Please read the passage before the commentary.
What is the sign of Jonah? It is the sign of the unwilling prophet, the prophet who tried to escape from being a prophet.
It is a sign that should warn us not to try to tun away from God’s call. It should remind us that God’s word has in immediacy that cancels our plans so as to bring our true plans to completion.
It is the sign of the queen of the south. She was a pagan queen who to Jerusalem looking for wisdom in King Solomon. Perhaps she had come with commerce as her aim, to trade in expensive cloth, precious stones, delicious foods and the like. She came and found more wisdom than she had expected.
It is the sign of the Ninevites. They believed that words of the reluctant Jonah and discovered the wisdom of God.
We must also remember that those who asked for a sign did not trust Jesus or believe in him.
I see several interpretations of the sign. Perhaps we need the wisdom of the one who has spent three days in the belly of a whale. Perhaps we need to foster better relations with our neighbors such as the queen of the south. Perhaps we need to listen more closely to the word of God announced by people we do not readily recognize as prophets. We must listen to the people the Lord Jesus sends into our lives.
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