Jonah’s ministry was characterized by disobedience, reluctance and complaint. He is unique among the prophets of Israel, but not just for this. It is also true, in the grace and providence of God, that Jonah’s life and ministry, among the prophets of Israel, is the most closely connected with the life and ministry of Jesus—in his homeplace, his mission and in his experience as a prophet. 

First, Jonah was from Galilee, a rural place despised by the Jewish elite in the days of Jesus. The Pharisees, blinded by contempt for Jesus, said that none of the prophets had come from Galilee (John 7:52). But they were wrong. If they had been interested in the truth and searched the Scriptures, they would have known that Jonah came from Galilee (2 Kings 14:25), and Isaiah had prophesied that out of Galilee the Messiah would come (Isaiah 9:1).   

Second, Jesus and Jonah were alike in their mission to the Gentiles. Jonah was unique in this also, as the only prophet in Israel sent to the Gentiles. The prophets spoke of Jesus as a light to the Gentiles (Isaiah 49:1; Luke 2:32), and Paul and Barnabas later picked up on this phrase, as they, and preachers of the gospel today continue the work of the Lord Jesus here on earth (Acts 13:47). 

Third, Jonah was the only prophet with whom Jesus identified directly. Jesus compared the experience of Jonah in the whale, with his experience in the tomb (Matthew 12:40; Luke 11:30).  

Jonah was in the belly of the whale as a dead man. The downward journey that he was on had hit rock-bottom. Not only was he entombed behind the rib-cage of the great fish, but he was down “deep”—at the roots of the mountains (Jonah 2:2, 5, 6). His recovery from the belly of the fish was likened to a resurrection, which Jesus identified with when he spoke of his own resurrection to the unbelieving Jews (Matthew 12:40). 

The Jews were disputing with Jesus and had asked him for a sign. Jesus told them that they would not be given a sign except the “sign of the prophet Jonah” (Matthew 12:39). A sign shows us something, makes something clear, or points us in a certain direction. 

But in what way was Jonah’s experience in the belly of the fish a sign?

  • The sign of Jonah was a sign to the unbelieving Jews that Jesus would rise again from the dead. The people in Jesus’ day were looking for a miraculous sign, and Jesus pointed them to the writings of their own prophet Jonah. Jesus would tell them later, “they have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them” (Luke 16:29). 

  • The sign of Jonah is a sign to the world, which showed the extent of God’s determination to bring the gospel to the gentiles. God’s determination overcame the reluctance of Jonah, by casting Jonah into the depths. Jesus came willingly (unlike Jonah), but just as Jonah was exiled to the depths, Jesus descended into the underworld, (Ephesians 4:8-9), exiled from the father. Like Jonah then, he rose up out of the grave, to take the gospel to the Gentiles, through his commissioned disciples (Matthew 28:18-20).

  • The sign of Jonah is a sign to suffering saints, pointing us to our hope in the resurrection, even in the darkest moments. The Holy Spirit tells us that Jonah prayed “from the belly of the fish.” Perhaps Jonah had made petitions before, but what is recorded for us of Jonah’s prayer is only thanksgiving. It appears that after the initial shock, Jonah had come to feel safe in the belly of the fish, and had come to rest on the goodness and mercy of the Lord. It was in this place of reliance on the mercy of God, that Jonah could say, by faith, from the belly of the whale, “you brought up my life from the pit, O LORD my God” (Jonah 2:6). 

  • The sign of Jonah is a sign to doubting saints pointing us to the divine power to bring us unharmed out of death and the jaws of the grave. Whether buried respectfully in a coffin, gnawed on by fish in a watery grave, or devoured and digested in the stomach of a wild animal, God will redeem us both body and soul. We will be raised, and this corruptible will put on incorruption (1 Corinthians 15:42).