When Jesus wished to impress upon the Scribes and Pharisees the fact of His coming death and resurrection, He brought to their attention a miracle in the Old Testament that occurred in the Sea. The were incessantly stalking Him in pretense of honest inquiry. "Master, we would see a sign from Thee," they said. Were they ignorant of the many sign miracles He did before their very eyes? No, but unbelief had blinded them and revealed their evil hearts.

He who knew their hearts said to them, "An adulterous generation seeketh after a sign: and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas: 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. The men in Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and behold, a greater than Jonas is here" (Matt. 12:39-41).

Truly, a greater than Jonas was before them. In fact, Jonah (the same name) was a disobedient, bigoted prophet who stands in direct contrast to the Lord Jesus Christ. But it is to the event Jonah experienced that our Lord has reference. It is a miracle that has been the target of ridicule and has called out so much unbelief upon which our blessed Lord puts His credibility. He thus takes them back to their own Scriptures which they professed to believe, and draws forth an illustration from the book of Jonah as the only sign He would give them. The Lord thereby elevates the authority of the Inspired Word even above His works of power as a sign of His Person and Mission. It is much like what was told the rich man who died and found himself in hades, in torment: "If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead (Luke 16:37).

Jonah boarded a ship bound for Tarshish (Spain) to flee from the presence of the Lord and in the direct course away from Nineveh where he was told to go. The Lord sent a mighty tempest that threatened to break the ship in two. The heathen mariners cried out in terror and finally got Jonah to tell them what they should do. Reluctantly they heeded Jonah's word to cast him into the sea. When they did, there was a great calm. The mariners feared the Lord, for Jonah had told them he was fleeing from Him, and as a result, they feared Jehovah and offered a sacrifice unto Him and made vows. See Jonah 1:16.

Jonah found himself in the belly of a great fish the Lord had prepared to swallow him up. Three days and three nights he had time to reflect upon his ways, pray to the Lord in the fish's belly, and finally cried out, "Salvation is of the Lord" (Jonah 2:9). It was then we read, "The Lord spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land" (Jonah 2:10).

The Lord's reference of this miracle to His anticipated experience of death, burial and resurrection is plain. He went into the depths of death at the commandment of His Father. Surely, He could say, "All Thy billows and waves passed over Me" (2:3 and Psalm 42:7). And as Jonah said, "I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the Lord, and He heard me" (2:2), so of the Lord we read in Hebrews 5:7, "He offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto Him that was able to save Him out of death, and was heard in that He feared."

By His death He paid the penalty of sin and made atonement for all. He cried, "It is finished," bowed His head and voluntarily died. Loving hands took His precious body from the cross and laid it in Joseph's own new tomb. Now any part of a day in Jewish reckoning constituted a day and a night. Hence, the Lord's entombment on Friday afternoon, all day Saturday (the Sabbath) and the first part of the first day of the week (our Lord's day) formed the three days and three nights. Then very early on the first day of the week, He came forth bodily from the tomb unto the dry ground of resurrection, so to speak, from the heart of the earth.

The waters of death He endured, and accomplished redemption; by His burial, His death could not be disputed; His resurrection was witness to God's complete satisfaction and formed the bass for the Good News of His salvation for sinful men.

Jonah went to Nineveh after his experience and preached so that the Ninevites all repented and God spared them from judgment. Since our Lord's death, burial and resurrection, the Gospel based on those three facts has gone out to multitudes of Jews and Gentiles alike who upon hearing, have, like the Ninevites, repented of their sins, believed the Gospel and been saved from eternal judgment.

Alas, the Scribes and Pharisees, and the mere religious professors of our day, have not heeded the Sign of the Prophet Jonah. But it still stands as the sign of God's only way of salvation. Truly, as Jonah cried, "SALVATION IS OF THE LORD." Has my reader given heed to this sign?