is Jonah being swallowed by the big fish telling the deepest story of Jesus Christ This is a book few of us truly understand I've been a Christian all my life and never understood the depths of the Book of Jonah until now there's much more to this story than meets the eye the word of the Lord came to Jonah get up and go to Nineveh that great City and cry out against it for their evil has come to my attention but Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for KES he went down to joper where
he found a ship Bound for that Port after paying the fair he went aboard and sailed for tares to flee from the Lord both Jonah and Jesus were sent on a mission to preach repentance Jonah to the ninevites and Jesus to the world preaching repent for the kingdom of God is at hand God called Jonah to minister to the sworn enemies of Israel in the Assyrian capital city of Nineveh the Assyrians crushed the Northern Kingdom of Israel in the 8th Century before Jesus this helps us empathize with Jonah the tensions between Assyria and Israel had
been growing and growing it wasn't safe for Jonah and surely he was angry at the Assyrians for being such an evil people so he ran when's the last time any of us were called to preach repentance to our sworn enemies who are out to kill us then the Lord sent a great wind on the sea and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up all the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own God and they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship but Jonah had gone
below deck where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep both Jonah and Jesus were asleep on the bottom of a ship in the midst of a lifethreatening storm the difference is Jonah was running away from his calling and Jesus was running towards his calling in both Stories the sailors woke up the sleeping man and cried we're going to die the captain went to him and said how can you sleep get up and call on your God maybe he will take notice of us so that we will not perish the disciples woke Jesus up
in the midst of a storm and cried out don't you care that we perish and as scared as both groups of sailors were during the storm they were even more terrified After the Storm was calmed since it was very evident a supernatural event had just taken place skilled experienced Sailors would have known the skies and the weather patterns and in both stories they could tell that both storms were not your normal average storms a higher power was behind them then the sailors said to each other come let us cast lots to find out who is
responsible for This calamity they cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah so they asked him tell us who is responsible ible for making all this trouble for us what kind of work do you do where do you come from what is your country from what people are you he answered I'm a Hebrew and I worship the Lord the god of Heaven who made the Sea and the dry land this terrified them and they asked what have you done they knew he was running away from the Lord because he had already told them so the
sea was getting rougher and rougher so they asked him what should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us pick me up up and throw me into the sea he replied and it will become calm I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you Jonah is basically saying if I die you will live this clearly alludes to Christ who sacrificed himself so That Others May Live Jonah was willing to sacrifice himself for the Salvation of his Shipmates Jesus was willing to sacrifice himself for the Salvation
of the world the story of Jonah is a prophecy a real life prophetic parable of the coming Messiah Jesus Christ Jesus was thrown into the only storm that can actually sink us the storm of Eternal justice of God's Wrath although he was innocent he paid for what we owe for our wrongdoing and that storm of God's Wrath wasn't calmed not until after it swept him away the story of Jonah and of Jesus both beautifully point to the doctrine of substitutionary atonement Jesus J said in Matthew one greater than Jonah is here and he's referring to
himself he meant that one day he's going to calm all storms and still all waves he's going to destroy destruction and kill death and he can only do it because when he was on the cross he was thrown willingly like Jonah into the Ultimate Storm the waves of sin and Death on our behalf instead the men did their best to row back to land but they could not for the sea grew even wilder than before then they cried out to the Lord please Lord do not let us die for taking this man's life do not
hold us accountable for killing an innocent man for you Lord have done as you pleased then they took Jonah and threw him overboard and the Raging Sea grew calm at this the men greatly feared the Lord and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows to him now the Lord provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights the word down is repeated four times in the first chapter alone The Narrative makes sure to point out to us that every step of
the way was a step down for Jonah Jonah went down to tarish then he went down into the ship then Jonah went down into the water then he went down into the fish every step down was a step away from God and was a step down into Oblivion Jesus also went down but his descent was in pursuit of the father's will Jesus went down from Heaven to Earth Jesus went down to wash his disciples feet Jesus went down into Jerusalem Jesus went down into the grave Jesus went down into the heart of the earth Jesus
did nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit we are called to have the same mindset as Christ Jesus who being in very nature God did not consider equal quity with God something to be used to his own Advantage rather he made himself Nothing by taking the very nature of a servant being made in human likeness and being found in appearance as a man he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death even death on a cross but it didn't end there from inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God he said in my
distress I called to the Lord and he answered me from deep in the realm of the Dead I called for for help and you listened to my cry you hurled me Into the Depths into the very Heart Of The Seas and the currents swirled about me all your waves and Breakers swept over me I said I have been banished from your sight yet I will look again toward your Holy Temple the engulfing Waters threatened me the Deep surrounded me seaweed was wrapped around my head to the roots of the mountains I sank down the Earth
beneath barred Me In Forever forever but you Lord my God brought my life up from the pit when my life was ebbing away I remembered you Lord and my prayer Rose to you to your Holy Temple those who cling to worthless Idols turn away from God's love for them but I with shouts of grateful praise will sacrifice to you what I have vowed I will make good I will say salvation comes from the Lord and the Lord commanded the fish and it vomited Jonah on to dry land looking at the language used in the original
Hebrew in Jonah's prayer most likely Jonah died inside of the whale Jonah was buried for three days and three nights inside the belly of the fish Jesus also was buried for three days and three nights inside the heart of the Earth on the third day Jonah was raised back to life on the third day Jesus was raised back to life then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time go to the great city of Nineveh and Proclaim to it the message I give you Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went
to Nineveh now Nineveh was a very large city it took 3 days to go through it Jonah began by going a Day's Journey Into the City proclaiming 40 more days and Nineveh will be overthrown after his resurrection Jonah preached that Nineveh would be destroyed in 40 days if the people did not repent after his resurrection Jesus also preached for 40 days about the kingdom of God likewise the Israelites also had 40 years to repent in the wilderness before entering the promised land and the Jews also had 40 years to repent from 30 ad D until
the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem in 70 a d the ninevites believed God a fast was proclaimed and all of them from the greatest to the least put on sackcloth when Jonah's warning reached the king of Nineveh he rose from his throne took off his Royal robes covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust this is the proclamation he issued in Nineveh by the decree of the king and his Nobles do not let people or animals herds or flocks taste anything do not let them eat or drink but let people and animals
be covered with sackcloth let everyone call urgent ly on God let them give up their evil ways and their violence who knows God May yet relent and with compassion turn from his Fierce anger so that we will not perish when God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened Jonah didn't work a miracle Jonah was the miracle if Jonah could be raised back from the dead physically then ninev could be raised back from the dead spiritually in Matthew 12
Jesus replied to the Pharisees a wicked and adulterous generation asks for a 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 but there's more to the sign of Jonah than simply just that you see Jonah was raised from the realm of chaos after three days and three nights same as Jesus then Jonah went and preached to the Gentiles
and so the Gentiles believed and repented but in that Matthew 12 passage Jesus was talking to the Jews the Pharisees and even after the sign of Jonah appeared and Jesus was raised to life on the third day they still did not believe nor did they repent however after Jesus rose from the dead his followers preached the message of repentance to the Gentiles and and like Jonah and the ninevites they repented and turned to God that's what the sign of Jonah means Jesus told the Pharisees to their faces that he knew they wouldn't believe even after
a miraculous resurrection and he made sure the Pharisees understood that even the Pagan Gentiles would believe and turn from their Wicked Ways and follow him that's why Jesus went on to say for as Jonah was a sign to the ninevites so also will the son of man be to this generation the men of Nineveh will stand up at the Judgment with this generation and condemn it for they repented at the preaching of Jonah and now something greater than Jonah is here Jesus also confirmed the historicity of the Book of Jonah by telling the Pharisees how
the men of Nineveh will act at the final judgment and by mentioning Jonah Jesus was being purposely provocative his death would lead not only to his resurrection but also to the repentance of the Pagan Nations that the Pharisees hated outwardly the Pharisees were asking Jesus for a sign but when most people approached Jesus in genuine need and asked him for things it was rare for Jesus to turn them down but that wasn't at all what this situation in particular was this was complete insincerity on the Pharisees part it was simply another trap they were setting
up for Jesus which explains Jesus's strange harsh yet beautiful answer he would not give them a sign not quite yet but he did something else something he had not ever done in his ministry before Jesus declared his intention to die but to Jonah this seemed very wrong and he became angry he prayed to the Lord isn't this what I said Lord when I was still at home that is what I tried to foro by fleeing to tarish I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God slow to anger and abounding in love a God
who relents from sending Calamity now Lord take away my life for it is better for me to die than to live Jonah resented God's mercy he knew about it from the beginning ran away from it in the middle resented it in the end and would rather have died than witnessed it Jonah did what God had asked but it was only after he had lost everything and had no other place to run by the end of the story Jonah is a complaining man who is quite bitter with God he was a missionary but his heart certainly
wasn't in it but think about it how does it make you feel that God loves your enemies too and wants you to bring them to repentance in Christ God still loves the person who wronged you the most God still loves the person on the other side of the political aisle God still loves the person that mocked you and gossiped about you God loves everyone and wants to see all repent and turn from their Wicked Ways and be saved but the Lord replied is it right for you to be angry Jonah had gone out and sat
down at a place east of the city there he made himself a shelter sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city then the Lord God provided a leafy plant and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort and Jonah was very happy about the plant but at dawn the next day God provided a worm which chewed the plant so that it withered when the sun rose God provided a scorching East Wind and the sun blazed on Jonah's head so that he grew
faint he wanted to die and said it would be better for me to die than to live but God said to Jonah is it right for you to be angry about the plant it is he said and I'm so angry I wish I were dead but the Lord said you have been concerned about this plant though you did not tend it or make it grow it sprang up overnight and died overnight and should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh in which there are more than 120,000 people who cannot tell their right
hand from their left Jonah was more concerned about the plant than he was about the people of Nineveh Jonah is an odd type of Christ he didn't actually want to go to Nineveh he ran away specifically because he did not want them to repent he wanted them to suffer for what they had done he wanted them to feel the fires of Wrath Unleashed against them by contrast for Jesus the repentance of his people was the joy set before him Jesus said behold something greater than Jonah is here because Jonah fled from his calling to preach
repentance but Jesus purposely sought out to preach repentance wherever he went Jonah fled away from the presence of the Lord but Jesus always sought the presence of the Lord Jonah was bitter at God's grace for the ninevites but Jesus always rejoices over the repentance of even one sinner Jonah has some of the same story lines as Jesus but he isn't the main story line he has a few of the same qualities as Jesus but he's missing the bigger qualities he is a prophet but he is not the prophet he is a missionary but he is
not the missionary Jonah leaves us wanting more and the person we want more is Jesus if Jesus did not abandon you in that Ultimate Storm of God's Wrath what makes you think he would abandon you in the much smaller storms that you're experiencing right now and someday of course he will return and steal all storms everywhere for all eternity Jesus never ran away from his mission to preach repentance he ran toward it his entire Ministry on Earth was a running toward it and like Jonah he would soon become a sign the great sign the only
sign any of us will ever need the sign that God is alive and all powerful the sign that God is loving and all merciful the sign that the kingdom has come that death has been conquered and that we can come home [Music]
