“So you are still here, I see.”
The little merchant looked up suddenly. A stranger stood in the open doorway, his back to the late-morning sun. The merchant, shading his eyes and blinking into the sunlight, could not make out the face. But the voice! Surely he knew that voice.
“Jonah!”
The man walked into the inn. And for only the second time since Abner had known him, the prophet smiled.
The merchant jumped up from his table and embraced his friend. “The Lord God be praised!” he said. “I truly wondered if I would ever see you again.”
To the innkeeper Abner shouted, “Please, some breakfast for my friend.” Then to Jonah he said, “Please sit down with me and be my guest. And when you wish, tell me of your, ah, your journey.”
“My destination, you mean? For, yes, my journey had an end.”
“And—well, ah, may I ask, what was the end?”
“Salvation.”
Abner gasped. “For … for … Nineveh?”
Jonah nodded. “Repentance,” he said. “Repentance and … they are saved.”
Abner was just staring at the prophet’s face. He could say nothing.
“And I?” said Jonah. “Well may you ask, what of me?” He shrugged. “What can I say? In my passion to uphold the Lord’s good name, His word, I chose even death rather than obedience. Yet I did not know the one to whom I owe my life—nay, my resurrected life—as well as I had thought.”
“You? But you—you are His, His—”
“Yes, I am His friend, as well as His servant. But I am ashamed to tell you that I, even I, did not know His heart so well as I should have—so well as, I think, I do now. He is a God of mercy, far more than He is a God of wrath.”
“Ah,” breathed Abner. He folded his hands on the table and bowed his head. “Ah, a God of mercy! Amen.” His eyes were closed. A tear rolled down his cheek.
In another place, in another time, many, many years after the prophet called Jonah, a group of men stood before one whom they called Teacher. (Others called him the Christ, the Promised One, the Son of God.)
Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from thee.
But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas: For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here.
MATTHEW 12:38–41
“Greater than Jonah” indeed! Jonah brought salvation to the Ninevites because he obeyed God and preached to them. Jesus Christ is the One who is preached! Jonah spoke the word of God. Jesus is the Word of God!
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.
JOHN 1:1–5
And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
JOHN 1:14
The sign of Jonah (his “death” in the belly of the fish for three days, and then his “resurrection”) was to Nineveh. This sign, and the word that God spoke to Nineveh through Jonah, brought repentance and salvation to the Ninevites (even though their repentance, and salvation, was only temporary).
This sign was a type, a prophecy, of the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Through His death (and He was buried three days) and resurrection, the “Word (that) was made flesh and dwelt among us” became salvation to all who believe in Him. And this salvation is eternal!
And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
JOHN 3:14–16
That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.
For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
ROMANS 10:9–13
