Jonah the Prophet, The Time Marker for Christ Burial and Resurrection

Pod prep: Jonah The Prophet, Time Marker for the Lord’s Burial and Resurrection

Jesus gave but one sign to the evil leaders of his generation. The sign was the experience of Jonah the Prophet. It makes Jonah’s experiences of vital significance for all Christians. See Matt 12:39-40. Christ said that he would be in his grave in the ground for three days and three nights just as Jonah was in the belly of the great fish. You cannot fit the world’s accepted resurrection time frame into the time frame of the sign of Jonah. A mere two days and two nights goes beyond Sunday morning. Just two not three days does not agree with Jesus’ own words. Two Sabbaths were involved in the period, an annual high day and the weekly Sabbath. See John 19:31. This fits with a Wednesday late afternoon crucifixion as it dawns toward beginning of the annual Sabbath, which is Thursday night, the first day of Unleavened Bread. Three days and three nights brings the resurrection toward the end of the weekly Sabbath a few minutes or an hour or so prior to Saturday night. John 20:1 proves that it was dark or night when Mary came to the tomb. Christ was already gone! No Sunday morning sunrise resurrection is therefore possible. No similarity to pagan sun worship was possible either. Therefore the history of Jonah is very important to all of us. God could have gotten Jonah’s attention and spit him out of the fish in one day but He intentionally set the precedence for the Messiah at three days and three nights.

Jonah the Runaway Prophet

Jonah’s history proves you cannot run away from God. Jonah suffered a near death experience. It does not pay to try and run from God’s calling and assignments for us. It is most important that we know and understand God. He was gracious in the Old Testament as well as the New Testament. He had always been kind and gracious. Why did Jonah run away? See Jonah 4:2. When God told Jonah that He was forgiving Nineveh, Jonah was upset. He correctly knew that the Assyrian Empire was a threat to his people Israel. Jonah wanted them destroyed. Jonah did not want God to send him to warn a dangerous, violent, rival nation that was notoriously evil even to the point of skinning their enemies. He knew that the future is not set in stone. Jonah knew the prophesied destruction was for an unrepentant Nineveh. Paul said in I Cor 13:8 that prophesies can fail. The future is not set in stone.
God was determined to not let Jonah force him to send someone else. He used a terrible storm. God demanded that he go. He would not send someone else. We must follow our smaller calling as well. See Ps 139: 7-10. Jonah had to suffer before he repented and obeyed God. Being in an air pocket inside a dark, dank, smelly fish, deep under the sea was like a horrific waterborne grave. Anyone would change course. We can take the easier path and help do God’s work of warning without a hammer blow.

God is Kind Gracious and Merciful and Slow to Anger

Our future is in our hands. If we day by day live a repentant life we have a bright future AHEAD OF US. But if we live sinful and stupid lives, we have a different future. God will help us repent if we ask him, but it is up to us to ask and try. God won’t force us in to his family. Nineveh choose repentance and were spared. Jonah was possibly responsible for the conversion of over 100,000 people with one set of warning messages.
Jeremiah gave God’s warning to Israel using the potter and the clay model. God tells the nation they must repent and obey God to be a useful vessel for God has power to make or break nations like clay pots. But Judah must repent soon or the clay will harden the wrong way. Then it is worthless and must be broken. See Jeremiah 18:6-10. But the people said they would walk after their own devices and do whatever they imagined vs 12. They were then taken into captivity! No matter what America does, we individually can walk with God to the best of our ability and with the help of Christ and be in a place of safety. Jeremiah did not convert an entire nation as Jonah did. We all have our part to play whether large or small, big or small impact.

God Criticizes Jonah’s Lack of Compassion and His Misplaced Anger

Jonah has an angry, compassionless, emotional fit when he learns of Gods decision to spare them. See Jonah 4:3-4. He is not trying to manipulate God. He is so angry that he was the instrument to save Israel’s enemy that he wants to die. I believe he would not commit suicide but was willing to die by God’s hands similar to a person who commits suicide by Police in challenging an armed officer in a threatening manner. But Jonah was completely out of tune with God. Jonah should have known better for God was compassionate to him also.
We also need to learn to control our anger or it could ruin our lives. Jonah is like the Pharisees who accused Jesus of eating with sinners. See Luke 15:1, 11, 25-28. This parable of the prodigal son was told to embarrass the Pharisees and help them see their own judgmental self-righteousness. The older son in the parable who thought himself righteous was not happy at the forgiveness of the father for his wayward brother. He was angry like Pharisees and Jonah. We should rejoice at God’s mercy for anyone, even our enemies. We should rejoice when they repent. Never forget that God is gracious to us as well. See I John 1:6, 8-10.
Postscript: ISIS blew up Jonah’s tomb recently which was in Mosul (approximate location of Nineveh). If they made a monument for Jonah, then it is probable that Jonah got over his anger and he and the people of Nineveh celebrated his saving the city.

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