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The Sign of Jonah: Pointing to Christ’s Death

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The Sign of Jonah: Pointing to Christ’s Death
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The Jesus Christ Focused Old Testament

Donald W. Parry

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Contents

Introduction
Prophecies of Jesus Christ’s Mortal Ministry and Atonement
Symbols that Testify of Jesus Christ
The Lord Jesus Christ: Conquering Hero
Jesus Christ is the Lord of History: Nine Major Historical Eras
The Lord Jesus Christ: Potter, Captain, Shepherd, and More
The Lord Jesus Christ Controls the Nations: Book of Judges Case Study
Old Testament Passages Cited by Jesus Christ
Messianic Prophecies in the Psalms
Psalm 22 and Its Fulfillment in Jesus Christ
Isaiah’s Prophecies of the Mortal Messiah
The Messiah in Isaiah 53: Four Recurring Themes
Names, Titles, and Metaphors of the Lord Jesus Christ
Lord (Jehovah): The Most Frequently Used [Content] Word in the Hebrew Bible
Equivalent Designations of the Lord Jesus Christ in the Old and New Testaments
God: Compound Names
Lord: Compound Names
The Lord Is Our Savior
The Lord (Jehovah) Is Our Redeemer
The Lord Is Our Atoner
Jesus Christ Is the Messiah
Jesus Christ Is the Lord
One, Three, and Seven: Sacred and Symbolic Numbers
Seven and Sacred Time
Prophets and Prophetesses: The Lord’s Messengers
Eve: Life and Help: A Type of Christ
Adam: “The Figure of Him that Was to Come”
Melchizedek: Type of Christ
Isaac: Type and Shadow of Christ
Joseph of Egypt: Foreshadow of Christ
Moses: Type and Shadow of Jesus Christ
Elijah: Symbol of Jesus Christ
Job: Suffering Servant, A Type of Jesus Christ
Hosea’s Family: Symbols of the Lord for Ancient Israel
The Sign of Jonah: Pointing to Christ’s Death
Priests and High Priests: Foreshadowing Jesus Christ
The Lord Reveals Cycles of Sacred Time
Striking Blood on the Doorposts: The Passover Anticipates Jesus Christ
The Day of Atonement: Messianic Foreshadowing
“A Feast to the Lord”: Sacred and Secular Meals
Parallelisms: Teaching About the Lord Jesus Christ Through Poetry
Chiasmus: Unique Presentations of the Lord’s Word
The Psalms: Praises to the Lord Jesus Christ
Lord: Focused Prophetic Speech Forms
Prayers: Mortals Seeking the Lord’s Divine Favor
Worshipping the Lord Jesus Christ through Music and Song
Law of Moses: Anticipated Jesus Christ and His Atonement
Manna: Symbol of Jesus Christ
Symbols of Christ in the Tabernacle of Moses
Sacrifices Under the Law of Moses: Six Acts
Sacrifices: Symbols of Jesus’s Atoning Sacrifice
Diet Code: Unclean and Clean Animals
God Is a Holy Temple: Temples and Sacred Space
The Atonement-Focused Earthly and Heavenly Temples
Jesus’s Royal Ancestry: Rulers of the Kingdom of Judah
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Contents

Introduction
Prophecies of Jesus Christ’s Mortal Ministry and Atonement
Symbols that Testify of Jesus Christ
The Lord Jesus Christ: Conquering Hero
Jesus Christ is the Lord of History: Nine Major Historical Eras
The Lord Jesus Christ: Potter, Captain, Shepherd, and More
1 2 … 10 Next »

Donald W. Parry, “The Sign of Jonah: Pointing to Christ’s Death,” in The Jesus Christ Focused Old Testament: Making Sense of a Monumental Book (Springville, UT: Book of Mormon Central, 2022), 96–97.

When certain scribes and Pharisees said to Jesus, “Master, we would see a sign from thee,” He responded, “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” (Matt. 12:38–39). Jesus then taught the scribes and Pharisees valuable lessons. Jesus Christ’s comparison to Jonah has three significant aspects:

1. Perhaps that evil generation was seeking an immediate sign, such as healing the sick or the blind, but Jesus offered them the greatest sign of all, one that points to His death and subsequent Resurrection.

2. Jesus compared Jonah’s three days and three nights in the whale to the three days and nights that He, Jesus, would spend in the abode of the spirits of the dead. The sign of the prophet Jonah refers to Jesus’s death, burial, and Resurrection.[1]

3. When Jesus stated “Behold, a greater than Jonas is here,” He was comparing Himself to Jonah. Indeed, Jesus is greater than Jonah.

Jesus informed His audience that the Ninevites had repented at the preaching of Jonah, but Jesus’s audience had failed to repent at His teaching, even though He was greater than Jonah.

There are other ways in which Jonah served as a type of Jesus Christ. One outstanding example is when Jonah was sleeping on the ship during the raging storm. The ship’s captain came to Him and said, “What meanest thou, O sleeper? arise, call upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not” (Jonah 1:6). This parallels the occurrence when Jesus slept in the ship during a great storm and others awoke Him and said, “Master, carest thou not that we perish?” (Mark 4:38–39). In the first instance, Jonah’s being cast into the sea was the cause of the storm’s ceasing, and in the second, Jesus caused the storm to cease.



[1] McConkie, Doctrinal New Testament Commentary, 1:276–78.

The Sign of Jonah: Pointing to Christ’s Death

Jonah and Nineveh

Theme

Matthew 12:39–41

“Now the lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah” (Jonah 1:17).

The Sign of Jonah

“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.”

“And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights” (Jonah 1:17).

Three Days and Nights

“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.”

“So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth . . . [and] turned from their evil way” (Jonah 3:5, 10).

Nineveh’s Repentance

“The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas.”

Jonah’s preaching persuades more than 120,000 people of Nineveh (Jonah 4:11) to repent, but Jesus is “greater than Jonah.”

Christ: One Greater Than Jonah

“And, behold, a greater than Jonas is here.”

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