Passover to Tabernacles - Part Sixteen Mar 06, 2022 by: John Herbert | Series: Passover to Tabernacles Audio Study Notes PDF https://s3.amazonaws.com/cornerstonejax/sermonfiles/T001_20220306.mp3 Refresh A Recap from the Sermon Jon 1:12 And he said to them, “Pick me up and throw me into the sea; then the sea will become calm for you. For I know that this great tempest is because of me.” We will continue to look at the type of Jonah. The full text of this message can be found by clicking the PDF button. Sunday March 6th 2022 Passover to Tabernacles Part 16 1). Jon 1:12 And he said to them, “Pick me up and throw me into the sea; then the sea will become calm for you. For I know that this great tempest is because of me.” We had seen last time that the only God-given solution to ‘the great wind’ and ‘the mighty tempest’ of Jonah’s day, was for him to be thrown into the sea. If he was not thrown into the sea then it is implied that Jonah, the mariners, and the ship would be destroyed. a). In the antitype, those Jews in the land called Israel today, must be driven out into the Gentile nations where most Jews presently reside, or else the world would destroy itself – Mk 13:19 For in those days there will be tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the creation which God created until this time, nor ever shall be. 20 And unless the Lord had shortened those days, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect's sake, whom He chose, He shortened the days. This seems like a very high stakes scenario but let’s remember that the prophets have spoken, the types have been set, and God has revealed the end from the beginning. And that ending comes with a Man and a Woman, God the Father and Israel, and Christ and His Bride, ruling together in the Seventh Day – Nu 23:19 “God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good? In the meantime, however, the Jewish people are in the land, and will remain there until the mid-point in the Tribulation – Da 9:27 Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week; But in the middle of the week He shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate, Even until the consummation, which is determined, Is poured out on the desolate.” As we will remember, the man of sin, the Antichrist will make a covenant with the Jews presently in the land of Israel, that will mark the beginning of Daniel’s seventieth week, the final seven years of the Jewish dispensation. This will be a covenant that creates the illusion of peace, a covenant that appears to resolve the problem caused by the Jewish people being in the land apart from their Messiah that has tormented the world for the last seventy plus years – Isa 28:14 Therefore hear the word of the LORD, you scornful men, Who rule this people who are in Jerusalem, 15 Because you have said, “We have made a covenant with death, And with Sheol we are in agreement. When the overflowing scourge passes through, It will not come to us, For we have made lies our refuge, And under falsehood we have hidden ourselves.” This covenant though is not a covenant of peace, quite the opposite. The Jews are God’s covenant people, the only ones with whom He has ever made covenant. And as we realize that the Jews in this coming day will make covenant with the seed of the serpent, we will not be surprised that at this point the ‘great wind’ begins to blow, in anticipation of the ‘mighty tempest.’ If the Jews today remained in the land, then only death could be the result. Life for them can only come from their dispersion and persecution, and the repentance which is to follow. b). And it is within this context in the Book of Jonah, that Jonah is thrown into the sea. An event in the antitype that we see prophetically recorded several times in the Scripture. There is the type we have already seen through the Babylonian captivity – Jer 25:8 “Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts: ‘Because you have not heard My words, 9 behold, I will send and take all the families of the north,’ says the LORD, “and Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, My servant, and will bring them against this land, against its inhabitants, and against these nations all around, and will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, a hissing, and perpetual desolations. 10 Moreover I will take from them the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones and the light of the lamp. 11 And this whole land shall be a desolation and an astonishment, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. And just prior to the Lord’s crucifixion, the Lord spoke extensively about the time when this would happen, as recorded in - Mt 24:15 “Therefore when you see the ‘abomination of desolation,’ spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place” (whoever reads, let him understand), 16 “then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. 17 Let him who is on the housetop not go down to take anything out of his house. 18 And let him who is in the field not go back to get his clothes. 19 But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! 20 And pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath. 21 For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. 22 And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect's sake those days will be shortened. And again, recorded in Luke, in response to the question, ‘Teacher, when will these things be? And what sign will there be when these things are about to take place?’ - Lk 21:20 “But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is near. 21 Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, let those who are in the midst of her depart, and let not those who are in the country enter her. 22 For these are the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled. 23 But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! For there will be great distress in the land and wrath upon this people. 24 And they will fall by the edge of the sword, and be led away captive into all nations. And Jerusalem will be trampled by Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. And that seen in Jonah, Matthew, and Luke, is presented again, metaphorically, in - Re 12:1 Now a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a garland of twelve stars. 2 Then being with child, she cried out in labor and in pain to give birth. 3 And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great, fiery red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads. 4 His tail drew a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give birth, to devour her child as soon as it was born. 5 She bore a male child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron. And her child was caught up to God and His throne. 6 Then the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, that they should feed her there one thousand two hundred and sixty days. And as we had noted last time, the command for the Jews in Judea to flee to the mountains, recorded in Luke, is seen in Revelation Chapter 12, through the ‘woman’ who ‘fled into the wilderness.’ The mountains and the wilderness are both used metaphorically to picture the Gentile nations. The only place where God will deal with His people, at the hands of the Gentiles, to bring the Jews to repentance. The Gentile nations then are the place of persecution and, the place of protection. c). Jonah is both brought to repentance in the belly of the great fish and protected from the sea at the same time. Jonah in the belly of the great fish presents the same picture of Divine protection as seen through Noah and his family in the Ark. God prepared the great fish specifically for Jonah for this dual purpose. 2). The ‘woman’ who ‘fled to the wilderness’ in Revelation Chapter 12, to the mountains in Luke, is seen again in Revelation Chapter 17 in that very location – Re 17:1 Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and talked with me, saying to me, “Come, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters, 2 with whom the kings of the earth committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth were made drunk with the wine of her fornication.” 3 So he carried me away in the Spirit into the wilderness. And I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast which was full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. 4 The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the filthiness of her fornication. 5 And on her forehead a name was written: MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. 6 I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. And when I saw her, I marveled with great amazement………………..18 And the woman whom you saw is that great city which reigns [has regal authority] over the kings of the earth.” Apart from the connection with Revelation Chapter 12, the ‘woman’ seen in Chapter 17 is clearly identified, ‘the woman whom you saw is….’ – Mt 23:37 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! 38 See! Your house is left to you desolate; 39 for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!’ ” Let’s remember that Jerusalem, the temple, the people, and the land are used synonymously in Scripture. To talk of Jerusalem, as we see here in Matthew, is to talk of the Jewish people. It was the Jewish people who killed the prophets and stoned those sent to them, and in Revelation Chapter 17, it is the ‘woman’ who is drunk with the blood of the saints and the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. a). And look at how Israel is described in – Jer 3:1 “They say, ‘If a man divorces his wife, And she goes from him And becomes another man's, May he return to her again?’ Would not that land be greatly polluted? But you have played the harlot with many lovers; Yet return to Me,” says the LORD. 2 “Lift up your eyes to the desolate heights and see: Where have you not lain with men? By the road you have sat for them Like an Arabian in the wilderness; And you have polluted the land With your harlotries and your wickedness. There can be no doubt as to who the ‘woman’, ‘the Mother of Harlots’ is. And there can be no doubt as to where she is seen in Revelation Chapter 17, out among the Gentile nations, the wilderness in which the same woman in Chapter 12 fled. And she is there for a very specific purpose – Re 17:15 Then he said to me, “The waters which you saw, where the harlot sits, are peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues. 16 And the ten horns which you saw on the beast, these will hate the harlot, make her desolate and naked, eat her flesh and burn her with fire. Here then is the purpose for the Jewish people being carried away into the Gentile nations, so that ‘Israel the harlot’ will be consumed by the nations under the control of the beast. b). Fire, as always, provides us with a picture of judgment, judgment which both eradicates that which is worthless and purifies that which is of value. We can see this process in relation to Christians in – 1 Co 3:11 For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, 13 each one's work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one's work, of what sort it is. 14 If anyone's work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. 15 If anyone's work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire. From these verses we can see that fire/judgment burns up that which is worthless, the works of wood, hay, straw on the one hand and reveals that which is of value, the works of gold, silver, and precious stones on the other. c). This we can also see in the account of the three Hebrews in Nebuchadnezzar’s fiery furnace. The fire heated seven times hotter ‘killed those men who took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego’, but the three Hebrews themselves were unharmed – Da 3:17 If that is the case, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O king. Zec 13:9 I will bring the one-third through the fire, Will refine them as silver is refined, And test them as gold is tested. They will call on My name, And I will answer them. I will say, ‘This is My people’; And each one will say, ‘The LORD is my God.’ ” And that seen through the ‘harlot’ burned with fire and whose flesh is eaten, is exactly what we see in the type with Jonah in the belly of the great fish – Jon 2:1 Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from the fish's belly. 2 And he said: “I cried out to the LORD because of my affliction, And He answered me. ‘Out of the belly of Sheol I cried, And You heard my voice. 3 For You cast me into the deep, Into the heart of the seas, And the floods surrounded me; All Your billows and Your waves passed over me. 4 Then I said, ‘I have been cast out of Your sight; Yet I will look again toward Your holy temple.’ 5 The waters surrounded me, even to my soul; The deep closed around me; Weeds were wrapped around my head. 6 I went down to the moorings of the mountains; The earth with its bars closed behind me forever; Yet You have brought up my life from the pit, O LORD, my God. 7 “When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the LORD; And my prayer went up to You, Into Your holy temple. 8 “Those who regard worthless idols Forsake their own Mercy. 9 But I will sacrifice to You With the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay what I have vowed. Salvation is of the LORD.” 10 So the LORD spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land. As we read these verses we must once again keep in mind the Lord’s use of metaphors and figurative language to reveal spiritual truth from Jonah’s personal experience. d). Jonah Chapter 2, through the type, takes us from the mid-point in the Tribulation to a time beyond the end of the Tribulation when the Feast of Trumpets will be fulfilled. e). Just so that we are clear about this – Jonah in the belly of the great fish pictures the entirety of the Jewish people scattered out among the Gentile nations, in the place of death following the Antichrist putting those Jews in the land of Israel today to the sword and to captivity as he breaks his covenant with them. This is the ‘woman’ seen in Revelation Chapter 12. f). Let’s look at some of the imagery, 3 For You cast me into the deep, Into the heart of the seas, And the floods surrounded me; All Your billows and Your waves passed over me. 4 Then I said, ‘I have been cast out of Your sight; Yet I will look again toward Your holy temple.’ That seen in v3 should be pretty obvious. Where had God cast Jonah? ‘Into the heart of the seas’ – The Jews totally immersed in the Gentile nations. And the floods that surrounded him and the billows and waves that passed over him, bring echoes of Noah and the flood. g). Then at the beginning of v4 we can find a reference to Cain – Ge 4:14 Surely You have driven me out this day from the face of the ground; I shall be hidden from Your face; I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond on the earth, and it will happen that anyone who finds me will kill me.” And we will remember from our recent study concerning Cain and Abel, that God had left open the door for Cain’s repentance, ‘If you do well will you not be accepted?’ And it is this ‘open door’ that Jonah walked through, ‘Yet I will look again toward Your holy temple.’ h). 5 The waters surrounded me, even to my soul; The deep closed around me; Weeds were wrapped around my head. 6 I went down to the moorings of the mountains; The earth with its bars closed behind me forever; Yet You have brought up my life from the pit, O LORD, my God. Let’s remember that mountains are used to symbolize kingdoms, and here in v6 we see Jonah going down to ‘the moorings of the mountains’. Israel had been created to be at the head of the nations and to rule over them but because of the centuries of disobedience and unfaithfulness culminating in the killing of their Messiah, they are figuratively pictured in this verse as being under the complete domination and subjugation of those kingdoms they should have ruled over. And as we then see ‘the earth with its bars closed behind me’, we are presented with the stark reality of no escape for them. It is God who will place the Jewish people in this situation in the very near future, and there is no escape for them except to turn to the God who placed them there and cry out to Him for their deliverance – Hos 6:1 Come, and let us return to the LORD; For He has torn, but He will heal us; He has stricken, but He will bind us up. 2 After two days He will revive us; On the third day He will raise us up, That we may live in His sight. This is how it is presented in Jonah, Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from the fish's belly. 2 And he said: “I cried out to the LORD because of my affliction, And He answered me. ‘Out of the belly of Sheol I cried, And You heard my voice………….“When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the LORD; And my prayer went up to You, Into Your holy temple. And that which we see through Jonah is what the Lord has promised the Jewish people – 2 Ch 7:14 if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. This is how it is seen in Exodus – Ex 3:9 Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come to Me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. 10 Come now, therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring My people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.” And this is how it is foreshadowed through Cain – Ge 4:13 And Cain said to the LORD, “My punishment is greater than I can bear! And the result of the Jewish people crying out to the God of their fathers, in the antitype of the types we have looked at, is described in – Re 19:1 After these things I heard a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, “Alleluia! Salvation and glory and honor and power belong to the Lord our God! 2 For true and righteous are His judgments, because He has judged the great harlot who corrupted the earth with her fornication; and He has avenged on her the blood of His servants shed by her.” 3 Again they said, “Alleluia! Her smoke rises up forever and ever!” 4 And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who sat on the throne, saying, “Amen! Alleluia!” 5 Then a voice came from the throne, saying, “Praise our God, all you His servants and those who fear Him, both small and great!” 6 And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, as the sound of many waters and as the sound of mighty thunderings, saying, “Alleluia! For the Lord God Omnipotent reigns! And that which is exemplified in God’s response to the cry of His people has been verbalized by Jonah, ‘Salvation is of the Lord’. Salvation, spirit, soul, and body, past present and future, is of the Lord. It is by the grace of the Divine will alone. i). And the salvation that is of the Lord is seen in Jonah in two interconnected ways, firstly, Yet You have brought up my life from the pit, O LORD, my God. Here we see resurrection. Jonah’s life brought up from the pit. This is the Jewish people raised up on the third day seen in Hosea. It is Lazarus raised from the dead on the third day. It is the foundation set in place in Genesis Chapter 1 through the events of the third day – Ge 1:9 Then God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear”; and it was so. 10 And God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters He called Seas. And God saw that it was good. And the salvation of the Lord is seen secondly, So the LORD spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land. The dry land is a metaphor for the physical land of Israel, the land that will also be healed in response to the Jewish people’s cry to the God of their fathers. And that pictured through Jonah here, is the nation regathered from the Gentile nations. The first time the entire Jewish nation will be in the land since before the Babylonian captivity. The first time the Jewish people will be ready and prepared to fulfill their calling, and the first time Israel, the prince who will rule with God will be seen. j). And that which will take place when the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled has been prophetically pictured in the type of the Babylonian captivity when the times of the Gentiles began – Jer 29:10 For thus says the LORD: After seventy years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform My good word toward you, and cause you to return to this place. 11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. 12 Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. 13 And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you, says the LORD, and I will bring you back from your captivity; I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you, says the LORD, and I will bring you to the place from which I cause you to be carried away captive. More next time – if we remain and the Lord is willing, and we have prayed. Passover to Tabernacles - Part Sixteen Mar 06, 2022 Speaker: John Herbert Series: Passover to Tabernacles Category: Sunday Morning https://s3.amazonaws.com/cornerstonejax/sermonfiles/T001_20220306.mp3 Download Audio x
Refresh A Recap from the Sermon Jon 1:12 And he said to them, “Pick me up and throw me into the sea; then the sea will become calm for you. For I know that this great tempest is because of me.” We will continue to look at the type of Jonah. The full text of this message can be found by clicking the PDF button. Sunday March 6th 2022 Passover to Tabernacles Part 16 1). Jon 1:12 And he said to them, “Pick me up and throw me into the sea; then the sea will become calm for you. For I know that this great tempest is because of me.” We had seen last time that the only God-given solution to ‘the great wind’ and ‘the mighty tempest’ of Jonah’s day, was for him to be thrown into the sea. If he was not thrown into the sea then it is implied that Jonah, the mariners, and the ship would be destroyed. a). In the antitype, those Jews in the land called Israel today, must be driven out into the Gentile nations where most Jews presently reside, or else the world would destroy itself – Mk 13:19 For in those days there will be tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the creation which God created until this time, nor ever shall be. 20 And unless the Lord had shortened those days, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect's sake, whom He chose, He shortened the days. This seems like a very high stakes scenario but let’s remember that the prophets have spoken, the types have been set, and God has revealed the end from the beginning. And that ending comes with a Man and a Woman, God the Father and Israel, and Christ and His Bride, ruling together in the Seventh Day – Nu 23:19 “God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good? In the meantime, however, the Jewish people are in the land, and will remain there until the mid-point in the Tribulation – Da 9:27 Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week; But in the middle of the week He shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate, Even until the consummation, which is determined, Is poured out on the desolate.” As we will remember, the man of sin, the Antichrist will make a covenant with the Jews presently in the land of Israel, that will mark the beginning of Daniel’s seventieth week, the final seven years of the Jewish dispensation. This will be a covenant that creates the illusion of peace, a covenant that appears to resolve the problem caused by the Jewish people being in the land apart from their Messiah that has tormented the world for the last seventy plus years – Isa 28:14 Therefore hear the word of the LORD, you scornful men, Who rule this people who are in Jerusalem, 15 Because you have said, “We have made a covenant with death, And with Sheol we are in agreement. When the overflowing scourge passes through, It will not come to us, For we have made lies our refuge, And under falsehood we have hidden ourselves.” This covenant though is not a covenant of peace, quite the opposite. The Jews are God’s covenant people, the only ones with whom He has ever made covenant. And as we realize that the Jews in this coming day will make covenant with the seed of the serpent, we will not be surprised that at this point the ‘great wind’ begins to blow, in anticipation of the ‘mighty tempest.’ If the Jews today remained in the land, then only death could be the result. Life for them can only come from their dispersion and persecution, and the repentance which is to follow. b). And it is within this context in the Book of Jonah, that Jonah is thrown into the sea. An event in the antitype that we see prophetically recorded several times in the Scripture. There is the type we have already seen through the Babylonian captivity – Jer 25:8 “Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts: ‘Because you have not heard My words, 9 behold, I will send and take all the families of the north,’ says the LORD, “and Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, My servant, and will bring them against this land, against its inhabitants, and against these nations all around, and will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, a hissing, and perpetual desolations. 10 Moreover I will take from them the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones and the light of the lamp. 11 And this whole land shall be a desolation and an astonishment, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. And just prior to the Lord’s crucifixion, the Lord spoke extensively about the time when this would happen, as recorded in - Mt 24:15 “Therefore when you see the ‘abomination of desolation,’ spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place” (whoever reads, let him understand), 16 “then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. 17 Let him who is on the housetop not go down to take anything out of his house. 18 And let him who is in the field not go back to get his clothes. 19 But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! 20 And pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath. 21 For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. 22 And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect's sake those days will be shortened. And again, recorded in Luke, in response to the question, ‘Teacher, when will these things be? And what sign will there be when these things are about to take place?’ - Lk 21:20 “But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is near. 21 Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, let those who are in the midst of her depart, and let not those who are in the country enter her. 22 For these are the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled. 23 But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! For there will be great distress in the land and wrath upon this people. 24 And they will fall by the edge of the sword, and be led away captive into all nations. And Jerusalem will be trampled by Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. And that seen in Jonah, Matthew, and Luke, is presented again, metaphorically, in - Re 12:1 Now a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a garland of twelve stars. 2 Then being with child, she cried out in labor and in pain to give birth. 3 And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great, fiery red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads. 4 His tail drew a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give birth, to devour her child as soon as it was born. 5 She bore a male child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron. And her child was caught up to God and His throne. 6 Then the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, that they should feed her there one thousand two hundred and sixty days. And as we had noted last time, the command for the Jews in Judea to flee to the mountains, recorded in Luke, is seen in Revelation Chapter 12, through the ‘woman’ who ‘fled into the wilderness.’ The mountains and the wilderness are both used metaphorically to picture the Gentile nations. The only place where God will deal with His people, at the hands of the Gentiles, to bring the Jews to repentance. The Gentile nations then are the place of persecution and, the place of protection. c). Jonah is both brought to repentance in the belly of the great fish and protected from the sea at the same time. Jonah in the belly of the great fish presents the same picture of Divine protection as seen through Noah and his family in the Ark. God prepared the great fish specifically for Jonah for this dual purpose. 2). The ‘woman’ who ‘fled to the wilderness’ in Revelation Chapter 12, to the mountains in Luke, is seen again in Revelation Chapter 17 in that very location – Re 17:1 Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and talked with me, saying to me, “Come, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters, 2 with whom the kings of the earth committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth were made drunk with the wine of her fornication.” 3 So he carried me away in the Spirit into the wilderness. And I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast which was full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. 4 The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the filthiness of her fornication. 5 And on her forehead a name was written: MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. 6 I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. And when I saw her, I marveled with great amazement………………..18 And the woman whom you saw is that great city which reigns [has regal authority] over the kings of the earth.” Apart from the connection with Revelation Chapter 12, the ‘woman’ seen in Chapter 17 is clearly identified, ‘the woman whom you saw is….’ – Mt 23:37 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! 38 See! Your house is left to you desolate; 39 for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!’ ” Let’s remember that Jerusalem, the temple, the people, and the land are used synonymously in Scripture. To talk of Jerusalem, as we see here in Matthew, is to talk of the Jewish people. It was the Jewish people who killed the prophets and stoned those sent to them, and in Revelation Chapter 17, it is the ‘woman’ who is drunk with the blood of the saints and the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. a). And look at how Israel is described in – Jer 3:1 “They say, ‘If a man divorces his wife, And she goes from him And becomes another man's, May he return to her again?’ Would not that land be greatly polluted? But you have played the harlot with many lovers; Yet return to Me,” says the LORD. 2 “Lift up your eyes to the desolate heights and see: Where have you not lain with men? By the road you have sat for them Like an Arabian in the wilderness; And you have polluted the land With your harlotries and your wickedness. There can be no doubt as to who the ‘woman’, ‘the Mother of Harlots’ is. And there can be no doubt as to where she is seen in Revelation Chapter 17, out among the Gentile nations, the wilderness in which the same woman in Chapter 12 fled. And she is there for a very specific purpose – Re 17:15 Then he said to me, “The waters which you saw, where the harlot sits, are peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues. 16 And the ten horns which you saw on the beast, these will hate the harlot, make her desolate and naked, eat her flesh and burn her with fire. Here then is the purpose for the Jewish people being carried away into the Gentile nations, so that ‘Israel the harlot’ will be consumed by the nations under the control of the beast. b). Fire, as always, provides us with a picture of judgment, judgment which both eradicates that which is worthless and purifies that which is of value. We can see this process in relation to Christians in – 1 Co 3:11 For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, 13 each one's work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one's work, of what sort it is. 14 If anyone's work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. 15 If anyone's work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire. From these verses we can see that fire/judgment burns up that which is worthless, the works of wood, hay, straw on the one hand and reveals that which is of value, the works of gold, silver, and precious stones on the other. c). This we can also see in the account of the three Hebrews in Nebuchadnezzar’s fiery furnace. The fire heated seven times hotter ‘killed those men who took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego’, but the three Hebrews themselves were unharmed – Da 3:17 If that is the case, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O king. Zec 13:9 I will bring the one-third through the fire, Will refine them as silver is refined, And test them as gold is tested. They will call on My name, And I will answer them. I will say, ‘This is My people’; And each one will say, ‘The LORD is my God.’ ” And that seen through the ‘harlot’ burned with fire and whose flesh is eaten, is exactly what we see in the type with Jonah in the belly of the great fish – Jon 2:1 Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from the fish's belly. 2 And he said: “I cried out to the LORD because of my affliction, And He answered me. ‘Out of the belly of Sheol I cried, And You heard my voice. 3 For You cast me into the deep, Into the heart of the seas, And the floods surrounded me; All Your billows and Your waves passed over me. 4 Then I said, ‘I have been cast out of Your sight; Yet I will look again toward Your holy temple.’ 5 The waters surrounded me, even to my soul; The deep closed around me; Weeds were wrapped around my head. 6 I went down to the moorings of the mountains; The earth with its bars closed behind me forever; Yet You have brought up my life from the pit, O LORD, my God. 7 “When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the LORD; And my prayer went up to You, Into Your holy temple. 8 “Those who regard worthless idols Forsake their own Mercy. 9 But I will sacrifice to You With the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay what I have vowed. Salvation is of the LORD.” 10 So the LORD spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land. As we read these verses we must once again keep in mind the Lord’s use of metaphors and figurative language to reveal spiritual truth from Jonah’s personal experience. d). Jonah Chapter 2, through the type, takes us from the mid-point in the Tribulation to a time beyond the end of the Tribulation when the Feast of Trumpets will be fulfilled. e). Just so that we are clear about this – Jonah in the belly of the great fish pictures the entirety of the Jewish people scattered out among the Gentile nations, in the place of death following the Antichrist putting those Jews in the land of Israel today to the sword and to captivity as he breaks his covenant with them. This is the ‘woman’ seen in Revelation Chapter 12. f). Let’s look at some of the imagery, 3 For You cast me into the deep, Into the heart of the seas, And the floods surrounded me; All Your billows and Your waves passed over me. 4 Then I said, ‘I have been cast out of Your sight; Yet I will look again toward Your holy temple.’ That seen in v3 should be pretty obvious. Where had God cast Jonah? ‘Into the heart of the seas’ – The Jews totally immersed in the Gentile nations. And the floods that surrounded him and the billows and waves that passed over him, bring echoes of Noah and the flood. g). Then at the beginning of v4 we can find a reference to Cain – Ge 4:14 Surely You have driven me out this day from the face of the ground; I shall be hidden from Your face; I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond on the earth, and it will happen that anyone who finds me will kill me.” And we will remember from our recent study concerning Cain and Abel, that God had left open the door for Cain’s repentance, ‘If you do well will you not be accepted?’ And it is this ‘open door’ that Jonah walked through, ‘Yet I will look again toward Your holy temple.’ h). 5 The waters surrounded me, even to my soul; The deep closed around me; Weeds were wrapped around my head. 6 I went down to the moorings of the mountains; The earth with its bars closed behind me forever; Yet You have brought up my life from the pit, O LORD, my God. Let’s remember that mountains are used to symbolize kingdoms, and here in v6 we see Jonah going down to ‘the moorings of the mountains’. Israel had been created to be at the head of the nations and to rule over them but because of the centuries of disobedience and unfaithfulness culminating in the killing of their Messiah, they are figuratively pictured in this verse as being under the complete domination and subjugation of those kingdoms they should have ruled over. And as we then see ‘the earth with its bars closed behind me’, we are presented with the stark reality of no escape for them. It is God who will place the Jewish people in this situation in the very near future, and there is no escape for them except to turn to the God who placed them there and cry out to Him for their deliverance – Hos 6:1 Come, and let us return to the LORD; For He has torn, but He will heal us; He has stricken, but He will bind us up. 2 After two days He will revive us; On the third day He will raise us up, That we may live in His sight. This is how it is presented in Jonah, Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from the fish's belly. 2 And he said: “I cried out to the LORD because of my affliction, And He answered me. ‘Out of the belly of Sheol I cried, And You heard my voice………….“When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the LORD; And my prayer went up to You, Into Your holy temple. And that which we see through Jonah is what the Lord has promised the Jewish people – 2 Ch 7:14 if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. This is how it is seen in Exodus – Ex 3:9 Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come to Me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. 10 Come now, therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring My people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.” And this is how it is foreshadowed through Cain – Ge 4:13 And Cain said to the LORD, “My punishment is greater than I can bear! And the result of the Jewish people crying out to the God of their fathers, in the antitype of the types we have looked at, is described in – Re 19:1 After these things I heard a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, “Alleluia! Salvation and glory and honor and power belong to the Lord our God! 2 For true and righteous are His judgments, because He has judged the great harlot who corrupted the earth with her fornication; and He has avenged on her the blood of His servants shed by her.” 3 Again they said, “Alleluia! Her smoke rises up forever and ever!” 4 And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who sat on the throne, saying, “Amen! Alleluia!” 5 Then a voice came from the throne, saying, “Praise our God, all you His servants and those who fear Him, both small and great!” 6 And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, as the sound of many waters and as the sound of mighty thunderings, saying, “Alleluia! For the Lord God Omnipotent reigns! And that which is exemplified in God’s response to the cry of His people has been verbalized by Jonah, ‘Salvation is of the Lord’. Salvation, spirit, soul, and body, past present and future, is of the Lord. It is by the grace of the Divine will alone. i). And the salvation that is of the Lord is seen in Jonah in two interconnected ways, firstly, Yet You have brought up my life from the pit, O LORD, my God. Here we see resurrection. Jonah’s life brought up from the pit. This is the Jewish people raised up on the third day seen in Hosea. It is Lazarus raised from the dead on the third day. It is the foundation set in place in Genesis Chapter 1 through the events of the third day – Ge 1:9 Then God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear”; and it was so. 10 And God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters He called Seas. And God saw that it was good. And the salvation of the Lord is seen secondly, So the LORD spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land. The dry land is a metaphor for the physical land of Israel, the land that will also be healed in response to the Jewish people’s cry to the God of their fathers. And that pictured through Jonah here, is the nation regathered from the Gentile nations. The first time the entire Jewish nation will be in the land since before the Babylonian captivity. The first time the Jewish people will be ready and prepared to fulfill their calling, and the first time Israel, the prince who will rule with God will be seen. j). And that which will take place when the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled has been prophetically pictured in the type of the Babylonian captivity when the times of the Gentiles began – Jer 29:10 For thus says the LORD: After seventy years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform My good word toward you, and cause you to return to this place. 11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. 12 Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. 13 And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you, says the LORD, and I will bring you back from your captivity; I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you, says the LORD, and I will bring you to the place from which I cause you to be carried away captive. More next time – if we remain and the Lord is willing, and we have prayed.