A Sign Missed By Pharisees

Jonah took passage on a ship to Spain,
Running from God wha wanted him to go
Warn Ninevites from sinning to refrain,
Else their city faced divine anger’s blow!
God sent a fierce storm that held the ship back,
Threatened to sink it if Jonah kept on;
The crew knew Jonah caused the storm’s attack;
Threw him over to enter a quiet zone!
God had Jonah swallowed by a great fish,
Ere he died, he promised to follow God’s wish;
So the fish swam to land and spewed him out;
Resurrected, to Nineveh his route!
Jonah died in the fish, but God raised him;
Pharisees had their sign, but were too dim

“Then some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law said to him, ‘Teacher, we want to see a miraculous sign from you.’ He answered, ‘A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a miraculous sign! [They had just seen him return a blind man’s sight and his power of speech.] But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 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. The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment of this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now one greater than Jonah is here,’ “ (Matthew 12:38-40) [Brackets added]

Jesus had performed miracle ater miracle in front of thousands of people, including Pharisees and teachers of the law, yet they had the gall to ask Him to perform a miracle! They were speaking nonsense only to be heard by the people, attempting to discredit Jesus from being the Messiah. The prophet Jonah, about 800 years befoe the the birth of Jesus, and with whose words they were very familiar, had been told by God to go from his home in northern Israel to Nineveh, the capital city of Assyria, and preach to them repentance from sin. If they didn’t repent and change from evil practices, God would destroy the city. Jonah didn’t want to do it; he was a Jew, and he hated Gentiles. It would please him if the city was destroyed. So he went west, the opposite direction, and at Joppa took a ship sailing to Tarshish, Spain, a city at the western end of the Mediterranean Sea. Remember, too, the Jews were so pompous about God’s choosing them, that they believed He was exclusively for Jews. God is a worldwide deity; if Nineveh repented, their city would be spared destruction. So Jonah ran from God.

God brought a great storm that threatened to sink the ship. Jonah had told the captain he was running away from God. The crew worshiped idols; they called on Jonah to pray to his God to stop the storm. They tried to row back to shore, but nothing helped, so they determined to throw Jonah overboard. They did, and the sea became calm. They turned to Jehovah then when they realized how powerful He was. Meanwhile, Jonah had five minutes or so before he drowned or was swallowed by the fish, so he prayed to God, repenting and promising to follow His command to go to Ninevah. He was swallowed by a special fish God prepared, who swam back to land and vomited Jonah out on shore. God restored his life, and he immediately started his trip to Ninevah. Jesus used Jonah’s three days in the belly of the fish and his resurrection as the only sign the Pharisees would have, for they would see Him crucified and spend three days in the tomb before His resurrection.

“That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord’, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9)