Echoes from the Past

Three Days and Three Nights

But he [Jesus] answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas: For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.--Matthew 12:39,40

F. A. Acheson

EDITORS' NOTE: Excerpted from a discourse by F. A. Acheson at a convention in Seattle, Washington, as reported in the Souvenir Notes of Bible Student Conventions for 1909.

Our Savior tells us that Jonah in some way was typical of himself or rather that the condition of Jonah while in the bowels of the fish illustrated Christ's experience during the time he was "in the heart of the earth."

"For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth."

Most Christians seem to think this describes the time when Christ lay buried in Joseph's tomb, when he was in the grave from Friday evening until Sunday morning. This period of time they think was typified by Jonah being confined three days and three nights in the bowels of the fish. But can this be what was meant?

Three days and nights would be 72 hours in our modern culture. Christ died at three o'clock on Friday and was buried probably about five o'clock (Matthew 27:46, 57-60; Mark 13:34,42; Luke 23:54). He arose early Sunday morning, a little after six o'clock at the very latest, possibly before (Matthew 28:1; Mark 16:2; l John 20:1), making in all less than 38 hours that he was in the grave; that is, a bit more than one and one-half days, considerably short of three full days and three full nights. Consequently many Christian have been unable to understand this passage.

Certainly if there were no specification otherwise, our courts would probably decide that if a man was sentenced to serve three days and three nights in prison, he would have to remain there 72 hours. However, the Scriptures are not so rigid when they speak of three days and three nights. In Esther 4:16 we read, "Go, gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan, and fast ye for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day: I also and my maidens will do likewise." Yet in Esther 5:1 we find that she did not wait for the third day to expire, but on the third day, probably about 3 o'clock in the afternoon, she appeared before the king.

Again in 1 Kings 12:5, Rehoboam said to Jeroboam and his followers: "Depart yet for three days, then come again to me." By the twelfth verse of the same chapter we see that they came to him again the third day, which was evidently what the king and all present understood what was meant. In 2 Chronicles 10:5 the same incident is recorded but Rehoboam is made to say after three days instead of yet for three days. Nevertheless Jeroboam came on the third day. In Genesis 42:17,18, when Joseph put his brethren in ward three days, the time was reckoned similarly.

I think we can see that when the Scriptures talk of three days and three nights that three time periods of 24 hours each are not meant, but rather part of the first day or night, part of the third day or night, and, of course, all the intervening time.

Heart of the Earth

Let us now look at the phrase, "in the heart of the earth." Language can be literal or figurative. The word "heart" primarily means the organ which circulates the blood in the body. Of course, it is not used in that sense here, nor is it used in the secondary sense of "the seat of the affections," nor yet in the third sense as "the part nearest the center," as the heart of an apple or the heart of a country for Christ was not buried four thousand miles deep--he was not buried in the center of the earth. Evidently the sense in which "heart of the earth" is used is not a literal but a figurative one.

What is there about the grave to make such a figure appropriate? There is nothing whatever. We should bear carefully in mind that the comparison is between the experience of Jonah and that of Christ. Jonah was for a period of time in a condition that illustrated a condition which Christ would for a time be in. And what part of Jonah's experience is that? The time when he was inside the great fish by which he had been swallowed. His condition then represented Christ in "the heart of the earth." The living fish had actively taken Jonah into its own power, and under whose control he was until he was cast forth upon the dry land. Jonah was not in the bottom of the sea, nor laid in some submarine cavern, nor in dead earth anywhere. He was in a living monster which bore him whithersoever he would. So when Christ was in a corresponding condition "in the heart of the earth" we must look for him not merely in the embrace of the lifeless grave, but under the dominion of some living power. Otherwise we do violence to the comparison; the living fish is not a fit symbol of the grave.

But does not Christ refer to the time he would be in the grave? That time is, of course, included; but that is not the condition to which he specially referred. He was not in the heart of the earth because he was in the grave, but he was in the grave incidentally because he was in the heart of the earthChe was under the control of a power which put him in the grave, a power corresponding to the living fish that had swallowed Jonah.

The expression "heart of the earth" is a figurative one for all can see there is no literal sense in which the application can be made.

Now, taken figuratively, the word "earth" is most frequently used in the Scriptures to represent the inhabitants of the earth. "And the whole earth was of one language and of one speech" (Genesis 11:1). "O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the LORD" (Jeremiah 22:29) where the word Aearth@ is used to denote the wicked inhabitants of the earth.

Satan is the god of this world, the head of its prevailing multitudes, who constitute the children of the wicked one: "The whole world lieth in the wicked one" (1 John 5:19, Diaglott). Into the hands of these the Son of man was to be for a time delivered. This is what we understand he meant by declaring that he should be "in the heart of the earth," that is, under the full control of wicked men and devils so that they could accomplish the evil desires of their hearts concerning him.

In nine different places in the New Testament where it is declared that he will rise on the third day, the betrayal, trial, and crucifixion are included in the events to occur during the three days, and from the first of these, not from the burial, the period should therefore be reckoned (Matthew 16:21; 17:22,23; 20:18,29; Mark 9:31; 10:33,34; Luke 18:32,33; 24:7,20,21,46). During all this time he was "in the heart of the earth," that is, under the dominion of the sinful inhabitants of the earth. The idea corresponds much better with the case of Jonah. Jonah was in the stomach of the fish, under the control of a living monster which carried him whithersoever it would. So Christ was under the dominion of living men and devils.

When Christ in Gethsemane said to the chief priests and captains of the temple who had come to take him, "This is your hour and the power of darkness" (Luke 22:52, 53), he set apart a particular period in his experiences during which he was to be "in the hands of men." This is the time, therefore, when we understand he was "in the heart of the earth." It began with his betrayal Thursday night and ended Sunday morning.

From about 10 o'clock Thursday night

to Friday morning 8 hours

Friday morning to Saturday morning 24 hours

Saturday morning to early Sunday morning 24+ hours

TOTAL 56+ hours

This is three full nights, two full days and a portion of the third day. This is in full harmony with the Jewish manner of reckoning as already cited, and Christ's repeated declaration that on the third day after his betrayal into the hands of men, followed by his suffering and death, he would rise again.

Thus viewing the Scriptures, we see our Lord when "in the heart of the earth," before his voice was stilled in death, could indeed sacrifice unto his Father with the voice of thanksgiving even as Jonah in the bowels of the fish declared that he would pay that he had vowed (Jonah 2:9).

Moreover, dear friends, I want to point out that this experience which Jonah passed through has a great interest for us also--all who are seeking to walk in the footsteps of JesusCbecause it typifies our experiences also as members of the body of Christ, as truly as it did those of our Lord the head, our Redeemer.

We read: "Jesus answered and said unto them, destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up . . . but he spake of the temple of his body" (John 2:19,21). Paul tells us that the church is his body (Ephesians 1:22,23). So these three days must mean thousand-year days and correspond to those our Lord mentions in Luke 13:32,33 as applying to the time in which his church must be perfected. It was in the fifth thousand-year day from Adam's fall in Eden when Jesus spoke these words.

The sixth thousand-year day ended in October, 1874. In the early part of the seventh thousand-year day his body, the church, will be perfected and exalted to reign with him during the greater part which yet remains--the millennial day--which is the seventh and last thousand-year day of the great prophetic week which witnesses the entrance, the continued permission, and the extinction of evil.

The same three days are spoken of by Hosea: "After three days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up and we shall live in his sight" (Hosea 6:2). The prophet applies this period to the time during which the Jews are cast off, when blindness in part is happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles is come in (Romans 11:25), and at the end of which the Jews will be restored to favor again. They are the same three days of a thousand years each in which the church, his body, is being perfected.

And thus it is while "in the heart of the earth," dear brethren, as typified by Jonah in the bowels of the fish, while we are in the midst of wicked men and devils, even given into their power by our heavenly Father, who will also permit them to afflict us with fiery trials and with death; that, having been shown beforehand these things by his spirit (John 16:13), and made us to understand the object of them, we can, as Jonah, cry out, "I will sacrifice unto God with the voice of thanksgiving" and declare with our Redeemer, "I will pay that which I have vowed."

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Jonah and Christ

As Jonah went from the wood of the ship into the depth of the sea, so Christ went from the wood of the cross into the depth of the earth. As Jonah gave himself to death for those who were tossed by the storm in the Mediterranean Sea, Christ gave himself to death for those who are tossed by the storm in the seas of this world. As Jonah rose from the whale's belly and from the depth of the sea, so Christ rose from the dead. . . . The reality of the antitype confirms the historic truth of the type. Jonah is proved by Christ.

The Bible with Notes by Wordsworth, Vol. VI, Sec. II, page 66