ALL’S WELL
THAT ENDS WELL
CONT., page 3
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