ALL’S WELL
THAT ENDS WELL


CONT., page 3


JONAH AND THE CITY OF NINEVEH


As has been said, the purpose of this writing is to present that which was learned and experienced through the delayed Passover and Pentecost of 2003.  An interesting testimony developed that had threads of overlapping and uniting truth, which we will now cover.  The testimony we find here with Jonah was in fact the culmination of those threads, and with its conclusion we will actually begin, the last development and consideration becoming the first, and the first actually becoming the last in this writing. 


By way of introduction, it is most interesting that Jonah’s name means “dove.”  It seems of little doubt that his name would cause him to have some identification with the Holy Spirit.  But what correlation could this be?  In Zechariah 4:6 we read the angel’s answer as to the identity of the lampstand and the two olive trees – “Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit.”  This term is often used to describe the work of the Holy Spirit in the church.  And rightfully so, for Yahshua said that He would ask the Father and He would send the Holy Spirit to those who believe in Him – John 14:16-17.  Thus we can conclude, and as you will see here, that Jonah is a testimony of the church, both Christianity and the Remnant.


In Jonah 1, verse 2, we read Yahweh’s command to Jonah.  Yahweh said - “Arise, go to Nineveh the great city
, and cry against it, for their wickedness has come up before Me.”  One would imagine that Jonah would have been ecstatic about this command and opportunity.  Nineveh was the capital of Assyria, and Assyria was a chief afflicter of the Jews.  For Yahweh to notice and cry against their wickedness would seemingly have been a welcomed message to the prophet.  Maybe Yahweh would judge them and relieve their pain?  But what did Jonah do?  Instead of welcoming this, he ran from his calling.  “But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of Yahweh.  So he went down to Joppa (the place where Dorcas was raised from the dead), found a ship which was going to Tarshish, paid the fare, and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of Yahweh.”  And there, Jonah went to sleep.


You probably know the story from here.  Yahweh sent a great storm, a lot was cast and it fell to Jonah, he told the sailors he was running from Yahweh and for them to throw him into the sea, they rowed all the more instead, but in the end threw him into the sea and the storm was quieted, preserving them alive.


Now let us reflect on a similar instance where equally someone else slept in a boat and was awakened to still the storm and preserve the men alive.  Can you identify this instance?  Certainly the similarity of these two will be too obvious for this to not have relevant and revealing meaning.


In Matthew 8:23-27, Mark 4:36-41, and Luke 8:22-25, we read where Yahshua and His disciples were in a boat when an equally great storm came up that was threatening to sink them as well.  Like Jonah, Yahshua was also sleeping through the storm, which is incredible that in both instances these two men were even able to sleep in such fierce storm conditions, making the prophetic message even more obvious.


Adding to the correlation of these two, you will recall that Yahshua even compared Himself to Jonah – Matthew 12:38-41 and Luke 11:29-32.  And even as Yahshua had to be crucified at the hands of man, so Jonah specifically had to be cast into the sea of death at the hands of men.  “Pick me up and throw me into the sea,” Jonah told the sailors.  This would have stopped the storm; but despite his instruction, we read that instead the men rowed all the more in a desperate attempt to get to land.  Finally, they threw Jonah into the sea and the storm ceased.  So why didn’t Jonah just jump into the sea, whereas instead he waited for them to throw him in?  Because as a fulfillment of Jonah, Yahshua had to likewise be delivered unto death at the hands of man – He too had to be cast into the sea.


Let us stay focused on where we are going with this.  When these men threw Jonah in, the sea became still and their lives were preserved.  How about with Yahshua when He was in the boat with His disciples and the equally threatening storm came up while He too slept?  In these remarkably similar circumstances, He too was awakened and stilled the storm, preserving the men alive, looking as well to His work to preserve men alive who are at the point of perishing in the sea of death.


In Jonah we saw the work that had to be carried out by and through Yahshua.  Concerning the event involving the disciples of Yahshua, we saw Him exercising the authority which He gained later by His own death, and possibly in a very real sense could have been paid intercessorally by Jonah (a first bird loss, second bird provision scenario).  This raises an entirely new specter as to how the Holy Spirit dove in fact effected a first bird price paid in mankind, for the sake of the second bird work of the Son of Man.  This would raise all these living prophecy foreshadowings of Yahshua to a higher level of intercession – man, by the effectual preluding work of the Spirit, interceding for Yahshua, and Yahshua coming to complete the work of intercession for man.  The Holy Spirit thus in fact through man prepared the way for Yahshua’s coming.  This is remarkably incredible, tying the salvation work of man [by the Spirit] with God, and God with man.
 Oh the marvel of this.  But we must continue.


Moving forward this intercessoral relationship, while looking at what Yahshua accomplished by His life and death, we cannot help but notice here the place the body of Christ, or Christianity, plays as well in this matter of salvation by following Him equally in both affliction and death for the sake of mankind.


It has been noted numerous times in these writings that as went Christ, so has gone the body of Christ.  Yahshua laid down His life for the salvation of mankind, and as the body of Christ, Christians have equally died for 2,000 years for the salvation of men.  The salvation Yahshua opened by His work, is likewise being worked out in and through man.  So, even as Yahshua became the Jonah and was cast into the sea, so for 2,000 years Christians have equally been the Jonah and cast into the sea of death.  But there is more to this.


We have seen in the writing, The Love Of Money, page 9
,, that with faith, there were two things that could be cast into the sea – Mount Moriah and the fig-mulberry tree.  In both cases we saw that these two clearly represented, once again, the body of Christ, or Christianity, which makes immense sense.  If casting sleeping Jonah into the sea was a type of casting Yahshua into death, and as a result preserves alive those who did so, is it not obvious that we find evidenced here a people who by faith can equally cast the body of Christ into the sea and as a result likewise be preserved alive from the raging sea of death?  Very much so. 


The sea of death has been raging for 2,000 years, taking men to the grave, and even now threatens a remnant who do not want to die in that sea.  So what is our hope, what is our solution?  Is it to row all the more, even as did the sailors on Jonah’s ship?  Oh, we can try harder to not die, but the only thing that will preserve us alive will be to have the faith to cast the body of Christ, Jonah, Mount Moriah, the fig-mulberry tree into the sea.  Casting the body of Christ into the sea is the only thing that will deliver us from death.  It is urged that you read The Love Of Money
in order to understand this act from a personal standpoint; but from a corporate standpoint, casting the body of Christ into the sea is the same as what we read in Matthew 24:22 where, “for the sake of the elect,” the days of the church as we have know it must be cut short, lest no soul be preserved from death.  Casting the body of Christ into the sea is the faith to cut those ill days short.


This completes this first portion of our examination of Jonah; but this is not all, for we still need to consider this matter of Nineveh; and as you will see, Jonah’s response to Yahweh’s mercy is most interesting and revealing as well. 


We have already seen that Nineveh “the great city,” was spiritually Christianity.  And even as we find in the testimony of Christianity Mark concerning yet another boat on a troubled sea, so we see here with Nineveh that Yahweh is going to have mercy on Christianity.  Unique to Mark, Yahshua walked upon the troubled sea of death and intended to pass the fearful disciples by as they were once again threatened with death on the storm-tossed sea; but, He changed His mind and got into the boat with them and the wind stopped (6:48-52).  Equally, we see testified with Babylon that while Yahweh had every purpose of utterly destroying that city, instead He had mercy and spared it.  This, we find once again, is what Yahweh will do with mystery Babylon – He will equally have mercy on them.  And, this is precisely the message we find here with Nineveh.


As of 1993, Christianity has been a work that is forty jubilees in duration.  As we note in The Issue – II, page 8
, from the fall of Adam to Abraham at the age of nineteen is forty Jubilees, and from Abraham to the crucifixion of Yahshua and the beginning of the church is forty Jubilees, and from the beginning of the church to 1993 is forty Jubilees.  In like testimony, we find that the “church in the wilderness” (Acts 7:38) was for a duration of forty years.  And in further like testimony here in Jonah, we find Yahweh providing the same identifying number by allotting Nineveh once again precisely forty days before He would overthrow them – “Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown” (3:4).


Thus we see in each case a termination of the period of the church as we have known it at specifically the end of a forty-part period, or in chronological years this would be 1,960 years, or forty Jubilees of time.  But, as we have seen, Yahweh is going to have mercy on the church and perform a work of grace instead – He is once again going to change His mind.


All indication, even in this short hour, is that He will perform a work within the ten years from 1993 to 2003 that will avert His plans of wrath for the church.  There are numerous testimonies that Tabernacles 2003 is a pivotal point in time.  (Read The Passing Over Principle, page 3
.)  This is why this writer continues to write – to set forth that which is, with hope, the work, in part or in whole, that restores all things and, as the Elijah work, averts the wrath of Yahweh and prepares the way for Yahshua’s return.  All indication from the Scriptures is that a work must be performed by Yahweh Himself that changes everything in the church by His mercy.


This is the testimony once again seen here in Jonah.  While Jonah preached his message of determined judgment, in the end Yahweh had mercy on Nineveh.  The city repented and Yahweh thus repented of the judgment He planned. 


And what was Jonah’s response to this?  Here we find why Jonah fled to Tarshish in the first place.  In verse 2 of chapter 4, we read Jonah’s response to Yahweh’s mercy – “Please Yahweh, was not this what I said while I was still in my own country?  Therefore, in order to forestall this I fled to Tarshish, for I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, and One who relents concerning calamity.”  (We can all be glad for this!)


Jonah then went east of “the great city,” and there he built for himself a booth, and sat under it until he could see what would happen to them.  This “booth” that Jonah built is the identical Hebrew word used for the feast of Booths.  In intercessoral reality, Jonah was in a prophetic Tabernacles booth position.


Yahweh then appointed a plant to grow up over this booth and Jonah, so as to be shade over his “head” (a prophetic head covering) to deliver him from his discomfort.  In the natural, this is somewhat unusual, for Jonah had already built the booth for shade; thus, there must be more taking place here – something prophetic.  This conclusion is even further evidenced insomuch that God next appointed a worm at dawn to attack the plant and it withered.  And when the sun came up, God appointed a scorching east wind and the sun beat down on Jonah and he became faint and begged to die – “Death is better to me than life.”


Since Nineveh is Christianity, who then is this Jonah who comes out from among them east of the city and builds a Tabernacles booth?  There is only one work that comes out of Christianity in order to avoid its judgment and builds a booth, a covering – the second Remnant.  “Come out of her (mystery Babylon Christianity), my people, that you may not participate in her sins and that you may not receive of her plagues; for her sins have piled up as high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities” (Revelation 18:4-5).  Is this not the identical guilt stated for Nineveh – “for their wickedness has come up before me.”  But keep in mind that the second Remnant is inextricably joined to the first Remnant.


First, did in fact the first Remnant erect and enter under a Tabernacles booth of holding all things in common?  Indeed they did, even as we read in Acts 2-5.  And, did that booth survive?  No it did not.  Like the worm that destroyed the plant that grew up over Jonah and his booth, so Satan came and destroyed the covering that was over the first Remnant.  Stephen was stoned, persecution erupted against them, and the first Remnant was disbursed, terminating their booth covering.


If we might digress here a little as well, it has been pointed out in the book and writing titled Coverings
, that coverings are always in pairs – there are always two coverings.  This matter concerning Jonah is no exception.  First we read that Jonah built a booth, a Tabernacles covering, to protect him.  This was the first or primary covering.  Then Yahweh added a second covering over that – the plant – thus completing the necessary two-part covering.  From the book Coverings, let us look at the graphics of this.


COVERING PATTERN IN GENERAL


But in this case, the object to be covered is Jonah, the first covering is the booth he built, and the second covering is the plant Yahweh appointed over him.


So what did Yahweh do when He removed the plant?  As has been pointed out in Coverings, by removing the second covering, this of necessity resulted in the Jonah’s judgment, with the outcome that a scorching east wind and bright sun made him so faint that he wanted to die.  So what happened to the first Remnant when Yahweh removed the covering from them?  They too died?


But, we see from this account that this scenario with Jonah actually took place at the end of the probation period of forty days, or Christianity’s forty Jubilees, and more specifically looks to the time of the second Remnant.  So where does this leave us today?


It would seem that the judgment and death of the first Remnant per the removal of their covering, would pay the price for the second Remnant so that that covering could be restored and not get the worm.  We see this more clearly in the two birds in the cleansing of the leper – the first bird dies so the second bird can ascend alive and escape death.  But at this point, the second Remnant has also passed through a worm experience.  We will explain this is the next section.



Continue to page 4 of Alls Well
… for PASSOVER AND PENTECOST


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