… Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights…
Part Five
– Jonah as a Type of Christ
17 Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow up
Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. (Jonah
1:17)
38 Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees
answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from thee. 39 But he
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: 40 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. 41 The men of Nineveh
shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they
repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here. (Matt 12:38-41)
There is a surprising parallel in the life of Christ and that of the prophet
Jonah. Jonah could, in no way, measure up to that holiness expressed in the
life of Christ, yet that is one particular event that unites the two in a
shared circumstance. Christ used the example of Jonah as one compared to
Himself in His lying in the Tomb for “three days and three nights.”
There are, of course, other profound similarities which are worthy of mention.
I would challenge the Reader to get out a pen and paper and note some of those
obvious parallels as you read the Book of Jonah – if we put our heads together,
we may find may more than is immediately obvious.
The name, Jonah, in the Hebrew, means ‘DOVE.” A dove represents ‘sent
love’ as in the sending of a dove as a messenger by Noah to bring back the good
news of the receding floods upon the earth; and the sending of the Holy Ghost
at the baptism of Christ represented by a dove. Jonah is a man, like Christ,
sent to a people who knew not God. The entire population of Nineveh were
lost in sin. Christ was sent into a world which was lost in sin without His
coming. Now the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the son of Amittai,
saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against
it; for their wickedness is come up before me. (Jonah
1:1-2)
In the normal course of the world, one would not expect such a wicked city to
heed the words of a prophet of the Lord, but Nineveh was an exception to the
rule, and God knew that He had souls in Nineveh that belonged to Him. God sent
the Lord Jesus Christ, His only Begotten Son, into a world of like disposition.
But Jonah lacked the humility and obedience of Christ. He balked at the command
of God.
There is a warning of woe to clergy included in the account of Jonah: if the
Lord commands, it will save everyone a lot of misery and consternation if we
simply obey promptly rather than putting the Lord to the trouble of chastising
us until we agree to that which we should have done from the very first.
Remember the wide road which leads DOWN to destruction? Well,
that is the road that our brother, Jonah, chose rather than obey the Lord. But
Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD, and went
down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare
thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the
presence of the LORD. (Jonah 1:3) Now these are only the first two
examples of Jonah’s going DOWN out of the will of the Lord for, after he went
down into the ship, he went down into the hull of the ship: But the LORD
sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea,
so that the ship was like to be broken. Then the mariners were afraid, and
cried every man unto his god, and cast forth the wares that were in the ship
into the sea, to lighten it of them. But Jonah was gone down into the sides
of the ship; and he lay, and was fast asleep. (Jonah
1:4-5)
Nor is this the whole extent of Jonah’s going DOWN for he
eventually went DOWN into the Sea. He then went DOWN
into the belly of the whale, and the whale went DOWN into the
depths of the Sea. If we embark upon such a downward path from the will of the
Lord, I fear, at the risk of conjuring up images of Dante’s Inferno, we shall
find that the Lake of Fire in Hell is truly a bottomless pit whose only company
will be Satan and his minions.
Would it not have been simpler
for poor Jonah not to resist the command of the Lord? The opening lines
of a poem, The Hound of Heaven, written by Francis Thompson, come to mind
exemplifying the harsh reality of fleeing the Call:
The Hound of Heaven
I fled Him, down the nights and
down the days;
I fled Him, down the arches of
the years;
I fled Him, down the
labyrinthine ways
Of my own mind; and in the mist
of tears
I hid from Him, and under
running laughter.
Up vistaed hopes I sped;
And shot, precipitated,
Adown Titanic glooms of chasmed
fears,
From those strong Feet that
followed, followed after.
But with unhurrying chase,
And unperturbèd pace,
Deliberate speed, majestic
instancy,
They beat--and a Voice beat
More instant than the Feet--
"All things betray thee,
who betrayest Me."
In his inclinations to flee the service of God, Jonah is in
no wise a Type of Christ for he, as all other types, fall far short of the
object they typify. It is also this contrast that causes that perfect image of
Christ to stand out in such stark relief. Our Lord never hesitated to do all
that His Father commanded! In the weakness and failure of Jonah, how much more
clearly do we observe the greatness and grandeur of Christ! In our own weakness
and failure, we cannot help but admit the unsurpassed holiness of our Lord.
I hope you will have already
looked over the Book of Jonah, Reader, and will have detected stellar
comparisons, in type, with Christ. What else do we see other than the fact that
Jonah, like Christ, was sent to a lost and sinful people?
Jonah, like Christ descended to
the depths of Hell. He was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly. …..
And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
(Jonah 1:17) Jesus, too, lay in the stone tomb for
three days and three nights. It was during this time that Christ descended into
Hell. 40 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. A
striking difference between the horror of Jonah’s experience and the Passion of
Christ is this: Jonah underwent his trial and suffering due to his disobedience
and in chastisement to force him to go to Nineveh. Jesus came first to the lost
world and taught in obedience to His Father. He then suffered death and burial
out of obedience and not out of disobedience. Both rose from the gloomy
darkness on the third day.
Jonah, like Christ, slept
soundly throughout a raging storm at sea. Both were awakened by fearful seaman.
Christ calmed the sea at His Word. Jonah calmed the sea at his being cast into
it.
Jonah was cast off by the men of
the ship in order to save themselves. Christ was cast off from Israel and
crucified by men who, unwittingly, did so as a matter of their own possible
salvation. These good, yet pagan men of the sea, did not desire to cast Jonah
into the sea just as the Roman Prefect, Pontius Pilate, desired not to crucify
Christ. Yet, both faced their fated ordeal in the end. We read: Then said
they unto him, What shall we do unto thee, that the sea may be calm unto us?
for the sea wrought, and was tempestuous. And he said unto them, Take me up,
and cast me forth into the sea; so shall the sea be calm unto you: for I know
that for my sake this great tempest is upon you. Nevertheless the men
rowed hard to bring it to the land; but they could not: for the sea wrought,
and was tempestuous against them. Wherefore they cried unto the LORD, and said,
We beseech thee, O LORD, we beseech thee, let us not perish for this man's
life, and lay not upon us innocent blood: for thou, O LORD, hast done as it
pleased thee. So they took up Jonah, and cast him forth into the sea: and
the sea ceased from her raging (Jonah
1:11-15) These rough men of the sea repented to God of the action
they were forced to take against Jonah. Remember, Reader, how Pontius Pilate
vainly washed his hands of this innocent man’s blood.
Another typical characteristic of Jonah’s experience was the effect of his
preaching. The city repented at his preaching. Jesus came preaching the Gospel
of Salvation and men were saved thereby. He, unlike Jonah, died to seal that
redemption offered. Did you find other typical qualities in the account? If so,
please share them with me.
