Bully’s Blog

or Suffering as the Most Holy Place

The content of this post has been revised and included in Bible Matrix II: The Covenant Key.

_______________________________________

See also James B. Jordan, In the Fish or The Church as Tomb.

Extra note: At Passover, the lamb or kid was slain at midnight. At Atonement, the blood was presented during the day but in the darkness of the Most Holy Place. At the crucifixion, midday became midnight, and the Temple veil was rent in this darkness. Atoning blood is presented in the dark.

Pic: Jonah by Michael O’Brien, www.studiobrien.com
Artist Commentary: Jonah the reluctant prophet is swallowed by the whale, and will soon be spewed out onto a shore. In the belly of the whale he must surely feel that his life and his mission have ended. Yet in a sense he is about to be born.

Jonah’s prayer from the belly of the fish (Jonah 2) takes us back to the world of Noah. Jonah’s world had been de-created by a flood. Soon, the mountains of Israel would also be covered, and this would be the prayer of God’s people in captivity.

The prayer describes the grave as a prison with gates or bars, a stronghold where the dead are justly incarcerated, awaiting judgment. King Hezekiah also used this language (Isaiah 38:10).

There was only one Man who could set these captives free. He would bind the “strong man” guarding the gates by repeating the sign of Jonah, and plunder the house (Matthew 12:29-29, 39-41).

You will remember that St. Paul is another Jonah and he takes the Gospel to the Gentiles. He forsakes the Jews and, in fact, at the end of Acts 28, he really casts them off and says judgment has come upon them to the uttermost. Of course, a few years later it does—in the destruction of Jerusalem. Yet Paul says, if it were possible, I wish that I could be damned for my brethren in Israel.

Paul had the same attitude as Jonah had, of wanting to see his own people saved. But unlike Jonah, Paul is willing to obey God… he sees that God has compassion on the Gentiles in and of themselves. Jonah, however, has to be persuaded of this. Jonah is so concerned about his own congregation back home that he doesn’t want to take the Gospel elsewhere for fear that it will have bad results in Israel.

James B. Jordan, The Book of Jonah lectures www.wordmp3.com

The prime mover in history is always God. God creates the world and tells men what to do, and men do it, and then God comes and judges them, and tells them to do something else. History moves when God speaks. That is the reason preaching is so important. When the word of God is sounded out into a culture, history begins to move. People can no longer remain neutral, or pretend to be neutral.

James B. Jordan, The Book of Jonah lectures www.wordmp3.com

A sample of the new ESV Study Bible was recently made available.

I liked this observation in the notes:
“Jonah’s rescue from death provides an analogy for the resurrection of Christ… The repentance of the Ninevites anticipates the wide-scale repentance of Gentiles in the messianic era.”

But not this one: “Humor, as Jonah’s behavior is not only ignominious but also ridiculous.”

When the prophets (like Elijah, Elisha and Jonah) were sent to Gentiles, it was to provoke Israel to jealousy because they would not listen to these prophets. Jonah understood his ministry meant condemnation would come upon his own people:

James B. Jordan said,
“I don’t think Jonah was some loyal nationalistic prophet. Jonah was in there every day complaining, criticising, prophesying, and denouncing the kingdom of northern Israel. It won’t do to say that Jonah didn’t want to take the Gospel to another nation. No, Jonah has something more profound in mind. Jonah was thinking about Deuteronomy 32:21. He didn’t want to take the Gospel to the Gentiles, because to do so was to bring about a curse on the Israelites. ”1

Paul was a more faithful Jonah, understanding this curse but obeying it nonetheless (Romans 9:3; Acts 28:28)

The study Bible looks good though.

1  Lectures on Jonah, available from www.wordmp3.com

[Originally posted 21 August 08]