2734.—Three Days and Three Nights.
By Editor
How do you harmonize the statement that as Jonah was in the whale's belly three days, so shall the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth? How can one prove that Christ was in the grave that length of time, when He was crucified Friday, and arose Sunday? F. H. In the first place, how do we know that "the heart of the earth" means the grave? The whole question turns on that. How do we know but what the heart of the earth means the powers of the earth which control all the kingdoms of earth? The powers of earth in the time of our Lord were all centered in Rome. Rome ruled the earth. Yet Jesus came as an ambassador from God, and was free, absolutely free, to do His work, and God kept Him free in that way until His work was done. When the time came He was delivered into the hands of the powers of earth, and you will notice again and again where He declares that this will be the case. His arrest and persecution are included with His death. Note Mark 9:31 for instance. "For He taught His disciples, and said unto them, The Son of Man is delivered up into the hands of men, and they shall kill Him; . . . after three days He shall rise again." You will notice that the delivering up into the hands of men is the beginning of this. See the same beginning stated in Luke 22:53 when they came to apprehend Christ in the garden. "This is your hour, and the power of darkness." Also in John 12:31: "Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out." See also verse 27. "Now is My soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save Me from this hour. But for this cause came I unto this hour." That hour was the beginning of the three days in which Jesus was delivered into the hands of the powers of earth, or the heart of the earth, controlled by them, until the Father should release Him. The three days does not necessarily mean three full days, but parts of two days and the whole of one day would fulfil that expression. Therefore from the time that Jesus was arrested until He rose again, was what would be called in common parlance in the Scripture times, three days, as also in our own manner of speaking. And then, too, we do not know just how many hours Jonah was in the sea monster. It may have been only parts of three days in just the same way. Those who try to make it out that Jonah was in the whale's stomach for seventy-two hours have no ground for such argument. As he was there, so Christ was to be in the heart of the earth, and we have just as good ground, and in fact much better, from the other records, of saying that the heart of the earth meant in the control of the powers of earth.