Let us read Jonah 4:1:

But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry.

Remember, this verse needs some correction.  By the way, someone pointed out to me that if you are using the online bible help called Sword Searcher, it does not give the Strong’s number for the word “eye.”  So, we must be careful.  It is not an interlinear.  We have Jay Green’s Interlinear here today, if anyone wants to see it.  The Hebrew word is #5869 or #5870 in Strong’s Concordance and it is the word “eye.”  But if you are looking at one of these online helps, which are normally good, it is not helpful in this case.  This is one of those unusual verses in the Bible that everyone seems to have trouble with and Sword Searcher does not acknowledge that the word “eye” appears there.    

The literal translation in the interlinear is this: “It was a great evil to Jonah’s eye.” We talked about this and we saw how it has to do with Christ.  The Bible says that if your eye is evil, your whole body is full of darkness.  Jonah is a picture of the Lord Jesus taking upon Himself the sins of all the elect and becoming like “darkness,” because sins identify with darkness.  Christ bore those sins and paid for them at the foundation of the world.

Then it says in Jonah 4:2-3:

And he prayed unto JEHOVAH, and said, I pray thee, O JEHOVAH, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil. Therefore now, O JEHOVAH, take, I beseech thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live.

We also saw how this was definitely true for the Lord Jesus Christ – it was better for Him to have died than to live, because if He had not died, we could not live eternally.

Let us go on to Jonah 4:4:

Then said JEHOVAH, Doest thou well to be angry?

This is another case where we need to check the interlinear.  Literally, it says: “Is wrath (anger) rightly (goodly) kindled to you?”  This is something I can show you in the interlinear.  In Jay Green’s Interlinear, Jay Green translated it “to you.”  In the interlinear, there is the Hebrew and then the English word is shown underneath.  Then in the side column, there is the literal reading and if you have a literal Bible it is the side column you are reading because they are trying to make it more “readable,” and they changed it to read “in you” and that is incorrect.  Again, they were following the theme that Jonah was an angry man and they did not understand the deeper, spiritual meaning because God hid it well. 

The Lord sometimes does this by hiding things through mistranslations, like He did in Matthew 28:1, where it literally says, “in the end of the sabbaths when it began to dawn toward the first of the sabbaths,” but in the Kings James translation they translated it, “In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week.”  God purposely permitted the translators to improperly translate something to hide a doctrine.  This was another doctrine that was unearthed in our time, the Sunday Sabbath.  The churches knew that Sunday was the Sabbath, but they did not know why.  I never heard a good explanation from a theologian during the church age regarding why we should worship on Sunday instead of Saturday.  To purify the Gospel going forth during the Latter Rain, God opened up doctrines like the Sunday Sabbath and the faith of Christ and many other things.  So, the authority is the Word of God in the original languages.  Even the best translations can be corrected, if necessary.  They are not the authority, but the authority is what God said in His original Word.

It says in Jonah 4:5:

So Jonah went out of the city, and sat on the east side of the city, and there made him a booth…

We saw that the “east” side of the city has to do with the direction of the kingdom of God.  It is the direction the lightning is said to come from and Christ is said to come from the east.  There are several verses that identify the east with God’s kingdom.  The sun rises in the east and God is the “sun.”

Again, it says in Jonah 4:5:

So Jonah went out of the city, and sat on the east side of the city, and there made him a booth, and sat under it in the shadow, till he might see what would become of the city.

He sat outside the city in a makeshift booth.  He found the best branches he could and he had some shadow.  We are not going to have time to look at the gourd in this study, but God tells us in Jonah 4:6:

And JEHOVAH God prepared a gourd, and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shadow over his head, to deliver him from his grief…

The word “grief” is the same Hebrew word that was translated as “evil” that was in Jonah 4:1 and Jonah 4:2 and in Jonah 3:10.

Then it says in Jonah 4:6-8:

…So Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd. But God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd that it withered. And it came to pass, when the sun did arise, that God prepared a vehement east wind; and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted, and wished in himself to die, and said, *It is* better for me to die than to live.

Again, Jonah makes the statement that it is better for him to die than to live.  We wonder why there was a booth?  Then why was the booth forgotten and the focus is on the gourd?  The gourd gave shadow, but it was temporary shadow and God smote the gourd and the sun began to beat upon Jonah’s head.  Was he not still in a booth?  Yes – but it may have been the direction of the sun.  We do not know why the gourd would have given greater shadow.  He was in a booth that gave some shadow, but then there was a gourd above the booth that gave more shadow and Jonah was very glad about it.  Then God struck the gourd.  It says in Jonah 4:10:

Then said JEHOVAH, Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not laboured, neither madest it grow; which came up in a night, and perished in a night:

Literally, this reads something like, “which came up as a sun of a night and perished as the sun of a night.”  It is something similar to that.  It makes us think of the parable of the sower sowing the seed.  Remember, there was one instance that tribulation arose for the word’s sake and, immediately, the individual was offended; God is relating individuals to plants.  In that case the sun beat upon a plant that did not have proper soil and it was likened to someone being offended and departing from the Word of God.

But, again, this is complex and we do not have time (at this conference) and we still want to talk about the booth or tabernacle, where it said in Jonah 4:5:

So Jonah went out of the city, and sat on the east side of the city, and there made him a booth, and sat under it in the shadow, till he might see what would become of the city.

We know that Jonah went one day’s journey into the city and then he left the city.  Again, just think of a city and you can go a long way traveling through a city as you enter from one direction, but there may be another city limit not too far from the point you reached.  So, it could be that he went a day’s journey into the city, but it could have taken him 15 or 20 minutes to get out on the east side of the city.  He did not go back the way he came because that would have been another day’s journey.  All we know is that it took him one day to go into the city and then he left and one day from 40 days leaves 39 days, so for 39 days (as far as we know) he sat in a booth to see what would become of the city.

So, we have two numbers here: 39 and 40.  God had said, “And yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.”  Then Jonah was involved in one course of action for one day and another course of action for 39 days.  So, we have two numbers that are very closed connected, which are “39” and “40.”  Why is that important?  Remember that verse in Deuteronomy 25:1:

If there be a controversy between men, and they come unto judgment, that the judges may judge them; then they shall justify the righteous, and condemn the wicked.

It is interesting that we see judgment of the righteous and the wicked because Ecclesiastes tells us that there is “one event to all.”  We had always thought we would be gone before the Judgment Day.  We always thought the wicked were the ones that were brought before God for judgment.  We were already judged in Christ before the foundation of the world, so we thought we would not have to appear before His judgment seat.   But the Lord opened up the scriptures to teach the demonstration of the Lord Jesus going to the cross in 33 A.D.  He was judged the second time, without sin, as He was not paying for our sins at the cross because He had already paid for them at the foundation of the world.  The same word that teaches us of His demonstration is used in 2Corninthians 5:10, where it says that we must all “appear” (be made “manifest”) before the judgment seat of Christ and, in so doing, we are following in the footsteps of the Lord Jesus.  Therefore, God is bringing the righteous and the wicked before Him to pronounce judgment.  Remember, a judge not only condemns a person, but a judge can pardon a person and say, “I find no fault in him.  I see no sin in him.”  So, as God judges both the righteous and the wicked at the conclusion of the judgment process, He can say, “There is no sin in these, the great multitude and they will be exalted into heaven.”  But, with the rest, fault would be found because they had no Intercessor and they are found guilty and destroyed.

By the way, you can see this principal if you compare 1Kings 8:31-32:

If any man trespass against his neighbour, and an oath be laid upon him to cause him to swear, and the oath come before thine altar in this house: Then hear thou in heaven, and do, and judge thy servants, condemning the wicked, to bring his way upon his head; and justifying the righteous, to give him according to his righteousness.

This is speaking of God as Judge, but see the similarity with Deuteronomy 25:1-3:

If there be a controversy between men, and they come unto judgment, that the judges may judge them; then they shall justify the righteous, and condemn the wicked. And it shall be, if the wicked man be worthy to be beaten, that the judge shall cause him to lie down, and to be beaten before his face, according to his fault, by a certain number. Forty stripes he may give him, and not exceed: lest, if he should exceed, and beat him above these with many stripes, then thy brother should seem vile unto thee.

That was the judgment for the legal system of Israel.  It is the law of God for men as they judge other men that appear before them, who may be righteous or may be wicked.  But if they punish them, they may not exceed forty stripes (lashes) with the whip.  God is indicating there must be a limit to wrath and a limit to punishment.  This verse, as well as many others, disprove the whole idea of a place of eternal Hell where man would be punished forever or where man could receive “stripes” for an eternity that never ends.  That certainly exceeds forty stripes.  God is under His own law, according to Psalm 138, and if God says that this rule is righteous for an earthly judge (not to exceed forty stripes), then it also applies to Him.  God is higher and more just than any earthly judge and He would not exceed that limit. 

This is one of the laws the Israelites were careful to obey. Remember the Apostle Paul (Saul) fell out of favor with the religious system in Israel and the scribes and the Pharisees.  He experienced much tribulation and affliction and he received of them how many stripes?  It was “forty stripes save one,” which means 40 minus 1, which would be 39 stripes.  It happened to him five times.  That is an interesting number if you multiply it and break it down.  It is “5 x 39.”  We have both “39” and “40” in view.  He could have said, “Five times I received 39 stripes.”  Why did he not express it that way?  That is how we would say it because it is more direct, is it not?  But, he said, “Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one.” 

Jonah went into Nineveh a day’s journey and declared, “And yet forty days,” and then he went out of the city and waited for the 40 days to expire.  How long would you wait if you had just gone into the city and told them, “And yet forty days,” and then you went outside of the city and built a booth to wait and see what happened?  We know that Jonah was in the booth 39 days and, yet, 40 is also in view.

Remember, Christ was born in the Jubilee year of 7BC and He was the essence of the Jubilee.  He went to the cross in 33 A.D, a total of 40 calendar years.  It is interesting that we have to subtract “1,” in going from B. C. to A.D., just like there were 40 stripes minus “1.”  Again, God is in control of all circumstances, including control over the individuals that made our Gregorian calendar and calendars of old.  We have seen that God permitted the King James translators (intelligent and wise men) to make certain translation errors.  God also permitted the people that designed the calendar to make an error (no year “0”), causing us to have to subtract “1” when going from B.C. to A.D.

So, we have the Lord Jesus Christ’s timeline of 40/39 years.  Then, again, with the second going forth of the Holy Spirit or the “dove,” as Jonah was sent to Nineveh the second time, which we can pinpoint as representing the year 1994 A.D.  It might bother some people that we keep saying that 40 days is akin to 40 years, but when we count it, it is 39 years from 1994 to 2033.  However, there are two ways of counting: you can count inclusively.  We can count the days of this conference as Monday through Friday or five days.  We could also say, “I got here on Monday, but I had not been here 24 hours until Tuesday, so Tuesday is day one, Wednesday is day two, Thursday is day three and Friday is day four.  So, we have two numbers, “4” and “5” for the same length of time.  That is how God arranged it, if you start counting 1994 as “year one” and then when you reach 2033, it is 40 years, but you can count it as not reaching “year one” until 1995 and then you would have 39 years when you reach 2033.  The Lord allows for both methods, which we can see from the pattern set by the Lord Jesus Christ. 

Is there a pattern with the first coming of Christ and the second coming of Christ?  From creation to Christ’s birth was 11,006 years, landing on a Jubilee year.  From creation to 1994 was 13,006 years, landing on a Jubilee year. From creation to the cross was 11,046 years calendar years or 11,045 actual years.  From creation to 2033 A.D. is 13,046 calendar years and 13,045 actual years.  The difference is the 2,000-year space that is in between.  We know that 7 B.C. identifies with 1994 A.D. and 33 A.D. identifies with 2033 A.D.  We have known for many years that the Bible teaches two main numbers for the comings of Christ: 11,000, which points to 11,000 years of history and 13,000, which points to 13,000 years of history and they are separated by 2,000 years.

God began judgment on the house of God and, again, the trumpets began to blow after 2,300 evening mornings in the year 1994.  God, who is under His own law, is now applying “stripes.”  We do not have time in this study to search it out, but you can look in the New Testament where the Lord speaks of applying stripes in the Day of Judgment.  So, when we read about stripes in Deuteronomy 25, it has to do with the wrath of God.  We read in the New Testament that in the Day of Judgment some receive less stripes and others receive more stripes.

God is under His own law and now we have a Judgment Day that stretches 40 years, but God is very careful and He is not going to “exceed” and go beyond what His law permits, so there is 39 years of judgment.  We are right in the midst of that period.  We have gone along now for some time and it may seem to some that we have been living in the time of judgment a long time.  You know, I have children and they are in their 20s and the first one was born in 1993 and we began to hear about judgment in 1992.  They are now grown and their whole lives they have heard about judgment – that is a long time.  And because we did not have the whole picture, there were increment periods that we did not understand and we have thought, “This is it!  Or, this is it!”  So, there has been disappointment that leads to weariness.  We are tired and, yet, it appears we are still on course and we are in that period of time in which we are “dwelling in a booth.”

Why did God cause Jonah to dwell in a booth?  He dwelt in the booth the entire time and the worm did not strike the booth, but it did strike the gourd and we do not read that the booth fell apart.  He stayed in the booth even after the gourd was struck down and he was under that booth for 39 days.  I want to read, again, what it says regarding the Feast of Tabernacles and the Feast of Ingathering, in Leviticus 23:42:

Ye shall dwell in booths seven days; all that are Israelites born shall dwell in booths: That your generations may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in booths, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am JEHOVAH your God.

The “Israelites born” refer to all those that are born again. God made Israel to dwell in booths and this means they dwelt in booths for the entire wilderness sojourn of 40 years.  The Feast of Tabernacles commemorates Israel’s sojourning in the wilderness when they dwelt in booths for 40 years.  There is spiritual fulfillment of this third and final feast.  The first was the Passover, which Christ fulfilled on the cross.  The second was Pentecost, which was fulfilled with the Holy Spirit being poured out.  And the third was the feast in which all the males of Israel were to appear before God in the place He would choose and that was the Feast of Tabernacles, which has been under way since 1994 and will continue for a full 40-year period (or 39 actual years) until we reach its conclusion; because after the 40 years of living in booths, the Israelites crossed over Jordan and entered into the Promised Land.  It was at the end of the 40 years. 

As I mentioned in the last study, God started with “40 days” in that account and for the 40 days that the Israelites spied out the land and came back with an evil report, they were to wander in the wilderness for “40 years.”  So, we can see the relationship to Jonah and the 40 days and his dwelling in a booth and we understand it as 40 years.  We can see the parallelism between these things.

Let us look at Isaiah 4:1:

And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man…

Who do the seven women represent?  They represent the “seven churches” of Revelation, chapters 2 and 3.  Who is the man?  He is the Lord Jesus Christ.  Again, it says in Isaiah 4:1:

And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel: only let us be called by thy name, to take away our reproach.

They still want to be called a Christian church, but they do not listen to the Bible.  They do not listen to Christ.  They develop their own gospels and creeds.  We know that.  It is interesting that it says, “And in that day,” and this is repeated in verse 2.  We are looking at a prolonged judgment period.  We had previously separated the judgment on the churches from the judgment on the world, but they are really one judgment.  Judgment began at the house of God and there was a point at which the judgment expanded to include all the unsaved people of the world.  However, it can still be referred to as happening “in that day.”  It goes on to say in Isaiah 4:2:

In that day shall the branch of JEHOVAH be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel.

Those that are “escaped of Israel” are the elect that came out of the corporate churches.  Then it says in Isaiah 4:3:

And it shall come to pass, that he that is left in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem:

Those “left in Zion” and those that “remaineth in Jerusalem” are referring to spiritual Jerusalem.  They are the ones “written among the living,” because their names are in the Lamb’s Book of Life.

It says in Isaiah 4:4:

When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning.

This is describing Judgment Day.  It has to do with judgment on the churches, but also judgment on the world.

Then it says in Isaiah 4:5:

And JEHOVAH will create upon every dwelling place of mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night: for upon all the glory shall be a defence.

And through this type of language, where are we being directed?  We are being directed to what happened to the Jews when they wandered in the wilderness, if we look at Exodus 13:21-22:

And JEHOVAH went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night: He took not away the pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the people.

Also, it says in Nehemiah 9:19-21:

Yet thou in thy manifold mercies forsookest them not in the wilderness: the pillar of the cloud departed not from them by day, to lead them in the way; neither the pillar of fire by night, to shew them light, and the way wherein they should go. Thou gavest also thy good spirit to instruct them, and withheldest not thy manna from their mouth, and gavest them water for their thirst. Yea, forty years didst thou sustain them in the wilderness, so that they lacked nothing; their clothes waxed not old, and their feet swelled not.

It is interesting that while they dwelt in booths for 40 years, God miraculously fed with them with manna from heaven.  We know that in Joseph’s day, God had a “storehouse of grain” that would be opened up in the second part of that tribulation.  He did not feed Jacob and his family of Israel with that grain during the first two years of that tribulation, but for the next five years they entered Egypt for the duration of the famine.  The going into Egypt in 1877 B.C. identifies with 1994 and that is when God began to open the Scriptures and feed His people, miraculously.  I think we learned about the “faith of Christ” around 1994 or 1995.  We understood the Sunday Sabbath in the 90s and baptism being the washing away of sin, as the Lord was purifying the Gospel.  Then we learned of the end of the church age and many other doctrines along the way, but it was all “manna from heaven.”

I was surprised (and I think we were all surprised) that we did not reach the pinnacle of knowledge by the end of the Great Tribulation.  Previously, we had thought this information was all stored up for the Great Tribulation, but we have continued to learn hosts of spiritual knowledge “in those days after that tribulation.”  There is that verse in Romans 2:5 that refers to “the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.”  So, God has continued to reveal His judgment program to us in this time period because the manna fell for 40 years.  All the while we “dwell in booths.”  In Jonah’s case, it was 40 days.  You and I and all God’s elect are being nourished by the Word (the Lord Jesus Christ) and we expect that it will continue and not cease.

What was the reaction of the natural-minded among the Israelites regarding the manna?  Did they say, “Thank you, Lord, for this wonderful bread that sustains my life.  What would we do without it?”  No – they despised it.  The Bible says they “loathed that light bread.”  They hated it.  “It is too plain.  It is too simple.”  And this has been the reaction of those that merely profess Christ today as God opens these doctrines to feed His people.  They react in fury.  There is a “loathing” of the things the Lord has opened in the scriptures.

I want to finish this thought in Nehemiah 9:20-21:

Thou gavest also thy good spirit to instruct them, and withheldest not thy manna from their mouth, and gavest them water for their thirst. Yea, forty years didst thou sustain them in the wilderness, so that they lacked nothing; their clothes waxed not old, and their feet swelled not.

It went on for 40 years.  We were reading of Israel’s sojourning, with the cloud by day and the fire by night.  God led them “in the way.”  The Holy Spirit will guide us even unto death.  He is guiding us through this time of judgment and it is a 40-year period.  When we go back to Isaiah, chapter 4, it directs us to Numbers 9:15-23 and we do not have time to go there, but you will see that whenever they moved it was at the command of JEHOVAH.  They followed the movement of the cloud, but God uses the word “commandment,” repeatedly, but God did not audibly say anything to them.  When the cloud moved, it was the commandment of JEHOVAH, so the “cloud” has to do with God’s commandments or the Word of God, the Bible. 

Again, it says in Isaiah 4:5:

And JEHOVAH will create upon every dwelling place of mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night: for upon all the glory shall be a defence.

Then we are led to Isaiah 4:6, where we read of the “tabernacle” and that is our word for “booth” that is used in the book of Jonah.  It says in Isaiah 4:6:

And there shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the daytime from the heat, and for a place of refuge, and for a covert from storm and from rain.

Do you see the connection?  How did Isaiah, chapter 4 start off?  “And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man…”  It is Judgment Day and judgment began at the house of God.  Then God links it to the movement of the cloud by day or the fire by night, which links it to “40 years.”  Then God ties it in with a “booth” that provides “shadow in the daytime from the heat.”  And where was Jonah sitting?  He was in a booth.

I do not know if we have time to get into it, but let us turn to Nehemiah, chapter 8 where God causes Ezra the scribe to read from the book of the law.  It says in Nehemiah 8:1-4:

And all the people gathered themselves together as one man into the street that was before the water gate; and they spake unto Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses, which JEHOVAH had commanded to Israel. And Ezra the priest brought the law before the congregation both of men and women, and all that could hear with understanding, upon the first day of the seventh month. And he read therein before the street that was before the water gate from the morning until midday, before the men and the women, and those that could understand; and the ears of all the people were attentive unto the book of the law. And Ezra the scribe stood upon a pulpit of wood, which they had made for the purpose…

Beside Ezra stood 13 men; I am not going to read all their names, but there were 13 men and the number “13” points to the 13,000^th year of history or the first Jubilee that arrived after the 13,000 years (1994).  There is an emphasis on the “book of the law” and on the spiritual understanding of God’s Word.  It is the Feast of Tabernacles and the time for it to be spiritually fulfilled; or, as Mr. Camping called it, it is the “feast of the Bible.” I think Mr. Camping drew that idea from Nehemiah, chapter 8.

Again, there were 13 men and it said in Nehemiah 8:5-7:

And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people; (for he was above all the people;) and when he opened it, all the people stood up: And Ezra blessed JEHOVAH, the great God. And all the people answered, Amen, Amen, with lifting up their hands: and they bowed their heads, and worshipped JEHOVAH with their faces to the ground. Also Jeshua, and Bani, and Sherebiah, Jasmin, Akko, Shabbethai, Khadijah, Amaziah, Felita, Azariah, Zabad, Hanan, Playa, and the Levites, caused the people to understand the law: and the people stood in their place.

Again, pointing to 13,000 years and then the scriptures are opened and the Lord causes his true people to understand.  Then it says in Nehemiah 8:8:

So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading.

There is a very strong emphasis on both reading and understanding what was read.  Remember, in Matthew 24 when it said that the abomination of desolation would stand in the holy place and then Christ added, “Whoso readeth, let him understand,” and nobody understood this during the church age and then when we got to the time of the end God caused His people to understand these things in the Bible.

It goes on to say, “they heard the words of the law,” in verse 9; it says, “they had understood the words that were declared unto them,” in verse 12; and it says, they were able “to understand the words of the law.”  Then it says in Nehemiah 8:14:

And they found written in the law which JEHOVAH had commanded by Moses, that the children of Israel should dwell in booths in the feast of the seventh month:

It was the Feast of the Tabernacles, so God is tying together the number “13” with reading and understanding the Word of God, the Bible, and the exaltation of the Word of God.  It was a glorious time because the people are hearing and understanding.  And there is the connection with the Feast of Tabernacles or booths.

Then it says in Nehemiah 8:15-17:

And that they should publish and proclaim in all their cities, and in Jerusalem, saying, Go forth unto the mount, and fetch olive branches, and pine branches, and myrtle branches, and palm branches, and branches of thick trees, to make booths, as it is written. So the people went forth, and brought them, and made themselves booths, every one upon the roof of his house, and in their courts, and in the courts of the house of God, and in the street of the water gate, and in the street of the gate of Ephraim. And all the congregation of them that were come again out of the captivity made booths, and sat under the booths…

Jonah sat under a booth.  God said in Isaiah 4 that there would be a booth for a shadow in the time of “heat,” which points to the day of the wrath of God.   You see, the wrath of God is coming down over the course of this period of time and our protection from it is to be under the “tabernacle” or “booth.”  So, the keeping of the Feast of Tabernacles is a necessity.  It is something that must happen to survive and endure throughout the entire 40/39 years!  If we do not, it said in Zechariah that for whoever came not up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles, there would be no rain, because it also has to do with the Latter Rain.  They would have had to come out of the churches to experience the Latter Rain and the blessing of God opening His Word and revealing additional truths from His Word.  If they did not go up to the Feast of Tabernacles, they would have no rain because they stayed in the churches.

So, it is a necessity that we continue to declare what the Bible says.  In other words, it is not “over and done with.”  Yes, there are important events that have transpired and even concluded and God has completed some of the things He intended to complete during this period of time, but “it is not over ‘til it is over,” as the expression goes.  It is not over until we get to the end.  Does the Bible say, “He that endures most of the way shall be saved”?  No – the Bible does not say that, does it?  Do you want some credit for that?  That is like running a race and you are in front and running faster than anyone for three-quarters of the race and then you collapse.  Who is going to pat you on the back for that?  You did not cross the finish line!  The Bible says, “But he that endureth to the end shall be saved.” 

The problem with many is that they have seen a piece or portion of what God has planned and they thought it was the whole plan.  And they were so disappointed that they quit and they have gone back.  Who goes back when they are in the wilderness?  It is the murmurers and complainers.  Where do they want to go?  They want to go back to Egypt.  The direction of the Bible is always forward.  When Moses was at the Red Sea, God said to go forward.  We are to press toward the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

I cannot think of an instance that going back is a direction God’s people are to go.  When you put your hand to the plow, do not look back.  What was wrong with Lot’s wife?  She looked back.  The Israelites wanted to make themselves a captain and return back to Egypt.  I think it says in the book of Acts that they returned to Egypt in their hearts, so you do not have to go back to the churches to have turned back, because you can turn back “in your heart.”  And God is aware of these things, even though someone else may not be aware of it.

There is so much more in the book of Jonah.  Jonah did not have a pleasant time of it, especially when the gourd was struck and he started to feel some of the “heat,” but he stayed in that booth.  So, there is no way to make this time appear “rosy.”  It is hard.  It is grievous and, yet, the Promised Land is “forward.”  You have to go “one year for a day” or 40 years and at the end of 40 years, you will come to the border of the river Jordan and God will open a pathway for us to cross.  Then there will be no more dwelling in booths because we will be home and we will have an eternal place in the new heaven and new earth.