Friday | 20 June 2025

Jonah became the sign

We recall that the prophet Jonah was called by the Lord to proclaim judgement upon the city of Nineveh. Jon 1:1‑2. However, Jonah arose to flee from the presence of the Lord and from the works of obedience to which he had been called. As he made his way to Tarshish, in Spain, the Lord sent a great wind on the sea, bringing the boat and its passengers into peril. At Jonah’s direction, the mariners picked up Jonah and threw him into the sea, causing the terrible tempest to cease.

The Lord prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah. The prophet remained in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights. Jon 1:17. This initiative toward Jonah identified him with Christ’s death, burial and resurrection. Jonah received and joined this sign, as evidenced by his personal expression of the prayer that belonged to Christ’s travail in the course of His offering and suffering journey. For example, foreshadowing the resurrection life of the Father that brought Christ back from the dead, Jonah prayed, ‘I went down to the moorings of the mountains; the earth with its bars closed behind me forever; yet You have brought up my life from the pit, O Lord, my God.’ Jon 2:6.

Having received and been identified with the death, burial and resurrection of the Son of Man, Jonah became this sign to the city of Nineveh. Jesus, Himself, noted this point, saying, ‘For as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so also the Son of Man will be to this generation.’ Luk 11:30. This sign, which Jonah had become, was expressed to the citizens of Nineveh through the words of judgement that Jonah had been sent to proclaim to them for forty days. Some commentators, such as the authors of The Pulpit Commentary, have suggested that the Ninevites were receptive to Jonah’s message because they had been informed of his miraculous deliverance from death, as he became to them a sign of the judgement and power of God.