posted on Apr, 21 2012 @ 07:49 AM
Here's what Jonahs story means:
The story of Jonah is probably the most popular story in the Bible, and also the most misunderstood in regard to the facts of the story. Millions of
Christians tell the popular story of how Jonah survived three days in the belly of a great whale. Unfortunately, the story of Jonah has been told from
memory so long that few people have ever actually read the Bible story carefully to understand the facts of the story.
The facts of the story are very simple. Jonah was commanded by God to go to the city of Nineveh and preach judgment, but Jonah ran away from God
instead, and booked passage on a ship to Tarshish—an unknown city in the Mediterranean Sea. On the voyage to Tarshish, God caused a great storm on
the Mediterranean Sea that caused Jonah to be cast into the sea. According to the Biblical text, Jonah drowned and even had seaweed wrapped around his
head at the bottom of the sea. Yes, Jonah died in the sea! This is not only a rational and logical conclusion but a solid fact, for the Bible states
unequivocally that Jonah died and descended into Sheol at the bottom of the mountains—NOT THE SEA. Sheol is the abode of the dead. The following
Scripture passage confirms this sequence of events:
(Jonah 2:3-6 KJV) (3) For thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas; and the floods compassed me about: all thy billows and thy waves
passed over me. (4) Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight; yet I will look again toward thy holy temple. (5) The waters compassed me about, even to
the soul: the depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head. (6) I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her
bars was about me for ever: yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption, O LORD my God.
Verse 5 above emphatically states that the waves surrounded him and even took his life (i.e., soul) as he was in the abyss of the sea. Verse 6 clearly
states that Jonah went down to Sheol at the “bottoms of the mountains” and the bars of the earth closed around him forever. JONAH WAS DEAD!
The following two verses provide some very significant details to the story:
(Jonah 2:1-2 KJV) (1) Then Jonah prayed unto the LORD his God out of the fish's belly, (2) And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the
LORD, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice.
It is very important to note that verse 1 has Jonah praying to God from the belly of the fish. This is after the three days that Jonah spent in Sheol,
and Jonah has been resurrected in the fish’s belly. In Jonah’s prayer after three days, he relates in verse 2 how he cried out to God from the
belly of Sheol (translated “hell”) because of his affliction, and God heard his prayer. Jonah states in the last part of verse 2:6 above “yet
hast thou brought up my life from corruption, O LORD my God”. This is an explicit statement that God brought Jonah back to life from
“corruption”. The Hebrew word for “corruption” means the grave or the pit. God brought Jonah back from death.
The following passage of Scripture in Jonah is highly significant, for it shows that Jonah repented of his disobedience just before he fell
unconscious and died:
(Jonah 2:7-10 NASB) (7) "While I was fainting away, I remembered the LORD; And my prayer came to Thee, Into Thy holy temple. (8) "Those who regard
vain idols Forsake their faithfulness, (9) But I will sacrifice to Thee With the voice of thanksgiving. That which I have vowed I will pay. Salvation
is from the LORD."
If it were not for Jonah’s prayer in Jonah 2:2-9, we would not know for sure that Jonah had died in the sea and descended into Sheol at the foot of
the mountains. We would also not know that Jonah repented of his unfaithfulness just before he died. God heard Jonah’s cries up from Sheol and
brought him up from the grave in the fish’s belly. At the end of Jonah’s prayer from inside the fish, God causes the fish to vomit Jonah up upon
dry land.
The true Biblical facts about Jonah’s death, burial and resurrection point to an important sequence of events in the New Testament. Jonah dies
because of sin, and his spirit descends into Abraham’s bosom in Sheol, where it remains for three days and three nights. His body is entombed in the
grave of the great fish’s belly for the same three days and three nights. After three days and three nights, Jonah is resurrected inside the tomb,
and he promptly exits the tomb when the jaws of the great fish are miraculously opened.
This true story from the Old Testament clearly portrays the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Jesus himself even confirms the story of
the death, burial and resurrection of Jonah in the following Scripture:
(Mat 12:39-41 KJV) (39) But he answered and said unto them, 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: (40) For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the