Second Death...Part 2

God told Jonah to go preach to the Ninevites...and Jonah [the prophet] ran the other way.

Jonah didn't want the Gentiles hearing the gospel of compassion.

What would happen to the Assyrians [Ninevites] if they died in their sins, without God's mercy?

As I said in 'Second death', part one, they would die and during the time before Christ's second coming their bodies would be laid in the grave but their souls would go to the place of torment.

After Christ's second coming, the last day, judgment day, resurrection day, they would be cast body/soul into the Lake of fire, which the bible calls the second death.

Note--Even though it is called 'death' people will be existing and conscious.

The only way we can try to understand is that they will be in a state of 'living/death' or existing/death because they will be forever cut off from all the blessings of God [the source of true life and every blessing].

Back to Jonah...

God sends a storm after the ship that Jonah is trying to flee in.

The storm is so bad that it is about to break up the ship.

To make a long story [well...its not really that long] short...all the sailors cry out to their gods [idols] and get the usual response...nothing.

Finally, Jonah the prophet instructs them to throw him into the waves of this horrible storm...then the storm will subside.

The sailors heed God's voice and throw in Jonah...and the storm flees.

God prepares a great fish to swallow Jonah...this fish becomes Jonah's casket [tomb] for the next three days...as he tastes death...sheol.

For three days, while in the body, Jonah goes to the place of darkness, silence...he goes to the abode of the dead.

How could Jonah breathe for three days?

I don't know...maybe he didn't breath...maybe the Lord sustained him for those three days...so he was in a state of being...the living/dead.

Our minds are so controlled by "scientific" thought these days...instead of being controlled by God's word.

God is Spirit...He doesn't have eyes...but He can see...wait a minute! the scientific mind says...how can you see without an eye?

God created light then He created the light bearers later.

What!? How can you have light...without the light bulb?...impossible!

God is not bound to the "means" He has created and established in the created order.

Jesus really and truly died...and yet His body did not see corruption...it did not begin to rot or decay...but rotting and decaying would be what we normally think would happen right?

Jesus' soul or consciousness or personality went to the Father but his soul went into the ground. There, His non-breathing body lay in the tomb...awaiting its resurrection.

Jonah's body laid in its tomb for three days...again...whether the Lord had air for him to breathe or not I do not know.

But God was having Jonah "taste" what death and Sheol, while still in the body.

The death the Assyrians, and all believers, would experience...in a much more "full" and "final" way...remember Jonah was getting a "taste".

Jonah points to Jesus...not only in the tomb...but also on the cross.

When the Bible speaks of Sheol, it isn't merely speaking about the grave or the burial plot

• One way to think of Sheol...the underworld.

• The Bible describes Sheol by other terms;
• “the pit” [Job 33:24]
• ‘destruction’ [Prov 15:11]
• ‘the place of silence’ [Ps 94:17]
• ‘the land of darkness and the shadow of death’ [Job 10:21]

• Sheol is the opposite of being in ‘the living condition’.

• In Sheols darkness, stillness, powerlessness, lack of knowledge, and inactivity, it is the true ‘abode of death’. [abode–home or dwelling place of;]

I have been pointing out again and again that Jonah went into the place of the dead...in bodily form...not as a disembodied spirit.

But when Jesus body lay in its grave was Jesus Spirit still residing in His body...?

No...on the cross Jesus said to His Father...into Thy Hands I commit My Spirit.

Where did Jesus experience "living/death"?

While He drank the cup of God's wrath on the cross...Jesus was experiencing the wrath of hell while still in His body.

Jonah is a type of Christ.

Because Jesus is 'one of a kind' we will notice that these examples are not straight across the board.

Jonah was thrown into the sea [God's wrath because of sin, Jonah's] and the sea subsided, the sailors who were in the storm had the storm end for them.

Jesus being the perfect sacrifice went into the sea [death and sheol] but the wrath that he stopped was not due to His sin, because He was sinless, it was for our sins that He died.

Jonah went into the grave [sea/fish]for three days and His body did not rot.
Jesus died and His body was laid in the tomb for three days and yet His body did not see corruption.

Jonah tasted was death and sheol were while still in the body, he went into a state of living/death [separation, judgment]

Jesus drank the full cup of God's wrath, while His body hung on the cross. Jesus cried out to God "why have you forsaken Me" because He truly was forsaken for God, because of our sins.

God shows His great compassion...if you are having trouble seeing it, pick up the cross and look through it.