“¹⁷ And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.” (Jonah 1:17)

The Bible’s most famous “fish story” has been the target of skeptics for hundreds of years, but it was confirmed by none other than the one who Himself prepared the great fish: “⁴⁰ For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” (Matthew 12:40).

Jonah might actually have died and gone to “hell.” “² saying, “I called out to the Lord, out of my distress, and he answered me; out of the belly of Sheol (hell) I cried, and you heard my voice.” (Jonah 2:2). The testimony of Jesus was similar: “For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol (hell), or let your holy one see corruption. (Psalm 16:10); For you will not abandon my soul to Hades or let your Holy One see corruption.” (Acts 2:27). Jonah also prayed: “I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever; yet you brought up my life from the pit, O Lord my God.” (Jonah 2:6). His prayer ended: “Salvation belongs to the Lord!” (v. 9), and this is the very meaning of the name “Jesus.”

So, 900 years before Christ died and rose again, Jonah might have died and risen again, a remarkable prophetic type of the mighty miracle that the Lord would accomplish one day to bring salvation and life to a world dead in sin. Only the power of God could direct a prepared fish to save Jonah, then three days later allow him to preach repentance and salvation to the lost souls in Nineveh. Then, finally God Himself, in Christ, died on a cross for the sins of the world, and it took the infinite power that created the very universe itself to bring His own soul back from hell and, three days later, to rise again. This is “¹⁹ and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might ²⁰ that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places,” (Ephesians 1:19-20). Truly, “and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.” (Matthew 12:41). (Adapted from ICR Devotion 9-24-24)