Dear love of radio friends, we greet you in the ever-precious and the worthy name of our wonderful Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. This is your Bible teacher with the air speaking, J.W. Bram Hall, giving you a hearty welcome to a new series of studies from the precious Word of God. By God's grace and His help, we would like to study the prophecy of Jonah. and a wonderful story that is recorded in that book of prophecy. Is it a fact or is it but fiction? May often be asked regarding the book of Jonah. Was Jonah a real person? Was he the first human person to have the first submarine ride in human history? Was he really enclosed in the great fish for three days and three nights? As the prophecy declares, did he really preach to the great city of Nineveh and bring it to repentance and averted divine judgment? Modern theologians, who are the true Sadducees of today, they discredit the book because it relates to the miraculous. But their ridiculous explanations so often contradict each other that we turn back to the Scripture story again. We prefer the miraculous to the ridiculous. Yet the question of the story of Jonah, being true, involves both the integrity of the Bible as a whole, as well as the words of the Son of God himself. For Christ, when he was upon the earth, spoke about Jonah. It might be helpful for us to ask a question or two as we commence and introduce this study of the prophecy of Jonah. First was Jonah a real person? The opening of the book calls him, Jonah the son of Amiti, and it declares, Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah. This indicates that he was a prophet. But is there any other scripture that identifies Jonah as a prophet? Yes, there is. We turn to the second book of Kings in chapter fourteen and verse twenty-five, where we read, He, that is, King Jeroboam of Israel, restored the coast of Israel from the entering of Hamath onto the sea of the plain, according to the word of the Lord God of Israel, which he spake by the hand of his servant Jonah, the son of Amityai, the prophet, which was of Gathepha. Now King Jeroboam was a real person who reigned over the northern kingdom of Israel. If this Jeroboam Who fulfilled Jonah's prophecy was a real enough person? Certainly. This Jonah who foretold it was also. We cannot doubt that this prophet Jonah was a real person, also that he is identical with the prophet named Jonah in the book of Second Kings. For in both cases Jonah is named the son of Amityai, and uniquely There is no other place in the Old Testament where we find these names. The reference in Second Kings, incidentally, certainly gives the time of Jonah's ministry. It was during the later years of Joash and the early years of Jeroboam II. So Jonah would probably come from the schools of the prophets when Elisha was nearing the end of his ministry. We do positively conclude, Jonah was a real person. Now a second thought we should consider, is the story in the book of Jonah true? Is it an historical fact? Well, if we believe Jonah was a real person, can we believe the story about him that is written in the book? Well, may we say, first of all, There is nothing in the book to suggest otherwise. Though we know the modern critics, to whom any narrative that contains the miraculous, seems to be too incredible to them. But what would the Word of God amount to if we were to take the supernatural out of them? For any unprejudiced reader will be satisfied that the Book of Jonah is to be accepted as the record of an actual fact. But may we also state that even outside of the Bible, tradition strongly confirms the historicity of the Book of Jonah. It was about the fourth century before Christ, one of the apocryphal books, one called Tobit, was written, and it includes the dying words of that author, spoken to his son Tobias. Listen to these words. They're not Scripture, but they come from a traditional writing. go into media, my child, for I surely believe all the things which Jonah the prophet spake of Nineveh, that it should be overthrown. One of the Jewish philosophers of the first century AD, as well as Josephus, the well-known Jewish historian, both of these men confirmed the true story of Jonah in their writings. From earliest times the story of Jonah has been the unbroken belief of pious Jews. Yet even in the Christian church in its early days of history, the story of Jonah has emphatically been endorsed. It has been believed as a true record of divine inspiration, except by the higher critics of modernistic times, who have attempted to ridicule it, but the outstanding feature of even these men who criticize them. is the manner in which they contradict each other in their efforts to discredit the Word of God. But now we will give a more definite proof, a very much stronger proof regarding the conclusive fact the story of Jonah can be proved to be true. And this proof, in the strongest terms, comes from the lips and was spoken by the word of our Lord Jesus Christ himself. The words of Christ, the Son of God, when he was upon the earth, conclusively prove the record of the life and the story of Jonah long ago. We quote the words of the Lord Jesus as they are recorded. In Matthew chapter twelve, rather, chapter twelve of Matthew, verse thirty-nine, and verse forty. Listen to the words of the Son of God. An evil and an adulterous generation seeketh after a sign, and there shall no other sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. Now to any person, particularly a straight-thinking Christian, these words, the testimony of our Lord Jesus himself, will settle the matter concerning the historical record about Jonah. And yet we will admit we can find critics Who will argue that our Lord was only using the story of Jonah as a preacher would use a well-known incident as if from Bunyan's story Pilgrim's Progress or from any writings of Shakespeare as an allegory without implying its actual truthfulness? But wait a minute. Before we accept the criticism of these critics, I would like you to listen further to the words of the Lord Jesus Christ concerning the Book of Jonah and Jonah himself, together with a reference to the city of Nineveh in which Jonah preached. We read again from Matthew's Gospel chapter twelve in verse forty-one. Listen to these words. The Lord Jesus saying, The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it, because they repented not at the preaching of Jonah. And behold, a greater than Jonah's is here. Now these are the words of the Lord Jesus. He is declaring to the men of his day, that in the day of judgment, The men of Nineveh would rise to condemn the people of his day for not repenting. And the greater than Jonah, he says, is here. Will any person dare to say that the Son of God did not refer to actual men in the city of Nineveh when these words were spoken, as he compared them with men in his day? I'm sure no Christian who believes the Bible as the Word of God will ever deny the truthfulness of our Savior's words. Our Lord confirms by his own words that the story in the Book of Jonah is actually true. But I know there is a question, but what about the whale? The old question is yet brought up about the great fish that swallowed Jonah. Did it actually happen? Could it happen? Of course it could. God who created all fish, he could verily, easily, have created a special one for Jonah, if necessary. It is stated that God prepared a great fish. And there has been given by men documented evidence that such a thing as a man being swallowed by a great fish, even a whale, has been done. Men have even walked into the mouths of dead whales, having throat so large that they could serve and did serve as a door into a large room. Did it happen that this prophet Jonah was swallowed by a great fish? The words of our Lord Jesus Christ are sufficient to tell every Christian, Yes, it did happen. And as far as we ourselves are personally concerned, the words of the Savior settle it. When he declared, that the prophet Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish. As we enter the study of this wonderful prophetical book, may your interest in mine, in the story, be blessed as we listen to what God has to say about it to our hearts and to our consciences for our blessing. Shall we pray? Father, we pray thy blessing as we enter into the study of this book of Jonah. For every man and woman, boy and girl, in the Saviour's name, amen.