The Pulpit Commentary — Jonah — Section 2

fice, and make vows unto him. So, in this view, the history is leveller! against the bigotry and exclnsiveness of the Jews which come fot'Wa.rcl so prominently in later times. God has compassion on all men; " In every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteo11BneBB, is accepted with him'' (.Acte x. 85) . .Another object of the history is to teach the nature and efficacy of true repentance. Under this head we are presented with the examples of Jonah himself and the Ninevites. Not that the prophet takes any pains to explain his own conduct or to soften its asperities. He deals with fact.s and results. The storm, and the lot that points him out as the gnilty person on board the ship, awaken in him a sense of his crime in fleeing from his appointed work; tbe wonderfa.l deliverance vouchsafed fills him with gratitude and remorse, and makes him ready, when restored to his office, to execute the renewed mission as God commanded. The repentance of the people at the mere announcement of Jonah is 11Bed by Christ himself to accentuate the obstinate impenitence of the Jews under unusual privi- leges and advantages (Matt. xii. 41). And to his own contemporaries the prophet, by this history, read a. solemn, if silent, warning; he contrasts the submission of these Gentiles, who had so little light a.nd knowledge, with the hardness and obstina.cy of the Israelites, who had the Word of God and tbe light of his presence among them. It is as though he was using to them the words of Christ, "I tell yon, except ye repent, ye sh:i.11 all likewise perish'' (Luke xiii. 3), or enforcing the sad comparison that Isaiah (lxv. 1, 2) makes, "I have spread out my hands all the day long unto n. rebellious people;" and cc I am sought of them that asked not for me; I am found of them that sought me not." But there is another object in this history. It is a. type and prophecy of the resurrection of Christ and the issues of that momentous fact. On this feature the Saviour himself shed clear light. cc 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" (Matt. xii. 40). The Jews themselves taught from this history the resurrection of the body. We can see, however, much more in it. Not merely the resurrection of the flesh, nor merely the resur- rection of Christ, are here adumbrated; the Divine plan of salvation is unfolded, as expressed in the words of St. Paul before Festus ( Acts :xxvi. 23), "That Obrist should suffer, and that he should be the first that should rise from the dead, and should show light unto the people, and to the Gentiles." It was not till Jonah had, as it were, died and risen agn.in that he preached repentance to the Ninevites. So Christ had said, " Except e. grain of wheat fall into the earth and die, it abideth by itself alone ; but if it die, it beareth much fruit" (John xii. 24); "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto myseJf" (John xii. 32). Thus after his resurrection Christ went forth in his Church to make disciples of all nations, and to embrace both Jew and Gentile in the kingdom of God. The mission of Jonah has its place in the Rra.dual development of  INTRODUCTION TO