🔸Digital Paint Icon of "Jonah the Prophet

[walaa farouk]

🔸Digital Paint Icon of "Jonah the Prophet"




In this icon, we see the full story of the Jonah

We see God speaking to Jonah (Jonah 1:1), symbolized with the hand of God as in Coptic Orthodox Iconography we do not show God the Father, commanding him to preach repentance to the city of Nineveh. Jonah found this unbearable because Nineveh known for its wickedness and also the capital of the Assyrian empire which is one of Israel's enemies.

Jonah, thinking he can “flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord” (Jonah 1:3) found a ship to Tarshish, heading directly away from Nineveh. In the icon, we see the ship in the opposite direction of Nineveh.

In turn, God sent a might storm, which threatened to destroy the ship and all on board. The frightened crew cast lots, determining that Jonah was responsible for the storm. Jonah instructed them to throw him overboard and the water at once stopped. (Jonah 1:7-15)

God determined in his Divine plan, prepared great fish to swallow Jonah. In the belly of the whale, Jonah repented and cried out to God in prayer. He praised God, ending with the eerily prophetic statement, "Salvation is of the Lord." (Jonah 2:9)

After 3 days inside the belly of the fish, God commanded the whale, and it vomited the prophet onto dry land to Nineveh (Jonah 2:10).

Jonah walked through Nineveh proclaiming that in forty days the city would be destroyed. The Ninevites believed Jonah's message and repented, wearing sackcloth and covering themselves in ashes. God had compassion on them and did not destroy them (Jonah 3).
Jonah questioned God because Jonah was angry that Israel's enemies had been spared despite their sinful life.

When Jonah stopped outside the city to rest, God provided a plant to shelter him from the hot sun. Jonah was happy with the plant, but the next day God provided a worm that ate the plan, making it wither. Growing weak in the sun, Jonah complained again.
God reproached Jonah for being concerned about a plant, but not about Nineveh, which had 120,000 lost souls. The story ends with God expressing concern even about the wicked.

The story of Jonah, is a symbol of the resurrection, even referenced by Christ himself in Matthew 12:38-41, 16:4; Luke 11:29-32. And as Jonah was in the whale for 3 days, so was Christ in the tomb for 3 days. In the resurrection, we received salvation just as the Ninevites who believed in the words of Jonah were also saved.

St. Paul tell us in Romans 6:4 “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.”