“As the crowds increased, Jesus said, “This is a wicked generation. It asks for a sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah. For as Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites, so also will the Son of Man be to this generation. The Queen of the South will rise at the judgment with the people of this generation and condemn them, for she came from the ends of the earth to listen to Solomon’s wisdom; and now something greater than Solomon is here. The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and now something greater than Jonah is here.”

‭‭Luke‬ ‭11‬:‭29‬-‭32‬ ‭NIV‬‬

The sign of Jonah…what was it? 

The Old and New Testaments are inextricably stitched together in a variety of ways…but one continuous story of God’s dealings with humans. One way is by prophecy and fulfilment, another way by “signs” that illustrate and point to spiritual truth. 

Jesus called Jonah’s harrowing experience on the ocean a “sign”. We must first ask, “What happened?” and then, “To what does it point?”

What happened? This is a familiar “Sunday School” story. Every child raised on the Word knows what happened. Jonah received an instruction from God, refused to obey it, and fled in the opposite direction. God sent a violent storm which exposed his disobedience and led to his being thrown off the boat. God also rescued him through the intervention of a very large, unidentified sea creature, and repeated the instruction which Jonah reluctantly obeyed. 

Jonah went to Nineveh, the Assyrian capital, preached judgment for forty days and watched in horror as the people repented…and God forgave them, …from the king down, just as he anticipated would happen. As he sat outside the city, watching and sulking because of God’s mercy, God asked him a question he could not answer…

“And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?””

‭‭Jonah‬ ‭4‬:‭11‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Who were the people on whom God was willing to show mercy if they repented of their wickedness? These were the same people who later ruthlessly invaded Israel and carried its citizens into exile so that they were “lost” in the Gentile nations…AND GOD KNEW IT WOULD HAPPEN!

At the moment when God sent Jonah, He saw the Assyrians, wicked as they were, not as enemies but as people needing mercy. 

Jesus Himself gives us a clue to the meaning of the sign…according to Matthew, 

“For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now something greater than Jonah is here.”

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭12‬:‭40‬-‭41‬ ‭NIV‬‬

“The “sign of Jonah” refers to Jesus’s foreshadowing of his own death, burial for three days, and resurrection, just as Jonah was in the belly of a great fish for three days before being delivered. Jesus presented this as the only sign for the unbelieving Pharisees, pointing to his resurrection as proof of his identity, a sign that points to transformation and repentance, much like the Ninevites‘ response to Jonah’s preaching.” (Source: Google AI)

We must understand the meaning of the sign of Jonah in the whole context of the story. The core is the comparison between Jonah’s “burial” inside the fish and Jesus’ burial in the earth. There are some similarities except that Jonah didn’t really die while Jesus did die. Jonah was figuratively “resurrected” from the belly of the fish while he was still alive, but Jesus was actually dead and resurrected from a burial tomb. 

However, the literal facts lead on to an actual spiritual reality. God’s judgment didn’t fall on Nineveh because the people repented. He withheld His judgment because of His mercy. The comparison leads on to a contrast…Nineveh, a wicked Gentile city, repented but the people Jesus addressed, God’s own people, stubbornly refused to listen to Him and repent. He warned of coming judgment because of their unbelief. 

The sign of Jonah, pointing to the death and resurrection of Jesus, has entwined in it both the offer of God’s mercy…freely available to all who repent, both Jew and Gentile, and the warning of coming judgment on those who refuse His mercy, even if they are His own people. 

As Paul concluded…

“For God has bound everyone over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all.”

‭‭Romans‬ ‭11‬:‭32‬ ‭NIV‬‬

We must never forget that the heart of the Jonah-sign is more than just the stories. The sign includes a mercy so great that it is ready to forgive the most heinous of the sin of the most wicked of people because of the death, three days in the grave, and resurrection of the Son of God. 

To be continued…