GREATER THAN JONAH

Jonah came from Galilee. He was a prophet from the ancient past of Israel and was not popular in the days of Christ. In John 7. 52 the Pharisees claimed that no prophet came out of Galilee, but they were wrong. Jonah had been from Gath-hepher in Galilee, 2 Kgs. 14. 25, and Easton’s Bible Dictionary.

What a surprise it must have been to the Scribes and Pharisees to hear the Lord Jesus describe Himself as greater than Jonah. In the Lord Jesus’ mind Jonah was great. How gracious God is to Jonah the runaway!

Jonah was great because of the message he carried, a message from the Most High God. Our Lord Jesus is greater because He did not come to bring a message, He was the message.

The second reason Jonah was great was that he had been in the belly of the whale for three days and three nights as a result of his disobedience. The Lord Jesus was three days and three nights in the heart of the earth as a result of His obedience. Jonah was a sign; the Lord Jesus was the fulfilment of what the sign foretold.

Jonah was a great preacher but the Lord Jesus was the prince of preachers. The tragedy is that they repented at the preaching of Jonah but they refused to believe on the Son of God.

The Lord Jesus was always obedient to the will of God, but Jonah was only obedient after drastic action had been taken to make sure he did what God had said.

Jonah’s actions put the sailors he was with in danger of their lives whereas the Lord Jesus came that those He met ‘might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly’, John 10.10.

Finally, we see the greatness of the mercy of the Lord Jesus. Jonah knew that God was a merciful God; he knew that if the people responded to his preaching that God would forgive them. This was the reason why he did not want to go in the first place. He did not want these gentile people to be blessed. The Lord Jesus is the Son of God, He is ‘not willing that any should perish’, 2 Pet. 3. 9. Today, let us seek to follow the steps of the ‘greater than Jonah’.