Jonah: Finding Jesus in Jonah [Bible Study]

Jonah 2:1-6

Let us look at the part in Jonah that everyone knows, but approach it with some extra care for what we are reading. Today you will see that this chapter also foreshadows the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. 

Something we must always keep in mind while reading the Bible, new or old testament, is that it points to Jesus. The book of Jonah has many aspects that point to Christ, but chapter 2 definitely does this the most. Jonah 2 is the heart of Jonah. This is the chapter everyone thinks of when they think of Jonah. He is inside the whale, everyone knows this part of the story. But how often do we stop and think about what is really being said? When we look for Jesus on every page we read, we can see that Jonah chapter 2 has its immediate context, that is Jonah trapped inside the belly of a whale, but we also see beautiful and poetic symbolism of Jesus Christ. 

We left off last time with Jonah being tossed overboard and being swallowed by a whale that God prepared for him. Now we open our eyes and we look for imagery that points us to Jesus. Looking for Jesus in Jonah?!  How could the bad example of Jonah possibly remind us of Jesus? Jonah is everything we don’t want to be, and Jesus is everything we want to be, how does this make any sense? Well, first off when any of us are compared to Jesus Christ none of us even come close to the mark that Jesus meets. We all fall short. He is so out of our playing field. 

The difference between me and Jonah may allow me to think highly of myself and pat myself on the back. The difference between a common criminal and a hard working husband and father taking his family to church on Sunday may be pretty noticeable on a human level. It’s fairly straightforward to see the difference between someone who cooks meth in an abandoned RV and a mom who homeschools her children and prays with them before bedtime. But this comparison is so minuscule when you start comparing all of us to Jesus. 

Compared to the perfect Lamb of God, that difference between humans becomes laughable, not even worth mentioning. So that being said, although we find that every character in the Bible “bad” or “good” comes nowhere near the righteousness of God, some of these characters point to Christ regardless. There are places in the Bible that picture Jesus that do not quite make sense to us at a first glance, the brazen serpent in the wilderness is one of them. How can a serpent represent a sinless Christ? Samson is another character you can identify with, but would never actually strive to be like, yet he as well has aspects that certainly point to Jesus. And while Jonah, the disobedient, unrepentant and lousy servant of God sits in the belly of the whale, he too pictures Christ. 

 There is some amazing foreshadowing about Jesus in Jonah chapter 2, a lot in which we don't have enough time for right now. We are going to gloss over a few things but we will revisit those ideas in the future.

Let's get into it.  

1.The Death of Jesus

Jonah 2:1-4

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.

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.

Look at the first part of V4. “I am cast out of thy sight”. Jonah deserved this. None of us deserve to be in the presence of God, because we are sinful people. Before the fall of man and before they were driven out, Adam and Eve were in the garden of Eden with God. One day we will have this perfect fellowship with God again. One day things will be restored back to the state in which Eden was. Until then, we have a separation from God called “sin”. 

 Jesus, however, is perfect and holy and has no sin, and yet he was cast out of God’s presence. Look at this scripture:

Matthew 27:46

 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

Our sin separates us from God. Jesus took our sins upon Himself, and was forsaken by God. Not only did Jesus leave heaven and the presence of the Father to come live in a wicked, sinful place, but He actually took our punishment on the cross, and satisfied God's wrath against sin. He allowed Himself to be cast out of God’s sight. He went to the cross and died willingly. When it comes to finding Jesus in the  old testament you would be hard pressed to find a better passage than Isaiah 53. This passage perfectly fits the context of what we are looking at right now. Jesus was perfect and yet took our sins upon Himself, and God took His wrath out on Jesus instead of us. 

Isaiah 53:1-12

1. Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?

2 For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.

3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

4 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.

5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.

6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.

7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.

8 He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.

9 And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.

10 Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.

11 He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.

12 Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

Amazing prophecy of Jesus! So much good stuff. He was wounded for OUR transgressions. Not his own, he had none! 

It pleased the LORD to bruise him. This might be difficult for someone to grasp, and at face value it sort of is. I mean, God was happy to kill His son? Why is that? It is because through Christ we can be reconciled and have peace with God! THAT is how much God loves you. Really let that sink down into your heart. He didn't just tolerate his perfect sinless son dying, He was pleased by it…because through that suffering and heartache He can have a relationship with you. 

You say “It's not fair!” and I am in total agreement with you, it is not fair. Jesus died for a world that hated him, and still hates him. He is perfect and Holy, and yet for our offenses, He is cast out of God’s sight, like Jonah was. We get to benefit at the expenses of what Jesus went through for us. He was cast out of the sight of His Father. 

We see how Jonah 2 foreshadows the death of Christ, let us continue looking for Jesus in this chapter….

2. The Burial of Jesus

Jonah 2:2-6

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.

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.

I specifically want to talk about verse 2 and the beginning of verse 6. The language here is beautiful and vivid, you can feel like you're in the whale with Jonah as he is suffering, But what is the bigger picture? This is a poetic foreshadowing of Jesus after the cross and before the resurrection. This is not talked about too often, but a quick search online will show you that this is a question people have. People want to know and understand what Jesus was doing or where He even was from the point of the cross to the resurrection. 

I’ve asked many people where they believed Jesus was during this time and hundreds of times I have basically got the same answer. They think Jesus was in Heaven, but that is not the case. Jesus actually went to hell. Before you tune me out, understand that is what the Bible teaches, this is not my opinion. When the Bible talks about Jesus being buried, there is more going on this statement than some might think.

Jesus himself had this to say..

Matthew 12:38-40

38 Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from thee.

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 whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

Jesus was in the heart of the earth, this may not make a very colorful Sunday school lesson but it's the truth. I do believe here that the heart of the earth is in fact referring to hell, but I don't believe he burned and suffered in hell to pay for our sins, like some people teach. I believe he went to paradise, or what is also  referred to as “Abraham's Bosom”.

The point is, Jesus said that Jonah was foreshadowing him going to the heart of the earth. Jesus is showing us that Jonah 2 is absolutely a picture and foreshadowing of the death, burial, and resurrection. 

Of course, if Christ would have stayed in hell, we would all be doomed. None of us would have any hope of ever escaping going there! If the one who didn't deserve to be there in the first place, what would be our hope? We are the sinners that actually DO deserve to be there. Thank God, that was not the case…Thank God Jesus was not in hell for long.

Acts 2:31-32

31 He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption.

32 This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses.

It doesn’t get more clear than that... in order to be left somewhere, you had to be there in the first place. We see that Jesus was not left in hell, because hell was not the end of the story. 

Which brings us to our last point..

3. The Resurrection of Jesus 

Jonah 2:6B

…yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption, O Lord my God.

It is interesting that Jonah is praying this as if it had already happened, when the story doesn't tell us until the last verse that the whale spits him out. That is similar to how Isaiah 53 is written. It’s because it's a prophecy of future events. 

Not only does the Bible constantly look forward and predict many things about Jesus, but we can even find the death, burial, and resurrection. Christ was brought up after His death and burial, and we have that same hope through Him! 

1 Corinthians 15:1-4

Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand;

2 By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.

3 For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;

4 And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:

1 Corinthians 15:12-17

12 Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?

13 But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen:

14 And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.

15 Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not.

16 For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised:

17 And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.

If Christ had not risen then none of us would have any hope at all. If the perfect Son of God, who never sinned once, never deserved to die and go to hell…could not escape hell,  how could a sinner like us escape? IF He wouldn't have risen, that would mean that death and hell had victory over Him. If it had victory over Him, then it would have victory over us. Plain and simple. And all our faith, all our hope in better things to come, would all mean nothing. All of our faith and hope is in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. Because He lives, so can we. Although our body will waste away in the earth someday, we will rise again! WE have victory over death and hell through the finished work of Jesus! 

From various truths about Him, to His death, burial and resurrection like we see here in Jonah 2,the whole entire Bible points to Jesus. He is the star. We tend to make everything about ourselves, and it’s fair to use the Bible to help you in life, and use the stories to apply to your own life, but we cannot lose sight of the fact that it all points to Him. As you read through your Bible I challenge you to keep your eyes peeled,and lookout for ways that the text you are currently reading can ultimately point to Jesus. 

If you are not sure that you are going to heaven, please get this settled today by clicking here: How to Go to Heaven.

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