"The Book of Jonah"
There is no Hebrew prophet whose life does not foreshadow or typify the Messiah who would come after them, to bring in the Redemption which they prophesied.
Download or email this sermon The Jonah within Us
It says the word of the Lord came twice to Jonah. Now the word for “word” in Hebrew is “davar”, but in Greek its “logos”. It doesn't mean a message so much as it means a person. Jesus is the Logos/davar in the Old Testament.
In the Old Testament the Holy Spirit was only for certain people at certain times: high priests, kings and prophets, But the Holy Spirit still communicated Jesus to them the way He does us. It was only Jesus' identity that was not there but it was still Him: "the word came", it means "the Lord Jesus came", it was a christotological encounter with Christ in Old Testament terms. Again, when Adam heard God walking in the garden, that was Jesus. When Jacob wrestled with the Metatrone (angel of God), it was Jesus. Jesus was in the Old Testament the same as in the New. When the word of the Lord came, it was an encounter with Christ.
When the Lord asks you or me to do things we don't want to do, or when there are things in my character or your character that are blocking what God wants, the Lord's not going to give you just a message, he's going to come to you. Jesus is going to stand in front of you, you're going to “see” Him. The message is going to be obvious once He comes and you'll know what's wrong with you! It's the encounter with the person, not just the word or the message or a letter or a telegram, a fax, an Email – it's the person. When Jesus comes to us we'll know where we stand, when we stand in front of Him.
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Scripture taken from the New American Standard Bible Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation.