Matthew the apostle wrote how Jesus said, “every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by your words you shall be justified, and by you words you shall be condemned. Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from you. But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonah”, and in chapter twelve and verse forty of his book, Matthew shared how Jesus said, “an evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign” where we read:
For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly;
so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
The verse reads, “For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale's belly;” Matthew began with the word, “for” which means “even as, indeed, seeing then, no doubt and verily” “as Jonah” or “like and similar to the way Jonah whose name means dove and was the fifth minor prophet, the son of Amittai, and a native of Gath-hepher and lived during the reign of Jeroboam II king of Israel” “was three days and three nights” which means “three intervals between sunrise and sunset and from sunset to sunrise” “in the whale's belly” or “inside of the huge fish or whale's stomach, gullet or receptacle of the excrement”. Matthew shared how Jesus told the Pharisees the only sign that would be given to them would be like Jonah who was “three days and three nights” inside of the “whale's” stomach.
The verse goes on to say, “so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” Matthew added the words, “so shall the Son of man be” which means “in the same way will the offspring and posterity of God who is Jesus be” “three days and three nights” or “for three intervals between sunrise and sunset and from sunset to sunrise” “in the heart” which means “within the soul or mind as it is the fountain and seat of the thoughts, passions, desires, appetites, affections, purposes and endeavors” “of the earth” or “pertaining to the ground, country, territory and region”. Matthew shared how Jesus said the “Son of man” would spend “three days and nights” in the center of the earth.
When we think through Matthew's words in this verse, we discover the only “sign” Jesus said would be given to prove He is the Messiah. The story of Jonah is given in the book of Jonah in the Bible, and readers of it know that Jonah was within the “belly of a whale” for “three days and nights” before being vomited upon the shore near Nineveh. Jesus was also in the “heart of the earth” for three days and nights after He was crucified for the sins of the world. Those who examine the story shall not only see the similarity between Jesus and Jonah's time, but they shall discover He is indeed “the Messiah, the Savior of the world and the Son of God”.
Next time Matthew shares how Jesus shares how, “the men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation”, so read ahead, and we shall join together then.
Until
tomorrow…there is more…
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Sermon on the Mount” and the new poetry book "Random Mushrooms
Volumes I and II" and the new novel "Elizabeth County"
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