1:1 “Go!”
Chapter One

The little book of Jonah portrays for us one aspect of Christ which appears to have been overlooked by the church. Our Lord Jesus Himself said that Jonah was the sign of the Son of Man. “An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign,” Jesus said, “and there shall be no sign given unto it save the sign of the prophet Jonah.” The story of Jonah and the whale is one of the very well-known stories in scripture, yet the book of Jonah is little read and too often neglected, though it can be read through in its entirety in a matter of only a few minutes. We propose here to study it chapter by chapter, verse by verse, yet before beginning to look closely at the book of Jonah it should be read from beginning to end, for memory alone may play us false. We may think we already know the story of Jonah and the whale, but do we know the story of Jonah and the gourd, or even of Jonah and the city of Nineveh? So let us first find out for ourselves what God has given us to read, and then our study of the book can be conducted with understanding. This principle applies to all the books of scripture. Before we begin detailed study of any part of scripture we should read again the entire work under consideration, for how else can we judge the value of any comment unless we know the whole sequence of events? Paul says, “Let the prophet speak and let the others judge.” How can we judge unless we have heard the prophet from beginning to end? Therefore before we judge a matter let us seek to understand it in full.

1:1

“Now the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me.”

We shall fail to grasp the meaning of the book of Jonah unless we see who Jonah was, where he came from, and what he was sent by God to do. Jonah is the son of Amittai, which means literally the son of the great or the son of the high one. Jonah, according to our Lord in the gospel account, actually was the sign given to Israel of how Christ should die and be buried. Therefore we should have no difficulty comprehending that Jonah is painting for us a big picture of Christ. Our Lord Jesus is indeed the Son of the Highest, the only begotten Son of God. Our Lord Jesus was sent by God to Israel. Nineveh represents Israel in this book to distinguish and confine the wickedness of that place from all other places. The heathen nations of the Gentiles were wicked, no doubt, but in an entirely different sense from Israel. Our Lord Jesus is not sent to the Gentiles but only to Israel. this we see clearly from the picture painted by Jonah. Jonah is not sent to Tarshish but to Nineveh. His instructions are brief and to the point. “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it,” and the reason is also given. He is to go nowhere else. He has no other message but “Repent.” He has no other instructions. His orders are clear, direct, to the point, and allow of no variation. The place is specified, the city is described so that he cannot plead ignorance, the message is given precisely and the reason for going is included. Jonah appears to have no other option.

1:2-3 Jonah flees to Tarshish

1:2

“But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.”

Jonah disobeyed God. We know that Christ came to Israel, preaching repentance, but what Jonah is showing us is that it is possible to disobey God. the obedience and docility of the Son of Man is in marked contrast to the disobedience and impetuousness of the prophet Jonah. Christ did not go to Athens where he might have been held in high regard by the Greeks, nor did He go to Rome which was the centre of the then civilized world, which would have been a more obvious choice, and where He could have commanded respect. Christ went directly to Israel as God had told Him to do. The picture of Jonah shows us by contrast the obedience of Christ in view of the disobedience of Jonah. Our Lord could have chosen to be born anywhere, or could have lived in any city, or could have come to any nation. But the scriptures were specific, that He should be born in Bethlehem of Judea, that He should come unto the nation of Israel, that He should appear in Jerusalem. For all His greatness He never stepped aside from the plan of God. Jonah is showing us that Christ was not a robot, but a Son who delighted in obedience. How many of us actually delight to follow God’s instructions implicitly in our lives? The example our Lord has set us is heightened when we understand that as the Son of the Highest He had free will, freedom of choice, perfect right to choose where and how He would conduct His earthly mission, and He gave up His freedom of choice, His right to choose, His own will, in order to follow implicitly the path outlined for Him by God. The obedience of Jesus is in marked contrast to our own behaviour.

1:2-3

“But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord, and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.”

If we ever wonder sometimes why God seems so remote from us, we may well consider that we are not where He would have us, we are paying the fare to have our own way, we are “with them” in a ship that is not of God’s choosing at all. Our instructions are clear. We are to preach repentance in the place God points out to us, but are we doing that? How different was our Lord Jesus Christ! He above all had the right to choose His own way, He above all had the freedom to decide His course of action, and He above all had the right to exercise fee will. He was no sinner, but perfect in holiness and righteousness. He needed no one to instruct Him, for He was wiser than Solomon. He could go anywhere, for He was before Abraham. Yet He came to do God’s will, His actions were directed by God Himself, and the very words He spoke were not His but the Father’s. Can we truly say we are following Christ? Are we at this moment where we willed to be or where God Himself put us? Do we delight in unquestioning obedience? Are we ever led by the Spirit, directed only by God, following only Jesus our Lord, or has self-will caused us to seek out another course open to us that seems to us far more favourable? Are we paying our own fare on some ship to Tarshish to avoid having to preach the message of repentance in a place we dislike? The answer to all such questions is simple. We either stand in God’s presence or we have fled from it. Each must answer for himself.

The lord sends a storm 1:4-9

1:4-5

“But the Lord sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was like to be broken.”

The sea may represent the world we live in, with its unquiet conditions, its tempestuous upsets, its stormy strifes, its multitudes of wickednesses, its angry threatening faces, its propensity for damage. God has ordered it so, and if we are fleeing from His presence in any way we will be faced with the tempests of life. Our secure hiding place seems then to be liable to fall apart under us, to split at the seams and leave us exposed to the mercy of the storm. “Then the mariners were afraid, and cried every man unto his god, and cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea, , to lighten it of them.” In a world of turmoil every man acts as he thinks best, and even material possessions become less important than life itself. “But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship; and he lay and was fast asleep.” Jonah ignores the conditions around him. Secure in the knowledge of his own salvation, he sleeps while the souls of men are in danger, ignoring their helplessness. Once again we must ask ourselves at this point if we are not following some “Don’t get involved” philosophy of our own, rather than the plan of God for our lives. Are we asleep? Secure in the knowledge of our own salvation are we going to ignore the peril of our fellowmen in the tempests of life? God has told us to preach repentance in such-and-such a place, and instead are we not following our won wills, asleep to the conditions around us, ignoring the peril of souls ready to perish? Where would we be ourselves if Christ had chosen His own freedom instead of God’s will?

1:6

“So the shipmaster came to him, and said unto him, What meanest thou, O sleeper? arise, call upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not.”

The shipmaster is he who runs the ship, the man who bears the responsibility of the ship, the man in charge. The call is to a day of prayer. Every man is required to call upon his god, in the hopes of saving the ship. Even today there is ever a call to prayer in a last hope of winning respite from the tempests of life that threaten the ship. It should awaken our conscience, if nothing else. If unbelievers call for us to pray for them, as a nation, as a community, as a group, does it not reveal their desperate straits? Who would suggest prayer except as a last resort in the contingencies of life? Is it not an open acknowledgement of a desperate need? Should it not awaken us to the peril we have been so securely ignoring? Not our peril, but their peril. We are in no danger, but they are, among whom we sleep. Their souls are in danger every hour, and in desperation the call goes out to pray, from one in authority. What do we mean by sleeping in an hour of need? They need us to pray for them, for their prayers are to false gods, but the prayer of one righteous person can change their lives. Let us listen to their appeals for prayer, and awaken to their peril, and realize that our security is selfish, our neglect is indefensible, our position is unpardonable in the light of present circumstances around us. “What meanest thou, O sleeper? arise, call upon thy God.” And God will see that we are awake, and that we realize we should not have slept while souls around us are ready to perish, and God will begin to focus their attention on us as His witnesses.

1:7

“And they said every one to his fellow, Come, and let us cast lots, that we may know for whose cause this evil is upon us. So they cast lots, and the lot fell upon Jonah.”

Men are always looking for a scapegoat, as they say, when things go wrong, and the conclusion they will come to is that the church has failed them, and more particularly that we have failed them. The lot fell upon Jonah. The finger of God will point us out as the disobedient messengers who bring trouble on ourselves, on our group, on our community and on our nation. It is an inescapable conclusion. Why is the world around us in such chaos? It is because we are asleep in it when we should be separate from it, calling upon men everywhere to repent. Our mission in life is to preach repentance and remission of sins. As long as we refuse to do what God has told us to do the chaos around us only worsens. The lot fell upon Jonah. It is the disobedient messenger who is the cause of the trouble in the world we live in, not the common people going about their daily tasks. The tempestuous conditions of life about which we grumble so much are our fault, as Jonah shows. Not their fault, our fault. Not the shipmaster’s fault, our fault. While we slept, they were trying to pray! If conditions get so bad eventually that they must look for a scapegoat, the finger of God will lead them to us. Where were we told to go? To the city. What were we to preach? Repentance. Why must we do that? Because of man’s wickedness. But are we doing that? No! Therefore God points to us and says, “There is the cause of these storms in life.”

1:8-9

“Then said they unto him, Tell us, we pray thee, for whose cause this evil is upon us; What is thine occupations? and whence comest thou? what is thy country? and of what people art thou?” “Then said they unto him, Tell us, we pray thee, for whose cause this evil is upon us?”

Well, we know the answer to that question. We are the cause of the trouble in the world, because we are disobedient messengers who refuse to do God’s will. “What is thine occupation?” Not your job, but your work! Our Lord said, “My work is to do the will of Him who sent Me.” And we claim to be following Him. “What is thine occupation?” and with what are you occupying yourself until He come? Are we preaching repentance in a sinful world or are we asleep in the ship? “And whence comest thou?” We must surely acknowledge that we are born-again sons of God, following in the footsteps on the Only-begotten One. Why then are we in this present position? These are indeed searching questions. “What is thy country?” We say we are pilgrims and strangers in the earth, going home to God, but do we act that way? “And of what people art thou?” God’s elect or man’s world? Know we not that love of the world is enmity against God? “And he said unto them, I am an Hebrew; and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry land.” Speak up, Jonah. It is a long time since we heard your testimony, since anyone heard your testimony. Are you of the faith of faithful Abraham? Do you fear God your Creator? they shouldn’t have to prise it out of you with thumb-screws. We are meant to be the messengers of God, the witnesses of Christ, carrying the words of God to a sinful world. Instead we are silent, asleep, fleeing from our duty, trying to avoid God, and reluctant to bear testimony unless closely questioned.

1:10 “Then were the men exceedingly afraid, and said unto him, Why hast thou done this? For the men knew that he fled from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them.”

We are living epistles, known and read of all men. We do not need to tell them in words that we are disobedient messengers because they will already know it. Our lives proclaim it, our position in the ship speaks volumes to them. They have only one last question for us – “why?” “Why hast thou done this?” Can we give a good answer to that? Jonah’s answer is found in chapter four, but what answer have we to give them in their peril that will make sense to them? In the ship, in the midst of their tempest, Jonah can find no answer to their query. “Why hast thou done this?” At the last judgment, when we see our contemporaries lines up to go to hell, will they look on us at the last to ask “Why hast thou done this?” If we called on them now to repent and they repented not then they will have nothing with which to reproach us, but if we are silent, asleep in the ship, disobedient to God, mute witnesses in a day of trouble, will we then be able to answer their final question? It is not enough to be saved ourselves, but we bear a responsibility to others given us by God Himself. Ezekiel says if we tell them and they repent not we have freed ourselves from their blood, but, if we forbear to speak, their blood is upon our hands. (Ezekiel 33:8-9) Can we come into the presence of God as those with blood on our hands, as disobedient messengers, as those who in life fled from our responsibility? Clearly these things should not be so.

1:11 “Then said they unto him, What shall we do unto thee, that the sea may be calm unto us? for the sea wrought and was tempestuous.”

We are taught in the New Testament that if we judge ourselves we will not be judged. Here we see that godliness is being forced upon Jonah because he had refused to do God’s will. The reverse is true. If we do God’s will there can be no occasion for any to force us into it. If we judge ourselves we will not be judged, of others or of God. It is the conditions about him that cause Jonah to take the step of faith he should have taken long before this. But we need not wait till others wake us up, till others question our faith, till others have to ask, “What must we do to you to get you to do what God told you to do in the first instance?” We can see the truth for ourselves and go and work today as our Father wanted us to do rather than wait to be forced into it. No one forced Christ to give up His glory with the Father. No one forced Him to come to earth, to be born in a manger, to submit Himself meekly to Joseph and Mary. No one forced Him to go to Jordan to John to be baptized, or to do the work which His Father gave Him to do. No one forced Him to go to Jerusalem to die on Calvary’s Cross for us. He volunteered. He came to us without coercion. He went to the Cross alone, He died for us and was buried of His own free will, and He rose for us the third day of His own volition. In like manner He will come for us at the last day. How much more acceptable to God is our voluntary offering of ourselves, for we are told the Lord loveth a cheerful giver.

1:12 “And he said unto them, Take me up, and cast me forth into the sea, so shall the sea be calm unto you: for I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you.”

Sometimes we need to be thrown out of the ship in order to get us to do what we were meant to do! Jonah knew the truth, and admitted it, and he well knew the answer also. But we see this picture is all wrong; it is the wrong way round. It is Jonah who should be crying unto men, not men crying unto Jonah. It should be Jonah who should be going into death voluntarily, not others putting him to death. It is not up to the world to draw away from us, but we should voluntarily separate ourselves from the world. This picture is put in reverse order to show us the beauty of our Lord’s own obedience and His voluntary giving up of Himself. Jonah is how not to do it, Christ is how it should be done. We should not shirk our responsibilities, we should not flee, we should not sleep, we should not be dumb, and we should not expect the world to do to us what scripture teaches we are to do ourselves. “Reckon yourselves dead,” says Paul. We should not have to wait till the world finds out we are Christians and throws us overboard. The result may be the same but it is not following Christ. Our Lord went into death voluntarily for us, and we should not have to be tossed out of the ship before we follow Him there. Jonah is the sign given to Israel of the Lord’s death and burial and resurrection, but Jonah is manipulated into doing God’s will whereas God is looking for volunteers who will cheerfully give themselves to Him.

1:13 “Nevertheless the men rowed hard to bring it to the land; but they could not: for the sea wrought, and was tempestuous against them.”

Here the reverseness of the picture becomes more obvious still. These men, who are heathen worshippers of other gods, are trying to save Jonah’s life. How far different is the picture of the Lord at Calvary! Just the opposite, we are forced to say. There God’s own nation, in conjunction with the heathen idolaters, opposed His life bitterly. There Christ had to say, No man cared for My soul. In the picture of Jonah the rebellious prophet is helped and aided by those upon whom he brought calamity. By contrast, the meek and lowly Man of Sorrows who went about doing good is forsaken in His hour of need by His very disciples. So we see the picture is a picture of contrasts. Jonah is the exact opposite of Christ though Jonah is given this role to show us the perfection of our Lord. Nineveh is the exact opposite of Israel, for Nineveh repented at the preaching of Jonah and a greater than Jonah came to His own. Jonah is the exact opposite of Christianity for Jonah mourned over Nineveh’s repenting. It is a great collection of opposites, yet it makes the beauty of our Lord’s work that much clearer to us if we see the contrast, and it shows us clearly what we are not to do. If we are to follow Jesus we must first see what Jesus did, and then if possible what He did not do. This helps us to fix in our minds a clear conception of our own calling and election, so that we tend to be less confused and less easily led into error. It is God’s great fixative, indeed.

1:14 “Wherefore they cried unto the Lord, and said, We beseech thee, O Lord, we beseech thee, let us not perish for this man’s life, and lay not upon us innocent blood: for thou, O Lord, hast done as it pleased thee.”

Now here is a marvel! These heathen idolaters are praying to the Lord God of heaven and earth! And furthermore, they are desperately striving to save a prophet’s life and beseeching God that He will not lay upon them innocent blood. How marked is the contrast of the scene at Calvary. A far greater than Jonah was there but none sought to save His life then. The judge found Him innocent with the words, “I find no fault in this man,” but none heeded the verdict. They crucified Him! But on the Cross of shame and suffering He cries to God on their behalf. “Lay not this sin upon them,” with the words, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” We do not read of any who lifted a finger to save His life. We do not read of any who prayed to God. We do not read of any who besought God earnestly not to lay upon them innocent blood. You can say it was foreordained that Christ should die. Yes, and it was foreordained that Jonah should suffer. But in Jonah we see men caught up in a destiny not of their choosing who strove hard to avoid it, who besought God not to hold it against them, and who saw it as being foreordained with the words, “For thou, O Lord, hast done as it pleased thee.” These were heathen idolaters! Seeing then that Calvary was foreordained from the beginning, should not those who were caught up in it have reacted similarly, being God’s chosen people? If God could cause Jonah to be cast into the sea then God could cause Christ to be crucified, and men should at least have been horrified at such a thing instead of delighted.

1:15 “So they took up Jonah, and cast him forth into the sea: and the sea ceased from her raging.”

It is a true picture. When Christ is crucified the angry masses begin to break apart and drift away. The shouts of “Crucify him, crucify him” are stilled at last. Pilate returns to his judging, the centurion and the soldiers to their duties. The sabbath preparations begin in Jerusalem. The disciples return to their homes. John takes Mary to his house. “The sea ceased from her raging,” and the great calm of the sabbath descends upon Jerusalem and Bethany. The earthquakes cease and the heavens begin their normal role again. The clouds depart and the sun resumes his shining as the last rays of the evening touch the mount of Olives. All is peaceful again. Only One is missing. Jonah typifies the Missing Prophet. The Innocent One is found no more in the temple, the Lamb of God is seen no longer in the streets of Jerusalem. The hands that healed a multitude of broken bodies, the lips that spake words none other ever spake, the feet that blessed the roads of Galilee – where are they now? The sea has ceased from her raging but the ship and her crew will never be the same again. It is as it was in the beginning – a watery waste with the Spirit of God brooding over the face of the waters. The voice that cried, “Repent, for the kingdom of God is come unto you” is silent now. We gaze with awe over the face of the waters but the Prophet is missing from our view. Only the sea remains, deceptively normal once more, and we look in vain for a familiar figure as we turn in thought through the gates of Jerusalem, for He will not be seen in her streets again “till He come.”

1:16 “Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice unto the Lord, and made vows.”

What a contrast! The heathen idolaters who cast Jonah out of the ship reluctantly in the first place now fear the Lord, offering their sacrifice unto God and vowing unto Him. The chosen people of God in old Jerusalem make preparations for a sabbath as though nothing had happened! How do we then react to the Missing Prophet? When we see Calvary for ourselves do we fear the Lord or do we go about our normal business as though nothing had happened? The Lamb of God has taken away the sin of the world, and will we offer that Sacrifice for ourselves or not? It is the one Sacrifice for ever, the only means of propitiation, the only way we can ever be reconciled unto God. And what vows shall we make? Shall we dedicate ourselves afresh to the service of God, fearing Him, coming to God with the Sacrifice in our hands, having seen our part in the Missing Prophet? We all cast Him out equally therefore let us all equally fear the Lord and offer the Sacrifice and make our vows unto Him. We can rededicate ourselves to the work of God, to preach repentance as we ought, to save souls perishing around us daily. We need only to see that the Missing Prophet and the Lamb of God are two views of the one picture, and it is God’s great picture of the Cross for us. We cannot go now to Jerusalem and see Christ there for ourselves, for it is two thousand years since He was seen in her streets, but by faith in Him we can yet serve the Lord and dedicate our lives unto Him and worship God by Him, and fear God and bring our vows with our Sacrifice unto the Lord.

1:17 “Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.”

Our Lord Jesus Christ taught us the same thing, and if He knew it to be true why should we doubt it? Jonah was in the belly of the great fish three days and three nights. Our Lord lay in the tomb for three days and three nights. Not Friday to Sunday, please note. Not Saturday to Monday either. Three days and three nights. How can we possibly accept any other version of such a thing? “For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly” said Jesus, “so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” Could anything be more specific than that? He is crucified on Wednesday, and He lies in the tomb three days and three nights. There is no abbreviating that time. There is no mistaking that event. This is no Easter Friday to Easter Sunday interval, but three full days and three full nights. If we can accept by faith that a whale, or some great fish, swallowed Jonah, why can we not accept by faith those three days and three nights? Faith is not sight. If we could see clearly, what need is there then for faith? We look at the gospel account and we say we cannot see the three days and three nights in it, therefore it can’t be true, although we may accept the Crucifixion and the Resurrection. Now if by faith we can accept the Crucifixion and the Resurrection, surely by faith we can accept the three days and three nights. Jonah is not lying to us. Jesus is not mistaken. Yet we refuse to accept it. Why? Are we wiser than God, or do we know more about the Cross than God knows?

CHAPTER TWO

2:1 “Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fish’s belly.”

This beautiful prayer of Jonah’s is recorded for us by the Spirit of God so that we may learn from it of our Lord’s experience in death itself. It is similar in many ways to the Psalms and needs to be learnt by heart. It is a moving and fragrant portion of scripture, a petition and a tribute to the greatness of God. Our Lord Jesus taught us, “As Jonah – so the Son of Man.” Jonah is made to go into death and to come out again. The “fish” is the expression of eternal life. When the flood drowned all life in Noah’s day only the fish survived outside the ark, showing us that the fish symbolizes eternal life, that which the flood cannot destroy or harm in any way. So Jonah does not die, but is actually swallowed up by the great fish. When we go into death with our Lord Jesus Christ we do not die but are swallowed up by the greater eternal life. Even those who fall asleep in Christ cannot be mourned over as those without hope mourn, for we realize they have been swallowed up by eternal life, to reappear at the coming of the Son of Man. All this Jonah clearly teaches us, leaving no doubt of the greatness of our God, who prepared the great fish in the first place. But what we have to learn from Jonah is that our Lord actually went into death for us, that He lay three days and three nights in the heart of the earth, and Jonah’s prayer is the expression of His feelings , of the Lord’s feelings, and we may learn of our Lord Jesus by looking at Jonah’s prayer.

2:2 “Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fish’s belly, 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.”

Our Lord Jesus suffered on the cross of Calvary for us, dying the just for the unjust, and bearing our sins in His own body on the Tree. He was oppressed and He was afflicted yet He opened not His mouth. Silent and alone as the darkness deepened He bore the awful penalty for sin that should have fallen upon you and me. But in death He is shown to cry unto the Lord and be heard. “Out of the belly of hell cried I, and Thou heardest my voice.” Entombed in the earth, shut in by a great stone sealed, His body awaits His own resurrection. He is dead, for the body is lifeless, bound in its linen shroud, the face covered with the cloth, the figure anointed with spices. His spirit has returned to God His Maker, for He gave up the Ghost saying, “Father, into Thy hands I commend My Spirit,” and there is no doubt of that literal death. The soul is departed, and as the body without spirit is lifeless, so the soul must go to the place of the dead. Death lays claim to the soul, it belongs in the region of death, and into the kingdom of death truly the soul of the Lord Jesus had to come. The Missing Prophet is found in the kingdom of death, and He came and preached to the prisoners there. If in life He was the Man of Sorrows and acquainted with grief, how much ore so is He there in the kingdom of death! It is the last enemy, the last barrier, the last hostile element in that hostility which began in Bethlehem of Judea.

2:3 “I cried by reason of man’s affliction, unto the Lord, and he heard me; out of the belly of the hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice. 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.”

We should see that in death there is no loss of memory, but total recall of all things. The rich man who died and lifted up his eyes in hell not only knew Abraham and Lazarus but he remembered his living brethren. Our Lord Jesus in death recalls all that He has had to pass through, how all the billows and the waves of the flood tide of the wrath of God against sin swept over Him. There is a bitterness of soul in the cry, a glad confession of loneliness in the fact that God hears Him in the belly of hell. The author of eternal life lies in death, His trust stayed yet in the Lord His God. The soul in death forgets nothing of life, but by its very remembering makes death more terrible still. If all we have done in life, or neglected to do, is remembered by us in death, how glad then we will be to know that God has not forsaken us. We will await the resurrection with longing eagerness, we will look for the Lord’s return as prisoners await the day of their release. Our spirits will be with God, our souls must go into the place of death to await His coming and our resurrection. If then we do remember that we were sent to preach repentance to the wicked but we disobeyed God and fled from His presence in our lifetime, how exceedingly bitter will our recollection be in the place of death. The Lord is recalling Calvary in Jonah’s prayer, He is in the kingdom of death, awaiting His resurrection as we must do.

2:4 “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. 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. Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight; yet I will look again toward thy holy temple.”

Death removes us from the scene of life, so that we may indeed say, I am cast out of thy sight. The Lord on the Cross was forsaken. But that is not the end. God has said to us, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee, and so we go into death with a confident hope that we will again look toward the temple. The holy temple spoken of here is the body of Jesus which He will reinhabit at the end of the three days and three nights. He looks forward to it in the place of death. We too will have holy temples to look forward to, bodies of resurrection like unto His glorious body, for we shall see Him as He is. But we will have an even more wonderful temple to look forward to, the temple of God in the holy city, New Jerusalem, where the streets are paved with gold and the gates of the city are pearls, and nothing sinful or defiling can ever enter there. It is our glorious hope, prepared for us by our Lord Himself. He could look forward in death to an imminent return to His own holy temple, but we must look forward in death to a new temple. If there is remembrance in death there is also hope in death. There is hope in death for all who die in Christ, who trust God, who look for the resurrection. But for them who die without hope – how terrible that is! Should we forbear to cry unto them in life, “Repent,” as God directs us?