The Pulpit Commentary — Jonah — Section 60

God ln connection with them. Jonah is disentombed (ver, 10), "Aud the Lord spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land.'' At length tho purpose of the chastisement is served, therefore it is removed, The great fish continues under God's control, and having carried Jonah safely through the deep, deposits him on the dry land. "As you see the foamy track the creature leaves behind gradually ~elting into the quiet green of the sea; as you turn and look at the prophet, wnshing himself from the filth of his living grave, and then standing upon the shore, inhaling th_e fresh breeze, rejoicing in heaven's blessed light, and-to prove and feel himself ahve, to make sure that all was not a dream-shouting, perhaps, in a loud voice, • Salvation is of the Lord,' say, 'God helping me, I shall never despair. Never. For I see th~t the heaviest judgment may ripen into mercy. The darkest night may have a mornmg. The deepest grave bas a resurrection-portal. A voyaae wrapped in whirling storm, and horrible with engulfing dangers, may yet end in safety on a sunny shore'" (Raleigh). Jonah a sign: 1. To the Ninevites. His history a twofold picture- lesson to them. (1) Of the consequence of spurning the authority of the God of the Hebrews; for he is no local deity, but Lord of earth and sea, of all creatures and all their actions, and has showed he could signally punish and humble Jonah on the very element to which he had betaken himself for safety from this God. It was before this God the iniquities of Nineveh bad come. How must he view these? (2) Of the pardoning, restoring, and preserving mercy of God to the penitent-God not inexorable -if Nineveh should repent, it, like Jonah, would experience God's mercy. 2. 'l'o tha men of Christ's generation. (1) In his humiliation. The Jews asked of Christ a sign (Matt. xii. 40)--some great display of power in the heavens. He refused; the only sign to be given would be precisely opposite, viz. that of Jonah-a sign not in heaven, but beneath the surface of the earth. As Jonah snffered humiliation for his own sin, so Jesus would suffer humiliation for the sin which he bore. Reality of his Messiahship was to be shown in his death and burial, and continuing for the same period as Jonah under the power of death. Divine, saving power of Jesus is connected with his humiliation as Sin-bearer. "As if Jesus had said,' The signs which are to discover themselves in me are to grow darker, and not brighter: they are to be derived, not from the heavens above, but from the depths beneath-from the very chamber of the dead; yet am I not less on that account the Ambassador of Heaven; yea, surpassing Jonah in the depth of my humil iat.ion, I still more surpass him in the dignity of my character; and the inhabit- ants of the heathen city, which repented at his preaching, will assuredly rise up in judgment to condemn the impenitent of this generation'" (Fairbairn). (2) In his ea;altation. This view is rather implied than expressed by our .Lord. Jonah escaping from the :fish is a type of Christ rising from the dead. The Ninevites were moved to repentance by means of the type ; they mnst have heard J onah's history and been greatly impressed by it. The Jews had the antitype-the literal resurrection ofChristl'tom the dead, but were not moved by it. Herein is a great lesson for all-listen to the Divine Messenger, who liveth and was dead, and is alive for ever, and bath the keys of hell and of death! "'J'houab our Lord's i,ointing to the sign of Jonah, with the assurance that no other would be given them, might at first seem to betoken only trouble and disaster to his mission, yet the more thoughtful and discerning minds would not fail to discover, on further reflection, that there was also couched under it a promise of encourngement and success far beyond anything that bad hitherto appeared. He was to become to the world the sign that Jonah was to Nineveh only when he entered on the resurrection- life, and in his Name repentance and remission of sins were preached to the people. And hence the great stress laid upon the fact of the resurrection by the first heralds of the gospel, and the wonderful effect produced by it upon those who heard them, not simply on account of the proof it afforded of the truth of Christ's pretensions to be the Son of God, but also, and ~till more, for the impressive attestation, the living witness it gave of the placability of God, and of the holy earnestness of his desire tho.t sinners would repent and live. Precisely as in the case of Jonah, though in a manner unspeakably more solemn and affecting, the things that had befallen Jesus and the condition in which he now presented hilllself through his ambassadors to the people, were seen t? be a singular and most maanificent provision of love on the part of God to rea.ch their C()D- bciences, and to avert, ~re it might be too late, the doom of condemnation which Divin@ iustice had suspended over their heads" (Fairbairn).-W. G. D. on. u, 1-10.) THE BOOK OF JONAH, 57