has been totally satisfied by the death of Jesus on the cross when He died for the sins of the world. Through that death He has made peace for all who will repent of their sins and believe.
This is teaching that is fundamental to the Christian faith. Virtually every false teaching denies some element of this truth. Some deny that there is a penalty for breaking God's law. The Bible calls the breaking of God's law - sin, and that "The wages of sin is death.” This is the punishment due to those who disobey God; not only physical death, which we all must face, but also spiritual death which is separation from God for ever. Sin is compared to work for which wages are given, or to the master who pays the wages. This is the very law of life; touch fire and you will be burnt; jump into the sea and you will get wet; play with a poisonous snake and you are likely to get bitten and then die.
God says in His word the Bible, "The soul that sins will die.” He said to Adam, "Disobey my command and you will certainly die.” Sin is so serious that it must be atoned for, a price must be paid. This is why in the times of the Old Testament the blood of sacrifices had to be shed so that sin could be covered, be atoned for. This is why the precious, sinless Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, had to die in agony on a cross. When Christ died for our sins He paid the full cost in Himself as He was punished in our place. He was the sinless one made a sin offering for you and me. His was the once for all sacrifice which did not just cover sins but took away the sin of the world. Isaiah, in that wonderful prophecy recorded in chapter 53 says that: "He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed."
The next thing we discover about this figurative death and resurrection of Jonah is that it was like a gateway through which he passed. On the one side he was in the Jewish world, and on the other he entered the Gentile world as he took God's message to the city of Nineveh. Like the apostle Peter many centuries later, Jonah had to learn that God's ultimate purposes included not only the Jews but also the Gentile nations.
So too, the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ was the breaking down of the dividing wall of hostility between Jews and Gentiles. Writing about this to the Christians at Ephesus, Paul says this in Ephesians 2 verses 14 to 17: "For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility."
Finally, Jonah was a sign to the people of Nineveh. We read the words of Jesus to the unbelieving crowds in Luke 11 verses 29 and 30: "This is a wicked generation. It asks for miraculous signs, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah. For as Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites, so also will the Son of Man be to this generation."
God sent his prophet to preach against the wickedness of the Ninevites, to warn them that judgement was coming if they did not turn from their wickedness and seek God's forgiveness. In this Jonah was a sign to the people. The Lord Jesus is God's last sign to this world. In verse 32 of Luke 11 Jesus went on to say: "The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgement with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now a greater than Jonah is here."
The Jews constantly asked Jesus for some miraculous evidence, something that they would accept as proving who he was. But they would not believe even the greatest sign, the resurrection of Christ from the dead on third day.
So we have discovered that in the prophet Jonah we can see a picture of the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. At best it is only a shadow of the reality. But have you responded to message of this gospel that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners by the offering of Himself on the cross? That He died, was buried and rose again on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures? May you, like the people of Nineveh long ago, turn to God in true repentance for your sins and may you place your trust in the finished work of the Lord Jesus on the cross.