The Three Day Symbolism

In the Old Testament student manual we read this commentary (originally by C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch) about the book of Jonah: “The mission of Jonah was a fact of symbolical and typical importance, which was intended not only to enlighten Israel as to the position of the Gentile world in relation to the kingdom of God, but also to typify the future adoption of such of the heathen, as should observe the word of God, into the fellowship of the salvation prepared in Israel for all nations.”  This makes a lot of sense to me; the Lord was teaching the Israelites that all who would repent and come unto Him would be blessed, and that Israel had no monopoly on the Lord’s love or concern.  Jonah great frustration seems to have been that he didn’t want the Lord to bless or forgive the Assyrians because they were so wicked and such bitter enemies of the Israelites.  He told the Lord, “Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness” (Jonah 4:2).  He feared that the Lord’s grace and kindness that He knew had been given to Israel would also be given to the Assyrians. 

          This idea of the story of Jonah really being about non-Israelites accepting the gospel perhaps helps us understand why the Savior referred to the story of Jonah as being symbolic of Himself.  When some Pharisees came to him saying, “Master, we would see a sign from thee,” He responded, “An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas: 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” (Matt. 12:39-40).  The obvious symbolism is that just as Jonah was in the whale for three days and nights, so would Christ be dead for about three days before being resurrected.  But it seems like the Savior might have been pointing to more than just that in the comparison.  Just as Jonah was to take the gospel outside of Israel to those who really hadn’t had the opportunity to hear it, so too would Christ in those three days organize the missionary efforts for the spirit world: “His ministry among those who were dead was limited to the brief time intervening between the crucifixion and his resurrection….  From among the righteous, he organized his forces and appointed messengers, clothed with power and authority, and commissioned them to go forth and carry the light of the gospel to them that were in darkness, even to all the spirits of men; and thus was the gospel preached to the dead” (D&C 138:27, 30).  Jonah was opening the door of salvation to those who weren’t “the people of God” just as Christ in that short period of time would open the way for all who had lived on the earth to repent and receive salvation.  Even though Christ’s earthly ministry was essentially only to Israel, His first action when he died was to expand it beyond Israel on the other side of the veil.  And then the apostles themselves would take the gospel in dramatic ways to the Gentiles in the years that followed.  The story of Jonah surely teaches us that God is interested in the salvation of all nations—not just the Israelites—and Christ’s Jonah-like time in the grave was another witness of God’s love for all His children.