Jonah 1 - A Picture of Christ (The Storm)

Jonah who gets eaten by a whale and vomited onto the beach after 3 days inside the fishes belly before going to preach to the city of Ninevah. From reading the well-known four-chapters long book, we can see the Lord Jesus portrayed through the character of Jonah and an illustration of God’s plan for salvation that He was to put in place through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The Storm

Read Jonah 1:3-9 and also the accounts of the storm in Matthew 8:23-27 & Luke 8:22-25.

Jonah 1:3-9, Matthew 8:23-27, Luke 8:22-25

As we read, Jonah is on a boat going to Tarshish. A great storm comes. Jonah 1:4 states, “there was a mighty tempest on the sea.” In the same way Matthew 8:24 tells us how when the Lord Jesus and His disciples were crossing over the lake “a great tempest arose on the sea.”

In both accounts Jonah and the Lord Jesus fall asleep during the storm whilst the other men onboard are incredibly afraid. (Jonah 1:5 & Matthew 8:24) Both men are content despite the terrible circumstances around them. Psalm 4:8 states “I will both lie down in peace, and sleep; for You alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.” Both men were completely content and trusting in God.

For Jonah, He was the only Hebrew on the ship, amongst gentiles. Whilst we are told in Jonah 1:5 that the other men “…were afraid, and every man cried out to his god, and threw the cargo that was in the ship into the sea, to lighten the load. But Jonah had gone down into the lowest parts of the ship, had lain down, and was fast asleep.” In Jonah 1:9 we read that unlike the other men who are praying to different Gods, Jonah said to the men when asked, “…I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.”

For Christ, amongst His disciples who lacked faith, He was content in the knowledge of who He was. He knew who He was in God the Father. (Matthew 3:17 “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.”)

Here we begin to see how Jonah is just a type of Christ. He is a picture of the much more superior and majestic Saviour that was to come. Jonah was content in that He feared the One True God; The Lord Jesus was content because He was God.

The ceasing of the storms depended upon both men. Again here we can see how Jonah is just a shadow of the much greater and majestic Christ that was to come. In Jonah, the storm will stop if Jonah is thrown overboard, which will remove God’s wrath from the boat which is in dire straits; In the gospels account, it is Jesus Himself who has authority over the wind and the waves: Matthew 8:27 “So the men marveled, saying, “Who can this be, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?””

 -BACChristian