How Jonah's Story Parallels God's Plan of Salvation

I was asked to teach a lesson on Jonah to children and I wanted to tie it into what they already know about God's Plan of Salvation. In my searching, I was not able to find any writings, in or out of the church [the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints], about how Jonah's story parallels the plan of salvation. It seemed to me to have the basic elements of going away from God and then returning to God; but I could not detail out which aspects of the story paralleled the plan of salvation. In my searching and reading, my mind was recalled to a class I took at BYU Campus Education Week back in 2007. The first 6 elements below I learned from Patrick D Degn. The rest I discovered and saw parallels that I will outline below.

7 Downs

1. Down to Joppa (1:3)
2. Down into a Ship (1:3)
3. Down into the Sides of the ship (1:5)
4. [Down] into the Sea (1:15)
5. [Down] in the Belly of the [great] fish (1:17)
6. Down to the Bottoms of the mountains (2:6, Roots)
7. [Down into] the Earth with her bars (2:6)

7 Ups

1. Brought Up my Life from corruption (2:6, pit)
2. Remembered the Lord (2:7 mind looking up)
3. Prayer into temple (2:7 words going up)
4. Vows in the temple (2:9 actions moving you up)
5. Upon the Dry land (2:10)
6. Arise (3:2-3, Get up)
7. [Up] unto Nineveh (3:3)

Often in the scriptures the land of Israel represents heaven, both as a longed for and promised destination, as well as a dwelling place for the saints - God's chosen people. In the story of Jonah, this is no exception; however, not in the way most would expect. The first part of Jonah's story is symbolic of leaving heaven and coming to earth through birth and the second part shows the process of returning to heaven through repentance, redemption, and resurrection.

Symbolic of Birth

The following steps are elements of the birth process.* Joppa is a port city on the western edge of Israel (there is an eastward-westward symbolism not discussed here). It is named after its builder Japheth, Noah's son, meaning beauty or beautiful. Joppa represents the edge of heaven where we leave in order to come to earth to get a body before we are born.

The ship represents (either or both) the mother's ovaries and/or the father's testicles. The sides of the ovaries are where the egg must go before it is released into the 'sea' of fluid that carries it down the fallopian tube into the womb or uterus of the mother's belly. The same is true in the man, where the sides of the testicles are where the sperm must be before they are released into the 'sea' of fluid that carries them down the tubes into the womb. The process of being eaten by a fish parallels what happens at the moment a sperm enters into the egg. The timeline to implantation, when the zygote is embedded into the uterus, varies a lot, but could be 3 days, more or less.**

I want to suggest that when comparing Jonah's decent to birth, the last two steps seem to more accurately match the actual birth process of going down into the birth canal and then coming out, at which point we are considered to be 'on earth.' Before birth we may not be considered 'on earth' because we do not actually know when the spirit enters the body. Also, we have not taken our first breath - considered the 'breath of life.' The 'bars' could be symbolic of the earth itself, we being bound by the laws of gravity and physics, or it could also represent being clothed with a body, which we are bound to until we die.

Symbolic of Redemption

Repentance, redemption, and resurrection are only possible because of God. He alone brings us up from the pit of corruption and death. He uses His power, both subtle and strong, to cause us to remember Him and when we recall our thoughts up to Him, we start the process of repentance - the process of returning to God. The temple represents Christ, the body of His church, our body - made in His image, and His kingdom. Calling upon the Lord is the first step of communication with God where we not only remember Him, but want to hear from Him and know His desires for us. The next step after hearing the word of the Lord is to do it. We make commitments, covenants, and vows with the Lord, possibly even before we were born, and we must follow through on our commitment to Him. While this is true and we must obey all of God's commandments and follow through on all of our covenants with Him, we are reminded that salvation (and redemption) only comes from God.

Jonah being vomited up on dry land can be symbolic of death where we are no longer being tossed about with the tumultuous tempests and turmoil of this physical life. We go back to the land we came from. Then we are called to arise in the resurrection, when we are healed from the traumas of this life. Then we are brought into heaven having repented of all our sin through the blood of Christ. It may not appear to match well that Nineveh represents heaven, but in at least one way it does. Heaven will be made up of former sinners who repented and escaped the imminent destruction. Jonah journeyed one day, of the three days' journey, into Nineveh, symbolic of the first of the three heavens*** showing that even those in the first heaven must repent. 40 days are given for the people to repent. 40 represents the probationary time we have in this life before our final judgement, during which time we must repent and be saved or afterwards be destroyed.

Disclaimers:

I realize not all Christians or Jews will agree with my interpretation of Jonah's story with parallels to God's plan, but as a doctor and authorized minister of Jesus Christ, the Spirit of God impresses on my mind from time-to-time truths that strengthen my faith and trust in God. I don't pretend that every aspect of the Jonah story is meant to be symbolic or even taken the way I see it, but I stated what I learn from his story.

*I do not presume to know at what point in the process the spirit enters the body. If a spirit does not enter a body by the time of birth the baby will not be able to take a breath and will be considered stillborn.

**I did not go into these details with the 10-year-olds at church, but suggested they could talk to their parents if they wanted more details about the birth process.

***The third heaven spoken of by Paul (2 Cor 12:2) has been interpreted in more than one way. I am taking a primarily latter-day saint interpretation which is not generally accepted by mainstream Christianity.