Yahweh, you brought up my life from the dark grave.

by Alejandro Roque Glez.

“And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights… out of the belly of hell cried I, and you heard my voice… Then I said, I am cast out of your sight; yet I will look again toward your holy temple.”

(Jonah 2:1-7)

The prophet Jonah ministered roughly around the years 790-770 BC, during the reign of Jeroboam II in northern Israel and Amaziah in the southern kingdom. What happened to Jonah was a living prophecy of what would happen to Jesus 800 years later. Christ was crucified and rose again on the third day.

In the case of the prophet, the whale (or great fish) was a symbol of that infernal burial (v.6-7), where he experienced the misery of a decayed matter inhabiting a soul writhed in life. Jesus was also active while his body was laid in the sepulchral garden purchased by Joseph of Arimathea. Christ descended to hell prisons taking his message of hope, preaching to hopeless souls (1 Pet 3:18-19, Acts 2:27, 31) the light he represented and the opportunity to participate in the future––and now close in time––first resurrection (Rev 20:6).

The prophet Jonah never imagined despite his complaint to God that his name would be known through the centuries, and children would sing his story and feel happy to recognize the whale of the seas and the great faith of the prophet. Some self-admiring who call themselves theologians have dared to call Jonah ‘the deserter prophet’ for having resigned to fulfill the instructions of the Lord. There are always people who wanting to appear to be so perfect and religious before God end up pouring profanities through their teeth, with their tongues drunk on arrogance; and such big assumptions boasting some theological knowledge are not enough for them to understand that the Almighty chooses not deserters, but humans who love him with their ups and downs.

The faith of this man of God was huge, and not for nothing Yahweh had chosen him among his followers. Suffice to see that when those men in the boat gnawed in their guts knowing they would kill the prophet––if thrown into the sea––in order to avoid an impending disaster; they asked him: What should we do for the sea to get quiet because it seems we all are about to perish?, and the prophet calmly responds: “Take me up, and cast me forth into the sea; so shall the sea be calm to you” (1:11-15). This seemed to the sailors as a kind of suicide and they made to avoid it at all costs, because they did not understand the faith of the man in front of them, who trusting in Yahweh, which had sent him to prophesy the imminent destruction in the city of Nineveh, knew his God was powerful enough to protect even in the dark and terrible depths of the sea, eventually saving him.

Always, when it is brought to mind the pages about Jonah’s prophecy, it is made an emphasis in his discussion with the Creator, to whom he augurs beforehand that the mission assigned to him will end up in disgust and ridicule knowing that––once seen repentance from the Ninevites––God would abort the punishment which the prophet was to announce, commissioned by the Holy Spirit of God against the citizens of the capital city in Assyria. And thus it finally happened, God forgives a whole city displaying repentance, and makes it look to Jonah by asking: “Do you well to be angry for the gourd?... You have had pity on the gourd… should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than six score thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?” (4:9-11).

God watches carefully for children and animals too. We note that if only a universal handful of humans repent, display regret, and get closer to the Creator, they could avoid the wrath approaching the End Times; however, the statistics and what is perceived in our society indicate that their hearts will hardly be inclined to the Savior and Lord of heaven. The vast majority are stunned in their concupiscences and entertainments seeking only signs in order to believe; according to them, but in fact justifying themselves vainly, perishing in their own ignorance and low esteem, without appreciating the fact about they were created in the image of God. The signs have been given a long time ago. Jesus said: “This is an evil generation: they seek a sign; and there shall no sign be given it, but the sign of Jonas the prophet. For as Jonas was a sign to the Ninevites, so shall also the Son of man be to this generation… Take heed therefore that the light which is in you be not darkness” (Lk 11:29-35).

The prophet Jonah felt in his whale’s tomb or symbolic grave as being a living dead, suffering hell around him, in the dark depths of the sea; albeit knowing that once raised up to full life (v.7), he would see again the holy Temple of God (v.5). May Adonai wanting that like the prophet Jonah, one day you could also utter these words and hail with sincere praise and rejoicing: “yet have you brought up my life from corruption, O Yahweh my God” (v.6).

(Also read the author's book entitled: 'The Great Peacemaker from Hell,' which recreates in a narrative form the final events, now very close).

[The prophetic events for those last three years of the End Times are explicatively compiled in the author's book entitled: 'Revelation of Saint John. Interpretationof the Book'] 

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