While he was inside the fish –the depths of the grave– Jonah called out and the Lord answered him. (Jonah 2:1)
With this being a parallel to what Jesus went through, we can have an insight to His prayer from the grave. He was experiencing the death that we don’t have to –the second death.
“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.” (Jonah 2:3)
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.’ (Jonah 2:4)
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. (Jonah 2:5)
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.” (Jonah 2:6-7)
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. (Jonah 2:8)
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.” (Jonah 2:9)
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. (Jonah 2:10)
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.
