How is it possible that manyi Ghristians believe the Christmas story and the Easter story, but laughingly reject the story of Jonah? In fact, Jonah has become a colorful children’s story, and is treated as cute entertainment. I once heard a speaker assert that there can’t be literal truth n it, as there are no whales in the Mediterranean Sea.

Jesus identified with Jonah, perhaps more than with any other Old Testament person. In telling his people his identity, Jesus called on Jonah: As Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites, so also will the Son of Man be to this generation.. . . “The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment of this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now something greater than Jonah is here.” (Luke 11:30 &32) In spite of all his miracles and healings and teachings, only a handful of people believed that Jesus was the one promised by God, the very son of God. Jesus clearly expected his followers to believe in the story of Jonah, in order to believe in him, Jesus, and to compare Jonah to his own future death and resurrection. Jonah’s story was not a parable on Jesus’ lips, but a direct comparison of himself with the prophet Jonah. If Jesus did not believe in Jonah’s story he certainly expected his own followers to believe it, and connected his own identity to that of Jonah.

In Jesus’ words, the whale was not the main character in Jonah’s story, but the whole population of Nineveh was. God knew that the king as well as the people of Nineveh were capable of actually repenting of their sins, and He sent Jonah for than very purpose. It was a rare moment in a nation’s history, and it would last for more than four generations. It was priceless in God’s economy to bring the spirit of repentance in the belief of a holy God to an entire city. God wanted Jonah to experience the stakes and to know God’s heart for His people; that above and beneath all God’s actions was an inexhaustible love for His creation. From the belly of the “fish” Jonah prayed: “When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, Lord, and my prayer rose to you, to your holy temple. . . I, with shouts of grateful praise, will sacrifice to you. What I have vowed I will make good. I will say, ‘Salvation comes from the Lord,’” and it vomited Jonah onto dry land. (Jonah 2:7, 10) Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection brought salvation to the whole world; Jonah’s prayer acknowledging salvation from the Lord, personal as it was, expressed the position of every soul in God’s plan for salvation. Jonah was not always willing, but he was able to be an inspiration to God’s son, who was willing.

Love in Him,

Prue