“An evil and adulterous generation asks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. As Jonah was in the belly of the huge sea creature for three days and three nights, so the son of man will be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights.” Matthew 12:39-40

JONAH AND THE WHALE IS THE MOST SCOFFED AT STORY FOUND IN THE HEBREW SCRIPTURES, YET THE LORD JUSUS CHRIST REFERS TO IT AS FACT.

THE BLUE WHALE IS THE LARGEST CREATURE IN THE WORLD. MOST PROBABLY IT WAS SUCH A SEA CREATURE THAT SWALLOWED JONAH. THERE WOULD BE ENOUGH OXYGEN IN ITS STOMACH TO KEEP JONAH ALIVE.

JONAH THOUGHT HE WAS A DEAD MAN THERE IN THE STOMACH OF THE SEA CREATURE. IF YOU HAVE EVER BEEN IN AN AIRPLANE THAT HAS DROPPED SUDDENLY, YOU CAN IMAGINE THE FEELING JONAH HAD WHEN THAT HUGE CREATURE DOVE DOWN INTO THE DEEP. IT WOULD BE FRIGHTENING ENOUGH TO BE DROWNING OUT IN THE OPEN SEA, BUT IMAGINE BEING ENCLOSED IN A DARK SPACE WHEN THE HUGE CREATURE SWALLOWED GREAT VOLUMES OF WATER FILLED WITH SEAWEED AND WHATEVER ELSE THE WATER CONTAINED.

“FROM THE BELLY OF DEATH I CRIED OUT FOR HELP…..I WENT DOWN TO THE VERY BOTTOMS OF THE MOUNTAINS; THE GATES OF THE NETHERWORLD BARRED ME IN FOREVER.” JONAH DESCRIBES BEING ENGULFED BY WATER UP TO HIS NECK AND SEAWEED WRAPPED AROUND HIS HEAD. “BUT YOU BROUGHT ME UP FROM THE PIT O LORD MY GOD. WHEN MY LIFE WAS EBBING AWAY, I CALLED OUT TO THE LORD, AND MY PRAYER CAME TO YOUR HOLY TEMPLE.” Jonah 2

AFTER GOD DELIVERED JONAH BY CAUSING THE CREATURE TO VOMIT HIM OUT ON DRY LAND, GOD COMMANDED JONAH TO IMMEDIATELY GO TO NINEVEH AND WARN THE CITY ABOUT THEIR COMING JUDGEMENT.

WHAT A SIGHT JONAH WOULD HAVE BEEN, HIS SKIN PEELING OFF. WHO HAD EVER HEARD OF SUCH A THING, A MAN BEING SWALLOWED BY SUCH A  CREATURE AND ALIVE TO TELL IT. HIS MESSAGE WAS NOT JUST HIS WORDS BUT ALSO HIS APPEARANCE. JONAH HIMSELF SPOKE OF GOD’S JUDGEMENT. THUS ALL NINEVEH REPENTED, GOD FORGAVE, AND NINEVEH WAS NOT DESTROYED.

PERHAPS THE NINEVITES THOUGHT THAT GOD HAD FORGOTTEN THEM AND CARED NOTHING ABOUT THEM. THEY KNEW HOW WICKED THEY WERE, BUT SO FAR THEY HAD ESCAPED  JUDGEMENT. KING SOLOMON SAID, “WHEN A SENTENCE IS NOT EXECUTED AT ONCE AGAINST A CRIME, THE HUMAN HEART IS ENCOURAGED TO DO EVIL.” Ecclesiastes 8:11

GOD’S SENDING JONAH TO THEM TOLD THE NINEVITES THAT GOD DOES CARE ABOUT THEM, THAT GOD SEES, THAT JUDGEMENT IS REAL, AND THAT GOD DOES HAVE MERCY AND CAN DELIVER. THUS THEY REPENTED IN SACKCLOTH AND WITH FASTING, FROM THE GREATEST TO THE LEAST OF THEM. WHEN GOD SAW THAT THEY HAD REPENTED, TURNING AWAY FROM THEIR EVIL WAYS OF LIVING AND THEIR VIOLENCE, HE HAD MERCY ON THEM AND DID NOT DESTROY THEM. Jonah 3:10 

“AN EVIL AND ADULTEROUS GENERATION ASKS FOR A SIGN,” SAID JESUS. WHAT SORT OF A SIGN WAS THE CROWD IN JESUS’ DAY LOOKING FOR? JESUS TOLD THEM THAT THEIR DESIRE FOR A SIGN WAS EVIL. WHAT WAS EVIL ABOUT IT? INSTEAD OF RECOGNIZING IN JESUS THE RIGHTEOUSNESS AND BEAUTY OF GOD IN HUMAN FLESH, THEY WERE LOOKING FOR A MIRACLE, A PERFORMANCE, SOMETHING THAT COULD SATISFY AND PLEASE THEM, LIKE THE FEEDING OF THE FIVE THOUSAND. THEY WERE IN UNBELIEF. JESUS’ ANSWER TO THEM WAS THAT THEY WOULD BE GIVEN A SIGN, NOT THE KIND THEY WERE SEEKING, BUT ONE LIKE THE SIGN OF JONAH.

THE SIGN OF JONAH SPOKE OF JUDGEMENT. JONAH, A PROPHET OF THE GOD OF ISRAEL WAS JUDGED AND NINEVEH WAS NOT! GOD’S JUDGEMENT OF JONAH IS WHAT BROUGHT ABOUT NINEVEH’S DELIVERANCE.

WHEN JESUS SPOKE TO THE UNBELIEVING CROUDS ABOUT HIS HEAVENLY FATHER, THEY ASKED HIM, “WHO ARE YOU?” JESUS ANSWERED THEM, “WHEN YOU LIFT UP THE SON OF MAN, THEN YOU WILL KNOW THAT I AM HE.” John 8:28 NOTE JESUS’ USE OF THE NAME, SON OF MAN. HE WAS STATING HIS UNIQUE CONNECTION WITH THE HUMAN RACE, EVERY MAN, WOMAN, AND CHILD.

HOW WAS HE LIFTED UP? HE WAS LIFTED UP BY MAN ON A CROSS. THE APOSTLE PETER, IN HIS SERMON IN ACTS CHAPTER 2, TELLS THE PEOPLE THAT THEY NAILED JESUS TO THE CROSS, THAT THEY PUT HIM TO DEATH, JESUS, WHOM YOU CRUCIFIED.

ARE ONLY THE JEWS GUILTY OF JESUS’ DEATH? TO BELIEVE SUCH IS TO DENY WHAT IS RIGHT BEFORE OUR EYES TODAY. HOW EASILY WE CAN DECEIVE OURSELVES. WE CAN POINT THE FINGER AT THE NAZIS FOR THE HOLOCAUST WHILE WE MURDER THOUSANDS OF BABIES EACH DAY, BY ABORTION, HERE IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. “THE HEART IS DECEITFUL ABOVE ALL THINGS, AND DESPERATELY CORRUPT; WHO CAN UNDERSTAND IT?” Jeremiah 17:9

THE ONLY SIGN THAT A HOLY GOD CAN GIVE TO SINFUL HUMANITY IS THE SIGN OF JONAH. SIN MUST BE UNCOVERED, EXPOSED, THAT IT MIGHT BE JUDGED, NOT ONLY BY GOD BUT BY EACH ONE OF US. THE SIGN OF JONAH IS THE SIGN OF THE CROSS. JESUS HANGING ON THE CROSS SPEAKS OF THE SIN OF MAN. WE MUST BOTH RECOGNIZE OUR GUILT BEFORE GOD AND CONFESS THE RIGHTEOUS ONE.

“WHEN YOU HAVE LIFTED UP THE SON OF MAN, THEN YOU WILL KNOW THAT I AM HE.” THE PROPHET ISAIAH DESCRIBES THE SUFFERING SERVANT, “HIS APPEARANCE WAS MARRED MORE THAN ANY MAN, AND HIS FORM MORE THAN THE SONS OF MEN. THUS HE WILL SPRINKLE, (CLEANSE), MANY NATIONS, KINGS WILL SHUT THEIR MOUTHS ON ACCOUNT OF HIM; FOR WHAT HAD NOT BEEN TOLD THEM THEY WILL SEE, AND WHAT THEY HAD NOT HEARD THEY WILL UNDERSTAND.” Isaiah 52:14-15 “WHEN YOU HAVE LIFTED UP THE SON OF MAN, THEN YOU WILL KNOW THAT I AM HE.”

THE SIGN OF JONAH NOT ONLY SPEAKS OF JUDGEMENT AND DEATH, IT ALSO SPEAKS OF DELIVERANCE AND LIFE. WHEN JONAH REPENTED THERE IN THE DEPTHS, HE WAS FORGIVEN AND BROUGHT UP INTO THE LAND OF THE LIVING. THUS HE STOOD BEFORE THE NINEVITES ALIVE! A DEAD JONAH WOULD NEVER HAVE SAVED THE NINEVITES.

THE CROSS NOT ONLY REVEALS OUR SIN, IT ALSO REVEALS OUR SALVATION. ALL THAT OUR SIN COULD DO TO JESUS WAS TO KILL HIS BODY, BUT THE SON OF MAN LIVES BY THE “POWER OF AN  INDESTRUCTIBLE LIFE!” Hebrews 7:16  OUR SIN WAS MADE POWERLESS IN THE ONE WHO KNEW NO SIN.

JESUS HAD TO DIE BECAUSE WE ARE DYING IN OUR SIN. BY DYING OUR DEATH, JESUS SEIZED THE KEYS OF DEATH AND HELL. HE TELLS US IN REVELATION 1:18, “I AM THE FIRST AND THE LAST, AND THE ONE WHO LIVES! I WAS DEAD, BUT LOOK, NOW I AM ALIVE FOREVER AND EVER, AND I HAVE THE KEYS OF DEATH AND OF HADES!”

“IF YOU CONFESS WITH YOUR MOUTH THAT JESUS IS LORD AND BELIEVE IN YOUR HEART THAT GOD RAISED HIM FROM THE DEAD, YOU WILL BE SAVED.” Romans 10:9

I CLOSE WITH THE PRAYERFUL WORDS OF THE HYMN, “O TEACH ME WHAT IT MEANETH.”

O teach me what it meaneth, that cross uplifted high, with One, the Man of Sorrows, condemned to bleed and die! O teach me what it cost Thee to make a sinner whole; and teach me, Saviour, teach me the value of a soul!

O teach me what it meaneth, for I am full of sin, and grace alone can reach me, and love alone can win. O teach me for I need Thee, I have no hope beside, the chief of all the sinners for whom the Saviour died!

O infinite Redeeemer! I bring no other plea; because Thou dost invite me I cast myself on thee. Because Thou doest accept me, I love and I adore; Because Thy love constraineth, I’ll praise Thee evermore!

Rosemary E Hyslop – October 6, 2021