A Picture Worth a Thousand Words
Scripture Reading: Jonah 1:15
So they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging.
Jonah has a typological element in it. We know this because Jesus pointed to Jonah being in the fish’s belly and then being delivered from it as the sign of His resurrection. Jonah’s experience was a picture or foreshadowing of the resurrection of Jesus.
It seems to me that there may be a typological use of Jonah’s being cast into the sea as well. If not a type in the theologically technical sense, it is at least a good biblical illustration of Christ’s death as a substitutionary sacrifice.
There are interesting parallels between Jesus and Jonah. For example, Jonah is asleep in the boat with the mariners. When the storm comes upon them, he is unaware and has to be awakened by the seaman. Jesus was in a boat with his disciples. When the storm came he was still asleep and had to be awakened by the disciples.
When it comes to verse 15, it is interesting that Jonah doesn’t throw himself overboard. The mariners pick him up and hurl him into the sea. The mariners, by the way, are gentiles. Jonah is a Jew. The sea is stirred up and threatening the lives of these men, not as a mere natural occurrence, this is the wrath of God coming upon them. And it is Jonah being thrown into that wrath to die that quiets the storm and saves the lives of the other men on the boat.
This is a wonderful type of illustration of what Christ has done. He was lifted up by the Gentiles and given over to die at their hands. When they cast Him into the sea of God’s wrath on the Cross, the storm of God’s wrath against man was stilled. Jesus became the substitute for us.
The sea of wrath has ceased its raging because Jesus let it all fall on Him in our stead.
