Who would have thought that a disobedient prophet in the Old Testament could in any way foreshadow the coming Messiah, the Savior of the world? Yet our God “works all things according to the counsel of His will” (Eph. 1:11).

The Lord instructed Jonah to go to Nineveh and cry against it because their wickedness had come up before God. But Jonah went in the opposite direction from which the Lord had told him to go. His disobedience brought him into the sea, and into the belly of the great fish. What a contrast with the Lord Jesus, the Son of Man. He was the faithful Servant, always doing what pleased His Father (Jn. 8:29). He was always obedient. Coming into the world, He would say, “I delight to do Your will, O My God” (Ps. 40:8). Leaving the world, He would say, “not as I will, but as You will” (Mt. 26:39).

Where Jonah ended up because of His disobedience, the Son of Man, the Lord Jesus Christ, ended up because of His obedience. Jonah was in the belly of the great fish for three days and three nights. The holy, obedient Son of Man was in the belly of the earth in death for three days and three nights. Jonah was there because of his own disobedience. The Son of Man was there because of our disobedience, mine and yours.

The name “Son of Man” reminds us of the Lord’s true humanity. As God, He could not die, but He was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death. We rejoice that, as Jonah was vomited up after those three days and three nights, so the Son of Man rose from the dead on that first day of the week. And as Jonah preached to the city of Nineveh, so the Lord Jesus preaches peace to all who will hear. Have you heard His voice?