Tag Archives: the sign of Jonah

LUKE’S GOSPEL…THE SIGN OF JONAH – 29b

Bible Study, ,

“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…

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

Why did Jesus classify His hearers as a “wicked generation”? What had they done to deserve this judgment? 

Represented by their religious leaders, they were wicked, not because of sin but because they refused to believe what Jesus taught them. Instead, they kept demanding a sign. Despite His obvious authority to interpret Torah as it was meant to be understood, despite the miracles He did to confirm what He taught, that is, the nature and presence God’s reign among them, they still kept refusing to believe Him without signs. 

What was the real issue? When we stand back and examine the clash between the religious leaders and their followers, and Jesus, what was it all about? 

Jesus came from heaven for several reasons, among which was to reveal the true nature of the Father, that is, the greatness of His love. He did this by what He taught and by what He did, and especially by His attitude and treatment of the people the Pharisees despised…the outcasts.  

The religious leaders were sticklers for the letter of the Law, but their “ holiness” was fake. They came down hard on those who didn’t believe and do what they did. They were an exclusive club that rejected everyone who was not on their side. Their “holiness” was for show. 

“Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: “The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. So you must be careful to do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach…Everything they do is done for people to see: They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long; they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues; they love to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces and to be called ‘Rabbi’ by others.”

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭23‬:‭1‬-‭3‬, ‭5‬-‭7‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Jesus was ruthless in His condemnation of the ones who should have been examples to the people. 

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.”

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭23‬:‭23‬-‭24‬ ‭NIV‬‬

The religious leaders clashed with Jesus because they refused to  believe Him because they refused to accept His authority. They kept demanding a sign instead of believing His word. Hence, the sign of Jonah…the story of a man who came back from inside “a great fish” to preach to sinners. The sinners believed his message, repented, and received God’s mercy… but the Pharisees and their followers did not! How much greater will be the judgment on those who refuse to believe the preaching of the Son of God than on those who believed words of the prophet. 

“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 ‭11‬:‭32‬ ‭NIV‬‬

To be continued…

LUKE’S GOSPEL…THE SGN OF JONAH – 29a

Bible Study, ,

“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…

ONLY THE JONAH-SIGN

Christian Life, ,

ONLY THE JONAH-SIGN

“The Pharisees and Sadducees came to Jesus to test Him by asking Him to show them a sign from heaven. He replied, “When evening comes, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red’, and in the morning, ‘Today it will be stormy for the sky is red and overcast.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times. A wicked and adulterous generation looks for a miraculous sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah.” Then He left them and went away.” (Matthew 16:1-4 NIV)

Jesus had yet another exchange with the Pharisees. For the umpteenth time they were on His case about signs, not because they wanted to believe in Him but because they were looking for reasons not to believe in Him.

His response was abrupt, as though He had had enough of their nonsense. “You guys know how to read the weather,” He said, “but you have no clue how to read the signs of the times. The only sign you’ll get is the Jonah-sign.” with that He turned on His heel and walked away.” (Matthew 16:4 The Message)

What is the Jonah-sign?

I used to think that the Jonah-sign was the resurrection of Jesus. Just as Jonah was in the fish’s belly for three days and three nights, so Jesus came back from the dead after three days. But then I asked myself, “What was the point of that?”

I have since come to believe that the Jonah-sign was the mercy of God. God caused Jonah to be flung into the sea and swallowed by the fish because He really wanted him to go to Nineveh to deliver His message. He could have wiped Jonah out for his disobedience but in His mercy He spared him and gave him a second chance to warn the Ninevites in case they repented.

Why did God give the people of Nineveh forty days before He rained down judgment on the city? Was it not because He was giving them time to change their minds and turn away from their wickedness? The fact that He forgave them when they repented is proof of His mercy. Jonah knew that God was merciful. That’s the reason he fled in the opposite direction because he hated Nineveh for the evil it had done to his people and wanted God to destroy them.

In the same way, God reveals His mercy to us because He sent Jesus to die and to rise again so that we can be forgiven and freed from our sins to live a new life. We do not deserve God’s rescue plan. We deserve the same justice that Nineveh did, but God, in mercy, reached out and rescued us because mercy is who He is.

But, like Nineveh, we must respond or perish, believe Him, or take the consequences.

How great is our God! How great is His mercy! (LAC)