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Sign of Jonah - A Study of Judgment and Repentance By Helena Lehman of Pillar of Enoch Ministry The following is an
excerpt from Chapter Eleven of Helena Lehman’s copyrighted book “The Language
of God in Humanity,” first published in 2007. This excerpt can be freely
distributed provided it is not altered or abridged and Helena Lehman’s name
and Pillar of Enoch Ministry web site address remain at the beginning of the
article. |
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During the time of Yahshua
and John the Baptist, most of the Jews in Judea yearned for a strong military
leader - one who could lead the Jews who remained in Yahshua was given the
gargantuan task of reaching people who did not know or understand that their
God - Yahweh - is a God of love and forgiveness. Instead, the Jews wanted God
to act in vengeance, and pour out His wrath on the hated Gentiles in their
midst - just as He did during the Israelite conquest of This is why Yahshua did not
come to be a military leader during His First Advent. He came instead to preach forgiveness to the Lost
Sheep of Israel, to
work miracles, to announce the coming of the “Therefore understand
that the LORD your God (Yahweh your Elohim) is not giving you this good land
to possess because of your righteousness, for you are
a stiff-necked people.” -
Deuteronomy 9:6 (NKJ) Yahshua came to change the
hearts of these stiff-necked people descended from Jacob, and show them that
there is a God in heaven who loves them, but who also loves all people.
Yahshua came to show them that they had a mission to reach out in love to the
Pagan Gentiles that they hated. He came to show them that they were subject
to a Covenant with Yahweh that called them to be spiritual lights to the
Gentiles, and to show them the all-surpassing love of the one true God for mankind.
But like Jonah, the Israelites refused to love their enemies, and
wanted them to perish without knowing the love and joy that only God the
Father, His Son, and the Holy Spirit can give them. Sadly, this is why many
unrepentant Jews perished, or were sold into slavery in 70 AD - when the
Romans destroyed “…Circumcise
the foreskin of your heart, and be stiff-necked no longer. For the LORD your God (Yahweh your Elohim) is God of
gods and Lord of lords, the great God… who shows no partiality…” -Deut. 10:16-17 (NKJ) Though the Scripture above
contains the words of Moses, the Spirit of Christ in Moses inspired
them. In addition, Yahshua also uttered similar words during the course of
His ministry, such as this powerful passage: “Jesus stood and cried
out, saying, ‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of
his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” - John 7:37-38 (NKJ) Here, Yahshua was offering
the gift of His spiritual wisdom to anyone who thirsts for it, not
just the Jews. This shows that Yahshua was impartial like His Father. He also
indicates that He is the source of the living water that flows out of saved
people’s circumcised (i.e. spiritually open) hearts. This circumcision of the
heart allows believers to love the unlovable, wicked sinners
around them, and to show them the love of God so that they may repent, and be
saved. Sadly, however, though some Jews listened to Yahshua, and were saved,
many others did not. Instead, like many of the Israelites of Elijah’s day,
they rejected the prophet and Savior that God had sent them, and thereby lost
their privilege as God’s only chosen people. Consequently, those who
circumcised their hearts, and were baptized with Christ’s Spirit became God’s
chosen people by adoption - the chosen people who will forever dwell in His
Kingdom of Love and Grace. This Kingdom is filled with believing Jews and
Gentiles united in love. They are the The Heavenly Sign of
Jonah: A Sign for Christ
Another
strong analogy can be drawn between the prophet called Jonah and Yahshua our
Savior that is revealed in the Star Gospel, as well as the Bible. In fact,
when Yahshua referred to the Sign of Jonah as the only
sign He would give to the Jews, He was alluding to the many aspects of His
ministry symbolized in the adjacent Zodiac signs of Pisces and Aquarius.
Before we explore this truth, however, let’s examine the basic biblical
meaning of the Scriptures where Yahshua refers to the Sign of Jonah: “Then some of the… Pharisees answered,
saying, ‘Teacher, we want to see a sign from You.’ But He… said to them, ‘An
evil… generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given… except the
sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and
three nights in… the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and
three nights in the heart of the earth.
The men of “And while the crowds…
gathered together, He began to say, ‘This is an evil generation. It seeks a
sign, and no sign will be given to it except the Sign of
Jonah… For as Jonah became a sign
to the Ninevites, so also the Son of Man will be to this generation.’ ” -
Luke 11:29-30 (NKJ) Note that, in the first
Scripture quoted here, Yahshua severely rebuked his hearers, saying that
these Jews would not be part of the First Resurrection. Instead, they would
rise at the Last Judgment, and be condemned by the Ninevites, who repented
before God at the preaching of Jonah. This is because some of those Jews
ultimately rejected the words of their promised Messiah, who was a prophet
far greater than Jonah. The preceding Scriptures also clearly shows that “the
Sign of Jonah” was the three day period between Christ’s death and
resurrection, in mimicry of the three days that Jonah was in the belly of the
big fish. This was the only sign He intended to give to the Jews, whom He
called “a wicked and
adulterous generation” (Matthew 16:4). But did Yahshua allegorically
suggest more when He used this analogy? From the context, could it be that
this Sign of Jonah was a rebuke
to the Jews who, like Jonah, despised the Gentiles? This is highly probable. Like Jonah, the Jews held the
Gentiles in contempt,
and saw them as unclean - like swine. The Jews therefore did not want to
reach out to the heathen Gentile nations, and
share the “light” of the Torah with them. This is why Yahshua kept telling
people not to tell anyone about the miracles they had seen Him work. He was
showing by example how the Jews had hidden their lamps “under a bushel,”
and failed to shout of Yahweh’s miraculous power from the rooftops to the
surrounding Gentile nations. They had failed in their primary mandate, which
was to be food, and light in a starving, darkness-filled world. This is why Yahshua said He
came to show the Jews only one sign. It was a sign proclaiming their
powerlessness to secure salvation - despite their zealousness for the Law.
Though the Jews of Judea had kept the material requirements of the Mosaic Law, they had failed to fulfill its main spiritual
requirements, which were to show mercy and forgiveness. How did
they neglect to do this? By not sharing the wealth of their
spiritual enlightenment with everyone, including their heathen enemies! They
had therefore failed to invite the wicked, and spiritually deprived to share
in the rich blessings of Abraham. In addition, many Jews had come to disdain
their God, and His wisdom, and had adopted the customs of their heathen
neighbors. This is what Yahshua meant when He said: “And… the Pharisees…
said to His disciples, ‘Why does your Teacher eat with… sinners?’ When Jesus
(Yahshua) heard that, He said… ‘Those who are well have no need of a
physician, but those who are sick. But go and learn
what this means: “I desire mercy and not sacrifice.” For I did not come to call the righteous, but
sinners, to repentance.’ ” - Matthew 9:11-13 (NKJ) In the above Scripture,
Yahshua quoted from the following section in the Old Testament book of Hosea
the prophet: “For I desire mercy, not sacrifice,
and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings. Like Adam, they have broken the Covenant - they were unfaithful to me there.” - Hosea 6:6-7 (NIV) The pre-incarnate Yahshua
inspired Hosea to reveal a vital fact in this Scriptural passage. For their
unforgiving hatred of the Gentiles, and their blatant disobedience of God’s
commandments encouraging love for one’s neighbor, the descendents of The only hope the Jews of
Yahshua’s day had to make amends to God was by showing the repentance Jonah
did despite his continued hatred of the Ninevites. As Jonah lay there
dying in the belly of the fish, he finally relented of his refusal to preach
to the wicked Ninevites. He
then prayed, and asked Yahweh to give him another chance to preach to the
Ninevites, and tell them of their impending destruction by Yahweh because of
their wickedness (Jonah 2:1-9). Yahweh accepted Jonah’s
prayer of repentance, and subsequently the big fish vomited Jonah up onto the
shore (Jonah 2:10). After he recuperated, Jonah obediently went to the
heavily populated city of The repentance of the
Ninevites made Jonah extremely angry (Jonah 4:1), and he probably wondered:
“How could Yahweh reach out in love to, and spare the most wicked enemies of By analogy to the life of
Jonah, the Jews were being shown how they had to change in order to find
salvation. They needed to die to their old way of life, and then learn to do
as Yahweh had asked them to do. They needed to reach out to a starving world
in love, and mercifully preach the Good News to the
spiritually lost and hungry. They had to love their enemies by sharing the
Path to Salvation with them despite their hatred of the unrighteous Gentile
way of life. So, besides paying for their guilt, Yahshua came to
fulfill the divinely given mandate of the Jews. He did so perfectly by
loving, and proclaiming the Gospel to both Jews and Gentiles, and by becoming
the Light of the World to all nations. Before, and during the
Tribulation, the Jews who accept Yahshua as the Messiah will be able to atone
for their sin of ignoring the mandate given to Jonah. After the Rapture, they will likely do so by becoming part of the
144,000 Tribulation Witnesses from the
Twelve Tribes of Israel who will be called to give the Sign of Jonah to their
generation. That is, they will be called to preach to all the heathen Gentile nations -
especially the Muslims, who can be viewed as the modern day Ninevites (Revelation
7:3-4). These Israelite witnesses, and many other saints who are reckoned as
the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel, will be called to warn all the unrepentant
nations of the Earth. Like the original prophet Jonah, these modern-day
Jonahs will preach that Yahweh loves all people. But, because of His
righteous anger against their wickedness, many of them will perish if they do
not repent of their sins like the Ninevites did, and accept Christ as their
Savior. There is much more
allegorical symbolism in the Jonah story that is certainly no accident. Yah
made sure the symbols in the story of Jonah would speak to those who are
spiritually alive, revealing even deeper truths. For example, the fact that
Jonah was thrown into the water from a ship recalls the story of Noah’s In both Noah and Jonah’s
stories, the water symbolized
three things: death, cleansing, and the potential for new growth. That is why
we are baptized by full immersion in water - to symbolize the death of our
sinful selves, our cleansing in the blood of Christ, and our rebirth, and
future growth in the Spirit. Entering a symbolic womb through spiritual
baptism (which can occur without any need for ritual immersion in water), Christians become “born again,” and obtain the
indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. The womb is filled
with watery fluid, and while a fetus is still in the womb, it isn’t yet
considered alive by many people. Though a fetus is a living
being at the moment of conception, it is generally not recognized as a living person
until it passes through the “water” of the amniotic fluid, slips out of the
womb, and takes its first breath of air. Likewise, though Jonah did not necessarily die
inside the fish, Jonah was considered dead until the big fish vomited him up
onto dry land (Jonah 2:10). The Sign of Jonah also
identifies the saved, as many Christians proudly use the Sign of Jonah - the
sign of a fish - today. Interestingly, we who are saved are like fish. We
are safe swimming through the water of destruction because we can breathe in
the wind of the Holy Spirit, and thus find life. This symbolism is
beautifully portrayed in the Zodiac sign of Aquarius, where born again believers are depicted in the
decan sign called Piscis Australis. This big fish is swimming
through an inexhaustible stream of water being poured out of an urn. This urn
is held in the arms of a man who, along with the urn, is symbolic of Christ - our Living Water, and the true (and only) source of the Holy Spirit
in mankind. Since the fish/disciple seen in Piscis Australis is being
baptized in the Living Water, there is also a connection between Aquarius and
John the Baptist, though the connection is small. This is because John’s
baptism was one of repentance through symbolic death to sin, not one of
spiritual regeneration, and rebirth made in the Name of Yahshua. That only comes when we drink in the Living Water
that Christ alone can give. Similar in theme to
Aquarius in some respects, the Zodiac sign of Pisces is
represented by two fish tethered to the sea monster Cetus by a band. These
trapped fishes depict the many Israelites from the Two Houses, or Kingdoms of
Israel that are locked in a demonically inspired battle, or Tug of War. This is shown through their captor: the satanic
Cetus, and the Band that tethers
the fish of Pisces to it. In Pisces, therefore, we see The historical facts
confirming this celestial allegory are everywhere, since Jews and
Christians have long
been separate from, and antagonistic to one another - yet often forced to be
partners against mutual enemies. This spiritual tug of war is also
personified today in the hatred of radical Muslims (seen in
Cetus) for both Christians and Jews (the fish of Pisces). Though both fishes
of Pisces are in dangerous peril as Cetus’ helpless captors, the Ram of Aries is a Christ figure.
Aries is severing the Band, or tether holding them to Cetus, which can be seen
as a celestial depiction of Muslim Terrorists and other enemies of God. At the same time, Aries is trampling upon Cetus’
head in another allegorical enactment of Genesis 3:15! Thus, Christ is shown
as a deliverer of His Two House Church in His role
as the Lamb of God. Pisces, Cetus, and
Aquarius as the Sign of Jonah
Still more spiritual truth
can be discerned in Pisces, since the fish depicting “And the armies in heaven,
clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white horses.” -
Revelation 19:14 (NKJ) With the fish of Ephraim
riding on its back, Pegasus may also be a symbol of the Rapture of the True
Church before the
Great Tribulation, as well as the catching up into the air that will occur at
the end of the Great Tribulation, which is the last of the three stages in the First
Resurrection. The winged figures of Lyra the eagle
shaped harp and Cygnus the Swan, or
great Northern Cross may also
depict the Rapture, and final stage of the First Resurrection, as shown in
the illustration above. The white, winged horse
that Perseus rode to save Andromeda is just one more instance of the
deception that temporarily destroyed mankind’s ability to understand the
Gospel in the Stars. Sadly, the stories of Classical Mythology still delight
and delude modern Pagans and apostates, yet hide the true Gospel revealed in
the Bible and Star Gospel. Through these pictorial analogies, the Gospel in
the Stars once again proclaims the truth of what is now occurring between Old
Testament-centered legalists who believe in the slavery of Salvation by Works, and New Testament “liberals” who trust the Holy
Spirit to lead them, and believe in the freedom of Salvation by Grace through
Christ. Nonetheless, though these two schools of fish-like disciples
are now in an enormous tug-of-war with Satan and one another (as the two fish
of Pisces tethered together by the band to Cetus shows), they will one day be
united. When that happens, many in both Houses of Israel will find
everlasting life through the Spirit, and the Grace given by Christ.
HalleluYah for that coming day! ********************************** If you enjoyed this book
excerpt, please consider purchasing the book it came from, “The Language of God in Humanity,” or
making a donation to the Pillar of Enoch Ministry. To purchase books and/or
to make a donation, use the following link to go to the POEM web site
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