Jonah the Book

The Book of Jonah with his whale is so familiar to us that it has become what seems to be a children’s story. The highlight is Jonah’s long weekend in the belly of the whale and the higher meanings of the allegory are ignored or unrecognised. By higher meanings I refer to the worm ridden plant which in dying brings us to the reality of the Resurrection.

The Sign

38Then some of the scribes and Pharisees said to Him, “Teacher,we want to see a sign from you.”39 Jesus replied,”A wicked and adulterous generation demands a sign, but none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40 For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth…Matthew 16:38-40 NIV

(some experts say that the great fish may have been a whale shark)

Berean Study Bible

Jonah’s Anger at the Lord’s Compassion – or why is God an Indian giver?

Thought – Why did Jonah throw himself overboard anyway?:To give his life for the Israel he so loved. To prevent their repentance. For if they continued to live they would remain the Enemies of his Israel.

Nineveh has repented and wears the clothing of a spent fire. Jonah is angry and flees the city to the nearby desert. He is hot and cranky, resentful and nursing “I told you so” in his cold little heart.

God causes a plant to grow shealtering Jonah from the desert heat- (read the article below the image) – Jonah was sitting under a vegetable. Possibly one of these kind of Marrows, they may grow up to 10 feet tall, quite quickly but not as quick as the one custom made for Jonah.

For I am a worm,

Tired, dejected and not a little pi..ed off Jonah retreats to the desert where God causes a plant – the gourd,. to grow to shealter the exhausted prophet. Jonah is so thankful for the shade it brings, and he loved it. But in the morning the Plant is dead, Jonah is disconsolate for what he loved had been taken away-God had sent a worm to destroy it.

…[T]he LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD. Job 1:21 KJVS

Why would a loving God remove the only love of one of his creatures? God scolds Jonah for having pity for the death of something he did not make. Not for one minute had Jonah given thought to thanking God for providing the Plant, as though his little patch beneath its shealter was not subject to creation but to something magical which Jonah now idolized.

Allegorically-The worm in the story represents Jesus Christ.

The Hebrew word for grub is ‘towla’ and means “a crimson grub, a scarlet worm.” Red represents the blood of Christ, and is also used to color the curtains in the tabernacle and the clothing of the high priest. So we are left with the quote below.

“As the worm destroyed the gourd, so the work of Jesus Christ destroyed
the Mosaic Law from having any authority over us. The work of Jesus
Christ is death to all efforts to be saved or be spiritual by the works of the
law.”

The worm in the plant is christ

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JONAH AND THE “GOURD” AT NINEVEH: CONSEQUENCES OF A CLASSIC MISTRANSLATION