SECOND QUARTER 2025
SABBATH SCHOOL INSIGHT #13
JUNE 28, 2025

 

As we gather on this final Sabbath of the quarter, we are called to reflect on two monumental stories: Jonah and the fall of Babylon—both written, as Scripture tells us, “for our instruction upon whom the ends of the ages have come” (1 Corinthians 10:1, NKJV). These aren’t just past events—they’re mirrors held up to our time, our calling, and our hearts.

There’s much that could be unpacked this week, but for this Insight we’ll focus entirely on the prophet Jonah. The Sabbath School author highlighted powerful truths from this story, and they deserve our close attention.

An End-Time Prophet

Every major moment in salvation history has had a prophet. Noah warned the world before the flood. Elijah called a wayward Israel back to God. John the Baptist prepared hearts for the coming of Jesus.

In the same way, Scripture tells us to expect a prophetic voice before the return of Christ:

“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD. And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse” (Malachi 4:5-6).

That prophetic voice is not limited to one man. It is now the collective calling of all who have been entrusted with the Third Angel’s Message.

“John the Baptist went forth in the spirit and power of Elijah to prepare the way of the Lord and to turn the people to the wisdom of the just. He was a representative of those living in these last days, to whom God has entrusted sacred truths to present before the people, to prepare the way for the second appearing of Christ.” — Ellen G. White, Counsels on Health, p. 62.

Jonah: A Prophetic Example for the End

We all know the story of Jonah and the big fish, but this is more than a children’s tale. Jonah was called to deliver a judgment-hour message to Nineveh, a city of 120,000 people and many cattle, whose sin had reached a critical mass. In many ways, Nineveh was like Babylon—both the Babylon of Belshazzar’s time and the spiritual Babylon of our day.

This week’s It Is Written - Sabbath School Weekly Review by this quarter's author offers insightful observations on Jonah that deserve serious reflection, personally and as a church.

God said:

“Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me” (Jonah 1:2).

Jonah did arise—but to run, not to obey. And most significantly, he fled “from the presence of the Lord” (Jonah 1:3).

That phrase is deeply meaningful. Jonah didn’t believe there was a place where God didn’t exist, but he fled from the sanctuary, the place where God chose to dwell. As Scripture says:

“Let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them” (Exodus 25:8).

This echoes the first use of that phrase in Scripture:

“Then Cain went out from the presence of the LORD and dwelt in the land of Nod on the east of Eden” (Genesis 4:16).

Just like Cain, Jonah turned away from the very place where God revealed Himself and taught His people the way of salvation. Ellen White paints the picture beautifully:

“At the cherubim-guarded gate of Paradise, the glory of God was revealed, and hither came the first worshipers. Here their altars were reared, and their offerings presented. It was here that Cain and Abel had brought their sacrifices, and God had condescended to communicate with them.” — Ellen G. White, Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 83.

In going from the presence of the Lord, Jonah was separating himself from the sanctuary.

Jonah was also distancing himself from the prophetic gift. In his time there was a belief that prophecy was tied to the land of Canaan and proximity to the sanctuary.  Pastor Boonstra paraphrased it well: it was as if Jonah’s prophetic cell signal would drop to zero bars in Tarshish.

Jonah “went down to Joppa” and boarded a ship to Tarshish, and “he paid the fare” (Jonah 1:3). Some Hebrew scholars suggest the original language implies this meant he chartered the entire boat, which likely required selling off his inheritance in Canaan. Think about that: Jonah may have literally given up his inheritance, the sanctuary, and the prophetic gift—all to avoid delivering God’s message.

This should sound alarm bells for us. Our identity as Seventh-day Adventists is rooted in these same pillars: the sanctuary message and the spirit of prophecy. As the Sabbath School author rightly stated, “Take those two things away, and we are no longer Seventh-Day Adventists.”

Tragically, some have left this movement over these two pillars—Canright, Kellogg, Ballenger, Ford, Rea, and others. And worse, some who have abandoned these beliefs have remained within the church, blending in, as if keeping the Sabbath and vegetarianism define us as Seventh-Day Adventists.

Over time, many members receive less and less instruction on these core doctrines. Slowly, we lose our identity. I fear that we are becoming, at every level, a mixed multitude.

Three Days in the Belly of the Whale

Jesus Himself confirms the significance of Jonah’s story:

“An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah...” (Matthew 12:39-41).

Just as Jonah spent three days and three nights in the belly of the fish, Jesus would be buried in the earth. That was His sign. The sign that He would rather die than let them go.

“He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

God allowed Jonah to experience a cross-like trial, just as Abraham had with Isaac. Abraham was given a shadowed glimpse of what the Father would face, and Jonah what Jesus would face on Calvary. God was trying to bring Jonah to a Galatians 2:20 moment.

The Repentant Prophet

Jonah’s heartfelt prayer from the depths of the fish reveals a turning point:

“Yet I will look again toward Your holy temple” (Jonah 2:4).
“Yet You have brought up my life from the pit” (vs 6).
“And my prayer went up to You, into Your holy temple” (vs 7).
“But I will sacrifice to You with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay what I have vowed. Salvation is of the LORD” (vs 9).

Jonah returns—to faith, to the sanctuary, to the prophetic calling. As we read:

“Jonah arose and went to Nineveh” (Jonah 3:2).

That return shows us: no matter how far someone has drifted from the remnant church, God can restore them—if they let Him.

Faithful Love (hesed)

Jonah recognizes what the Assyrians and he himself had forsaken:

“Those who regard worthless idols forsake their own Mercy (hesed)” (Jonah 2:8).

Idolatry—no matter how innocent or grotesque—rejects the self-sacrificing love of God. Jonah pursued his own will and forsook hesed. Yet God pursued him still, even to the bottom of the sea, and brought him back, through a three-night stay in a whale’s belly.

Lightening Nineveh with His Glory

One man. One message. One city. And yet:

“The cry that rang through the streets of the godless city was passed from lip to lip until all the inhabitants had heard the startling announcement. The Spirit of God pressed the message home to every heart and caused multitudes to tremble because of their sins and to repent in deep humiliation.” — Ellen G. White, Prophets and Kings, p. 270.

The entire city repented. Without appeals. Without programs. Just the Word of the Lord, unedited and unfiltered. Pentecost? Overshadowed fortyfold.

Can 22 million Adventists reach 8.2 billion people?  Well, at 120,000 per person, in a short time, it will take a lot less than that.  It would take less than 144,000 thanks to the latter rain.  So yes —if the Spirit of God moves, if the message is the Lord's, and if hearts are willing, all could be reached in a very short time.

The Unbelievable Conclusion

But what is so unsatisfying about the story of Jonah is the attitude of the prophet toward the repentance of the lost.  Jonah stewed about his success and all the conversions. The story ends without a satisfactory conclusion, almost as if the story is left unfinished.  There is another story in scripture that parallels Jonah's attitude toward the saved. And that story is also unfinished, waiting for a conclusion to be decided.  That other story is the story of the prodigal son. The son who stayed at home and served the father all those years.  Like Jonah, he did not rejoice at the repentance and restoration of his lost brother.  He didn’t rejoice because he only saw things through his own eyes and not the eyes of the Father.  He did not share the same faithful love (hesed) of the Father.

And so Jonah, a type of the last day prophet, leaves us with an almost comical view of what it looks like to be the people of prophecy with the right message and the Spirit multiplied results, but lacking the self-sacrificing love of God in their hearts.  This is why this last day message in all its power that lightens the world with its glory is reserved for those who not only keep the commandments of God, as Jonah and the stay-at-home brother of the prodigal, but also keep, hold onto and cherish the faith of Jesus.

“Here is the patience of the saints; here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus” (Revelation 14:12).

Keeping the commandments of God without the faith of Jesus looks like Jonah.  Can you imagine if the final eschaton ends like Jonah and the whole world now living repents?  And then can you picture the remnant church then sitting bemoaning the fullness of God’s grace and the working of His Spirit? 

Of course, you can’t, and that is because in your heart, you know that those who carry the work through to the end will have the heart of the Father.  You know that they will not only keep the commandments of God but will also keep the faith of Jesus.  You know that all of their sin will have been forgiven and cleansed.  You know that they will believe the entire gospel and have surrendered to the fact that they are completely helpless and that He is completely able.  They will have fully believed and surrendered to justification by faith, “the work of God in laying the glory of man in the dust, and doing for man that which it is not in his power to do for himself.” — Ellen G. White, Testimonies to Ministers and Gospel Workers, p, 456.

It is clear that the character of Christ was not perfectly reproduced in Jonah.  And so the story of Jonah should be Exhibit A as to why it is said, “Christ is waiting with longing desire for the manifestation of Himself in His church. When the character of Christ shall be perfectly reproduced in His people, then He will come to claim them as His own.” —Ellen G. White, Christ's Object Lessons, p. 69.

The ending of the story of Jonah gives the why for the Day of Atonement and the why for the finishing of the mystery (Revelation 10:7), Christ in you the hope of glory (Colossians 1:27).  Before the great day of God, He will have a prophetic people who may have been reluctant and may have been rebellious, but who will have encountered the self-sacrificing love of God as seen clearest in the cross of Christ.  And these will truly say, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”  They will keep the commandments of God and deliver the message the Lord has given, but unlike Jonah, they will keep the faith of Jesus, living by the faith of Jesus. This prophetic group will have the heart of the Father, and will greatly rejoice at all who come to repentance.

Let those who have an ear hear what Jonah has said to the churches.  Even so, come Lord Jesus.

 

~Kelly Kinsley