A Pirate Christian's Guide to the Old Testament Part 4

Welcome to another installment of Fighting for the Faith. My name is Chris Rosebro. I am your servant in Jesus Christ.

This is the channel that compares what people are saying in the name of God to the Word of God. So let's get this out of the way.

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Today we're going to be continuing with our series on A Pirate Christian's Guide to Understanding the

Old Testament, and we're going to be taking a look at a very famous fish story and how it relates to Jesus Christ.

But let's, before we get to that, I wanted to do a little a little bit of work here. Now many times people ask, what software do you use when you're teaching on Fighting for the

Faith? By the way, the answer to that question is Accordance Bible. Accordance B -I -B -L -E dot com.

Accordance Bible dot com. Voila, here it is. And we always put a link to it down below in the description.

So if you ever see anybody ask the question on, you know, the comments on one of our videos, go ahead and say, he uses

Accordance Bible. The link is in the description. But those of you who do not have

Accordance Bible, the question is, where can you go to get good scholarly resources so that you can understand

God's Word better? And I gotta refer you to NetBible .org.

NetBible .org. And I want to thank the translators of the Net Bible for giving us permission to use their translations as we work through the entire book of Jonah, and we have an upcoming segment where we will be working through the entire book of Ruth, and so in order to follow proper copyright procedures, we needed to secure permissions, and so they were very kind in giving us permission to use the

Net Bible for this installment of Fighting for the Faith on the book of Jonah. And I gotta tell you, if you're looking for a good set of tools, biblically, with a few good translations,

NetBible .org is the place to go, and when it comes up, you'll see that you have the ability to look at the

English, you have the ability, if you would like to, to reference the original languages.

So if you're in the Old Testament, the Hebrew without the Masoretic pointing will come up, and they have access.

When you hover over particular words, it'll give you a basic understanding of its morphology, its lexical meaning, even when you're working in the

Greek, it'll pull up strongs, and so this is a great place to go, and you're gonna note that you have several really good translations and one bad one.

I say that because the message. We're in no MSG zone here, but when you go to NetBible .org,

you can use the Net translation, you can use the ESV, the Holman translation,

ISV, KJV, NASB, and so you have several different translations that you could reference, and then there's good notes, scholarly notes, kind of a, you know, it looks like it was a community deal in putting a lot of the notes together for the different portions of Scripture, and then you have access to the

Hebrew and the Greek, and there's other, you know, other resources available. So if you were looking for kind of where to start, and you're not sure how to spend your money, do

I want to spend it on Accordance? Do I want to spend it on Logos? Go to NetBible .org,

and you can use, you know, their translation and multiple good translations, and start to familiarize yourself with how digging deeper into the biblical texts and the original languages in these notes, how that impacts your understanding of Scripture.

So again, NetBible .org. Now what we're going to do, we're going to do this today, we're going to first begin by looking at a passage from Colossians chapter 2 to give a little bit more understanding of when we talk about, in the

Old Testament, we are dealing with types and shadows. Today we're going to look at specifically how the

New Testament describes the Old in terms of shadows, and Christ being the substance, and we'll take a look at actually the the

Greek there, and we're going to use NetBible .org for this today. We're going to then take a look at how

Jesus uses Jonah to basically point to himself, and then we'll talk a little bit about how people misread

Jonah today, and then we're going to work our way through all four chapters of Jonah. It's only four chapters long, and it's a fantastic book, and I'll just ask this right up front.

Do you know without looking, what is the reason why Jonah ran the other way?

Why, when God called him to go to Nineveh, did Jonah head off, you know, towards Spain?

Why did that happen? And, you know, if you don't know the answer, don't worry, we'll answer that as we go, but you'll note then that, in fact,

I'll kind of pull this into the beginning part. When you oftentimes hear people preach on Jonah, it usually only deals with the first couple of chapters, never really the back end of Jonah, yet Jonah is the type of story that is meant to be read in one setting.

It has a set up, an intro, a beginning, a middle, and a conclusion, and the conclusion is just amazing, and usually the way it gets preached is, well, when

God calls you to preach to your Nineveh, and preaching to your Nineveh can be like, he's gonna reveal to you your dream density or something like that, and so you don't run the other way, or God's gonna send a big fish and barf you up on the

Mediterranean Sea after three days, and you'll, you know, you'll learn your lesson that way. That's not the point of Jonah at all, and you'll note that that subtly makes it about you.

So, let's see if we can kind of pull this apart, and we're gonna start by doing a little bit of a mini lesson, and just a little mini lesson, on the concept of looking at the

Old Testament as shadow, as foreshadowing of Christ. Now, in Colossians chapter 2, and I always love reading

Colossians chapter 2 because there's this portion of Colossians 2 that just is amazing regarding the gospel.

In fact, I'm gonna take the opportunity to read out what it says regarding the forgiveness of our sins from Colossians chapter 2.

Now, the part I want to key in on after that is going to be found in verses 16 and 17, verses 16 and 17, and how the

Greek reads is actually quite amazing. But, all of that being said, let me back up a little bit into the context, and you're gonna know we're gonna be reading from the

Net Bible today, and we're gonna start at Colossians chapter 2, verse 6, so we can hear how

Paul front -loads this epistle with the gospel itself, the good news of the forgiveness of our sins, and so he says to the

Christians at the city of Colossae, Therefore, as you receive Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in Him, rooted, built up in Him, and firm in your faith, just as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.

Be careful not to allow anyone to captivate you through an empty, deceitful philosophy, that is, according to human traditions and the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.

For in Him, in Christ, all the fullness of the deity lives in bodily form.

Now, a little bit of a side here. This idea that somehow Christ could set aside

His deity, or not make use of His deity, is nonsense. Everything that Jesus did, from the moment

He was conceived in the womb of the Virgin Mary, until even to this day, because Jesus Christ continues to be the

Son of God in human flesh, He is, a good way to put it is the way

Paul put it here, is that in Him the whole fullness of the deity lives in bodily form.

Jesus Christ is and continues to be the Son of God in human flesh.

And it says this, You have been filled in Him who is the head over every ruler and authority. In Him you also were circumcised, not however with a circumcision performed by human hands, but by the removal of the fleshly body, that is, through the circumcision done by Christ.

Having been buried with Him in baptism, you also have been raised with Him through your faith in the power of God who raised

Him from the dead. And even though you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh,

He nevertheless made you alive with Him, having forgiven all your transgressions.

And so you'll note here, Paul just front -loads this, don't let anyone take you captive by human philosophy and human tradition according to the elemental spirits of the world and not according to Christ.

And in Him, although you were dead in trespasses and sins, God has made you alive together with Christ, having forgiven you all, every single one of your transgressions and sins.

And he says this, He has destroyed what was against us, the certificate of indebtedness, or you can say the record of debt, that stood opposed to us, expressed in decrees that are opposed to us.

He has taken it away by nailing it to the cross, disarming the rulers and authorities.

He has made public disgrace of them, triumphing over them by the cross. And so this beautiful picture, then, you were dead in trespasses and sins,

God has made you alive together with Christ, Christ Himself has circumcised our hearts, all of your sins are forgiven, and the record of debt that stood against you has been canceled, and it has been nailed to the cross of Christ.

And I always like to punctuate it by saying it's as if Jesus took out of your book, you know, the whole section titled record of debt.

Yeah, this is a record of all of the sins that you've committed and the debt that you've incurred to God as a result of this,

Christ rips it out of your book and takes the whole thing and just, tink, tink, tink, nails it to the cross, and with his own blood that he shed for you, he writes, debt paid in full.

You are 100 % forgiven. You who are in Christ. And it's this beautiful picture.

Now Paul then goes on, and you'll note that in Paul's time, there was a tendency towards Judaizing.

One of the first heresies that Christianity faced was the Judaizing heresy, and people who were trying to return back to Torah, and Paul says something quite amazing about the

Torah, about the Old Testament, and here's what he says, therefore, therefore because all of your sins are forgiven, don't let anyone judge you with respect to food, or drink, or in a matter of a feast, a new moon, or Sabbath days, and you know, so the food he's referring to is kosher versus, you know, non -kosher food.

Feasts, new moons, Sabbath days, these are all Mosaic covenant, you know, feasts and days and things like this, and here's what he says in verse 17, these are only the shadow of the things to come, but the reality is

Christ. Now I'm gonna show you this from the Greek, because the Greek here is actually a little bit stronger here.

Haestens, skia, ton melanton, ta de soma tu Christu.

Now I know that's Greek to you, but let me kind of work through this. So talking about the shadow, then, and the picture here in the

Greek is, like, if you're walking down the sidewalk, and it's, you know, an hour before sunset, well we all know what ends up happening, is that if it's an hour before sunset, and the sun's behind you, you're gonna cast this long shadow, but the shadow isn't the substance, you are.

And so what Paul is saying is that the Old Testament commands the

Sabbath, the feast days, the new moons, all of those things, and I'm not talking about the moral law,

I'm talking about the ceremonial laws pertaining, you know, to the Old Covenant. He says that they are a shadow, and in the

Greek, then, it says ta de soma tu Christu, and de means but, but ta soma, but the body is

Christ's. Mm -hmm. So, so the idea here is, is that the Old Testament is shadow.

Christ is the body that is casting that shadow. That's kind of the point.

And so in future installments of a Pirate Christian's Guide to Understanding the Old Testament, we will talk about the

Sabbath day, and how then, as Christians, are we to understand the Sabbath.

That's kind of an important thing, because today's modern -day Judaizers, the Hebrew roots people, well, you know, they spin this conspiracy narrative, oh yeah, you see, what happened is, is that Christianity got taken over and co -opted by Constantine, and so Constantinian Christianity steered it into Roman Catholicism, and if it wasn't for that guy, then we'd all be

Sabbath keepers. Nonsense. It's, that, see, that's, that's a conspiracy narrative, and, and, and so no amount of data will, they will not allow any amount of data over, overturn the narrative, but their narrative is totally false and bogus.

But all that being said, they'll say, you, as Christians, you need to be Torah observant, and you need to keep the

Sabbath day, and you need to circumcise your male children, and all this kind of stuff, and it's like, this is the

Judaizing heresy, alive and well today, and this text says that the

Sabbath itself is a shadow, ta de soma to Christu, but the body is

Christ's, belongs to Christ. So Christ is the body that is casting the shadow, and so the

Sabbath day, and the, and the ceremonial feast days, even the Temple itself, and, you know, the

Passover, and, and, you know, you think of Shavuot, and the

Feast of Trumpets, and, and all that, all of those things, and, and the Feast of Booths, those are all skia, and that's what skia means, shadow.

Those are all shadows, but the body is Christ. So, so this idea, then, that the

Old Testament is types and shadows is explicitly taught in the

New Testament. The New Testament tells us to, tells us to view the

Old Testament in that way, and so as we move forward in future installments of A Pirate Christian's Guide to Understanding the

Old Testament, we'll weave in some of these other important little elements that'll help fill out your confidence that, yeah, this is exactly how we are to read it.

Now, all that being said, let me take you to a text in Matthew chapter 12. Matthew chapter 12, and here's what it says in the

Net Bible, starting at verse 38. So then some of the experts in the law, along with some

Pharisees, answered Jesus, "'Teacher, we want to see a sign from you.'

But he answered them, and even an adulterous generation asks for a sign.

But no sign will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.

For just as Jonah was in the belly of the huge fish, for three days and three nights, so the

Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights."

And so you'll note then that Christ himself is making it clear that Jonah spending that time inside the belly of the great fish is a type and shadow of his death and his resurrection.

That's the point. So if you miss Jesus in this year, you've kind of missed the whole point of Jonah.

So then Jesus goes on to say then in verse 41, "'The people of Nineveh, they will stand up at the judgment with this generation, and they will condemn it because they repented when

Jonah preached to them. And something greater than Jonah is here. The Queen of the

South will rise at the judgment with this generation and condemn it because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon.

And now something greater than Solomon is here." And so you'll note here

Jesus is calling the people of his day, just like Jonah, calling them to repent, calling them to repent and to be forgiven, just like the

Ninevites. So the story of Jonah then, we know that Jonah being thrown into the ocean and then dying and rising again through his being swallowed and then vomited up by the fish is a type and shadow, it's a shadow of Christ's death and resurrection.

So let's then take a look at the story of Jonah, shall we? And we're gonna, like I said, we're gonna read it in all four chapters.

It can be done in one setting, in fact it was meant to be done in one setting, and you will note it's not about you unless, of course, you see yourself like the

Ninevites, as somebody who needs to repent. And we'll take a look at the great mercy of God here in this story.

So here's what it says, Jonah chapter 1, Yahweh's message came to Jonah the son of Amittai, go immediately to Nineveh, that large capital city, and announce judgment against its people because their wickedness has come to my attention.

Instead Jonah immediately headed off to Tarshish. Now a little bit of a note here, the

Ninevites, these guys were so cruel in the way they conducted and waged war, and the things that they did to the people they defeated, that all

I can say is that they make the Nazis look like schoolgirls.

That's how cruel and evil they were. And you'll note the people of Nineveh, and their whole clan, they attacked

Israel, and there were Israelites who lost their lives to these war criminals, these cruel people.

And so the idea that the Word of Lord comes to Jonah, and Jonah says, no way,

I'm not going to Nineveh, again I'm gonna ask the question, do you know why he didn't want to go to Nineveh?

The reason is so important. So he heads off the other way. We'll let the text answer the question as to why.

So he heads the other way, to Tarshish. So instead

Jonah immediately headed off to Tarshish to escape from the commission of Yahweh. He traveled to Joppa, found a merchant ship heading to Tarshish, so he paid the fare and went aboard it to go with them to Tarshish, far away from Yahweh.

But Yahweh hurled a powerful wind on the sea. Such a violent tempest arose on the sea that the ship threatened to break up.

The sailors were so afraid that each cried out to his own God, and they flung the ship's cargo overboard to make the ship lighter.

Jonah, meanwhile, had gone down into the hole below deck, and laid down and was sound asleep.

Now all of that being said, you think about the time when Christ, in the middle of a storm, in the middle of a storm on the

Sea of Galilee, he was asleep at the pilot's couch or cushion while the storm was going on, and the boat was taken on water, and it was about to sink, at least is what the disciples thought, and what did they do?

They woke Jesus up. Don't you care that we are sinking? And so you'll note here there's some parallels to Christ, even with the ability for Jonah in the middle of this horrible tempest out on the

Mediterranean Sea to be asleep, just like Christ was asleep.

Yeah, I'm just saying, the connections here is pretty interesting. So he laid down, he was sound asleep.

The ship's captain approached him and said, what are you doing asleep? Get up!

Cry out to your God, perhaps your God might take notice of us so that we might not die.

The sailors said to one another, come on, let's cast lots to find out whose fault it is that this disaster has overtaken us.

So they cast lots, and Jonah was singled out. I would note that Jesus also had lots cast for his clothing.

Yeah, it's kind of fascinating, you know, and so here's the thing, in the types and the shadows you can see connections back, but it's not like a one -to -one code that you're cracking, it's just, it's the idea, okay, yeah, you know, that reminds me of Christ in this way.

So they said to him, tell us whose fault is it that this disaster has overtaken us? What's your occupation? Where do you come from?

What's your country? Who are your people? And he said to them, I'm a

Hebrew, and I worship Yahweh, the

God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land. And hearing this, the men became even more afraid, and they said to him, what have you done?

The men said this because they knew that he was trying to escape from Yahweh, because he had previously told them, because the storm was growing worse and worse.

They said to him, what should we do to you so that the sea will calm down for us? He said to them, pick me up and throw me into the sea so that the sea will calm down for you, because I know it's my fault.

You are in the severe storm. Instead, they tried to row back to land, but they were not able to do so because the storm kept growing worse and worse.

So they cried out to Yahweh, oh please, Yahweh, don't let us die on account of this man.

Don't hold us guilty of shedding innocent blood. Now here's the fun part, is that for them, you know, he's, he seems like an innocent enough guy, but he's as guilty as sin.

He's like running away from God, you know. And so you'll note, there's something going on here. Remember, his death and his resurrection are a type and shadow of Christ's death and resurrection, and the sign that Christ gave to the people who were looking for a sign from him.

So after all, you, you Lord, have done just as you please. So they picked Jonah up, threw him into the sea, and the sea stopped raging, and the men feared

Yahweh. And you, again, you think about Jesus, you know, in the boat, in the boat, and you know, and he, you know, he's asleep at the, you know, at the captain's couch, and as soon as they say, don't you care that we're gonna die?

The boat's sinking, and he gets up and he says to the storm, be quiet, which I'm, now he didn't say,

I'm trying to sleep, that's the Roseboro paraphrase. But immediately the storm calmed down, and they were asking themselves, who is this guy?

Who is this guy? And you'll note that in a similar miracle, here this tempest has come up, and Jonah, as soon as they throw him into the raging sea, it goes calm.

Okay, and so the result of this, the men feared Yahweh greatly, and they earnestly vowed to offer lavish sacrifices to Yahweh.

So, you know, they, they end up, they're firm believers in Yahweh now. Yeah, that's kind of the point, because the, the one true

God, he has control over the weather, complete control. Now, the

Lord sent a huge fish. Now, it's not a whale, it's a fish. He sent a huge fish to swallow

Jonah, and Jonah was in the stomach of the fish three days, three nights.

And Jesus himself in Matthew makes it clear, Matthew 12, this is a shadow of his death and his resurrection.

Pay attention to that three days, three nights stuff, right? So Jonah, while he's in the midst of the belly of this fish,

Jonah prayed to Yahweh, his God, from the stomach of the fish. And he said, I called out to Yahweh from my distress, and he answered me.

From the belly of Sheol I cried out for help, and you heard my prayer. You threw me into the deep waters, into the middle of the sea, the ocean current engulfed me.

All the mighty waves you sent swept over me. I thought I had been banished from your sight, that I would never again see your holy temple.

Water engulfed me up to my neck. The deep ocean surrounded me. Seaweed was wrapped around my head.

Now, that the seaweed wrapped around Jonah's head, since we know we're dealing in type and shadow with Christ's death and his resurrection, that's a foreshadowing of the crown of thorns of Christ.

Now it shows up as seaweed. It's just amazing. So I went down to the very bottoms of the mountains.

The gates of the netherworld barred me in forever, but you brought me up from the pit, oh

Yahweh my God. When my life was ebbing away, I called out to Yahweh, and my prayer came to you, to your holy temple.

Those who worship worthless idols forfeit the mercy that could be theirs.

And by the way, this is a verse that few even know exists.

But this is why idolatry is so dangerous. Those who worship worthless idols, these are gods created by human cunning, by the mind and the imagination of man.

They forfeit the mercy that could be theirs. Because Christ has bled and died for the sins of the whole world.

So those who worship false gods, they forfeit mercy. In other words, the person who tells you all roads lead to God, well that's true.

But not once you've met with him, not all roads from him lead to eternal life.

Because all roads will lead you to the day of judgment, where you'll stand before Christ. But only those who've been brought to penitent faith in Christ, who trust in him, only they are the ones who have not forfeited the mercy that is theirs in Christ.

Everyone else by worshiping false gods and refusing to believe and trust in the one true

God, they have forfeited the mercy that could be theirs. Yeah, Jonah 2 8 says that.

But as for me, Jonah prays, I promise to offer a sacrifice to you with a public declaration of praise.

I will surely do what I have promised. Salvation belongs to Yahweh. So then

Yahweh commanded the fish and it disgorged Jonah on dry land.

Now note, Nineveh is inland, so from time to time you'll get the the erring but well -meaning

Sunday school teacher who will say, and there were the Ninevites sitting on the beach when all of a sudden this fish came and went, you know, and out came

Jonah. And then he preached to them and they repented. No, that's not how this went down.

So yeah, Jonah was spit up on the shore of some beach on the Mediterranean, and I'm sure his hair was bleached by the stomach acids of the fish and all this, it was just, what a mess.

He's probably needed a week or two to clean up after that. But you kind of get the idea, and so you'll note then that's kind of the first chapter of this, phase one of the story.

And again, I ask you, if you don't already know, why did Jonah refuse to go to Nineveh?

We'll find out. Chapter three. So Yahweh's message came to Jonah a second time, and this message would be the word of Yahweh.

So the bar Yahweh, the word of Yahweh came to Jonah a second time.

Go immediately to Nineveh, that large city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you.

So Jonah went immediately to Nineveh in keeping with Yahweh's message. Now Nineveh was an enormous city.

It required three days to walk through it. When Jonah began to enter the city, one day's walk, he announced, at the end of 40 days

Nineveh will be overthrown.

So you'll note that he's called by Yahweh to preach the destruction and the judgment of Nineveh.

Now a little bit of a note. 40 is an important number in scripture. How many years were the of Israel wandering in the wilderness?

40, right? So here at the end of 40 days,

Nineveh will be overthrown. How long was Christ tempted in the wilderness? 40 days.

So in the times in the shadows, the 40 days, the 40 years, the number 40, oftentimes is dealing with that in -between time, that in -between time, the generation, you know, it's one generation long, you know, between your birth and your death, or you're being set free from slavery and you're finally entering into the true promised land.

That's kind of the idea. So at the end of 40 days, at the end of 40 years, there's judgment, just like at the end of, you know, at the end of your life, you know, at the end of one generation, there's judgment, you've also faced judgment.

So that's kind of how that, it's a little wonky in how I described it, but you kind of get the idea, uh, oftentimes 40s work in that way in scripture.

So at the end of 40 days, Nineveh will be overthrown. But listen to what happened.

The people of Nineveh believed in God, and they declared a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least of them.

Remember what Jesus said about them, that they repented, that, you know, and what did

Jotah pray for the middle of the fish? You know, part of his prayer was that those who worship worthless idols forfeit the mercy that would be theirs.

And here he shows up in town, in Nineveh, and there they've got, you know, they're idol -worshiping war criminals, cruel beyond all measure, just horrible, awful people.

And Jotah's message is, God's going to smite you, 40 days from now it's all over, you're judged by God.

And they believed, and they repented. So when the news reached the king of Nineveh, he got up from his throne, took off his royal robe, put on sackcloth, and he sat on ashes.

Now, he issued a proclamation, he said, in Nineveh, by the decree of the king and his nobles, no human or animal, cattle or sheep, is to taste anything.

They must not eat, they must not drink water. So we're going to fast even to water.

Every person and animal must put on sackcloth and must cry earnestly to God, and everyone must turn from their evil way of living, and from the violence that they do.

And violence, most certainly, is true about them. You know, and you can even say it's cruelty, not just violence.

It's just, it's, it's so, I can't even describe it, it's just that reprehensible.

And so we got to turn from the violence that they do. Who knows, perhaps God might be willing to change his mind, and relent, and turn from his fierce anger, so that we might not die.

When God saw their actions, that they turned from their evil way of living, God relented concerning the judgment that he had threatened them with, and he did not destroy them.

Thus ends part two of the story. So he goes, and he preaches

God's wrath, and his judgment, and they say, yep, we're guilty, forgive us

Lord, have mercy, you're right, we're wrong.

And God saw that they repented, and he relented.

Now remember, one had already died, and risen from the grave. Figuratively, that's

Jonah, right? And so with the preaching of Jonah, Jesus is a preacher of repentance, exactly.

That's the point. Do you see, Jonah is a type and shadow of Christ, up to this point.

He's died, and risen again, preached a message of God's judgment, and called people to repent, and he offers them mercy, if they repent.

Judgment, if they persist in sin and unbelief, and here the Ninevites, they repented.

And in Jesus's day, remember what Jesus said, so he said, an evil, adulterous generation asked for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet

Jonah. For just as Jonah was in the belly of the huge fish for three days and three nights, so the

Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights. And the people of Nineveh will stand at the judgment with this generation, and they will condemn it, because they repented when

Jonah preached to them. But see, when Jesus showed up there in Israel, they didn't repent at all, and somebody greater than Jonah was there.

But see, when Jonah shows up in Nineveh, they repented, and God relented concerning the judgment they had threatened them with, and he did not destroy them.

And in the same way then, you and I, we are called to repent of our sins, and the judgment that God has threatened us with by persisting in sin and unbelief and rebellion against him is an eternity in hell.

There's just no way around it. That's exactly what we all face, and each of us have earned because of our sins.

And so Christ now calls and appeals to us through his disciples who became the apostles, and those now whom he sent into the church, pastors and preachers and evangelists who call people to repent of their sins.

And when you brought to repentance, trust in Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, turn from your evil.

God raising you from the grave, you too, now

God relents concerning the judgment that he's threatened you and I with, and so he doesn't destroy us.

You see, this is a text that still preaches to this day. But now we find out why

Jonah went the opposite direction. Chapter 4.

This displeased Jonah terribly.

And this is where Jonah and Jesus part ways. And I mean it because it says of Christ that who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising its shame so that we can be forgiven.

You see, we being brought to repentance, we being forgiven of our sins is not something that upsets

Jesus. It's the very thing, it's the very joy that was set before him.

Your repentance, my repentance is the very reason is the joy that was set before him, the way he endured the cross, despised its shame, and suffered and bled and died so that you and I can live.

But here, this is where Jonah and Jesus part ways completely. And so now

God is going to have to talk some sense to his prophet. So this displeased

Jonah terribly. I mean, could you imagine? I mean, revival has broken out in Nineveh and Jonah's sitting there going, this is the worst thing ever.

I wanted these Assyrian Ninevites to be destroyed by God, but no, they repented.

So he prayed to Yahweh. He said, oh Yahweh, this is just what I thought would happen when

I was in my own country. And this is why I tried to prevent my attempting to escape to Tarshish.

This is what I tried to prevent by attempting to escape to Tarshish. I didn't want them to repent.

I didn't want them to be forgiven. And here's the reason, because I knew that you are a gracious and you are a compassionate

God, slow to anger and abounding in mercy and one who relents concerning threat and judgment.

The reason why Jonah went the opposite way is because he knew that God forgives. In fact, he's slow to anger.

He's abounding in steadfast love and in mercy, and he relents concerning judgment for anyone who repents.

That's the reason. That's the reason he ran the other way because he knew how forgiving, kind, gracious, merciful, compassionate

God is. He wanted these Ninevites to get what was coming to them.

And now by doing this, Jonah is, well, he's not in a good place.

Let's just put it that way. So now Lord, kill me instead, because I would rather die than live.

So Yahweh said, are you really so very angry? And so Jonah left the city and he sat down east of it.

He made a shelter for himself there and sat down under it in the shade to see what would happen to the city.

And Yahweh God appointed a little plant and caused it to grow over Jonah to be a shade over his head to rescue him from his misery.

Now Jonah was very delighted about the little plant. A little bit of a note here. Although Jonah is like this angry at God, God now is being kind, gracious, slow to anger, merciful, gracious to this errant prophet of his.

So he delighted in the plant. So God sent a worm at dawn the next day and it attacked the little plant so that it dried up.

And when sun began to shine, God sent a hot east wind. So the sun beat down on Jonah's head and he grew faint.

So he despaired of life and said, I would rather die than live. And God said to Jonah, are you really so very angry about the little plant?

And he said, I am as angry as I could possibly be. And Yahweh said, you were upset about this little plant, something for which you have not worked, nor did you do anything to make it grow.

It grew up overnight and it died the next day. Should I not be even more concerned about Nineveh, this enormous city?

There are more than 120 ,000 people in it who do not know right from wrong, as well as many animals.

The end. And so you'll note then the story ends with an assurance and it just, this wonderful thing.

It's like, Jonah, I love these war criminal

Syrian Ninevites. They don't even know right from wrong. Should I not have mercy on them?

Should I not be concerned about them as well as their animals? They are my creatures, my creation.

And so you'll note then the story of Jonah is the story of the kindness, the mercy, the grace, the love, the compassion of God, who is, it is his glory to forgive repentant sinners and to relent of threatened disaster.

And all of this, then you'll note, then we points us to Christ because Christ takes up the sign of Jonah for himself.

And then you can see the connections. It's just absolutely amazing when you think about it.

And when you read the story in its entirety and not just chapters one and two, and then twist it to be made, you know, make it about you when it's not, unless of course you identify with the

Ninevites and you should, and I do as well. And I should as one whom

God has concerned for and has offers mercy and compassion and forgiveness. Then you can find yourself in this text.

You are a Ninevite in need of repentance. And that was the point that Jesus made even to these

Pharisees and to these people who were looking for a sign from him. An evil and adulterous generation,

Jesus said, asked for a sign, but no sign will be given it except for the sign of the prophet Jonah. For just as Jonah was in the belly of the huge fish for three days and three nights.

So the son of man will be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights. And the people of Nineveh, they will stand up at the judgment with this generation and they will condemn it because they repented when

Jonah preached to them. And now something greater than Jonah is here. And you'll note that Christ, he does go into the belly of Sheol, goes into death itself.

And on the third day, he rose again from the grave victorious. And that's the sign then for all of us.

Now, the sign of Jonah is the sign that Christ gave for himself, his death, his resurrection to validate that he is who he claimed to be none other than the son of God and human flesh in him, the whole fullness of the deity dwells bodily.

And he calls us to repent of our sins, to be forgiven so that he would relent of the disaster threatened us because of our sin and rebellion against us.

Because who of us can say that we are better than the Ninevites? So many of us have acted in the ways that show that we do not know right from wrong either.

And even when we do, we still end up choosing wrong. So repent of your wickedness and be forgiven.

The one true God is merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and has sent his son even greater than the prophet

Jonah to bleed and die for you. And on the third day, rise again from the grave so that you can be forgiven and experience his great love and compassion even for you.

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