10 - The Third Day: When Israel’s Story Was Fulfilled in Christ
Updated: Sep 1
Jesus did not merely fulfill Israel’s prophecy. He fulfilled Israel’s story.
We've spent this series following the Sabbath question back to Creation.
We've seen that God created the seventh day, blessed it, and sanctified it.
We've seen that the Sabbath points toward God's finished work and that Hebrews connects God's Sabbath rest with the Gospel and faith in Christ.
But there is another piece of the biblical story that we need to understand before we can see the whole picture.
It concerns Israel.
And strangely enough, it concerns the third day.
Why Does the “Third Day” Keep Appearing?
Throughout Scripture, the third day appears at significant moments of God's redemptive activity.
But one passage becomes particularly important:
“After two days He will revive us; on the third day He will raise us up, that we may live in His sight.”— Hosea 6:2
The immediate context is Israel.
Hosea is speaking about God's people, their rebellion, their judgment, and ultimately their restoration.
So what does this have to do with Jesus?
Everything.
Because Jesus doesn't arrive as a stranger to Israel's story.
He enters it.
Jesus Is Israel's Representative
This is one of the most important principles for understanding biblical prophecy.
Jesus isn't merely someone who comes along and fulfills a list of predictions about Israel.
He becomes Israel's Representative.
Israel was called God's son.
God told Pharaoh:
“Israel is My son, My firstborn.”— Exodus 4:22
Then Jesus comes out of Egypt:
“Out of Egypt I called My Son.”— Matthew 2:15
Matthew applies the language of Israel to Jesus.
Why?
Because Jesus is reliving Israel's story.
Israel passed through the Red Sea.
Jesus passes through the waters of baptism.
Israel spent forty years in the wilderness.
Jesus spends forty days in the wilderness.
Israel was called to trust God.
Jesus trusts His Father completely.
Israel failed.
Jesus succeeds.
The story isn't being abandoned.
It is being fulfilled in Christ.
Then Jesus Gives Us a Sign
Now we come to Jonah.
Jonah was swallowed by a great fish:
“And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.”— Jonah 1:17
That might seem like an isolated story.
But Jesus Himself tells us that it wasn't.
The religious leaders asked Jesus for a sign.
Jesus answered:
“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
Then Jesus explains exactly what He means:
“For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”— Matthew 12:40
Jesus Himself connects Jonah's three days to His own death and resurrection.
Jonah was a sign.
The sign pointed to Christ.
Jonah Was Sent to the Gentiles
And there's another detail we shouldn't miss.
Where was Jonah sent?
Nineveh.
A Gentile city.
Jonah resisted God's call to take His message to people outside Israel.
But God sent him anyway.
Jonah enters the darkness of the fish.
Then he emerges.
And his mission continues.
Now look at Jesus.
Jesus enters death.
He rises.
And what happens after His resurrection?
He sends His disciples:
“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations.”— Matthew 28:19
Do you see the movement?
Israel.
Jonah.
Messiah.
The nations.
The Gospel is moving outward.
Jesus' Resurrection Was “According to the Scriptures”
Paul gives us another crucial piece of evidence.
When Paul summarizes the Gospel, he writes:
“For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.”— 1 Corinthians 15:3–4
Paul doesn't merely say:
“Jesus rose on the third day.”
He says:
“According to the Scriptures.”
That means the resurrection belongs to the larger biblical story.
The apostles weren't treating the resurrection as an isolated miracle.
They understood it as the fulfillment of Scripture.
Jesus Repeatedly Predicted the Third Day
This wasn't something the disciples invented afterward.
Jesus repeatedly told His disciples what was coming.
“The Son of Man must suffer many things... and be killed, and after three days rise again.”— Mark 8:31
Again:
“The Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of men, and they will kill Him. And after He is killed, He will rise the third day.”— Mark 9:31
And again:
“They will condemn Him to death and deliver Him to the Gentiles... and the third day He will rise again.”— Mark 10:33–34
The third day wasn't an afterthought.
It was part of Jesus' understanding of His mission.
So What Does Hosea Have to Do With Jesus?
Now we can return to Hosea:
“On the third day He will raise us up, that we may live in His sight.”
Hosea is speaking about Israel.
But Jesus comes as Israel's representative.
He enters Israel's story.
He bears Israel's calling.
He bears humanity's condition.
He bears the judgment.
He dies.
And then:
He rises.
The representative Israelite rises from the dead.
And in Him, the story of Israel reaches its fulfillment.
This Is Why “Jesus Is Israel” Needs to Be Understood Carefully
We sometimes say:
“Jesus is Israel.”
There is a profound truth behind that statement.
But we should explain what we mean.
We're not saying Jesus is identical to every individual Israelite.
We're saying that Jesus is Israel's Messiah, Representative, and fulfillment.
He embodies Israel's calling.
He succeeds where Israel failed.
He fulfills what Israel was called to accomplish.
He becomes the faithful Son.
He becomes the true Servant.
He becomes the representative through whom God's promises are fulfilled.
Israel's story finds its fulfillment in Israel's Messiah.
And This Changes How We Read the Old Testament
This Christ-centered understanding of Israel's prophetic story has been developed by scholars such as Hans K. LaRondelle in The Israel of God in Prophecy. But the foundation of the argument is found in Scripture itself: Jesus identifies Jonah as a sign pointing to His own death and resurrection, while Paul declares that Christ rose on the third day “according to the Scriptures.”
This is where LaRondelle's Christ-centered approach becomes so important.
Prophecy isn't simply a collection of predictions about a modern geopolitical nation.
The Old Testament story is moving toward Christ.
The promises made to Israel don't become meaningless.
They reach their fulfillment in Him.
And then something extraordinary happens.
Those who belong to Christ become participants in what has been fulfilled in Christ.
Paul says:
“If you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.”— Galatians 3:29
Notice the order:
If you are Christ's...
Then:
you are Abraham's seed.
Christ is the center.
The Gospel Does Not Destroy Israel's Story
It fulfills it.
Jesus is the promised Messiah.
Jesus is the faithful Israelite.
Jesus is the true Son.
Jesus is the Servant.
Jesus is the representative.
Jesus dies.
Jesus rises.
And then the Gospel goes to:
“every nation, tribe, tongue, and people.”
The promises are not becoming smaller.
They are expanding through Christ to the nations.
And Now Bring This Back to the Sabbath
Why are we talking about Israel and the third day in a series about the Sabbath?
Because we've been asking:
Who are God's people?
We've been asking:
Who has the authority to sanctify?
And we've been asking:
What does it mean to enter God's rest?
The answer cannot be separated from Christ.
The Sabbath begins at Creation.
Israel receives the Sabbath.
Israel's story points forward.
Christ enters Israel's story.
Christ fulfills Israel's calling.
Christ dies.
Christ rises.
Christ brings the Gospel to the nations.
And those who belong to Christ become participants in the promises fulfilled in Him.
The center of the entire story is Christ.
The Third Day Is About More Than a Calendar
The third day isn't a secret code.
It isn't something we need to force into every biblical passage.
But when Scripture itself connects the third day with Israel's restoration, Jonah's sign, and Christ's resurrection, we should pay attention.
Hosea says:
“On the third day He will raise us up.”
Jonah spends three days in the fish.
Jesus says Jonah's experience is a sign pointing to His own death and resurrection.
Paul says Christ rose on the third day “according to the Scriptures.”
The pieces fit.
Israel's story reaches its climax in Christ.
And Then Comes the Resurrection
Jesus doesn't remain in the grave.
The representative Israelite rises.
The faithful Son rises.
The Messiah rises.
And now the Gospel can go to all nations.
That's why the resurrection is not merely the happy ending to the crucifixion.
It is the beginning of the worldwide proclamation of the fulfilled Gospel.
Christ has conquered death.
Christ has fulfilled His mission.
Christ has accomplished what humanity could not accomplish.
And now He calls the nations to Himself.
So Where Does That Leave Us?
We've now followed another thread of Scripture all the way through:
Israel.
Jonah.
The third day.
Christ.
The resurrection.
The nations.
And again, everything leads us back to the same place:
Jesus Christ.
The Sabbath doesn't exist independently of Him.
Israel doesn't exist independently of Him.
The promises don't exist independently of Him.
The Gospel doesn't exist independently of Him.
Christ is the fulfillment.
And if Christ is the fulfillment of Israel's story, then we have to rethink what it means to be the people of God.
Not by abandoning the Old Testament.
Not by separating Israel from the church as though God's story suddenly changed direction.
But by asking:
Who is the One in whom all these promises are fulfilled?
The answer is:
Jesus Christ.
And that brings us to the question we've been approaching throughout this entire series.
We've been asking whether the Sabbath is about a day.
But perhaps we've been looking at the wrong thing.
Because once you see Creation, Israel, Christ, the Gospel, Sabbath, rest, sanctification, and worship as one continuous biblical story...
the question gets much bigger.
And that's where we're going next.
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