Jonah 1:17 speaks of the Lord’s appointment within His blessed sovereignty concerning His creation, and it explicitly indicates God’s control and mastery of all creation. Jonah was rescued through the instrument of a fish; freed from the terror of the depths of the sea (Jonah 2:2). He remained in the belly of Sheol for three days and three nights. Regarding the historicity of this unique and unusual event of Jonah, we must reflect on the actuality of the inerrancy of Holy Writ to rightly comprehend the reality of it being true. Indeed, the Book of Jonah, as orthodox theologians maintain, is not only historical but prophetic. Jonah was a particular character in history. May we also consider the Lord’s rescue of a drowning man; He chose to save Jonah from death. Indeed, God saves His people from the second death. The Lord bestowed His beloved mercy upon a man who sinned and offended Him. The whale was not to eat Jonah but to shield him. This action of the God of nature; the very Author of nature, provides for us a remembrance of divine mercy; indeed, to come back and repent. God orders what happens and what doesn’t happen in time for the benefit of His beloved elect and for His precious and blessed glory of Himself alone.
Jesus Himself spoke of Jonah’s story in the divine Scriptures (Matt. 12:38-41; Luke 11:29-32), thus indicating the narrative as actual history. Contrary to understanding, the Book of Jonah is hardly a parable. The immaculate Incarnate Savior comprehended the story of Jonah as a narrative grounded in historical actuality. The fundamental denial of the Book of Jonah is presumptuous reasoning concerning God’s sovereignty in creation and in time. God assuredly has the ability to divinely intervene. The communication of Jesus in the New Testament regarding the story of Jonah was to speak God’s truth. The Book of Jonah was spoken of by Jesus Himself to illustrate divine truths concerning His blessed message and mission. Jesus Himself spoke of the sign of Jonah. This sign was directed to the three days and three nights and the efficient proclamation of God’s message. Concerning the three days and three nights of Jonah’s experience, is meant to be, a certain type of the Lord Jesus Christ, sufficiently foreshadowing His actual death, burial and bodily resurrection. Thus, the sinless Christ proclaimed, “For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matt. 12:40 NKJV). The burial of Jonah was a figure of the burial of Jesus Christ. As God appointed the grave of Jonah, so He appointed His Beloved Son. The grave of Jonah was certainly new; so too, the tomb of the Father’s Son. As Jonah brought repentance to Nineveh, Christ brought repentance to the world of Jewish and Gentile people. Unlike Jonah, Christ directed helpless sinners to Himself as the only way to His Blessed Father.
