“For as Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites, so also will the Son of Man be to this generation.”
Luke 11:30 (NIV)
How was Jonah a sign to the Ninevites?
Luke puts a different emphasis on what our Lord says about Jonah then Matthew does - for it is clear in Matthew 12:40 that our Lord is comparing His burial and resurrection to Jonah being in the belly of a great fish, whereas in Luke there is no mention of His death and resurrection - just mention of the sign of Jonah.
Nineveh is a long way from the coast which means the people of Nineveh would not have seen the fish barf Jonah up on the shore - nor would they likely believe a fish story like Jonah's - so what was it about Jonah that made the people of Nineveh believe him? What was his sign?
I have heard some say that Jonah’s skin was stained from being in the belly of the fish - in other words his physical appearance proved his fish story, which gave credibility to his proclamation that Nineveh would be destroyed.
First of all how do you prove that he was stained? Especially when the bible makes no mention of it.
Secondly, we have no record that Jonah mentioned the fish to the people of Nineveh - actually from the terse language in Jonah 3, you get the sense that Jonah’s message was brief and from his reaction recorded in Jonah 4 you get the sense that he would not have bothered telling them anything that would have assisted them in believing his proclamation of impending destruction.
How then was Jonah a sign to the Ninevites?
According to the Scriptures he appeared and proclaimed a message of impending destruction.
Could the sign be the fact that he showed up and preached the message of impending destruction?
It seems that Luke is emphasizing this perspective on Jonah being a sign, for verse 32 states “The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and now something greater than Jonah is here.” In other words all it took for the people of Nineveh to repent was belief in the message of Jonah, and yet you won’t repent even though something greater than Jonah is preaching to you. Not someone but something - not just a message from a prophet but a promise of life from the One who will pay your price.
What we forget today, is that the proclamation of the gospel begins with the proclamation of the sentence of death. We remember that the message of impending destruction was proclaimed by the John the Baptist, but we forget that our Lord proclaimed that message as well- consider John 3:18 “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.” or John 3:36 “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them.”
They didn’t need a sign to be saved - they needed to believe the message of impending destruction in order to receive salvation.
Those around us won’t get any sign other than us bringing the gospel message to them - but will our message include the proclamation of impending destruction.
In today’s Christian world it seems that we don’t believe in 'scaring people into salvation' - and so we part company with the prophets and with our Lord and with our apostles.
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