“And the LORD spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land” (Jonah 2:10).
Jesus knew that he would overcome death (cf. Luke 18:31–33; 24:45–47), and Jonah served as an illustration, or “type.”
Jesus said, “An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonah: for as Jonah 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” (Matthew 12:39,40). Jonah was “vomited out . . . upon the dry land,” as our text says, and Jesus came forth from the mouth of a tomb.
Scoffers deny the reality of Jonah’s remarkable deliverance and Jesus’ triumphant resurrection. At the same time, they affirm that all the complexity of life and the order of the universe came into being without governance or design.
Jonah, as a type of the greatest prophet, was sent on a vital mission. So was the Lord Jesus (cf. John 3:16). Each preached repentance, and each prayed in distress (Jonah 2 and Mark 14:32–39). Jonah was displeased with God’s compassion toward his enemies. The Lord Jesus, however, became the embodiment of God’s compassion toward us. The lesser prophet was concerned for a mere, physical vine (Jonah 4:8,9), but the Lord of glory was concerned for people who could not “discern between their right hand and their left hand” (Jonah 4:11). His aim was and is to engraft people into the true vine, Himself (John 15:1). Great was, and is, His love for people!
Nineveh repented at the preaching of the lesser prophet, and Jonah had no rest until he rested in the Lord’s will. The Lord Jesus, however, calls to us, “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). PGH
