The Bible in 1 Verse: The Returned Word

“For as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so will the Son of Man be to this generation.”

–Luke 11:30

When asked what verse best summarizes the whole of Scripture, Edmund Clowney famously pointed to Jonah 2:9, “Salvation belongs to the Lord.” If I recall correctly, I’ve heard Bryan Chapell answer a similar question with the same verse. In terms of one verse standing on its own, I doubt one could improve on the answer given by Drs. Clowney and Chapell. However, if context can be considered, I’d say a better summation comes two verses later in Jonah 3:1, “Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time.”

You’ll remember, the word initially came to Jonah while he was in the Promised Land. While enjoying the peace and security that Yahweh’s presence provides, he was told to prophesy to the Assyrians. In a sense, Jonah was called to extend the boundaries of Yahweh’s rule from the little territory of Israel, to the “exceedingly great city” of Nineveh. From here, we know the story. Jonah rebels against the initial word. He “goes down” toward Tarshish, he “goes down” in the ship, he “goes down” in the fish, and is finally “driven from the sight of the Lord.” While in the belly of the fish, Jonah laments the fact that he is far from the temple, far from the presence of the Lord.  Rebellion against the first word brought exile from the temple; it brought spiritual death.

We can say Jonah 3:1 sums up Scripture because the Jonah story mirrors the biblical story in significant ways. In the beginning, God created the world through his Word. Adam and Eve were recipients of the good creation brought about through this “first Word.” Like Jonah, they lived in the peace and security of Yahweh’s presence. The land in which they lived functioned as a little “temple-garden.” Their mission: cause the boundaries of the garden to extend over the face of the earth. They were called to bring the order of the inner garden to the whole world, just as Jonah was called to bring the message of God’s order and justice to the foreign nation.While Adam and Even didn’t experience immediate physical death when they rebelled against the first word, they were “driven from the presence of the Lord.” To be sure, they were not in the belly of a fish. However, they were banished from the garden-temple. This was their “going down,” this was their death, just as it was Jonah’s.

God would have been perfectly just and right to end the story there. He was in no way obligated to speak His creative Word the first time, let alone a second time. His creation could have rightfully been destroyed. Yet, in his grace and providence, He established a plan to inaugurate a “new creation.” How was this new creation to come about? The same way in which the old creation came into existence: through the Word!  Inexplicably, the Word came to mankind a second time.

To be clear, a “second word” didn’t come. Rather, the same Word—the Word by which He created the world initially—came again, this time in flesh and blood. Jesus Christ—the incarnate Word—had a clear mission: extend the temple-presence of Yahweh over the face of the whole earth. God sent His Word into the world a second time that all things might be new, that salvation might explode over the face of the earth.

This expansive mission is also what the returned word to Jonah was all about. The rest of Jonah 3 tells the story of a foreign people, including their King, repenting and “believing God” (Jonah 3:5). To Jonah’s surprise (and dismay!) God had plans for the world which didn’t end with Israel. This “returned word” had a much bigger scope than Jonah had anticipated. It accounted for the far off city of Nineveh. Indeed, it accounted for the far off city of Nineveh’s cattle (Jonah 4:11)! This was an expansive, inclusive, all-encompassing word!

Of course, the story of a first word and a second word can’t sum up the biblical story any more than it can sum up the story of Jonah. To know Jonah, you must know the story of his “going down” and “coming up” from the fish. To know the story of Scripture, you must understand Jesus’ decent and assent from the grave. You see, in between the rebellion of the word and the radical salvation offered to the ends of the earth, there stands a chosen Israelite (Jonah 1:1-2; Mat 1:23). While it seems as though he is delivered to death solely by the hands of evil men (Jonah 1:15; John 19: 17-37), God is actually the primary agent of the man’s death, working according to His definite plan and foreknowledge (Jonah 2:3; Acts 2: 23). Death could not contain this man, however, and after three days he was resurrected from the deep (Jonah 2: 10; Luke 24: 1-12). This resurrected Israelite stood in the city of evil-doers, announcing the way of reconciliation with Yahweh (Jonah 3:4; Luke 24:27). God’s wrath may be spared, he announced; repent and believe, for God’s Word has come again! The story of Jonah, the story of Scripture, is the story of (1) the Word given, (2) rebellion against the Word, (3) death and resurrection, (4) the Word returning to extend the rule of God wider, longer, and deeper than anyone could have imagined.

If we look closely, we see that Jonah 3:1 not only summarizes Scripture, it summarizes our experience as individual believers. By nature we were each rebels of the Word—Assyrians by birth. Like the sailors, like the Roman soldiers, we find ourselves implicated in the death of the chosen Israelite. Yet, each of us heard the good news; the news that Christ was thrown overboard that the storm of God’s judgment might pass over our boat. Because Christ went down into the belly of death—cut off from the presence of the Lord—we can have eternal temple-access. Because Christ gave death indigestion, we can be spat up on to the shore of the new creation. Along with Jonah, we can gladly announce the good news, “the word of the Lord came a second time!”