Welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Sunday afternoon Bible study. We are going to continue our study in the Book of Jonah. This is study #2 of Jonah, chapter 2 and I am going to read the last verse of Jonah, chapter 1, in Jonah 1:17:
Now JEHOVAH had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
I will continue into chapter 2 by reading Jonah 2:1-10:
Then Jonah prayed unto JEHOVAH his God out of the fish's belly, And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto JEHOVAH, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice. For thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas; and the floods compassed me about: all thy billows and thy waves passed over me. Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight; yet I will look again toward thy holy temple. The waters compassed me about, even to the soul: the depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head. I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me for ever: yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption, O JEHOVAH my God. When my soul fainted within me I remembered JEHOVAH: and my prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple. They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy. But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of JEHOVAH. And JEHOVAH spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land.
I hope you remember our last study in the Book of Jonah, but I did not. I had to look up the last study and print it out and read it over again. I really have a bad memory if more than a week of time goes by and it is hard for me to keep track of things. And I am glad I did (review it) because I was planning to teach on a lot of the things I already taught last time and that would have been problematic. [Laughter]
Last time we talked about Jonah being in the fish’s belly and we related it to Christ being in the condition of “hell” or “in the heart of the earth.” Notice that the word “belly” is used three times. It said in Jonah 1, verse 17: “And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.” Then the word “belly” is used twice in Jonah 2:1-2: “Then Jonah prayed unto JEHOVAH his God out of the fish's belly, And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto JEHOVAH, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice.”
Three times the word “belly” is used. It is the Hebrew word #990 in Strong’s Concordance and it is used in speaking of the fish’s belly and in speaking of the “belly of hell.” So, the great fish that swallowed Jonah is a picture of “hell,” just as Jesus said, “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.”
It is interesting that when Jesus said he would be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth, we understand that He must be in “hell,” but the three days and three nights’ period began on Thursday night in the Garden of Gethsemane and He had not yet gone to the cross. As Robert read in our earlier study, Jesus was beseeching the Lord that the cup might pass from Him and great drops of sweat, as blood, were falling to the ground and, yet, no hand had been laid upon Him. Then the next day he was brought to trial and went before Pilot; and on Friday He went to the cross; and on Friday afternoon He died on the cross. After this, He went into the tomb from Friday night through Saturday night. The “tomb” is the grave and in the Bible “grave” and “hell” are synonymous. So, if Jesus was “three days and three nights in the heart of the earth,” we must note that He was not literally in the grave until Friday night through Saturday night. If He died during the day on Friday, it would be day one and Saturday would be day two and Sunday morning would be day three, so you would have three days but you would not have three nights. There is no way you can count Thursday night as a time when He was literally in the tomb because He was not, so this means that regarding the three days and three nights of Christ’s passion or suffering, God is looking at “hell,” on one hand, as a condition, starting with the Garden of Gethsemane. On the other hand, He literally went in to the grave or hell.
That may apply to us in our time, but I do not think we will get to that discussion today, but as the believers are being “positioned” in the proper place for our resurrection we must first be conformed to the image of His death, so God is very carefully positioning us in “death” to match the death of Christ that will be conformable to His resurrection. Therefore, when we look at God’s elect, some believers are already in the grave and some are alive on the earth but in the condition of “hell” or the “grave,” as the world has been brought in to spiritual darkness as of May 21, 2011.
We can see that in the case of Jesus and during the three days and three nights in the heart of the earth, He was not more in “hell” when He went to the grave than when He suffered in the garden. It was equally “hell,” whether it was the condition of hell on Thursday night in the Garden of Gethsemane or whether He was literally put in the tomb. And it was equally “hell” or the “grave” for all the elect people that are literally in the graves in cemeteries or for those still alive on the earth after God brought the world in to the “condition of hell.” We can see how Christ’s experience in helpful to us in understand this as we look at what God is doing in these days after the Tribulation in Judgment Day.
It really has struck me how amazing this is because Jonah is a type of Christ. We know that because Jesus said, “For as Jonas …so shall the Son of man be…” As a type of Christ, Jonah went into the belly of the fish and God calls it the “belly of hell.” That Hebrew word translated as “belly” is also translated as “womb,” like it is used in Job 3:10-11:
Because it shut not up the doors of my mother's womb, nor hid sorrow from mine eyes. Why died I not from the womb? why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of the belly?
Job was also a type of Christ and in these verses the word “womb” is used twice and it is the same word for “belly.” Or, we could look at a Messianic Psalm referring to Christ’s suffering and death, in Psalm 22:6-10:
But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people. All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, He trusted on JEHOVAH that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him. But thou art he that took me out of the womb: thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother's breasts. I was cast upon thee from the womb: thou art my God from my mother's belly.
The same Hebrew word appears three times in this passage: twice as “womb” and once as “belly.” So, it is interesting how God is speaking of the Messiah (Christ) and He is making references to the “womb” or the “belly.” And Jonah refers to the “womb of hell.” Let us think of it that way, for a moment. What happens in the womb? In the marriage union, the husband comes together with his wife and God blesses their relationship by forming a child. He knits a child in the womb from the very beginning in conception and He forms what the baby will look like and its gender. Everything the child will become is being formed in the “belly” of the mother or in the belly of the “womb.”
Jonah, as a type of Christ, goes into the “belly” or “womb” of the fish and he is there for three days and three nights and it is called the “belly of hell.” After three days and three nights the fish vomited him out, which is a picture of the resurrection. It is not very pleasant language, but it would be a picture of coming out of the “belly of hell” or out of “death.”
Let us look at another verse in Isaiah 49:1-2:
Listen, O isles, unto me; and hearken, ye people, from far; JEHOVAH hath called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name. And he hath made my mouth like a sharp sword…
When we read this latter statement, we know it refers to Christ because the sharp sword is the Word of God and it Revelation, chapter 19 the “sword” protrudes out of His mouth. It goes on to say in Isaiah 49:2:
…in the shadow of his hand hath he hid me, and made me a polished shaft; in his quiver hath he hid me;
Then it says in Isaiah 49:5:
And now, saith JEHOVAH that formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob again to him, Though Israel be not gathered, yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of JEHOVAH, and my God shall be my strength.
God formed Jesus in the womb, so would the only womb where God could form Jesus be the Virgin Mary’s womb? Well, that is true in the sense that the Lord Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary, but before that the Bible speaks of another “womb” and another experience that relates to the atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ at the foundation of the world. We looked at this last time, but let us go back and look at Psalm 139 where it first speaks of “darkness” in verses 11 and 12 and “darkness” relates to “death.” Then it says in Psalm 139:13-14:
For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.
The word “womb” is our word that was translated as “belly.” This is a Psalm of David and David could have been referring to his own physical conception and formation in his mother’s womb, but David is a type of Christ and he goes on to say in Psalm 139:15:
My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
Why was he made in secret? Speaking to you mothers that have born children, how many of them have you formed “in the lowest parts of the earth”? I do not think there are any earthly mothers that have formed a child “in the lowest parts of the earth.” What is the “lowest parts of the earth”? It is a synonym for “heart of the earth,” as Jesus said: “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.”
It says in Ephesians 4:9:
(Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth?
Christ “descended into the lower parts of the earth” when He experienced the wrath of God as He suffered for the sake of His people to pay the price of death for their sins. When we read a Psalm of David (Beloved) and he says he was fearfully and wonderfully made and he says, “My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth,” he was made a “son.” Remember what it said in Romans, chapter 1 concerning Jesus Christ, verse 4 where it says He was “declared to be the Son of God… by (or through) the resurrection from the dead.” (I left out the middle section of the verse so we can see what is being said.) When Christ arose from the tomb and rose from the dead, at that point He was declared to be the Son. It is just like when you go to the hospital and your little baby boy is born and they finally let the father hold him (they take care because they know fathers are clumsy) and you are holding your son. He has just come out, but where did he come from? He came from the “womb.”
So, if Jesus is declared to be the Son through the resurrection of the dead, then “death” was the “womb.” Death and the grave are synonymous with “hell.” Hell was the “womb” in which Christ was formed and the resurrection was like a birth.
That is how we think about resurrection, is it not? The Bible speaks of two resurrections. The first is the resurrection of the soul. What do we call that? We call it being “born again.” You are “born again” if you experience the resurrection of your soul because your soul was dead and God brought it to life. When life comes from death, it is a “birth,” so you are born again in your soul. Then there is the resurrection of the physical body that will happen after you die and you have been placed in the “grave” or “hell.” (We have to get over the idea that “Hell” is some awful place where some people will be tortured forever.) It is the “grave” and you are placed in that “hell,” but you come up out of “hell” and live again when you get your new resurrected body. The resurrection of the dead is being “born again” in your body.
So, when Christ was in the condition of hell, He was formed, as it were, to be the Son of God, the first begotten from the dead, or the first begotten Son. That is how God viewed it.
I was looking at this and sometimes it is helpful when you are doing several studies series simultaneously. We have the Genesis study, which is ongoing, and we have this Jonah series of studies and then we had a series in Romans, chapter 4. Sometimes, it is helpful because they can sometimes converge when you are looking at one subject and, suddenly, something you are looking at in one place fits in with another study. This happened to me with our study in Romans 4. I may not have noticed it (and I would not notice anything without God’s grace), but since we are doing these different tracks of study and we were looking at Jonah being in the belly of hell, or in the womb, and I was also looking at Psalm 139 and I noticed this statement in Romans 4:17:
(As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead…
To “quicken” the dead means to “bring to life.” That would be a resurrection. It goes on to say in Romans 4:17-19:
… and calleth those things which be not as though they were. Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be. And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sara's womb:
Notice it says, “the deadness of Sara’s womb.” God is saying that Abraham was practically dead, as it says, “he considered not his own body now dead.” He was 99 years old and he was 100 when Isaac was born. It is interesting to note the language about Isaac’s parents as God describes them. The father has a body that is “now dead” and the mother has a “dead womb.” Why would God say that Sara had a dead womb? She was 90 years old and just as it is today when women get older (like past 45) it is not typical for them to have a baby. Every now and then you will hear of a woman bearing a child at 51 or 52, but you never hear of a woman 80 years old having a baby or a woman 90 years old. The womb is “dead.” It is impossible. A child cannot be conceived. A child cannot be formed and, certainly, a child cannot be born of a woman that old. That is how we have always understood this when we read of the “deadness of Sara’s womb,” but who did Sara miraculously give birth to? It was Isaac. And who was Isaac a type and figure of? He was a type of Christ and it says in Genesis 21:1-5:
And JEHOVAH visited Sarah as he had said, and JEHOVAH did unto Sarah as he had spoken. For Sarah conceived, and bare Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him. And Abraham called the name of his son that was born unto him, whom Sarah bare to him, Isaac. And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac being eight days old, as God had commanded him. And Abraham was an hundred years old, when his son Isaac was born unto him.
Sarah bore Isaac miraculously. That is the only way to describe it. Isaac was born of a father whose body was “now dead” and a mother who had a dead womb. Isaac was conceived, formed and born “out of death.” That is really the picture God is drawing here. It was a dead womb and, yet, there was a growing child inside a dead womb that was forming like it said in Psalm 139: “I am fearfully and wonderfully made” and “curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.” Just think of that. Then he was finally “born.” So, the birth of Isaac is a picture of Christ becoming the Son of God through the resurrection from the dead because he came out of a dead womb to life. There is good proof that God wants us to tie the birth of Isaac to Christ’s death and resurrection at the foundation of the world. Why do I say that? How can we prove it? Turn to Hebrews, chapter 11 where it says in Hebrews 11:11-12:
Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised. Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable.
The word “sprang” can also be translated as “begat” or “begotten.” God again says Abraham was “good as dead.” Did you see how it links to the foundation of the world? You are probably saying, “No, I did not and I do not see what you are talking about.” You do not (see it) in the King James translation because the translators encountered a word in verse 11 that probably “threw them for a loop,” to use an expression. Without any question, they were surprised by the Greek word that they translated as “conceived.” It is the Greek word “kat-ab-ol-ay” and it is a word with which you are very familiar, where it says, “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world,” or where it says in Hebrews 4, verse 3: “…although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.” It is “kat-ab-ol-ay.” This word is used eleven times in the New Testament and ten times it is translated as “foundation” in verses that relate to the foundation of the world. It is the word used in Matthew 25:34:
Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:
There are many similar verses and, again, ten times out of eleven it is translated as “foundation.” However, when the translators read the verse where it literally said, “Through faith also Sara herself received strength to foundation seed,” they would have seen it as a similar idea because the world is built upon a foundation and a child is conceived, so it must be (translated as) “conceive.” Actually, the word “foundation” and “conceive” are very close in meaning because it was the conception of Christ, the Son of God, at the foundation of the world that formed the basis for all that would come afterwards regarding this world and universe and the world to come.
By the way, I think I wrote down the literal way of how this should be translated. Literally, it reads: “Sara received power into foundation of seed.” That is how it would literally read. Sara is the mother that provided the “dead womb” and in that womb she received power in the foundation of seed. It tells us, without question, concerning the promised seed in Galatians 3:16:
Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.
So, Christ is the “seed” conceived at the foundation of the world and Sara’s birth of Isaac is a picture of Christ rising from the dead at the foundation of the world. Hebrews 11, verse 10 locks that in by using the word “foundation” and his birth as akin to the resurrection.
Alright, we can see these things based on the deadness of Sara’s womb and the fact that the Bible speaks of the “womb of hell” and the fact that in Psalm 139 God uses the word “womb” in the lower parts of the earth to speak of forming a child, but we wonder why later in the life of Abraham, Isaac and Sarah that God came to Abraham and told him to take his only begotten son up to mount Moriah and to offer him as a sacrifice. You see, if the birth of Isaac relates to the resurrection of Christ at the foundation of the world, there was already “death and resurrection,” but now it is a second time or a second occasion. If we turn to Genesis, chapter 22, we read in Genesis 22:1-2:
And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am. And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac…
Remember, Jesus came into the world as God’s only begotten Son, already declared to be the Son and, here, God is emphasizing that Isaac is already Abraham’s only son. Then it says in Genesis 22:2:
… whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.
Did Abraham begin to question God and argue with God? “This does not make any sense. This is illogical.” No, he did not, but he rose up early in the morning, saddled his ass and went on his way. There was obedience. Earlier Robert mentioned that the characteristic of the child of God is to have an ongoing desire to do the will of God. We do not dispute and argue with God.
We know the historical account as Abraham took his son to mount Moriah and laid him on an altar he had built. He had the fire and the wood and he stretched forth his hand with the knife. Did he kill Isaac? No, he did not, but for all intents and purposes he did, but it was really a demonstration of killing Isaac, was it not? He did not kill Isaac. He had raised the knife and he was about to kill Isaac, but God stopped him and showed him a lamb caught in the thicket to offer instead. The demonstration of Isaac followed the birth of Isaac out of a dead womb, where he became the only begotten son. Then for His own purposes, God went through an elaborate plan in which Abraham would act out these things to illustrate the death of Isaac, but he does not actually kill him. Of course, that would tie in to God causing the Lord Jesus to go to the cross. Christ did suffer and die, but he was not bearing sin. To let us know that the Bible teaches that, I think God held back Abraham’s hand. Not only did God hold back Abraham’s hand, but let us turn back to Hebrews, chapter 11, again. It says in Hebrews 11:17-19:
By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, Of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called: Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure.
Not only was the death an illustration, but it also says that Abraham received him from the dead in a “figure” and the word “figure” is the word for “parable.” He received him from the dead in a parable. Do you see how God has laid out His program and, by God’s grace, we have been learning that the actual payment for sin took place at the foundation of the world and that was the “womb” where the Son of God was formed and He came forth to be declared the Son, the first begotten from the dead? He resurrected at that point and later He entered into earth’s history and made manifest all the things He did on the pages of the Gospels. He was demonstrating or illustrating, just as Isaac illustrated the death. There was also the receiving in a figure of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Let me just quickly go through this so we have it clear. Sarah’s womb was dead. Isaac was the “seed,” pointing to Christ. The seed Isaac, typifying Christ, was conceived in a dead womb. The conception is tied (in Hebrews 11, verse 10) to the foundation of the world. Isaac’s birth is pictured as if he rose out of the belly of hell or death (the dead womb) at the foundation of the world. God commanded Abraham to sacrifice his only begotten son and Abraham obeyed, but God stopped him and, yet, it is as though he had slain him and he received him as risen from the dead in a figure or a parable. Or, Abraham received the son the first time out of the dead womb and he received the son the second time in a figure as if he had arisen from the dead. That is basically laying it all out and it is additional Biblical evidence of what God is doing.
Of course, it all relates to us. We do not have time to get in to this, but let us go back to Psalm 139:15:
My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
Again, that would be Christ. Just as the “seed” (singular) is Christ, God counts the elect for the seed in Christ. You can find that in Galatians 3, verses 28 and 29. So, the seed was formed and those counted for the seed (the nations that Abraham became the father of) are in Christ. It is the same illustration in Psalm 139, as Jesus was “made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.” Then it says in Psalm 139:16:
Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written…
What does that sound like? It is the Lamb’s Book of Life where God recorded the names of all the elect. It says that in God’s book all the members are written. The words “my members” are italicized, but it is conveying the correct idea. We are the body of Christ. We are members of His body where we form one whole body of Christ. While Christ is being “curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth,” there is mention of the Book of Life. Again, it says in Psalm 139:16:
… and in thy book, all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when yet there was none of them.
This was at the foundation of the world. There were “members” in 33AD; there would have been quite several saints of God that had lived and died in the Old Testament, but at the foundation of the world no one was alive. No one existed. The people whose names were recorded in the Lamb’s Book of Life were predestinated, as you see in Ephesians 1, verse 4 where God speaks of predestinating His people. To do that, He needed to know the names and record them. All these were written and fashioned and, yet, “there was none of them” because they did not exist.
This would relate to Jesus’ question: “Are you able to be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?” They responded, “Yes, Lord, we can,” and then Christ affirmed that they would be baptized with the baptism He was baptized with. So, He was at the foundation of the world and we were in Him and, therefore, God developed His salvation program that provided salvation for all of us (elect). But, you see, this is how it relates to Judgment Day in our present time: God has brought the world in to the condition of “hell” or the “grave” and spiritual darkness and, yet, the great multitude of the elect are still alive and living on the earth. We are waiting for the last day when we will come forth out of this “death” or “condition of hell” unto life, so we are being conformed to the image of Christ who was made the Son of God in the “womb” and then came forth, declared to be the Son. This is what is happening with us now. I will close with this verse in 1Thessalonians 5:3:
For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.
The Bible uses the language of “travail upon a woman with child” to describe Judgment Day. In the birth of a child, a woman has “travail” and during the prolonged period of Judgment Day that we are presently in, there is “travail” until the birth. Upon the birth, you forget everything. For joy that a man is born into the world, you forget the sorrow and all the terrible things that happened – it is all in the past and you look ahead to eternity future.