Jonah spends a period of time inside the fish without his body being broken down and destroyed by the fish's digestive system. The Bible states that he spent three days and three nights inside it; however, it's important to note that this was a figure of speech. That's because the ancient Jews counted any portion of a day as a day and their days began at 6pm in the evening and went until 6pm the next evening. For example, it is said of Jesus that He spent three days and nights in the tomb. But in actuality He was placed in the tomb somewhere between 3pm and 6pm on Friday (having perished on the cross at 3pm) and since 6pm was considered the beginning of a new day, He was in the tomb late on Friday and then Saturday began at 6pm so He was in the tomb all of Saturday, then Sunday would have begun at 6pm on Saturday and He arose sometime early the next morning. This means that instead of spending seventy-two hours in the tomb He spent only two to three hours in the tomb on Friday afternoon, then He was in the tomb all of Saturday (from 6pm on Friday until 6pm on Saturday), and then for perhaps around twelve hours or less on Sunday (from 6pm on Saturday until sometime before dawn on Sunday morning). This means that the total number of hours spent in the tomb was probably forty or less. This in no way contradicts the Bible due to the way the people of Jesus' era counted the days.
Some scholars have speculated that Jonah was in the belly of the fish for exactly the same amount of time that Jesus was in the tomb because Jesus made reference to Jonah when speaking of His own coming death and interment, saying, "For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth." (Matthew 12:40) It could be that Jonah was swallowed by the fish late in the afternoon on Friday and was spit out by the fish early on Sunday morning, but of course this is speculative because the Bible doesn't not say. All we will be told for certain is that after Jonah repents of running from the Lord, the Lord commands the fish to expel him onto dry land.
Along with not knowing the type of fish that swallowed Jonah and with not knowing the precise number of hours he was imprisoned inside of it, we also do not know whether Jonah was alive or dead inside the fish. There is a good argument to be made for either theory! In his prayer to the Lord he will refer to himself as being "deep in the realm of the dead"---he uses the Hebrew word "sheol" which was a word for the place where the spirits of the dead reside. His use of this word may be literal or it may be metaphoric. If metaphoric, he may consider his life to be over while he is inside the fish; he considers himself as good as dead. Another clue that perhaps he died and then was resurrected when the fish later coughs him out is that the Lord Jesus told His detractors that the sign that He is the Son of God would be the "sign of Jonah". He said He would be resurrected from the tomb after three days inside the earth, just as Jonah emerged alive after three days inside the fish. (Matthew 12:38-40) This has led some scholars to conclude that Jonah died when swallowed by the fish, that his prayer was indeed prayed from the realm of the dead, and that when the fish spewed him out onto dry land he came back to life. I don't believe we will know the answer to this until the day we are in the presence of the Lord and can perhaps hear the story from Jonah himself. But it's an interesting puzzle and was worth briefly discussing here.
Now we will move on to begin studying Jonah's prayer. "From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God. He said: 'In my distress I called to the Lord, and He listened to me. From deep in the realm of the dead I called for help, and You listened to my cry.'" (Jonah 2:1-2) The words "in my distress" are used a number of times in the psalms. For example, David said, "In my distress I called to the Lord; I cried to my God for help. From His temple He heard my voice; my cry came before Him, into His ears." (Psalm 18:6) He also said in another psalm: "I call on the Lord in my distress, and He answers me." (Psalm 120:1) It's important to note that there are three different types of occasions going on with these three different segments.
In Jonah 2:1-2 the Lord hears his cry even though Jonah is responsible for his own troubles. But Jonah calls out to the Lord in a humble spirit, repenting of his wrongdoing. Jonah is still a child of God even though he has made a mistake, for it is clear that he never repudiated the Lord since the Bible refers to the Lord as "the Lord his God". So we see that the Lord mercifully helps us even when we've brought about our own hardships by our own sin.
But the Lord also helps us when our troubles are the result of someone else's sin. David wrote Psalm 18 to give thanks to the Lord for delivering him from the murderous intentions of the evil King Saul. The king hated David through no fault of David's own. Saul was a very powerful adversary and it must have looked at times as if there would be no way of ever being free of his threats or of ever ascending to the throne of Israel in Saul's place. Yet the Lord caused all of this to come about, so we see that the Lord delivers us from our enemies as well as from the consequences of our own mistakes.
And thirdly, it appears as if David wrote Psalm 120 after he became king of Israel, but finally receiving this promise of God doesn't mean his troubles were over. As long as we live in this fallen world we will be faced with troubles, so David lumps them all together by saying in one sentence, "I call on the Lord in my distress, and He answers me." Whatever may be the cause of our distress---whether it's the result of our own mistakes, whether it's the result of someone else's mistakes, or whether it's the result of the bad things that naturally occur in a sin-polluted world---the child of God can call on Him at any time and from any place! The child of God can call on Him in the confidence that He cares. The child of God can call on Him knowing that His ears are open and that His heart is filled with mercy and compassion.
Join us tomorrow as we study the remainder of Jonah's prayer.
No comments:
Post a Comment