Matthew 12:40 Commentary and Bible Study

The sign that they will receive is the fulfilment of the prophecy of Jonah, which was a mysterious sign. Nothing that happened to the prophets and that is recorded in Scripture is without meaning. Christ confirms the literal record of the Book of Jonah. The fearful discipline that Jonah suffered for his refusal at first to carry out his divine commission had a greater purpose, Christ teaches, than simply to get him to obey. His disobedience was foreordained by God and so was his punishment. It was a small picture of the terror that the Son of man was going to experience on Calvary. We read of Jonah’s being swallowed by the whale or sea monster, and of the hopelessness of his situation and the prayer that he uttered and we can gain some insight into the awful experience of the Christ on the cross as he made an atonement and paid the price for the sins of his people. Jonah felt the hopelessness of being shut up in the fish’s belly, beyond the reach of all help, and it seemed as if he could never come out of this place. Christ felt the hopelessness of a soul cast out of God’s presence forever and what it is to be eternally lost. His body remained in the belly of the earth – a figure of being buried and remaining in death for a time. Nevertheless, like Jonah, he prayed to the Father ‘and was heard in that he feared’ and God raised him from the dead. As the fish regurgitated Jonah on dry land, so Christ was raised from the dead, ‘because it was not possible that he should be holden of it’ (Acts 2:24). The sign of Jonah is then a picture of the death and resurrection of Christ. This sign will be given to that generation in that many of them will witness these events in their lifetimes, and yet, for all that, they will not believe. Yet they will be rendered without excuse, not only because their murderous action will precipitate this sign, but because they should have seen that it was the fulfilment of all that was written about Christ. Most of them would not witness the resurrection personally, or the appearances, but they would get a sign. The preaching of the death and resurrection of Christ would be the sign. They were going to work against even this, for the leaders of the Jews paid the soldiers to keep silent about what had happened (Matthew 28:11-15), but they were without excuse.