“The Sign of Jonah”

Been praying for two particular Jewish men who we met in NYC during the week we were there. These are dear men who displayed every image of Jewish folks. They were dressed with the typical attire and hair done in the Jewish fashion, mannerisms and so forth…

Reading Matt. 16 this morning and saw something that I never saw before. (You who are strong in theology, please have mercy on what I am about to write and remember that I believe when we read or quote the Word of God, we have all the truth needed and anything said after scripture is suspect to heresy – so if this is the case, know I will be standing alongside you as you judge what is about to be said.) I also am reminded that the 4 Gospels were written so that we could look at the life of Jesus from various viewpoints (or facets) like a gemologists looks at a precious stone cut by a lapidary. We may have one interpretation but various applications or we may have one story but various angles at which we see the story.

Ok, In Matt. 16 (please read it for yourself and let the Lord apply what is necessary to your heart) I read about the Pharisees and Sadducees who came to Jesus demanding a sign. And after a few words from Jesus on this matter, in Matt. 16:4, we read these words from Jesus –

“A wicked and adulterous generation looks for a miraculous sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah”…(NIV)

Now that verse above is all we need to know and we could say – if we are looking for miracles (foremost) from Jesus we are falling short of what we should be really looking for – which of course - We should be looking for Him.

But in Matt. 16, we are not given any more detail of what is the “sign of Jonah”. You have to go to the other gospels to get what Jesus meant by “the sign of Jonah.” So if I were only given these words in Matthew of what Jesus said, I may be like the Jews in Jesus day, scratching my heads and saying “what sign of Jonah”. Was it God coming to Jonah the first time and saying, “Go to Nineveh…”, or, the storm that God brought upon the sea to cause the men to finally throw Jonah overboard, or was it the storm calmed by the hand of God causing all in the ship to recognize Jonah’s Mighty God, or was it Jonah in the belly of the great fish, or the fish not destroying Jonah and ultimately spewing Jonah forth on the dry ground, or Jonah going into Nineveh and preaching to the gentile people repentance, or God staying His hand of wrath on the Gentile people in Nineveh due to their repentance and the mercy of God, or the plant that grew up to protect Jonah’s head or the plant that died in the morning causing the sun to scorch Jonah’s head, or Jonah hearing from God the lesson that He was teaching Jonah and us today through this story?

Praise the Lord for 3 other Gospels in God’s word that can help us understand what Jesus was really speaking about (Mat. 12:39-41, Luke 11:29-32) and we also have the whole OT that points us to what Jesus said, did and taught and points us to Who He is. (John 5:39, Luke 24:25-27 and the book of Hebrews)

So if we go to other scriptural passages in the Bible, we do get to know about the “sign of Jonah” He was speaking of. All of the words above and scripture above to say – “This is how the LORD calls me to pray for two Jewish merchant men in NYC – one by the name of Max and the other by the name of Jona (Pronounced “Jonah”).