The Gospel In The Belly of a Fish

Introduction

The Lord our God in his infinite wisdom gave compelling evidence of the coming Messiah in the pages of the Hebrew Scriptures which we call the Old Testament.

One member sent me a text stating this series has been on his mind as he read from this passage of Acts

Acts 17:2–3 (NASB95)

And according to Paul’s custom, he went to them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and giving evidence that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus whom I am proclaiming to you is the Christ.”

No doubt Paul pointed them to Genesis where the Lord Himself prophesied that the serpent would bruise the heal of the seed of the woman… the Messiah.

Perhaps he even showed them as we studied last week that in His covenant with Abram, God passed through the pieces of dead animals alone symbolizing that if Abrams people did not fulfill their end of the covenant that He would bear the punishment Himself.

This week we will see how the gospel was symbolically preached from the the belly of a sea creature, a whale, or great fish.

Meat

The book of Jonah, a four-chapter book about the prophet’s calling, is one of the Minor Prophets (referring to the short length of the book).

Last year we dedicated an entire series to the book of Jonah where we went thought by though expounding on some of the theological truths contained therein.

Today we will extract some of the gospel elements contained within the second chapter of Jonah which was the gospel for the Ninevites.

Jesus himself draws the parallels between His life and mission and that of Jonah

We learned in the first chapter that God sends Jonah to Nineveh to preach repentance. Jonah flat out refuses by booking passage on a ship going in the opposite direction of Nineveh.

God sends an unnatural storm. The experienced sailors know that this storm means divine retribution and it is discovered that Jonah is the culprit and is thrown overboard at the prophet’s suggestion that the sailors and passengers may not perish.

Jonah begins his descent into the bowels of the ocean. I would argue based on Jonah’s words and that of Jesus’ words, that Jonah drowned and even reached the ocean floor.

In an act of compassion, mercy, and to demonstrate the the gospel of Jesus Christ, Jonah’s lifeless body is scooped up from the deep by a great fish, or whale, or sea creature and transported toward Nineveh. On the third day, the prophet’s life returns to him in the belly of this sea creature and we pick up the story from here.

I know that many scholars believe that Jonah’s life was preserved as a result of being swallowed by this animal but I do not think this is the testimony of the person who lived it not it is the visual aid given by the Savior Himself.

Jonah 2:1–10 (NASB95)

1 Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the stomach of the fish,

2 and he said, “I called out of my distress to the Lord, And He answered me. I cried for help from the depth of Sheol; You heard my voice.

(He wakes up inside of an animal that by God’s design has not digested him and upon realizing that he is alive, he acknowledges that God heard his innermost thoughts as he was drowning, dying). Even the scrambled, erratic thoughts of a dying man, even drowning, which I understand it to be a gruesome experience are so completely understood by God, it is like a well articulated spoken word. )

1 Chronicles 28:9 (NASB95)

9 “As for you, my son Solomon, know the God of your father, and serve Him with a whole heart and a willing mind; for the Lord searches all hearts, and understands every intent of the thoughts. If you seek Him, He will let you find Him; but if you forsake Him, He will reject you forever.

(At any rate we see the distress that caused him to call out to the God he was initially running from). And why was he in distress?

3 “For You had cast me into the deep, Into the heart of the seas, And the current engulfed me. All Your breakers and billows passed over me.

(Although it was by the hand of the sailors at his request that he was sinking, into the bowels of the ocean, he recognized the sovereign hand of God in all of it as the result of his disobedience).

4 “So I said, ‘I have been expelled from Your sight. Nevertheless I will look again toward Your holy temple.’

(These are the last thoughts of a man as he is facing his own demise)

5 “Water encompassed me to the point of death. The great deep engulfed me, Weeds were wrapped around my head.

( Or, I sank beneath the waves and the waters closed over me. Or, water encompassed me to my very soul the great deep surrounded me. And weeds were wrapped around my head. I do not know how much more clearer he could be that he died. I continues…

6 “I descended to the roots of the mountains. The earth with its bars was around me forever, But You have brought up my life from the pit, O Lord my God.

(pit = shahat = grave) Continuing his previous thought of while he was drowning he says,

7 “While I was fainting away, I remembered the Lord, (this was the prayer thought he had that he describes in the beginning when he says that he called out in his distress) And my prayer came to You, Into Your holy temple.

(He is saying all of this now fully conscious and awake in the belly of this creature…)

8 “Those who regard vain idols Forsake their faithfulness,

9 But I will sacrifice to You With the voice of thanksgiving. That which I have vowed I will pay. Salvation is from the Lord.”

(The Yahweh heard this too)

10 Then the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah up onto the dry land.

The people of Nineveh were wicked to the core. God tends to wait until iniquity reaches unimaginable, ridiculous, unbearable levels before judgement comes. It is what happened to Sodom… God told Abram that the sin of the Amorites had not reached that level which was why Abram could not take their land at the time, it would take several hundred years before they would reach judgement level.

Nineveh was the capital of Assyria… these people were not just wicked but they were proud of their wickedness. They would torture, dismemberment, burn alive, and shame their victims before, during, and after they were dead. It was like a nation of serial killers. But none of them was running.

Why would the rantings of an insignificant, halfway digested, stinking to the core considering where he spent the last three days Jew make a difference? Why would they listen to the degree that they did? Not a couple of people but all of them in the thousands including the leaders repented.

Jonah 3:5–8 (NASB95)

5 Then the people of Nineveh believed in God; and they called a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least of them.

6 When the word reached the king of Nineveh, he arose from his throne, laid aside his robe from him, covered himself with sackcloth and sat on the ashes.

7 He issued a proclamation and it said, “In Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles: Do not let man, beast, herd, or flock taste a thing. Do not let them eat or drink water.

8 “But both man and beast must be covered with sackcloth; and let men call on God earnestly that each may turn from his wicked way and from the violence which is in his hands.

This is extreme… everyone repented even the animals were forced to fast.

What kind of super sermon was this that everyone was fully persuaded. Not like the book of Acts where it says that many believed.. this is everybody.

I’ve heard Billy Graham, Vodie Bacham, Johm MacArtur, Phil Tuttle… I’ve read some of Johnathan Edwards, John Calvin, Martin Luther’s sermon. We have all read Peter’s magnificent sermon in Acts, and even Jesus’s Sermon on the mount.

There have most definitely been more gifted, theologically prepared, more importantly whole hardily willing preachers in all of history, none with this track record. What did he have at the the others did not have? He had the sign. Not a sign but the sign.

750-790 years later Jesus is preaching in well in the scene preaching repentance as the kingdom of God is here.

Jesus was performing miracle after miracle each one more astonishing than the last and yet they still did not believe

John 10:37–38 (NASB95)

37 “If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me;

38 but if I do them, though you do not believe Me, believe the works, so that you may know and understand that the Father is in Me, and I in the Father.”

In other words, see the stuff. The lame walk, the blind see, and dead people come back to life… look at the work and the signs and believe.

Matthew 12:38–40 (NASB95)

38 Then some of the scribes and Pharisees said to Him, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from You.”

39 But He answered and said to them, “An evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign; and yet no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet;

40 for just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

That was the sign. That was what gave Jonah an audience and credibility. I was dead for three days in the belly of a fish, God brought me back so I could give you a warning. The fact that I came back from the dead is my authentication as a credible witness. This is all it took for thousands of people to believe.

In other words, Jesus is saying Jonah is this puny little guy I created made him a little dead for a few days, brought him back to life and that was enough to convince thousands.

Here I stand, master creator, no one takes my life but I lay it down when I want to and pick it back up when I want to.

In fact, I am telling you before hand that I am going to die, how I am going to die, how long I am going to stay dead, and the day in which I will get right out of that grave. After that I don’t even want to hear it.

But like it says on the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, and unlike Nineveh, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead… Thats why Jesus says,

Matthew 12:41 (NASB95)

41 “The men of Nineveh will stand up with this generation at the judgment, and will condemn it because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.