Heart of the Earth
by Eric Engelmann
All content © 2023 Static Force, LLC
When are we?
28 AD. During Jesus' ministry on this earth.
Where are we?
The region of Galilee -- west of the Sea of Galilee. North of Jerusalem.
Why are we here now?
Jesus will talk about the "heart of the earth", and he will talk about Jonah who was in a fish for three days and three nights.
Riddle
Here’s the question I’d like to ask:
How did Jesus compare His time in the grave with Jonah’s time in a fish?
I think it's a fair question. One view is that Jonah didn't really die while in the fish -- there was enough air for him to breathe the whole time he was 3 days and 3 nights in the fish. People I've met who hold this view seemed to think the biggest issue about Jonah had nothing to do with life or death. The big issue to them was whether the thing that swallowed Jonah should be called a “whale” or a “fish”.
I differ from this view as I'll show later in this chapter. I think reading the passage of Jonah more like Jesus did could be a bigger issue. Maybe a better question is, "How is Jesus' death like Jonah's time in the" ... whatever you want to call it. Fish or whale – the death is the same.
A Little History
Jonah is a case where the Old Testament predicted Jesus' death by literally counting three days and three nights. Some of the Old Testament predictions count other things like three men.
Jonah was swallowed by a large fish around
760 BC and lived to tell about it. That's about 790 years before Jesus talked about Jonah in this passage. Jonah's path into the fish involved his body stopping in the belly. Jonah, however, said he was conscious of descending to the "roots of the mountains" where he said the earth barred him in.
Jonah's path out of the fish was even more interesting. Jonah thanked God that he was no longer at the "roots of the mountains" – while he was still inside the fish! It wasn't until Jonah said he would do what he had vowed that the fish vomited Jonah onto dry land.
Earlier in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus has performed miracles. He's raised the dead, given sight to the blind, enabled the lame to walk.
Some of the leaders are unhappy. The scribes and Pharisees are pretending that these aren't certified miracles. They want Jesus to play a needless certification game. They're going to ask Him for a sign.
They will want a sign? Jesus will think the account of Jonah is worth quoting when predicting His own 3 days and 3 nights in the grave.
Scripture
Listen for the words "sign", "three" and "Jonah".
Matthew 12
Verse 38 Then some of the scribes and Pharisees said to him, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from you.”
NOTE: Seeing a sign actually takes two parts. One part is performing a sign. The other is people taking to heart what is performed. There's a lot of God's power available to Jesus. Performing signs is not the problem. Jesus has already sent out the twelve disciples to heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those with leprosy, and drive out demons. Jesus has healed a man with a shriveled hand at a party full of religious leaders. They decided they wanted to kill Jesus. The desire to see another sign was just a chance to argue with someone they wanted to kill.
Verse 39 He answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation demands a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40 For as Jonah was in the belly of the huge fish three days and three nights, so the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights.
41 The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at Jonah’s preaching; and look—something greater than Jonah is here.
-- Matthew 12:38-41
That's the end of the passage
Jesus said the heart of the earth was going to hold Him just like the belly of the fish held Jonah. I believe the "heart of the earth" could be a rocky tomb. It may also indicate the place Jonah experienced under the sea. A place where the bars closed behind Jonah for a time.
Jesus will die and his body stay in the grave for three days. There will be air in the tomb, but Jesus won't be breathing it while He’s dead.
In the future
A few chapters later in Matthew, Jesus will talk about the prodigal son. There will be some similarities between the story of the prodigal and the history of Jonah. Both went the wrong way. Both faced hard times. Both repented.
After Jesus will rise from the dead, He'll walk with some of his disciples on a road to Emmaus. Jesus will comment that the Scriptures said the Son of Man will die and rise three days later. He may remind them of the three days and nights Jonah was in the belly of the fish.
Further in the future may we ask ourselves, "Didn't our hearts burn within us while He opened to us the Scriptures?"
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