The Pulpit Commentary — Jonah — Section 26

After that everything 8poke of goodness. There are qualities in God fitted each in its own way to move men to hie service (2 Cor. v. 11; Rom. xii. 1). They moved Jonah. His humble, believing, thankful prayer in the monster's maw is a revelation of their effect on his moral nature. And godly lives the world over nnd all history through are effects due to the same cause (Ps. vii. 17; Rom. ii. 4). Severit;r and goodness are just Divine moral excellence facing two different ways (Rom. xi. 22). Both have the snme infinitely glorious perfection behind them, and are forcerul with its inherent essential energy. 3. The Divine effe,ctz'.ve way. God had not interfered in the matter of Jonah's disobedient flight until things had gone a cert.ain length. He allowed him to reach Joppa, and get on board a ship, and start for Tarshish. The sinful act was completed before the punishment began. But the moment it was morally complete the stern "Thus far and no further" was spoken. And how masterly the strategy, and resourceful the strength of God appeared I The elements, the lower animals and man Alike become his ministers, and stop the runaway before and on either side. 'And then the measures as a whole are so exactly yet variously apposite to the purpose of checking insubordination, and compelling execution of the original command l Jonah would lrn.ow more about the God with whom he had to do, and the considerations moving to implicit obedience, than he ever knew before. It is not in the Divine dealings as an exhibition of mere force, but of force directed unalterably to ends of justice and mercy, that their chief disciplinary value lies (Rom. ii. 2; iii. 3-6; xi. 22). Men are moved by them in proportion as God's perfections come out in them and shine. IL A£, A TYPE. On this point we have for an interpreter Christ himself (Matt. xii. 40). "Jonah was in the fish's belly, so was Christ in the grave; Jonah came forth from thence, so did Christ rise again; his (Christ's) rising doth bring our rising, his resurrection ours, because he was the firstfruits of all those that do sleep (1 Cor. xv. 20)" (Abbot). The analogy between Jonah's sojourn in the deep and Christ's in the grave is such as to fit one to be a type of the other. The analogy holds : 1. In the time of the soj=rn. It was three days in each case. In the case of Christ we know that two of these days were incomplete. He was buried in the evening of the first day, and rose on the morning of the third day. Rhetorical speech is necessarily in round numbers, and our Lord states the truth broadly without attempting to elaborate details. Why three days was the period fixed on either in type or antitype we cannot tell. It i£ pertinent to notice, however, that three and four are mystic numbers, and together make up seven, the number of perfection. Then three days were sufficient, and no more, to establish the fact of death in the case of Christ, and the reality of the miracle of preservation in the case of Jonah. Details of Scripture are important because they record details of a Divine procedure which are purposeful through and through. 2. In t/1£ capacity in which each sojourned. Jonah was in the fish's belly as Christ was in the grave, in payment of the penalty of sin. Moreover, each by accomplishing this aaved men from death. "Each of the processes is an atonement, an expiation, a i;acrifice, pacifying the Divine Judge, satisrying Divine justice, abolishing guilt, restoring peace, effecting reconciliation" (Martin). But here the analogy ends. The type suffered for sins of his own, the blessed Antitype for sins of others. The type saved men from dee.th of the body, the Anti type saved them from death eternal. Well might he say, on a memorable occasion.," a greater than Jonah is here" I 3. In the analogous e£perience of the two. The experiences were not identical. Christ literally " died and rose age.in according to the Scriptures." Jonah did not actually die and rise. But he did virtually. His natural life was forfeit, and was only saved by a miracle equal to that of resurrection. His life in the deep was a supernatural life, and, therefore, practically a new one. Indeed, be applies the words" hell" (Sheol) and "corruption" (shachath) to his condition, the same words which Scripture applies to Christ's 11ojourn in a state of death (eh. ii. 2-6; Ps. xvi. 10; Acts ii. 31). He uses them doubtleSB in a figurative sense, but by using them at all he treats himself as virtually a dead man. Like those of Hezekiah and Lazarus and the widow's son (lea. xxxviii. 5; John xi. 44; Luke vii. 15), the life of Jonah from that hour was God-given and new. So may be your life or mine. If God has saved you alive when m~n despe.ired of your recovery, or when but for some interposition which we call an accident it was furreit by ne.tural laws, then you are even as Jonah, and your remaining life, like hie, ii; "' a speci&l seD.Se and measure consecra~ (Rom. xii. 1). 4. That with ,xwh it wae Olt, I, 1-17.J THE BOOK OF JON AIJ. 23