Subject: The Resurrection / Easter
JONAH – FORESHADOWING THE RESURRECTION

Question: If the Old Testament Book of Jonah weren’t true, why does Satan work so hard to discredit it? What is it about this book that Satan hates? What prophetic truth does Satan strive to conceal? If not true, why is Satan so eager to muddy Jonah’s waters?

So…DID Jonah get swallowed by a great ‘fish’ and live to tell about it or is Jonah’s ‘fish tale’ mere fiction, or at best, a parable or an allegory? As the ‘Jonah debate’ rages on, Satan celebrates!

Again, why is Satan so interested in destroying the truthfulness of The Book of Jonah? Simply stated, Satan abhors the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and he will do anything to leave Jesus in the tomb, and everything to prevent the Gospel from being heard! But what does Jonah’s harrowing experience have to do with the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus (I Corinthians 15:1-4)?

The answer is found in Matthew 12:39-40. “…An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas: For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three day and three nights in the heart of the earth.” These words were spoken by JESUS HIMSELF in reply to the Pharisees who had asked for a sign as to His true Messiahship. Jonah WAS that sign! (Matthew 16:1,4)

Jesus knew that Jonah was an actual prophet (II Kings 14:25); a real person who lived in Israel in the 8^th century B.C. Jesus knew that Jonah had been swallowed by a ‘whale’; that Jonah had withstood three days and nights in the creature’s belly, had been ‘resurrected’ from the deep and went on to preach at Nineveh (Matthew 12:41; Luke 11:29-30). Accepting Jonah’s experience as literal and accurate, Jesus compared His impending death and resurrection to Jonah’s miracle! Is it any wonder Satan detests the Book of Jonah?

Is it any wonder that Satan will employ any method by which to obscure the words of Jesus? Is it any wonder that Satan attempts to ply our minds with the so-called ‘impossibilities’ of Jonah? If we aren’t careful, Satan will lead us away from Jesus’ prophetic words, and doubt will set in.

We will question the sovereignty of God as we shake our heads at the impossibility of a man-swallowing fish. Instead of recognizing that “All things were made by him (God); and without him was not anything made that was made” (John 1:3), we dismiss God’s control over the storm, His ability to prepare a ‘fish’, a rapidly growing gourd and a gluttonous worm at just the right time!

We will ignore God’s mercy! “For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the lord shall be saved.” (Romans 10:12-13) Because the Lord is no respecter of persons (Acts 10:34), Jonah was called by God to preach repentance to the sadistically brutal Assyrians of Nineveh. (I Timothy 2:4)

We will ignore the Lord’s selfless sacrifice! Admitting that the violent storm was the result of his disobedience, Jonah offered up his life to save those around him. (Jonah 1:4-15) What a magnificent typology of Jesus Christ! Jesus WILLINGLY surrendered His life (crucified) so that we might obtain eternal salvation. (I Peter 2:24)

We will lose sight of Jesus’ victory! Jonah was entombed in the stifling heat of the fish’s belly for three days. Yet, on the third day, by the grace of God, he was spit-out onto dry land; ‘resurrected’ from the sea creature’s belly. Jesus was taken down from the cross and buried in a tomb. Three days and three nights He was in the heart of the earth. (Matthew 12: 40) On the third day, JESUS AROSE. He was resurrected! (Mark 16:9-20; Luke 24:13-53) Jesus was victorious over death!

Praise the Lord, the sign of Jonah was fulfilled, and tomorrow as we celebrate Resurrection Sunday (Easter), Satan will seethe! Wanting Easter to be nothing more than a holiday represented by colorful eggs, baskets of candy and a cartoonish bunny, Satan detests that many of us grasp the truth surrounding this holiday; the truth that is celebrated by praising God for the empty tomb – eternal salvation!

That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.” (Romans 10:9)