What is the sign of Jonah?
"And the LORD appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from the belly of the fish, saying, “I called out to the LORD, out of my distress, and he answered me; out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice. For you cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the flood surrounded me; all your waves and your billows passed over me. Then I said, ‘I am driven away from your sight; yet I shall again look upon your holy temple.’ The waters closed in over me to take my life; the deep surrounded me; weeds were wrapped about my head at the roots of the mountains. I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever; yet you brought up my life from the pit, O LORD my God. When my life was fainting away, I remembered the LORD, and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple. Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love. But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay. Salvation belongs to the LORD!” And the LORD spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land." Jonah 1:17-2:10
The Prince of Preachers, Charles Spurgeon, was convinced that the “great fish” God appointed to swallow up Jonah was an Arminian…when asked why he believed this, He said, because as soon as Jonah declared that “salvation belongs to the Lord” the great fish spit him out…
The 2002 film, “Signs”…Mel Gibson plays, Graham Hess, a former priest who lost his faith due to the death of his wife…it’s a sci-fi movie that focuses on faith and family but the overarching theme of the film is providence.
Even though Graham fled from the presence of the Lord…God is still at work loving him, and revealing Himself to him even in the most incidental details (signs)…which we don’t realize until the end of the movie.
The entire Old Testament is pointing us to the death, burial, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Whether it’s people, positions, places, prophecies, shadows, types, events, rituals or sacrifices.
In the Resurrection of Jesus, we see a new creation/humanity, in Christ we see a new ark
protecting us from the wrath of God, In Christ, we see the promised offspring that would be a blessing to the nations, In Christ, we see a new Exodus…a redemption from slavery, In Christ, we see the establishment of a new people and a new land, and In Christ, we see a new King who reigns in David’s seat over God’s people establishing His kingdom forever…
But perhaps the clearest sign of the work of Christ in the O.T.: the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus comes from Jonah.
“Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.” But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.” Matthew 12:38-42
“An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah.” Matthew 16:4
This leads to the obvious question? What’s the sign of Jonah?...Jonah didn’t do any miracles and there is very little prophecy…only one little verse. The sign of Jonah is Jonah himself…The sign of Jonah is that of death, burial and resurrection.
Jonah is symbolic prophecy, in that, the prophet represents Israel. As Israel broke covenant with God, Jeremiah said that God would establish a new covenant with His people. This would be established through the death and resurrection of Jesus, through the cross and the empty tomb…Through the blood of Jesus He would create a new people of God made up of both Jew and Gentile…
After Jonah was spit back out onto dry land (resurrected)…he is again commissioned to go preach to the gentiles…who do what? Repent and believe the message…As those great
theologians, The Five Man Electric Band said, “sign, sign everywhere a sign”…
In fact, the structure of the second chapter of Jonah is a sign pointing us to the main idea. A Chiasm is a literary feature, structure that uses parallelism to highlight the central theme, or main idea. It gets its name from the Greek letter chi (X) which looks just like our English X with the center being the central focus.
I say this because Chapter 2 of Jonah is a CHIASM with the main idea being that of death and resurrection. So you have the beginning of the chapter – really 1:17 The fish swallows Jonah, and 2:10 The fish spits Jonah out, parallel each other.
The same is true of 2:1-2 Jonah petitions God for salvation, and 2:8-9 Jonah’s praises God for salvation. 2:3-4 Jonah descends to the abyss, yet looks to the Temple, parallel’s 2:7 Jonah ascends from the abyss, knowing his prayer went up to the Temple. Leaving us in the center of the passage which is 2:5-6, focusing on Jonah’s death and resurrection, this is the main theme.
“The waters closed in over me to take my life; the deep surrounded me; weeds were wrapped about my head at the roots of the mountains. I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever; yet you brought up my life from the pit, O LORD my God.”
Paul says, regarding the resurrection, in 1 Corinthians 15:3-4,
“For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures”
The resurrection of Jesus Christ is of first importance. Without the resurrection there is no resurrection for the people of God, there is no establishment of a new and better covenant, without the resurrection of Jesus we are still dead in our trespasses of sins with a sentence of condemnation over us.
Jonah is a sign pointing us not only to the event of the death, burial, resurrection and ascension of Jesus, but also to everything that event accomplished and the salvation that we have upon receiving this message. Because Jesus died for my sins and rose on the third day there is therefore, no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
The amazing thing is, As Christ received our death sentence and was delivered up for our
trespasses, He actually swallowed up death for us and was raised for our justification. Here are just a few verses that describe this glorious truth.
“For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” 2 Corinthians 5:21
“Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”— Galatians 3:13
“He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.” 1 Peter 2:24
The sign of Jonah is not just that of resurrection, but everything that resurrection entails…The forgiveness of sin, the new and eternal life that we have in the new covenant through our new covenant head, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the fellowship that we have with the father through Christ, being able to call God our Father through the Son.
“And the LORD appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights”
“And the LORD spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land.”
Truly, through Christ, we can say that one greater than Jonah is here.
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