We are continuing to look at Jonah, chapter 3.  This is study #4 and, again, we will read Jonah 3:1-4, and it is really a good thing to read the Bible and read the Bible some more and read things that you have read many times before.  In time past you have read the same things, but you hear it again, and again, and as we do so, oftentimes we will learn something when God gives us a bit of understanding we did not have before.  It says in Jonah 3:1:4:

And the word of JEHOVAH came unto Jonah the second time, saying, Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee. So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of JEHOVAH. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days' journey. And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.

We have been spending a lot of time talking about the year 1994, because in these opening statements in Jonah, chapter 3 we are directed to the second outpouring of the Holy Spirit which took place in 1994.  In our last study, we went to Exodus 19, verse 13 that spoke of a prolonged trumpet or prolonged Jubilee. 

We also went to Joshua, chapter 6 and I will read, again, Joshua 6:4:

And seven priests shall bear before the ark seven trumpets of rams' horns…

The Hebrew word translated as “rams’ horn” is the word “yo-bale.” It is Strong’s #3104, which is the word for “jubile.”  It is speaking of seven priests that are bearing seven trumpets of rams’ horns or “jubiles.”  Then they blow on their trumpets and go around the city, in Joshua 6:5:

And it shall come to pass, that when they make a long blast with the ram's horn, and when ye hear the sound of the trumpet...

The word translated as “long” is the same word that was translated as “soundeth long” in Exodus 19:13 and then it said in the last part of the verse in Joshua 6:5:

…all the people shall shout with a great shout; and the wall of the city shall fall down flat, and the people shall ascend up every man straight before him.

So, God is connecting the Jubilee that takes places after 13,000 years (as pictured by the 13 times around Jericho) and then the Jubilee would sound.  It was not going to sound immediately and it was not going to sound for just an instant and be over, but it was going to sound long.  It was a prolonged sounding of the trumpet or a prolonged Jubilee period.

When we think of a Jubilee, we think of setting the captives free and in 1994 God began to evangelize the earth a second time and began to bring deliverance to His elect people.  But did that not come to a close on May 21, 2011?  Yes – God ended His salvation program, but He did not complete His salvation because we are still looking for the completion of our salvation and that will not happen until we receive our new resurrected bodies.  For instance, it says in Romans 8:22:

For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit…

The firstfruits of the Spirit is the “earnest” of the Spirit and it is a word that identifies with a “down payment.”  We have the Holy Spirit and God grants assurance to His people in many ways and it is possible to know you are a child of God and to know you have the Spirit of Christ and a born-again soul.  Therefore, you can know that God began a good work in you and you know there has been a change in your life and God has been true to His Word.  He has been faithful in saving your soul. 

You know, the churches and many people misunderstand and they think the salvation of the soul is all there is and it is the completion of everything, but it is not.  It is just the beginning.  It is just the down payment, like when you buy a house.  They require a down payment and you put down “earnest” money, whether it be $2,000 or $5,000 and you are really saying that you will eventually complete the payment for the house in 20 or 30 years.  Over the course of time, you pay off the mortgage and the house is yours, but the down payment may have been made long ago and it is not until you pay off the whole price of the house that you can say, “I paid for that house and that house belongs to me.” 

That is what God did in salvation when He saved the soul of a person.  He has obligated Himself to complete the rest of salvation.  So, it goes on to say in Romans 8:22-23:

…even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.

We are currently saved in our souls, but why are we not content?  Why are we not satisfied with that?  Many churches would have people to rejoice and act like everything is wonderful.  It is a gospel of good news and everything is positive, but that is not the case with one God has saved in the soul because it starts a longing within that person – he longs to have a body in the same condition as his soul.  He wants his body to experience what God has done in the spirit by taking away his heart of stone and giving him a heart of flesh.  Until God does so there is this “groaning.”  Yes – God tells us to be content, but we are dissatisfied with living in a sin-cursed body that has seen corruption and will eventually die; it is prone to sin and prone to go away from the commandments of God.  So, the true elect believer has a desire that builds within him.  I say, “true elect believer,” because there are a lot of true believers running around that have gone back from the true teachings of the Bible, so it is probably better to distinguish them as an elect child of God or elect true believer.  The child of God has a desire to receive his new resurrected body and he no longer wishes to be in his present unsaved body.  The elect of God are waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our bodies.

Prior to the salvation of our souls, God beings to spark a desire in an individual to become saved or to receive a new resurrected soul.  Does anyone remember having that desire and all you wanted was to be saved in our soul and for God to perform that miracle of salvation?  Then He did so for His elect and they received their new resurrected souls.

But now we are in a time when God has completed that work in the world.  He is no longer performing the saving of souls, but there is still an aspect of salvation to come because there still remains the adoption or redemption of our bodies and that will complete the salvation program of God.  That is what we wait upon and that is what we look for and that will complete the last Jubilee that began in 1994. 

It is truly wonderful that God saved all whose names were recorded in the Lamb’s Book of Life.  Everyone chosen to become saved has become saved, but the essence of the Jubilee is complete deliverance from the bondage to sin which will not completely happen until we receive our new bodies.  Once we receive our new bodies, it is the completion of God’s salvation and it is part of the Jubilee that began in 1994.  In other words, May 21, 2011 did not complete the Jubilee period of 1994, but if we are correct about the year 2033 and if we are correct about God bringing the world to an end in that year, that last day will complete the Jubilee. 

It is just like Jesus, who was born into the world in 7BC, was the essence of the Jubilee, but His work was not completed until 33AD when He went to the cross and then showed Himself for 40 days afterwards.  Likewise, this second Jubilee or second outpouring of the Holy Spirit will not be completed until the salvation of the elect has taken place in their bodies as it has in their souls.

We also went to Revelation, chapter 8 and we had seen in Joshua, chapter 6 that God mentioned “jubile” five times in relationship to the 13 times around Jericho.  After the 13^th time, the wall came down.  That identifies with the first Jubilee that took place after 2,000 years and it took place in 1994.  We saw in Joshua that there were seven priests bearing seven trumpets.  Here, it says in Revelation 8:2:

And I saw the seven angels which stood before God; and to them were given seven trumpets.

The trumpets then began to sound.  The first four trumpets sounded, pronouncing judgment on the “third part” and the last three trumpet sounds begin in chapter 9 and they are the last “three woes” that identify with Judgment Day.  But we notice in Revelation 8, verse 1 that before God begins to discuss the seven angels (messengers) that carry the seven trumpets, He says in Revelation 8:1:

And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour.

We have known for a long time that the Great Tribulation is typified by “one hour,” so “about the space of half an hour” identifies with the 2,300 evening mornings.  We have known that for many years.  Therefore, Revelation 8, verse 1 covers the time from 1988 to September 1994 and Revelation 8, verse 2 and the sounding of the trumpets began in 1994, which would identify with the seven priests bearing the seven trumpets of Jubilee in Joshua, chapter 6.  The prolonged nature of the trumpet blast we can see with the 23-year overall Great Tribulation, but the (about) 17 years where judgment was definitely seen upon the churches and congregations because it was in 1994 that God stretched forth His hand the second time to recover the remnant of His people; He began to save people in the world, but not those in the churches, so there was a clear signal at that point.  It was a clear, definite declaration by God that He had ended the church age and was bringing wrath upon the churches and congregations of the world.

We are looking at Revelation 8, verse 1 where it says there was “silence in heaven.”  I think I made the statement last time that this means the trumpets could not have sounded during that about half hour period that lasted for 2,300 evening mornings. 

This same word for “silence” is found in only one other place.  It says in Acts, chapter 21.  Maybe someone is wondering why we say that “virtually” no one was saved, instead of making the statement that no one was saved.  God uses this word in Acts 21 and it is very important in helping us to understand this verse in Revelation 8, verse 1.  It says in Acts 21:39-40:

But Paul said, I am a man which am a Jew of Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, a citizen of no mean city: and, I beseech thee, suffer me to speak unto the people. And when he had given him licence, Paul stood on the stairs, and beckoned with the hand unto the people. And when there was made a great silence, he spake unto them in the Hebrew tongue, saying,

This word “silence” is the same word found in Revelation 8:1 and it is Strong’s #4602.  They made a great “silence” when he began to speak in the Hebrew tongue.  Then it says in the next chapter in Acts 22:1-2:

Men, brethren, and fathers, hear ye my defence which I make now unto you. (And when they heard that he spake in the Hebrew tongue to them, they kept the more silence: and he saith,)

The word for “silence” here is a different word, but it is the fact that God says they “kept the more silence.”  It is just like those of us in this room – everyone is silent and being very polite.  But we do this (and I do this with my wife) sometimes when someone is speaking and you think of something and you whisper to the person next to you.  You are not trying to interrupt or anything.  It was probably that kind of situation as Paul was beginning to speak and the crowd was quieting down.  There had been a ruckus and they quieted down.  Then they noticed he was speaking to them in Hebrew and they “kept the more silence.”  You see, the word “silence” in Acts 21, verse 4 is the same word in Revelation 8, verse 1 where this was silence in heaven for about the space of half an hour.  Then in Acts, chapter 22 we learn that “silence” can become even “more silence.” 

We are trying to take our understanding from the Bible and when God says that there is silence in heaven, it means there could be a “little whisper,” perhaps.  Typically, what we have taken this to mean is that even though God was not saving in the churches during those 2,300 days, maybe he saved a trickle of people in the world.  Maybe He did not, but maybe He could have saved someone out in the world (not in the churches) during those 2,300 days, but it is unlikely.  So, the fact that they kept “the more silence” helps us to understand this, but, certainly, no one was blowing a trumpet when Paul was speaking – they may have been whispering quietly, but no one was blowing a trumpet.

In Revelation, chapter 8 God begins by telling us about the silence in heaven and then He talks about the seven angels that had the seven trumpets and then they began to sound, so this indicates that they were not sounding during that figurative “half hour” or those 2,300 evening mornings.  But they were sounding afterwards and that leads us, again, to September 1994 and the trumpets of the Jubilee and the prolonged sounding of judgment that began at the house of God and continued over the remaining time of the Great Tribulation and into Judgment Day itself in our present time.

Let us go back to Jonah, chapter 3 and I think it is very clear that the word of JEHOVAH came to Jonah, the dove (which points to the Holy Spirit), and we can mark this as the beginning point of the Jubilee year in 1994.  Again, it says in Jonah 3:1-3:

And the word of JEHOVAH came unto Jonah the second time, saying, Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee. So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of JEHOVAH. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days' journey.

Why was Nineveh an “exceeding great city”?  If you look at the Interlinear Bible, it tells us why.  It says, “Nineveh was a great city to God.”  If it is a great city to God, that would make it an “exceeding great city,” and the translators wanted to emphasize this in our King James Bible, so it says in Jonah 3:3-4:

Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days' journey. And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey…

We have discussed this before.  Jonah went into that great city, which was three days’ journey, but he went into the city only a day’s journey.  We do not read that he did any additional travel other than that, except when he went out of the city.  When he went into the city to preach the preaching God told him to preach, he went in a single day’s journey.  After proclaiming the message, he left and went out of the city.  We can see in this that God has established a “one third” and “two thirds” ratio.  The city stretched out to three days of travel, as they traveled in ancient times.  He went in a single day’s journey and made his proclamation, so one third of the city heard what he preached and two thirds did not hear him in the other parts of the city.  In God’s salvation program, we know that God speaks of saving His elect and He typifies them as the “one third” and He typifies the non-elect as the “two thirds.”  That is what is in view here when Jonah goes into the city only a day’s journey.

Then it says in Jonah 3:4:

And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.

This is why it is so important that we identify the second sending forth of Jonah to Nineveh with the year 1994, because God is giving us a time path here, is He not?  Even historically, He gave a time path.  He gave a definite date they could mark on their calendar.  Whatever day it was that Jonah entered into the city, they could calculate 40 days from that date and they would know the exact day God said He would destroy them.

Of course, it just so happens that God wrote this with a deeper spiritual meaning to identify with the second outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the year 1994, so what if you went 40 days from September 1994?  That would not take you very far and, obviously, it was not the end of the world or anything like that.  It would have taken you to some date in October 1994.  But, again, this is the Bible and God often uses lesser numbers to symbolically represent greater numbers, like He did in the Book of Genesis when He told Noah that “Yet seven days,” and the flood would come, but the “seven days” represented seven thousand years, spiritually.

Here, too, the “40 days” points to a greater period of time.  We can know this when we go to Numbers, chapter 13 and we read of the spies that searched out the land of Canaan in Numbers 13:25:

And they returned from searching of the land after forty days.  

Then it says in Numbers 13:31-33:

But the men that went up with him said, We be not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we. And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature. And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.

In the next chapter, it says in Numbers 14:33-34:

And your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your whoredoms, until your carcases be wasted in the wilderness. After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know my breach of promise.

Here, we have the exact number of days that Jonah proclaimed, but God does a substitution.  He said that for each day they searched the land, they would wander in the wilderness for a year or for a total of 40 years.  Notice the language here.  God said, “After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years,” and does this sound familiar to anyone?  (Let us see if anyone is paying attention.)  I think we were talking earlier today about Ezekiel, chapter 4, so, yes, it should be familiar to us.  Let us turn to Ezekiel, chapter 4 where God gave the prophet Ezekiel a strange task to perform.  You know, the Lord did this from time to time, like when He told the prophet Isaiah to walk “naked and barefoot” for three years.  And you and I think we have it tough!  {Laughter} Can you imagine this?  The one true God who has been communicating with you and then He comes to you and tells you to lay on your left side.  Do not switch sides.  When I sleep at night, I might lay on my left side, but fifteen minutes later I am on my right side.  No – he would have to lay on his left side for 390 days.  I am not too sure if that meant he was to do it every night or constantly for 390 days.  I do not understand it – I guess people could have brought him food, and so forth.  I am not sure and God does not give us those details, but even if it was only at night, he could only lay on his left side and not on turn on his back or on his stomach.  After 390 days, it would have been over a year and a month.  The number “390” does have the number “13,” does it not?  It is “3 x 13 x 10,” and we have the number “3” pointing to the purpose of God and we have the number “13” pointing to the end of the world and we have the number “10,” which points to completeness.  He had to lie on his left side for 390 days and then he could switch – that must have been a relief, especially for the first day or two.  Then he had to go 40 days on his right side and then he would have completed what God told him to do.  So, it was a total of 430 days to completion and that is an interesting number because it is the number of years Israel spent in the land of Egypt: 430 years to the selfsame day.  We could say that Ezekiel did this to the “selfsame day” and then he could do something else, but during this time, it says in Ezekiel 4:4:

Lie thou also upon thy left side, and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel upon it: according to the number of the days that thou shalt lie upon it thou shalt bear their iniquity.

The word “thou” refers to Ezekiel bearing their iniquity.  I think earlier I said that this had to do with Christ putting up with the sins of Israel of old and of the churches and congregations, but I am not so sure of that because it points to Ezekiel, the son of man, bearing their iniquity.  It could refer to the elect within Israel or within the churches.  I am not too clear on this.  It is something we need to pray for wisdom about, but it goes on to say in Ezekiel 4:5:

For I have laid upon thee the years of their iniquity, according to the number of the days, three hundred and ninety days: so shalt thou bear the iniquity of the house of Israel.

It is just like God told Israel in the wilderness that they were going to bear their iniquity a year for each day.  Then it says in Ezekiel 4:6:

And when thou hast accomplished them, lie again on thy right side, and thou shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days: I have appointed thee each day for a year.

Again, there is this substitution.  It is a period of days, but then God says that each day represents a year, so there were 390 days that would signify 390 years and then there were 40 days that would represent 40 years.  Combined, there would be 430 years, like the time that Israel spent in the land of Egypt.

To give credit, Mr. Camping went in to this in a couple of his books and he pointed out that throughout Israel’s history, they were involved in sin and rebellion against God.  And this was also true of the New Testament churches and congregations.  I think it was in the book titled “1994?” and it may have been in the book, “Are you Ready?”  He pointed out that the beginning of Israel could be traced back to the day when God changed Jacob’s name to “Israel,” which means “prince of God” and that happened in the year 1907BC.  That is when Jacob was 100 years old and that is when God changed his name to “Israel,” so, in that sense, Israel came into existence because that is the first time we hear about that name.  So, if you go 3,900 years from 1907BC, it takes you to the year 1994AD.  (1907 + 1994 – 1 = 3900) At the least, this is a very interesting time path because you would have “3 x 13,” plus multiples of “10,” which would strengthen the idea of completeness. 

By the way, God did say each day for a year and that would be “390,” but Mr. Camping pointed out this was “3,900,” which is basically adding another “0” to the number “390,” and the Bible allows for that because it does not change what is in view.  It simply strengthens it with the addition of the “0.”  Then Mr. Camping took the number “40” and he said that both the “390” and the number “40” have to coincide and land on the same date, but I do not think that is necessarily the case.  It is not indicated here, but Mr. Camping was writing about this in 1992 and at that time he expected that the year 1994 would be Judgment Day, so he said for “40,” instead of going back to 1907BC, you would go back to Jacob’s birth in 2007BC and between 2007BC and 1994AD, there is exactly 4,000 years.  It seems to satisfy what God is saying here, but I think there is a better understanding.  I think Mr. Camping was completely right about the “390” representing “3,900” years from 1907 to 1994, but when you read the account about Ezekiel, how long did it take Ezekiel to accomplish his task?  It took 430 days.  He had to do the 390 days and then the 40 days and he did not back it up when he began the 40 days.  That is the problem with what Mr. Camping was saying – it was not consecutive.  Here, it is consecutive.  First, Ezekiel was to lie on his left side for 390 days and then he was to turn and lie on his right side for 40 days.  And, again, the two numbers are added together before he had accomplished the task.  You have to do that and there is no other way of doing it.  So, an understanding that would be more in line with what it is saying would be to go 3,900 years and then add to that 3,900 years.  You go “390” years, representing the 1907 to 1994, but then with the next date of 40 days or 40 years, we would not have to add “zeroes” to that to make it 400 or 4,000.  But, it would be a time path to 1994, then you switch (and you go to your right side, so to speak) and you continue for 40 days.  That is the language used, but here the substitution is made from 40 days to 40 years, if we follow this information in a spiritual way.   Again, I think the 3,900 years is very sound and it is only because of the time we are living in and our vantage point of living in the year 2017 that we can see that 1994 was very important.  It was important because that is when the trumpet of the Jubilee would begin to sound, but it would sound over a prolonged period of time and then if we understand Ezekiel, chapter 4 in this way, it directs us to the year 2034, if you go 40 actual years.

Does anyone remember the book “1994?” and the many times paths that pointed to the year 34AD?  Mr. Camping came up with a mythical character named Nathaniel who, based on Old Testament information in Daniel, and so forth, would have been able to determine the first coming of Christ and the time path for it.  And there were many times paths that pointed to 34AD and a good number of others pointed to 33AD and Mr. Camping said it was “surprising” and that this Nathaniel did not know what to do with this information at first, but then Mr. Camping introduced the idea of “calendar years” versus “actual years,” which resulted in all these time paths to 34AD falling, in actuality, in 33AD.  There was an adjustment from 34AD to 33AD.  In other words, God allowed two methods of understanding in order to multiply the possibilities to point to the significant date He wanted to emphasize.  So, yes, we occasionally find the year 2034 coming in to view, but we also have two methods of counting, where we can count actual years and from 1994 to 2033 would be actual years or we can count inclusive years, where the partial year of 1994 is “year 1,” and 1995 is “year 2,” and so forth, and when you get to 2033 you will land on 40 actual years.  

Again, the period of 1994 to 2033 is the identical length of time we find from 7BC to 33AD, so when we read “Yet 40 days,” in the book of Jonah and we consider the spiritual context of the second sending forth of the Holy Spirit (dove) to Nineveh, which represents the world, then God tells him to proclaim something that was easily remembered.  It was not a book or even a long paragraph, but here is what God told Jonah to preach and when Jonah went into the city a day’s journey, the only words He proclaimed was this: “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.”  We can pinpoint 1994 and then a timeline that identifies with that Jubilee and identifies with the trumpet of the Jubilee.  But “40 days” in the Bible is rarely 40 days.  That is one thing for sure.  You have to look at the possibilities for 40 days: 40 years, 400 years or 4,000 years.  When you rule out some of the possibilities and you find it does not fit with 400 or 4,000, but it does fit with “40,” that is how we come to a conclusion and we can develop something soundly and in accordance with what the Bible will allow us to do.