The Entombed Messiah

Jonah

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 12:40

A verse-by-verse study in Jonah 2

Jonah of Gath-hepher and Nahum of Capernaum both come from the province of Galilee, giving the lie to the claim of the officers of the Sanhedrin that “out of Galilee ariseth no prophet” (John 7:52). Jonah and Nahum were also the only two prophets whose prophecies concerned Nineveh; Nahum prophesied about Nineveh and Jonah to Nineveh.

Jonah is the only prophecy (with the exception of portions of Hosea) where the prophecy is acted out, rather than spoken. The name Jonah means “dove,” a frequent symbol of the holy spirit. Jonah is like a four-act drama with each chapter of the book comprising a separate act. The book can be diagramed as follows:

If Jonah does represent the holy spirit, we can extract these lessons:

Jesus’ words in Matthew 12:40 says the time Jonah spent in the belly of the fish pictures the duration of Jesus’ final experiences on this earth, his death, and his entombment. As Jesus went through the trials for three literal days, so the church, his body, goes through similar persecutions for parts of three thousand-year days. Thus the prayer of Jonah 2, while having a particular application to Jesus of Nazareth, is also the prayer of his church in the flesh.

The Belly of Hell—Jonah 2:1,2

Then Jonah prayed unto the LORD his God out of the fish’s belly. And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the LORD, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice.

From this we see that Job was conscious and aware of his surroundings while in the belly of the fish. He not only prayed, but recalled the words of his prayer after being disgorged, and recorded them for our benefit.

Jonah’s prayer shows a deep familiarity with the psalms. Many of the expressions in the chapter bear a close resemblance to those found in the writings of David. This proves that those writings were available to ancient Israel. Consider the following comparisons:

This teaches a Christian today to be intimately familiar with the Word of God, to be prepared for effective prayer in individual times of trial.

The belly of the great fish is here called “the belly of hell.” The word translated “hell” is the Hebrew word sheol, a word more properly translated grave. Adam Clarke, a noted biblical scholar, states that “among the Hebrews sheol means the grave, any deep pit.”

The New Testament reference to the “sign of Jonah” likens it to “the heart of the earth,” focusing on Jesus’ time in the tomb. However, a careful comparison of all New Testament references to this three-day period show it includes more than the approximately thirty-eight hours Jesus was in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea.

The gospel references to this period include his suffering at the hands of the priests, his mocking and scourging, and his capture in Gethsemane (Matthew 16:21; 17:23; 20:19; Mark 9:31; 10:34; Luke 9:22; 18:33; 24:7, 21). This adds another fifteen hours or so to the actual time Jesus remained dead. 

When Jonah was in the belly of the great fish, he was not dead, but he could no longer control his own destiny. Wherever the fish went, Jonah went. So it was with Jesus: after the soldiers took him prisoner he went wherever they took him. As he said, “When I was daily with you in the temple, ye stretched forth no hands against me: but this is your hour, and the power of darkness” (Luke 22:53). From that time on he was in the darkness of the figurative “belly of hell.”

The Waters of Affliction—Jonah 2:3-5

For thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas; and the floods compassed me about: all thy billows and thy waves passed over me. Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight; yet I will look again toward thy holy temple. The waters compassed me about, even to the soul: the depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head.

Jonah did not attribute his being thrown overboard to the sailors who had actually done it, but to the hand of God which motivated them to do it. The psalmist, speaking prophetically, ascribes the same motive to Jesus for not defending himself before Pilate: “I was dumb, I opened not my mouth; because thou didst it”(Psalm 39:9).

The great fish may have been his prison, but it was also his protector because it saved him from drowning. The storm billows and waves passed harmlessly over him. He recognized that this storm was a corrective measure from God; these were “thy billows” and “thy waves.” He sees his experience as an indication of Jehovah’s “lovingkindnesses” (Psalm 42:7,8). The lesson for every Christian is to view every trial as tailored for one’s spiritual development. We do well to remember the words of Jeremiah: “It is of the LORD’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not” (Lamentations 3:22).

Although feeling cut off from the favor and sight of God, Jonah did not give up hope; he confidently expected to once again view the holy temple in Jerusalem. Similarly Jesus felt such a temporary estrangement when he cried out from the cross, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46; c.f. Psalm 22:1). But he also held the confident hope of full restoration to his former position when he prayed, “And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was” (John 17:5).

The Christian, likewise, is exhorted to “Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward” (Hebrews 10:35).

Back from Corruption—Jonah 2:6,7

I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me for ever: yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption, O LORD my God. When my soul fainted within me I remembered the LORD: and my prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple.

Either by faith Jonah was convicted of the reality of his deliverance from the predicament he was in, or, composing the poem after his coming to land, Jonah thanks the Lord for bringing him back, as it were, to life.

The expression “the earth with her bars” strengthens the thought that the belly of the fish represents the great prison-house of death. To Jonah it must have indeed appeared that this imprisonment would last forever. For Jesus, the greater Jonah, and his church, if they were to be found unfaithful  their sentence would be an eternal one. However, as Jonah had faith that he would be delivered from the corruption he felt inside the great fish, so Christ has been and his faithful followers will be delivered from the corruption of death.

The apostle Peter quoted the prophetic words of Psalm 16:10 when he stated: “Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption” (Acts 2:27). To this agree the words of the apostle Paul: “For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory” (1 Corinthians 15:53,54).

Thus will Christ and his church, the antitypical Jonah, join the heavenly Father in his heavenly temple, even as the literal Jonah lived to once again worship in the temple in Jerusalem.

Rededication—Jonah 2:8,9

They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy. But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the LORD.

Jonah’s experience in the deep showed him the error of his ways. He saw the “lying vanity” of placing his judgment above the Lord’s. The Lord had commissioned him to preach repentance to Nineveh. Jonah fled in the opposite direction when he embarked on a ship bound for Tarshish. Why did Jonah flee? The answer is given in Jonah 4:2, “And he prayed unto the LORD, and said, I pray thee, O LORD, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil.”

Jonah’s decision was based not on the danger of the journey nor fear of persecution at the hand of the Ninevites; it was based on a fear of success—the repentance of the Ninevites and God’s forgiveness of these dreaded enemies of Israel. He knew of the mercy of God and his own previous success as a prophet (2 Kings 14:25); and he knew of the fierceness and rapacity of the Assyrians.

Rather than follow God’s mandate to seek the repentance of an enemy, Jonah thought it wiser to not give the people of Nineveh any chance to avoid destruction from God. Now he makes two decisions as to how to change his life, if and when he is delivered from the great fish.

First: he would offer a thank offering for his own personal deliverance and also for being given another opportunity to mend his ways and accept the will of God in place of his own judgments.

Second: he would be more careful to fulfill his prophetic vows, vows to speak the word of the Lord whenever and wherever he was directed.

Jesus had no such need for repentance. Nevertheless, even he learned obedience by the things he suffered and was thus “made perfect” (Hebrews 5:8,9). If such perfecting trials were necessary for him who had no sin, how much more are they needed for the yet imperfect members of his body, the church.

It is a gradual process, howbeit a necessary one, to learn the fallacy of trusting one’s own wisdom instead of the great Creator of the universe.

“May thy will in me be done
  May thy will and mine be one.”

Restoration—Jonah 2:10

And the LORD spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon dry land.

Having endured his three-day trial, the fish did what the mariners on the boat to Tarshish could not do: deliver Jonah safely on dry land. It did not, however, take him where he wanted to go, but to where God wanted him to be: back where he started. While the account does not say he was returned to Joppa, it was certainly in ancient Israel. It was not near the Euxine Sea, as stated by Josephus, for that was near Nineveh and in Jonah 3:2 he receives his second commission to go to Nineveh.

The lesson is clear for the Christian. As the hymn says:

“I’ll go where you want me to go, dear Lord,
O’er mountain, or plain, or sea,
I’ll say what you want me to say, dear Lord,
I’ll be what you want me to be.”

In chapter three the narrative continues with a renewed commission to preach to Nineveh. This time Jonah goes, preaches, Nineveh repents, and is spared (though only temporarily) from the threatened destruction. Thus the holy spirit continues its work in the next age of calling all men to repent (Acts 17:30).

The lesson is clear to all the children of God: “Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful” (Luke 6:36).