Easter Reflection
The Resurrection of Jonah
Make sure you read that title correctly. Not the resurrection of Jesus, but the resurrection of Jonah. Jesus’s comments in Matthew 12:39–40 prompt me to see Jonah 2 in a different light:
But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For just 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.”
Jonah’s is most likely a figurative resurrection—although some contend that it may well be literal—but it alludes to another literal resurrection.
The book of Jonah is famous for reasons other than resurrection. When Jonah is mentioned, the great fish is what looms large in most people’s minds. It is in the psalm that Jonah utters from the gut of the great fish that resurrection hope is found, however. In this psalm, or perhaps better, this prayer, recorded in Jonah 2, Jonah is figuratively portrayed as dead on the seafloor (vv. 5–6b). He is as good as dead. The downward journey that Jonah has been on for two chapters has hit rock-bottom.
But God.
God intervenes: “‘Yet you brought up my life from the pit, O Lord my God,’” Jonah testifies (v. 6c). God has transformed death into life. Jonah is on his way up from the watery grave. Surely, some might say, this is simply Jonah praising God for rescuing him from the great fish. It has nothing to do with resurrection, does it? That might be a fair point if it wasn’t for the fact that Jonah utters these words of praise from the gut of the great fish. In the pitch black, with great fish bile sloshing around his feet, Jonah is certain of life. It is remarkable. Only after this psalm is prayed does Jonah find himself on dry land (2:10). In Jonah’s psalm we witness an assurance of things hoped for, and confidence in that which is yet unseen.
This reading of Jonah finds further support by noting that Jonah is in his “grave” for three days (1:17) and recalling that Jesus himself pointed to Jonah as a sign of his impending resurrection (Matt. 12:38–42). Indeed, in this, Jesus is likewise expressing assurance of things hoped for, confidence in that which is yet unseen.
If this is the confidence that Old Testament saints like Jonah possessed, how much more we who have the record of Jesus’s resurrection and the promise that he was the first among many to rise (Rom. 8:29; Col. 1:18). Although we still do not see the hope that lies beyond the grave with perfect clarity, we do see it more clearly than the saints of old. If Jonah viewed resurrection hope through the thick early morning fog, we now view it through the dissipating mid-morning mist.
We must therefore be careful to read each individual chapter of Scripture not only within the context of the individual book within which it is found, but also in the canon of Scripture. When we read Jonah 2, we can see the resurrection of Jonah. This resurrection, because it points to Jesus’s, emboldens us with the certainty of our forthcoming resurrection.
Note: This article is a lightly adapted excerpt from Davy Ellison’s book entitled Raised According to the Scriptures: Easter in the Old Testament (Wipf & Stock, 2024).