Welcome and thank you for taking a bible break to test your knowledge of God's word.
This week's question:

When Jesus began teaching, He taught as one having authority in the synagogue, when a man with an unclean spirit cried out, "'What do we have to do with You, Jesus of Nazareth? Have You come to destroy us? I know who You are--the Holy One of God!' And Jesus rebuked him, saying, 'Be quiet, and come out of him!' And throwing him into convulsions, the unclean spirit cried out with a loud voice, and came out of him. And they were all amazed, so that they debated among themselves, saying, 'What is this? A new teaching with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey Him.' And immediately the news about Him went out everywhere into all the surrounding district in Galilee." (Mark 1:24-28). And that very evening, "And He healed many who were ill with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and He was not permitting the demons to speak, because they knew who He was." (Mark 1:34). Jesus came both speaking with authority and worked signs to confirm His word (Mark 16:20).

 "And the Pharisees and the Sadducees came up, and testing Him asked Him to show them a sign from heaven. But He answered and said to them, 'When it is evening, you say, 'It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.' And in the morning, 'There will be a storm today, for the sky is red and threatening.' Do you know how to discern the appearance of the sky, but cannot discern the signs of the times? An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign; and a sign will not be given it except the sign of Jonah.'" (Matthew 16:1-4).

 That brings us to our question, "What is the sign of Jonah?". God told Jonah, "Arise, go to Nineveh the great city, and cry against it, for their wickedness has come up before Me." (Jonah 1:2). It would take a man three days to walk across the city of Nineveh (Jonah 3:3). Jonah knew that although the people of Nineveh were sinful, that the Lord was longsuffering so that they might repent and turn to Him again (Jonah 4:1-3). But Jonah did not want Nineveh to have this opportunity and so he fled for Tarshish by way of Joppa away from the presence of the Lord by taking fare on a ship and as they traveled a great storm came up and the sailors cast lots to see who caused this burden to fall upon them, and the lot fell to Jonah, and they forced out the information that he was a Hebrew who feared the Lord who created the land and sea and that he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord which brought great fear upon the men, who still tried to desperately row to land, but to no avail and at the beckoning of Jonah, threw him overboard only to be swallowed by a great fish appointed by the Lord-and Jonah spent three days in the belly of the fish (Jonah 1:3-17).

 Jonah prays from the belly of the fish, and the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah up on dry land. (Jonah 2:10). The Lord again asks Jonah to go to Nineveh to proclaim the word the Lord proclaims to him, and he does so by saying, "Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown." (Jonah 3:1-4). And they believed him and put on sackcloth and the king decreed that even their beasts would have sackcloth put on them and neither ear nor drink and saying, "'Who knows, God may turn and relent, and withdraw His burning anger so that we shall not perish.' When God saw their deeds, that they turned from their wicked way, then God relented concerning the calamity which He had declared He would bring upon them. And He did not do it." (Jonah 3:5-10).

 And so for our answer to our question, we turn and read, "Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered Him, saying, 'Teacher, we want to see a sign from You.' But He answered and said to them, 'An evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign; and yet no sign shall be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet; for just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh shall stand up with this generation at the judgment, and shall condemn it because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and behold, something greater is here.'" (Matthew 12:38-41).

So there we have the answer to our question, as the sign of Jonah is that Jesus will be in the heart of the earth, or in Paradise (Luke 23:43) three days and three nights-just as Jonah spent the same amount of time in the belly of the great fish!

 When we fall into sin, may we be ready to repent as those people of Nineveh who recognized the sign of there time and made their way straight for life and not continue in sin to eternal death
(Hebrews 10:26-31)!