Jonah was the fifth of the Minor Prophets according to the order of the bible.
Even though Jonah was a prophet, his little book is not a prophecy. It is, instead, a
personal account of a major event in the life of Jonah and, as the narrator, he tells us his
experience. Conservative scholars place the writing of this book before 745 B.C His name
means dove. It would be rash and unjust to say that there was nothing in Jonah
corresponding to the dove. His beautiful ode, and the bitterness of his grief, as well as the
exuberance of his joy, show at least that he was a man of the most exquisite sensibility.
The name was given to him from his father Amittai, a native of Gathhepher, a town of
Lower Galilee in Zebulon (2 Kings 14:25). He lived after the reign of Jehu, when the
losses of Israel (2 Kings 10:32) began; and probably not till the latter part of the reign of
I The comparison between Jonah and Jesus
1. Jesus' sermon using Jonah as a comparison
a. Leaders forgot God's grace
B. The "death" of both Jesus and Jonah.
1. Three day disappearance from the land of the living
a. Jonah might have been alive physically, but felt good as dead.
a. Finished his work on the cross.
a. Both guarded against human interference.
a. Not accidental, but determined by God.
3. The shadow forth the future entombment of God's son.
This book in many ways shows the relationship between Jesus and Jonah, in that
Jonah being swallowed by the whale shows relationship to Christ's burial and resurrection.
Many centuries after Jonah's incident, Jesus used Jonah as the sign of His
resurrection, and used it in one of his own sermons. The topic arose when Jesus was
approached by some Jewish leaders claiming they needed to see a sign from Him before
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