Jesus contrasted His death and resurrection to Jonah in the belly of the great fish. “For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matthew 12:40 ESV). This is fascinating to me at more than one point. Consider this, Jonah wound up in the belly of the fish because of his own anger and prejudice toward the Assyrians. He wanted to see his despised enemies perish in judgment (Jonah 3:10; 4:1-2). Jesus, on the other hand, did not want to see His enemies die; He chose to lay down His life for His enemies, regardless of their ethnic origins. God is not interested in your raw obedience; He wants you to be so transformed in your heart that you spontaneously love who He loves.
“Then the LORD said, ‘You had compassion on the plant for which you did not work and which you did not cause to grow, which came up overnight and perished overnight. Should I not have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know the difference between their right and left hand, as well as many animals?’” Jonah 4:10-11 (NASB)
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