SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/28/2025 8:07 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-3 “Jonah’s Detainment”
Bible Reading and Meditation Reference: Jonah 1:17
Message of the verse: “And Yahweh appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the stomach of the fish three days and three nights.”
I want to continue to look at this very important verse found in the book of Jonah, which is actually the last verse in the first chapter of Jonah.
I have to think that Jonah was at the point in his mixed up life to actually want to end it rather than to go and preach to the Ninevites, and so what else could he have been thinking when he told those sailors to through him into the storm tossed sea? However God had much more for him in fulfilling the original mission. The prophet who repeatedly went down to escape from God (Jonah 1:3, 5) now found himself in the darkest depts. of the sea, imprisoned in the stomach of the fish (cf. 2 Sam. 20:10; Isa. 16:11; 63:15; Jer. 4:19; Ezek 3:3). Stomach is not the typical Hebrew term for the human digestive organ (cf. Jonah 2:2) but a word that often refers to the womb of a woman (cf. Gen 25:23; Num. 5:22; Isa. 49:1). God brought Jonah to this low place not only to discipline him, but also to show him compassion by bringing him to repentance and granting him another opportunity to obey.
“Now this unique preservation miracle lasted three days and three nights. The expression does not mean the length of time was exactly seventy-two hours, but that it was a general period of time that touched three separate days (cf. Esth. 4:16; 5:1). This phrase was idiomatic and often associated with death and even resurrection. In ancient Near Eastern culture, a deceased person was not officially considered dead until the third day. This is why Jesus waited for Lazarus to be in the tomb four days before raising him from the dead (John 11:17); and this is why Hosea declared that God ‘will raise us [Israel] up on the third day’ (Hos. 6:2). To raise someone on or after the third day was to demonstrate undeniable power over death. In like manner, Jonah was hidden away in the fish for three days and yet he lived. Though the prophet did not die in the belly of the fish (cf. Jonah 2:7), his experience served to illustrate God’s sovereign power over death (cf. Hos. 13:14; 1 Cor. 15:55), and His ability to deliver those whom He chooses to save.
“Jonah’s detainment in the great fish, and his subsequent deliverance, served to authenticate his ministry to the Ninevites. Located right by the Tigris River, evidence suggests that the name Nineveh was associated with the Sumerian word for ‘fish’ and with the river-goddess Nina (see ‘Historical Context’ in the Introduction). The Lord providentially arranged for a man spewed out by a fish to bring His truth to the idolatrous worshipers of a demonic fish-god. When they heard Jonah’s incredible story—that the God whom he served rescued him from the stomach of a great fish—the Ninevites would have paid close attention to his message. The reluctant prophet had done all he could to prevent the Gentiles from hearing the divine call to repentance, but Yahweh turned Jonah’s efforts on their head, orchestrating everything he experienced to prepare the Ninevites to receive the truth.
“Jonah’s deliverance was so powerful that Christ appealed to it to validate His ministry, calling it ‘the sign of Jonah’ (Matt. 12:39). Just as God miraculously rescued Jonah from certain death to confirm him as a prophet, so God miraculously raised Jesus from actual death to confirm Him as the Messiah (Matt. 12:40). Yahweh’s powerful work in Jonah’s life not only served as a sign to the Ninevites but also pointed to the resurrection of Christ on the third day. God used Jonah, despite the prophet’s resistance, to put His sovereign grace on display. Bu delivering Jonah after three days in the depts., and subsequently sending him to fulfill his mission to Nineveh, Yahweh demonstrated His compassionate commitment to save the lost, whether Jew or Gentile.”
I have to say that I learned a lot of things from John MacArthur writings in this SD this morning, and it is my prayer that those who read this will too.
9/28/2025 8:35 AM
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