Art-7-The Sign of the Prophet Jonah

The Sign of the Prophet Jonah by Philip Mauro

“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. 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” (Mat 12:38-41). The foregoing words were spoken by the Lord when, having cast out a demon, the Pharisees said He did it through Beelzebub, the prince of the demons. Following that incident, “certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from Thee.” To this demand the Lord replied in the words quoted above, and He further said, “The men of Nineveh shall rise in the judgment with the men of this generation, and shall condemn it; because they repented at the teaching of Jonas; and behold, a greater than Jonas is here.”

Again, after the feeding of the four thousand, when He came to the coasts of Magdala, “the Pharisees also with the Sadducees came, and tempting, desired Him that He would show them a sign from heaven. He answered and said unto them, When it is evening ye say it will be fair weather, for the sky is red. And in the morning, it will be foul weather today, for the sky is red and lowering. O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky, but can ye not discern the signs of the times? A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given unto it, but THE SIGN OF THE PROPHET JONAS” (Mat 16:1-4).

Thus, on two distinct occasions, the Lord directed attention to the Book of Jonah as containing the prophetic type of the great “sign from heaven” by which His Person and Work were authenticated of God. In view of the unique position which the Lord has thus given to the remarkable experience of Jonah, it is not to be wondered at that the Book of Jonah has been the object of special attacks by the enemies of the truth. It would be very strange indeed were it otherwise. The Lord Jesus has Himself linked His own Resurrection from the dead, upon which the salvation of sinners absolutely depends, directly with the deliverance of Jonah from the belly of the great fish. Any questioning of the one event raises a question as to the other also. This is the explanation of the special efforts that have been made to discredit the experience of Jonah. The matter stands thus: The Lord Jesus Christ linked the experience of Jonah, in being swallowed by the great fish and thrown up again, with the fact of His own death and resurrection. Nay, more, He makes the one fact depend upon the other: for He said, “As Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” He cited that Scripture, and that alone, as proof from Holy Writ that He should die and rise again. Furthermore, He testified that the Gentile City of Nineveh had repented at the preaching of one who had been swallowed up in the great deep for three days and three nights; thus figuring that He Himself, when raised from the dead, would be preached unto the Gentiles, and believed on in the world (1Ti 3:16).

It follows that to deny the account of Jonah’s experience is virtually to deny the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, which is the foundation fact of the Gospel, and without which there is no Saviour and no salvation. To deny the sign is to deny the countersign.

We should, therefore, turn with the deepest interest to the Book of Jonah; and we should seek diligently to possess ourselves of the treasures it contains. The Old Testament is full of “shadows” of Him Who was to come. But where shall we look for more wonderful and blessed foreshadowings of Him, and of His redeeming work, than are found in the Book of Jonah? Let us trace some of them for our spiritual profit.

Here we have Jonah in the vessel, with the mighty tempest increasing about, and the angry waters raised by the great wind threatening to break the vessel in pieces. That “mighty tempest” represents the righteous wrath of God against man. For mankind as a whole has, like Jonah, forsaken the mission entrusted to him by his Creator, and has turned aside to go his own way. Therefore, in order to save man from the storm of wrath and sure destruction into which his own self-willed course had brought him, God sent forth His own Son Who, as man, took his place in the world upon which the storm was about to break. Of course, the mariners made every effort to save themselves and the ship. “The men rowed hard to bring it to land, but they could not, for the sea wrought and was tempestuous against them.” So the question arises which always comes to the lips of men who find themselves in a desperate situation, “What shall we do?” The mariners of the ship upon which Jonah had taken passage did not regard the storm as a mere natural phenomenon or chance event, and they rightly reasoned that it had a spiritual cause. The mariners accordingly made inquisition by lot, and by that means ascertained that Jonah was responsible for the impending destruction of the vessel. The responsibility being located, the question arose, “What shall we do unto THEE that the sea may be calm to US?” To this question there could be but one righteous answer. The one who is guilty must bear the consequences. And Jonah himself is compelled to pronounce the righteous judgment: “Take me up and cast me forth into the sea; so shall the sea be calm unto you.”

Jonah was truly responsible for the trouble in that boat. Jesus Christ was not responsible for the trouble that is in the world. But He made Himself responsible. He assumed full liability for the sin of the world, making it His own, in order that those who justly incurred the consequences of sin might escape. “By one man (Adam) SIN entered the world,” and sin became the cause of every kind of evil. Jesus Christ “Who knew no sin,” was “MADE SIN for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him” (2Co 5:21). Thus “God sending His own Son, in the likeness of sinful flesh and FOR SIN, condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of (required by) the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit” (Rom 8:3). “We have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid ON HIM the iniquity of US ALL” (Is. 53:6).

These familiar Scriptures contain God’s own answer to the great question whereof that put to Jonah is such a wonderful “shadow.” “What shall we do unto THEE, that the sea may be calm unto US?” The counterpart of that “shadow” took place when Pilate put to the leaders of the Jews the question on which the salvation of the world depended: “What shall I do then with Jesus which is called Christ?” They all say unto him, “Let Him be crucified” (Mat 27:22). Pilate had no idea of the significance of the question that came to his lips. Nor had Caiaphas any idea of the significance of the words he spake when he said, “that it is expedient FOR US that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not. And this he spake not of himself, but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus should die FOR THAT NATION; and NOT FOR THAT NATION ONLY, but also that He should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad” (John 11:50; John 11:52). And now we know, by the full light of revelation given to us, that Caiaphas and Pontius Pilate, and Herod, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were, even while following the counsels of their own wicked hearts, fulfilling what God’s counsel had determined before to be done (Acts 4:27-28). As the Apostle Peter, addressing the Jews, declared, “And now, brethren, I wot that through ignorance ye did it, as did also your rulers. But THOSE THINGS which God before had showed by the mouth of all His prophets, that Christ SHOULD SUFFER, He hath so fulfilled” (Acts 3:18).

“So they took up Jonah and cast him into the sea, and the sea ceased from her raging.” In like manner the Son of God, who made Himself liable for our transgressions, was cast forth to the violence of the storm, and sunk under the waves and billows of the fierce wrath of God. “But He was wounded for OUR transgressions. He was bruised for OUR iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon HIM, and with His stripes we are healed.” And so, because of what was done unto Him, the sea has become calm unto us, and has ceased from its raging. The Apostle Peter was one of those whose understanding the Lord opened, that he might understand the Scriptures, foretelling the things which Christ must needs have suffered (Lu. 24:45). And Peter tells us that the Spirit of Christ was in the prophets testifying beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that should follow; and that unto them it was revealed that those things (which they foretold, but were not able to understand) were ministered unto them for us, and were the very things that are now reported to us by those who have preached the Gospel unto us with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven (1Pe 1:11-12). For, as the Apostle Paul also says, “the Gospel of God was promised afore by His prophets in the Holy Scriptures” (Rom 1:1-2). With the help of those Apostolic statements we can find many passages of prophetic Scriptures wherein the Spirit of Christ was testifying beforehand the sufferings of Christ. But no passage is that testimony more clearly given than in the prayer recorded in the second chapter of Jonah.

“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 I cried, and Thou heardest my voice.” This opening sentence brings to mind the twenty-second Psalm, and the fifth chapter of Hebrews:

“But when he cried unto Him, He heard” (Psa 22:24).

“Who in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto Him that was able to save Him from death, and was heard in that He feared” (Heb 5:7).

“For THOU hadst cast me into the deep in the midst of the seas” (Jon 2:3).

God has indeed cast our sins into the depths of the seas; but let us not forget our Saviour who bore them in His own body was Himself cast with them into the dark waters.

“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 will I look again toward Thy holy temple” (Jon 2:3-4).

All these Scriptures testify that the Divine Sufferer did not cease to hope during the period when the waters of death and judgment rolled over Him. Even in those dark hours He was saying, “Yet will I look again toward Thy holy temple.” So firm and unshaken was His trust in the Word of God, and so certain was He of the joy that was set before Him, that He “endured the Cross, despising the shame.”

“The waters compassed me about even to the soul; the depth closed me round about; the weeds were wrapped about my head. I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me forever” (Jon 2:6).

Here is a reference to the depths to which Christ descended. “The depth closed me round about. I went down to the bottoms of the mountains.” As it is written in Eph 4:9 : “Now that He ascended, what is it but that He also descended first into the lower parts of the earth?” And now comes the promise of Resurrection:

“Yet Thou hast 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” (Jon 3:6-7). The Holy Spirit now puts into the lips of the prophet Jonah almost the same words found in the sixteenth Psalm: “Thou wilt not leave my soul in Hades, neither wilt Thou suffer Thine Holy One to see corruption. Thou wilt show me the path of life.” Those words are quoted both by Peter (Acts 2:25; Acts 2:31) and by Paul (Acts 13:35), as containing the promise and prophecy of the Resurrection of Christ.

We now come to the concluding words of Jonah’s prayer:

“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.” The result of all the sufferings of the Redeemer is stated in two words: SALVATION (is of) THE LORD.” Salvation is His own work, accomplished in His own way, for His own eternal glory and praise. Being His very own, and having been secured at His own cost, He can righteously bestow it upon whomsoever he will – even upon the least deserving. So “the grace of God bringing salvation hath appeared unto all men.” For God hath concluded all under sin that He might have mercy upon all. It is written of the Lord Jesus Christ that He not only “made peace by the blood of His Cross, but also “came and preached peace to you which were afar off” – i.e., Gentiles (Eph 2:17). The figure of this is seen in the preaching of Jonah, after his resurrection, in the great Gentile city of Nineveh, foreshadowing the ultimate conversion of all the Gentiles upon whom the name of the Lord is called (Acts 15:17).

One of the leading truths to be learned from the Book of Jonah is that the salvation of God is Resurrection. The Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is the central fact of Christianity. That is the fact which God has commanded to be proclaimed through the world.

Upon this great fact of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, Christianity was founded. Through the foolishness of the preaching of that fact, sinners were converted, their sins forgiven, eternal life bestowed upon them, and they were gathered out from a dying world to a risen, living Saviour.

Among all the varied experiences of men in this world, no man other than Jonah ever had such an experience as this. To be tossed into the sea for the express purpose of quieting its ragings and thus saving the imperiled lives of others; to be swallowed by a great fish; to be preserved alive and conscious in the fish’s belly for just three days; and to be brought up again the third day in safety and subsequently made a preacher to the Gentiles, constitute a history the like of which has befallen no other man. There it stood on the inspired page, seemingly only a tale of marvel, its significance utterly unknown to men, until the Son of God with a few words, illuminates it with Divine light, revealing in it treasures of heavenly truth of incalculable value. “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God.