The Bible: It's All About Jesus

Jonah

Introduction: Jonah - A Perfect Picture of Jesus

Name Meanings in Jonah

Learning the meanings of the Hebrew names is a great help in understanding the story of Jonah. For example, Jonah means "Dove" --the symbol of peace-- and his father, Amittai, means "Certainty, or Truth, or Trustworthy" --attributes which only God fulfills.

Jonah Ch. 1 - Jesus' Life As a Man

The story starts out with Jesus at home in heaven. His Father told Him to go down to Paradise (Nineveh) --where the Old Testament saints were waiting for their reward and tell them the judgement that was coming. Jesus quickly left, but first He had to make another, very necessary stop.

Jonah Ch. 2 - Death, Burial and Resurrection

Having been cast out of His Father's presence and into the grave (into the sea), Jesus cried out to His Father. They had never been separated before and Jesus was in agony over His situation. While in the grave, His body and especially His face was covered over with grave clothes. (Jonah --including his face-- was covered in seaweed.)

Jonah Ch. 3 - Preaching to the Dead

Paradise (Nineveh) was so important that it required a three day visit from Jesus. Only His death (to be proven by three days in the ground) could free its inhabitants. In that time period they confessed Him as Lord, but another change came into the world just forty days His entrance. That change upset the entire religious world.

Jonah Ch. 4 - Remembering the Pain

After His return to heaven and the ordeal was over, Jesus had the one of the deepest conversations with His Father that is recorded in the Bible. All of the emotions He felt (hurt, frustration, anger) are bared here so that we can know the depths of what He endured on our behalf.

Name Meanings Are the Key to Understanding Jonah

The meanings of Hebrew names can almost tell the whole story by themselves. They show how the allegory is assembled. For example: Jonah means "dove" and the Holy Spirit came down upon Jesus like a dove. Also, Noah sent a dove out to determine if it was safe to get out of the ark. Jonah's father is Amittai. His name means certainty and truth and trustworthy --the very picture of our heavenly Father!

As you read through this story about Jonah, you might want to use this list of meanings to help put the story together.

Chapter One - Jesus' Life As A Man

The word of the LORD came to Jonah son of Amittai: "Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me."

Remember the story where Lazerus and a rich man died in Luke 16:19-31? Angels carried Lazerus to Abraham's bosom (also known as Paradise) and the rich man went to the grave (also known as Hades, hell, or torment). Those are the two place where people went when they died. And there was a great chasm between them that no one could cross. Nineveh represents Paradise.

But Jonah ran away from the LORD and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the LORD.

We have a marvelous picture of every man's life. Each starts out at birth (at Joppa) in a human body (a ship) going through life (the sea) facing circumstances and fears (the calms to the breakers) on the way to our final destination (Tarshish). Tarshish was the great market place where things were judged for their value: It's the Judgement Day.

When Jesus came to earth to live in a man's body with other men (together with them in the ship --in fellowship), He did so without hesitation; He left His Father quickly --running without hesitation-- to travel in the same ship on the same sea headed toward the same judgement as the rest of mankind. He gave up everything He had in heaven --His greatness, honor, position-- that was the price He paid to come here to become one with us (Philippians 2:6-7).

Then the LORD sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up.

In 2 Corinthians 1:8-11, Paul talks about a time when he was discouraged to the point of death because of the hardships that he and his companions faced while ministers of the gospel. This passage in Jonah is describing the torturous times that Jesus endured. He was the Creator of everything and yet was rejected, humiliated, tortured by His own creation (John 1:10).

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.

When the resurrection was upon them, His followers became afraid. They tried to change their circumstances without His leading. Peter even tried defending Jesus with a sword.

The sailors convey human fears, doubts and frailties while --providing an insight into the depth of the troubles that Jesus experienced during His life. Take a look at Isaiah 53:1-12 and try to imagine what might have gone through His soul. He was tested in all ways: in His body, His soul and His spirit. The passage in Matthew 4:1-10 describes where Satan tempted Him with bread to satisfy His hunger, power over the world so that He could regain control of His creation, and security to ensure His own life.

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, and we will not perish."

First, the religious leaders tried to get Him to say something incriminating.

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 for making all this trouble for us? What do you do? Where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you?"

Then the people joined in the jeering and mocking.

He answered, "I am a Hebrew and I worship the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the 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.)

He maintained to the end that He was the Son of God!

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 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."

Jesus knew that He would have to submit Himself to death. That was His mission from the moment He left heaven. Here are two passages from John that relate to lifting Him up and finally killing Him:

Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. (John 3:14-15)

The Jews insisted, "We have a law, and according to that law he must die, because he claimed to be the Son of God." (John 19:7)

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 to the LORD, "O LORD, please do not let us die for taking this man's life. Do not hold us accountable for killing an innocent man, for you, O LORD, have done as you pleased."

Even Pilate didn't want this blood on his hands:

When Pilate saw that he was getting nowhere, but that instead an uproar was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd. "I am innocent of this man's blood," he said. "It is your responsibility!" (Matthew 27:24)

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.

When it was over and He announced that "It is finished!", many of the people realized what they had done.

But the LORD provided a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was inside the fish three days and three nights.

This fish is a picture of dying --it's the separation from His Father. He was engulfed in the depths of the sea with waves and breakers crashing over His head.

Jesus used the analogy of the fish when talking to Peter and Andrew. He told them that they would be fishers of men. They were going to pull lost people out of the sea of death and into the ship of life.

Chapter Two - Death, Burial and Resurrection

While he was inside the fish --the depths of the grave-- Jonah called out and the Lord answered him.

With this being a parallel to what Jesus went through, we can have an insight to His prayer from the grave while He was experiencing the death we don't have to.

"You hurled me into the deep, into the very heart of the seas, and the currents swirled about me; all your waves and breakers swept over me."

He says "You hurled me ..." The source of His punishment is clear. It was not from men; it was from His heavenly Father. He suffered the punishment that each one of us deserve for our own sins; He suffered the wrath of His Father for the sins of the whole world.

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21)

I said, 'I have been banished from your sight; yet I will look again toward your holy temple.'

Although He was banished --cast out from His Father's presence-- He knew who His hope was because He said, "I will look again toward your holy temple."

The engulfing waters threatened me, the deep surrounded me; seaweed was wrapped around my head.

Take a look at how this passage parallels the description of Jesus' burial clothes --even the cloth that had been wrapped around His head.

Then Simon Peter, who was behind him, arrived and went into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus' head. The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen. (John 20:6-7)

To the roots of the mountains I sank down; the earth beneath barred me in forever. But you brought my life up from the pit, O LORD my God. "When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, LORD, and my prayer rose to you, to your holy temple."

From the grave, with all of its immense crushing punishment, He foresaw His resurrection. His complete trust was in His Father.

"Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs.

Those who live by faith in the Lord's grace and mercy can look forward to what this passage in Colossians has to say about how we also will be raised from the dead:

... having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead. (Colossians 2:12)

The rest will forfeit that grace and remain dead in their sins:

Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son. (John 3:18)

But I, with a song of thanksgiving, will sacrifice to you. What I have vowed I will make good. Salvation comes from the LORD."

Romans 10:9-10 says that we are saved when we believe in our heart and confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord. In the same way, Jesus was speaking to His Father. First, there was thanksgiving in His heart; and it was followed by a confession of faith in His Father.

And the LORD commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.

He was raised from the dead, but He did not return to His previous earthly life (on the sea in a ship). Like Noah --who landed on dry ground after his time on the Ark-- and like Joshua --who crossed the Jordan river to the promised land; Jesus was placed on dry land where He would never have to suffer death again.

Here's just a bit of trivia related to these foreshadows: In Revelation 21:1, we are told that there will be no seas --no life of troubles and no death-- on the New Earth.

Chapter Three - Preaching to the Dead

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.

The Word was giving a warning that unless there was a serious change, the people would be destroyed. In order to be the Savior of those people in Paradise, Jesus had to first take on the body and live the life of a man. This second time the Word came, He preached it directly to those in Paradise.

Now Nineveh was a very important city-- a visit required three days.

Those people in Paradise --the Old Testament saints-- were extremely dear to His heart. The three days He spent in the Paradise (Nineveh) is another view into the same three days in the grave (belly of the fish).

For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit, through whom also he went and preached to the spirits in prison who disobeyed long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water (1 Peter 3:18-20)

On the first day, Jonah started into the city. He proclaimed: "Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned."

Forty days after Jesus' death was the greatest change for mankind since the days in the Garden of Eden. It was Pentecost. At that time, God turned the world upside-down. He changed the entire system for approaching Him. There was a change in the Priesthood and the Law. There would be no need for sacrificial offerings --His was sufficient! He made a kingdom of priests out of everyone who believes in His Son so that there would never need to be men over others anymore. God came into and dwelled within men as His temple; they no longer had to come to Him in His temple.

The Ninevites believed God. They declared a fast, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth. When the news 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.

Like the king, each and every person in Paradise humbled himself. Neither the best, nor the worst of any person's actions or attitudes, counts as having any lasting value.

The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. (Galatians 5:6)

Then he issued a proclamation in Nineveh: "By the decree of the king and his nobles: Do not let any man or beast, herd or flock, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink. But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence.

Evil is just another way to say selfishness. And it is the very opposite of humility! When the people humbled themselves, they were confessing that only God was good.

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 had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction he had threatened.

This describes what propitiation is about. (Some translations call it atonement.) It is when God's wrath was turned aside. It was headed straight for us and coming with full force, but He turned it aside and laid it fully upon His Son, Jesus.

... and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world. (I John 2:2)

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21)

Chapter Four - Remembering the Pain

But Jonah was greatly displeased and became angry. He prayed to the LORD, "O LORD, is this not what I said when I was still at home? That is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.

Could this really be a description of Jesus? Could He really have been greatly displeased and angry? Absolutely!

He took upon Himself every bit of the punishment that all of mankind deserved since the beginning of the world. And for what? They were the ones who did all that evil!

Jesus' words may well have sounded like "Dad, I know You. And I've known from the beginning that You are the God of grace and compassion; One who was patient and overflowing with love; One who avoids sending punishment if at all possible. Why did I have to go and endure such terror and pain? --Why?!"

Now, O LORD, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live." But the LORD replied, "Have you any right to be angry?"

His Father's reply was penetrating. His few words spoke volumes. Effectively, He said "Who are You to say these things? Am I not the source of authority, the One Who has made all things and then made them subject to You? Am I not the source of justice and the One Who has made You judge of all men?"

Jonah went 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.

East and west are symbols used throughout the Bible to represent the beginning and end of time. It can be seen in the way that the sun rises in the east (the beginning of the day) and sets in the west (the day's end).

From the beginning of time, Jesus has been watching what was going to happen to mankind.

Then the LORD God provided a vine and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the vine. But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the vine so that it withered.

The vine was Israel. It was a bright spot --a comfort from the chaos in the rest of the world. But when Israel was confronted with the Serpent (the Devil), it withered away. The confrontation was their choice to kill His Son rather or receive Him as their Messiah. It was at that time that the gospel was given over to the Gentiles for a time.

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."

This brings us back to His death. He knew that it was coming since the beginning of time. Remember how He agonized over it?

And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground. (Luke 22:44)

But God said to Jonah, "Do you have a right to be angry about the vine?" "I do," he said. "I am angry enough to die." But the LORD said, "You have been concerned about this vine, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. But Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about that great city?"

His words might well have carried with them, "Son, You have loved Israel --but I was the One Who gave her to You. Take a look at the bigger picture --look at all of humanity! Your bride, the church, will consist of much more than just Israel."

After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: "Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb." (Revelation 7:9-10)