The scene was set around the eighth century BC, in the Assyrian capital city of Nineveh—a city that spanned over seven miles in circumference and housed an estimated 120,000 people within its walls. The Assyrian Empire, notorious for its violence and brutality, ruled with iron-fisted cruelty. And into the heart of this empire walked a lone Israelite prophet.
Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach to it the message that I tell you.” So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a three-day journey in extent. And Jonah began to enter the city on the first day’s walk. Then he cried out and said, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”
So the people of Nineveh believed God, proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them. Then word came to the king of Nineveh; and he arose from his throne and laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth and sat in ashes. And he caused it to be proclaimed and published throughout Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, “Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything; do not let them eat, or drink water. But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily to God; yes, let every one turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. Who can tell if God will turn and relent, and turn away from His fierce anger, so that we may not perish?”
Then God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God relented from the disaster that He had said He would bring upon them, and He did not do it (Jonah 3:1–10).
Assyria was a brutal nation, known for its merciless oppression of the northern tribes of Israel and many other peoples. The Ninevite culture was pagan, violent, and barbaric. Does it seem far-fetched to you that they would listen to a seemingly powerless Israelite prophet? Why didn’t they just kill him and continue their usual way of life?
Could this be just a fanciful story—a legend that somehow found its way into the biblical canon? Jesus Christ pointed to the “sign of the prophet Jonah” as the only proof that He was the Messiah (Matthew 12:39–40). Is our faith in Christ based on a myth?
When you consider other scriptures and the historical context of Jonah’s time, there is every reason to believe that the events described in the book of Jonah happened exactly as recorded—and it’s crucial to understand why Christ called these events the sign of His Messiahship.
Even Pagans Feared the God of Israel
First, let’s consider some history regarding the Assyrians and their capital, Nineveh. The Assyrian Empire is widely regarded as one of the most violent in history. Stone-carved reliefs excavated from the ruins of Nineveh vividly depict the brutal practices the Assyrians employed to subjugate their enemies. These carvings were a message to conquered peoples: submit or die. Through terror and cruelty, the Assyrians controlled and enslaved those they conquered, exacting tribute and forced labor as the price for survival.
When the northern ten tribes of Israel split from Judah and Benjamin under Solomon’s son Rehoboam, Israel quickly fell into idolatry under Jeroboam, their new king. This ultimately led to Israel’s defeat and captivity by Assyria, just as God had prophesied (Amos 5:27; 7:17). The Israelites’ rejection of the Sabbath caused them to lose their national identity, while Judah, which kept the Sabbath, retained theirs (Exodus 31:12–17). God referred to Assyria as “the rod of My anger” in bringing about Israel’s punishment (Isaiah 10:5). When Assyria became God’s instrument of judgment, it was a very big stick indeed.
While the Assyrians and other pagan nations preferred their own idols, the Bible records that they were often aware of the God of Israel. From generation to generation, they knew He was a living being capable of tremendous power—especially when He was punishing those who opposed Him or His people. They still resisted His laws, but numerous biblical examples show that pagan nations feared the God of Israel (see 1 Samuel 4:7–8; 5:10–11; 6:20; Daniel 3:26; Ezra 1:2; 7:15; 7:23; Nehemiah 9:10; 2 Chronicles 2:12).
Though they feared the God of Israel, these pagan nations did not worship Him, because they did not want to live according to the moral standards He set. This tendency persists today, as most people live according to the ways of Satan’s kingdom rather than God’s truth. As our Savior explained, “This is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil” (John 3:19). Time and again, the Bible shows that pagan peoples around Israel were aware of and feared the God of Israel. This, at times, included even the Assyrians.
Jonah is mentioned elsewhere in the Bible as a respected prophet in Israel. The book of Jonah begins by identifying Jonah by his family: “Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, ‘Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me’” (Jonah 1:1–2).
We also find Jonah giving a crucial prophecy to Jeroboam II of Israel. Israel had been severely oppressed, perhaps nearly to extinction, and God sent Jonah to the king to tell him to rebel against Israel’s oppressors. Because Jeroboam II followed Jonah’s instruction, the lands of Israel were fully restored to their original borders, reviving Israel as a nation. It was a catastrophe for Assyria—and, no doubt, they remembered it.
In the fifteenth year of Amaziah the son of Joash, king of Judah, Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel, became king in Samaria, and reigned forty-one years. And he did evil in the sight of the Lord; he did not depart from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who had made Israel sin. He restored the territory of Israel from the entrance of Hamath to the Sea of the Arabah, according to the word of the Lord God of Israel, which He had spoken through His servant Jonah the son of Amittai, the prophet who was from Gath Hepher. For the Lord saw that the affliction of Israel was very bitter; and whether bond or free, there was no helper for Israel. And the Lord did not say that He would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven; but He saved them by the hand of Jeroboam the son of Joash (2 Kings 14:23–27).
Though Jeroboam II had gone into idolatry, he was still willing to do what a prophet of the Eternal ordered; Jonah must have been well known as a credible prophet. The Assyrians surely later remembered what had happened and why. Rebellion by Israel must have seemed unthinkable at the time—but, on the word of this particular prophet, Israel had successfully rebelled and regained territory. So, the Ninevites had good reason to believe that Jonah’s pronouncements, however implausible, could be bad news for Nineveh.
As we have seen, the events of the book of Jonah are not far-fetched when viewed in their historical context. We read that when the crew understood Jonah’s identity, they feared greatly (Jonah 1:9–10). The ship on which he had sailed would have had to return to its port after his apparent demise, because its crew had thrown all its cargo overboard—and, after making port, the crew undoubtedly told people about the extraordinary events that had occurred. Then, Jonah, very much alive, showed up on a beach, along with his ride—a uniquely gigantic fish. It must have caused quite a stir. The news of such an event involving a well-known prophet may even have reached the distant city of Nineveh before Jonah did.
The ruler and nobles of Nineveh made a well-informed decision to repent upon Jonah’s preaching—after all, one of Jonah’s earlier prophecies had led to disaster for them. They had good reason to believe that their lives were at stake. Terrified of the power of the God that Jonah represented, they knew that God would do what He said through His prophet.
The Ninevites may have been ruthless and brutal, but they weren’t stupid. When we look at Nineveh’s repentance in the context of the time, it is clear that the ruler of Nineveh made a rational decision.
An Important Prophecy
God sometimes had prophets act out prophecies for emphasis, as when God instructed Ezekiel to make a model of the coming siege of Jerusalem (Ezekiel 4:1–3). Similarly, God had Jonah act out a prophecy. The Eternal Himself—Jesus of Nazareth—was going to fulfill the sign of Jonah and, in doing so, fulfill prophecy.
The sign of Jonah is one of the most important prophecies in the Bible, because it is the only sign Jesus of Nazareth gave that He is the Messiah. “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign,” Jesus said, “and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For 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.” He further added that “the men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed a greater than Jonah is here” (Matthew 12:39–41).
After He had already been baptized by John, Jesus said, “I have a baptism to be baptized with” (Luke 12:50). Jesus also said to His disciples, “Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” (Matthew 20:22–23). What other “baptism” was that? Christ was referring to His death and resurrection—fulfilling the sign of Jonah. And Jesus assured His disciples, “With the baptism I am baptized with you will be baptized” (Mark 10:35–39). They had already had the baptism of John, and—as Christ’s faithful disciples—they, too, would die and await resurrection.
Christ’s fulfillment of the sign of Jonah points us to an obligation we bear, as well. The Apostle Peter was asked, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?” And he responded, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38–39). The Greek word in the text is baptizo, which means “immerse” (see Matthew 3:13–17; 28:19).
Christ told us to repent of our sins (Mark 1:15), and the Apostle Paul said that “by the law is the knowledge of sin” (Romans 3:20). But while repentance changes what we will do, it can’t change what we did. We are guilty and profaned by our past sins, and only one remedy can cleanse us of that guilt—the sacrifice of Christ. It removes the guilt of our past transgressions—“you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us” (1 Corinthians 5:7).
As we live a repentant life of obeying God and keeping His commandments—which God’s Holy Spirit, dwelling in us, makes possible by transforming us inwardly (Romans 12:2)—we still sin and need ongoing forgiveness (1 John 1:8–2:4). All the repentance and commandment-keeping we can ever do in the future cannot remove the guilt of our past sins. Only Christ’s shed blood cleanses us of the guilt of our sins and justifies us.
In our baptism, we are buried in the likeness of Christ’s death—the death He experienced in fulfilling the sign of Jonah. In his letter to the Roman brethren, Paul explained that “we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection” (Romans 6:1–5; also see Colossians 2:11–12). In baptism, we symbolically join Him in the grave, in a picture of His own death, followed by a picture of His resurrection as we rise out of the water.
Christ’s choice of the sign of Jonah is intimately connected with the fact that He is the Savior, the only way we can have eternal life. In fulfilling the sign of Jonah, He was showing us the way by His example. There is no life unless we follow Him into that grave.
Why Jesus Had to Die
We all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). Without Christ, all carry the guilt of their sins. To be freed of that guilt, we must be cleansed, made holy, and reconciled to the Father—and Jesus made the way for us. Not even the most righteous person can achieve that on his own. God is holy, and we cannot enter His divine Family unless we too are holy. Nothing sinful can approach God (see Isaiah 59:2). Unless we are cleansed of our sins and made holy, we cannot be resurrected to immortality in the first resurrection. Truly, “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23).
Thankfully, through the Son of God we have redemption. Our Father has made it possible, through Jesus Christ, for us to be completely forgiven and reconciled with Him. Through Christ, we are no longer accountable for the guilt of our past sins.
Why did Jesus have to die? The sins of the world had to be laid upon a sinless, infinite Being in order to be wiped out. Only Christ, being holy and sinless, could be resurrected to a glorified, immortal body. For us to be resurrected to glory, we must be cleansed, holy, and reconciled—which Christ made possible. “He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again [fulfilling the sign of Jonah]…. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:15, 21).
What was nailed to the stake? Not the commandments of God, but God in the flesh—with the sins of mankind laid upon Him. Our sins were laid on the Passover Lamb of God, and our sins are passed over through His death. Christ’s death made it possible for those who accept His sacrifice to have their guilt removed: “As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us” (Psalm 103:12). We memorialize that each year when we take the Passover.
We are told to “be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins” (Acts 2:38), and in that baptism we emulate Jesus’ death. Jonah had to be under the water for three days and three nights, because it was a prophecy. And the sign of Jonah was the only sign that Jesus would give as official verification that He was, indeed, the Savior. Others did miracles, and others were raised from the dead, but Jesus’ death and resurrection, fulfilling the sign of Jonah, was unique. Jonah’s adventure occurred because of what Jesus would do later—not the other way around. We go into a watery grave and rise out of it in the likeness of Christ’s death and resurrection—awaiting, in newness of life, our own resurrection to immortal bodies like His.
There is redemption through Jesus Christ, pictured by the Passover. There is no eternal life without that redemption from the penalty of our sins. As we take the Passover this year, let us keep Jonah’s great prophecy in mind.