Category Archives: Jonah

coccus ilicus, crucified with Christ, great tribulation, Jonah, labourers in the vineyard, Nineveh, the last first and the first last, worm

The Messiah’s Secret – The Crimson Worm

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The  Messiah’s Secret  – The Crimson Worm.

 
(picture taken from our hay field overlooking town of Haslingden, Rossendale )


This year our summer in the North of England has been the warmest that we have had for a long time. It has been so warm that I had to sit in the shade especially hay making in June, however, we didn’t erect a shelter).

In the Middle East the temperature reaches over a hundred degrees especially in the region where the city Nineveh was located on the eastern bank of the Tigris river opposite the modern city of Mosul in Iraq.

Young people’s talk.  
Jonah the prophet was called by God twice  to take a message to the people of Nineveh. In our reading we find that this is the second calling and this time Jonah responded. He went through the streets proclaiming,“Yet forty days, and Nineveh will be overthrown.” Afterwards he found a place to sit and watch over the city, where he built himself a shelter.(A child came and sat on a chair in front of the picture of a shelter.)


It was very hot: the sun shone (hold up the sun) and the wind blew.(hold up the picture of the wind)

Overnight a plant appeared and it protected him from the heat of the sun’s rays, and the sultery wind blew 
God sent a worm, which was not like the worms we find in the soil.It was round and scarlet in colour and about the size of a small pea. The worm ate the root of the plant. 
(Tolaath – from the same root, refer to the cochineal insect. Unger’s Bible Dictionary. Coccus ilicus. Scarlet worm. Biblehub.com)
When it is time for the female to lay her eggs, which is only the once in a life time, she climbs onto a tree and lays her eggs under her body. 







The eggs are  protected by her crimson shell . When the eggs hatch the mother dies and the  young worms feed on their mother. 
She gives her life to create new life which speaks of Jesus dying for us so we might live for ever.
Jonah liked the plant and was angry that it had died.
God was teaching Jonah that just as he liked the plant and felt sorry for it. God loved the people of Nineveh and took pity on them.
God says to us, I love all the people in the world even those who don’t know me yet and God wants us to tell people about His love for them.

Readings Jonah 3: 10. 4: 11. Matthew 20: 1-16.                                                                 

The prophet Jonah was called by God twice to go to the city of Nineveh with a message
The two calls are quite different in their content. The difference lies in the change of one single word. The word ’against’ in the first call was to ‘preach against’ the city, in the second to ‘preach to it’ the message. The first of Judgement, the second a message of grace and mercy which resulted in repentance and salvation for the Gentiles.

On the first occasion, Jonah disobeyed; on the second he fulfilled. Between the two calls, Jonah had a most gruesome experience, dying in the stomach of the whale, and then being miraculously resurrected and deposited on dry land.                                                                            
In our reading after Jonah’s second call he was given a message that he clearly believed that God would bring judgement on the city, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh will be overthrown.” But the King and people of Nineveh believed him and they repented.                                                       
Jonah was displeased, and being a prophet of Israel, he was worried about his reputation.
Even though he knew that God was merciful and not easily angered. The outcome was not how he had discerned it, Jonah wanted to die, his pride had been injured, he had not expected the city to repent.

We read in verse 10. God had changed his mind about destroying the city of Nineveh. “When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God repented of the evil which he had said he would do to them; and he did not do it.”
God had pity on the people of Nineveh even though they were enemies of Israel, God saved them from destruction as they repented from their heart. “All that the Father gives me will come to me; and him who comes to me I will not cast out.” John 6: 37

The visual aid revealed that God was showing Jonah his love for all the people who he had created. And he was showing future generations the way of faith and grace, illustrated through the plant and the worm.

Many Biblical scholars see this as depicting Law and Grace
The plant that sprang up was the law and the worm that ate the root of the plant represents the new covenant by faith and grace in Jesus.
The plant represents Jonah’s reliance upon himself: when he built his shelter and his pity for the plant which really was in fact his self pity at being left without the plants shade .And his pride, his self esteem had been injured, having discerned the message as a word of condemnation that was punishable under law.

Jesus’ parable. The labourers were under law who had worked all day had expected more than what was agreed with the vineyard owner. The denarius represents Salvation and a day represents a life time.  Those who Jesus described as ‘the last first and the first last were under grace. Jesus is both the last and the first. When John saw Jesus, “I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand upon me, saying, “Fear not, I am the first and the last, 18. And the living one; I died, and behold I am alive for evermore.” Revelation 1:17, 18. This as I understand it,( in verse 12) makes us all equal in Christ as Paul wrote in his letter to the Colossians,  “And have put on the new nature, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Here there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Sythian, slave, free man, but Christ is all, and in all.” Colossians 3: 10,11.

The crimson worm under grace was a prophecy relating to the Christ,.  Psalm 22: 6-8.  “But I am a worm, and no man; scorned by men, and despised by the people. All who see me mock at me, they make mouths at me, they wag their heads; He committed his cause to the Lord; let him deliver him, let him rescue him, for he delights in him.”                                                                                         
The Psalmist prophecy was fulfilled when the passers by along with the chief priest and scribes mocked and wagged their heads at Jesus on the cross saying, “He saved others; he cannot save himself.” In Mark 15: 29-32.                                                                                                                   
In Paul’s letter to the Romans he  wrote, “ the wages of sin is death”
Jesus bore all sin upon the tree and died and God delivered Jesus from sin that leads to death. Three days later God raised Jesus up from the grave.

The scarlet worm that God used to illustrate his grace.
The female worm firmly attaches herself to the tree and dies, so that her young feed on her and take up their new life from their mother.
Three days later the worm changes colour from scarlet to white, it speaks of death, resurrection and ‘Christ in us.’ 
             
 In Paul’s letter to the Galatians,  “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in my flesh I live by faith in the Son of God.” Galatians 2: 20.  God calls us to die to sin and self. We feel how God feels about sin and were we once relied entirely on ourselves in every aspect of daily life, we now look to Jesus.

The scarlet worm continues to bless us after her death:The dead worm’s  white wax was scraped off the tree to used for polishing wood, it’s called shellac
The crushed worm was once used to make medicine to regulate the heart beat and its’ colour was used as dye.


Prophesies for the end time in John’s Book ‘Revelation.  
Jesus blesses us in many ways: we  have fellowship with the Trinity Father, Son and the Holy Spirit and other Christians. Now as we pray we find that Jesus is guiding us, watching over us. Jesus relies on us to serve him through the things he calls us to do like telling people about the prophesies that are leading up to the ‘Great Tribulation’ great in the sense of being a great catastrophe. This ia a warning to the world that John wrote about in Revelation 7: 14. 18:9. Matthew 24. 
 It’s part of the churches ministry to make this prophecy known in order to bring nations to repentance.                                                      
denarius, jealousy, Jonah, Nineveh, repentance, vineyard., whale.

The Messiah’s Secret – Jonah

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In England we have sweets called Liquorice Allsorts
All sorts of people work in the Lord’s Vineyard
Christians from all over the world work together serving the Lord Jesus.

 
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The parable of the labourers in the Vineyard.
The 5 vines represent the five occasions when the owner of the Vineyard went out to hire labourers to work in his Vineyard. At the end of the day the labourers were paid their wages.
A day represents a life span.
A Denarius represents the gift of eternal life, Salvation.

The first labourer represents becoming a Christian at an early age.
The second becoming a Christian maybe as a teenager and so on until the last one were someone who has towards the end of their life become a Christian.
We can not earn the gift of eternal life we can only receive it through faith in Jesus.
It is not about being a good person; we need to accept Jesus as our Saviour to receive the gift of eternal life.
This parable gives us insight into the nature of the Lord showing us his priority of belonging to him.

Jonah
The prophet Jonah lived around 800 BC, during the reign of Jeroboam II. He lived in a town just north of Nazareth in Gath-hepher. Jonah’s name means ‘dove’ which reminds us of the dove was sent out from the ark by Noah to find evidence of dry land and returned with an olive leaf. Genesis 8:10, 11. The Holy Spirit was sent into the world at Pentecost.
Jonah was sent by God to Nineveh to preach against their wickedness that was before God.
However we read that he did not want to go to Nineveh. Put yourself in his shoes, Nineveh was the capital city of the Assyrian Empire, it was like asking someone to go to Moscow during the cold war and tell the atheist leaders that God was against their sin. God was asking Jonah to do something big. In his humanity he was reluctant to go.
Instead he went and boarded a ship heading for Tarshish. Soon after setting sail a storm blew up, as a result of taking on water they threw items overboard in an effort to save themselves and the boat. The sailors assessed their situation by casting lots, the lot fell on Jonah. Casting lots was quite a common amongst the nations to discern the outcome of a situation. The Hebrews used Urim and Thummim to discern God’s will. On the underside of the High Priest’s breastplate was a pouch in it was kept two pebbles one white the other black these were the Urim and the Thummim. Exodus 28: 30.

Today we discern what the will of God through Godly wisdom or a word of scripture prompted by the Holy Spirit or a word of prophecy through the gift of prophecy. We do not cast lots.

When the lot fell on Jonah, he owned up to the sailors what his God had called him to do, to take a message to the city of Nineveh which he had not fulfilled. He offered them a solution to throw him overboard, but the sailors were reluctant to offend Jonah’s God, so they tried to row to the shore, but it was to no avail, the storm grew worse. In desperation they threw Jonah overboard, as he fell into the sea a whale swallowed him whole, as a result he storm abated. He spent three days and nights inside the whale then the fish vomited him out onto dry land.

In this account we can discern the cross of Jesus.
Jonah had turned away from God, but he could not hide, he recognised his sin as it was brought to light. To save the sailors and the ship he was prepared to die. He died inside the whale and God resurrected him as he was vomited out on to dry ground.

When we recognise our sin against God, we realise that Jesus was prepared to lay down his life for you and me, so through faith in what Jesus has done for us, just as God raised Jesus from the dead so he raises us into his newness of life which is eternal. This act of God transforms the way we think feel and behave. We realise that God the Father loves all people, he loves the sinner but hates the sin.

It is only as we know about sin, that we seek to be saved from it.
We read that God asked Jonah to go again to Nineveh, this time to tell them to repent or after 40 days the city would be destroyed. Jonah went and gave the message as a result the King brought his people to repentance in sackcloth and ashes.

Maybe he had been persuaded by a previous prophecy that Jonah saw fulfilled; the land of Hamath would be restored to Israel. 2 Kings 14: 25

Jonah’s displeasure
Instead of being pleased and glad with Nineveh’s repentance Jonah was displeased, he was angry. Theologians say that it was because his prophecy the destruction of the Assyrian city of Nineveh was not fulfilled.

Why was Jonah displeased?
I believe that his displeasure and anger arose from jealousy, which is another part of this prophecy given to us in the life of Jonah.

The first part
The life and witness of Jonah reflects the sign Jesus gave to the scribes and Pharisees
Jesus spoke to the scribes and Pharisees giving them a sign, the sign of Jonah.
“For as Jonah was three days and nights in the belly of the whale, so will the Son of man be three days and nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will arise at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.” Matthew 12: 40, 41.
Jesus fulfilled the sign: Two of Jesus’ followers were travelling to Emmaus when a stranger joined them and walked with them. As they walked the disciples spoke to the stranger about the events that had recently taken place at Jerusalem saying, “And how our chief priests and rulers delivered him (Jesus) up to be condemned to death, and crucified him. But we had hoped he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since this happened. Moreover, some women of our company amazed us. They were at the tomb early in the morning and did not find his body; and they came back saying that they had even seen a vision of angels, and who said that he (Jesus) is alive.” Luke 24: 20-23
Jesus was raised from the dead on the third day.

The Messiah’s Secret
Cleopas and the other disciple state that they were not aware that the Messiah had to die before he could be received by the nation as their Messiah.
“And how our chief priests and rulers delivered him (Jesus) up to be condemned to death, and crucified him. But we had hoped he was the one to redeem Israel.” They were not aware that Jesus had to be raised from the dead before he could be received as their Christ, even though he had told them several times that he would be raised from the dead, but it was hidden from their understanding. “For he will be delivered to the Gentiles, and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon; they will scourge him and kill him, and on the third day he will rise.” But they understood none of these things; this saying was hid from them, and they did not grasp what he was said.” Luke 18: 32-34
On the road to Emmaus, the stranger replied, “Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.” Luke 24: 26,27.
Jesus opened up their understanding to the scriptures that proved he was the Christ.

Continuing Jesus’ prophecy in Matthew 12 the King of Nineveh had brought the city of Nineveh to repentance. “The men of Nineveh will arise at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.”
Jesus foretold of his rejection by the Jewish leaders. At and after Pentecost when the apostles proclaimed Jesus for the first time that he was the Christ, the Jewish leaders instead of bringing the nation to repentance they rejected Jesus as their Messiah and later were jealous of the Gentiles who accepted Jesus as their Saviour.

The second part
Jonah’s response to the Gentiles shows that he was jealous because the Assyrian people were loved by God, who he regarded as his enemy.

This was prophetic when we read of the jealousy of the Jews when the Gentiles accepted Jesus as their Messiah. God’s love for the Gentiles not just of the people of a city but every person in every nation of the world.

At Antioch in Pisidia, Paul and Barnabas were asked by the Gentiles to tell them about Jesus.
“The next Sabbath the whole city gathered together to hear the word of God. But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with jealousy, and contradicted what was spoken by Paul, and reviled him. and Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, saying, “It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken first to you. Since you thrust it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles.” Acts 13: 44-46
The Gentiles brought into the New Covenant.

Jonah’s jealousy instead of being glad that the Assyrians had repented he constructed a booth, a shelter made of branches to watch over Nineveh. We read that a plant grew up alongside of him, this must have raised his expectations as it gave him shade from the sun’s rays. But a worm destroyed the plant. This is a picture of what jealousy does it eats away at a person’s heart. It is destructive. Jonah was so affected by his jealousy that he wanted to die.
“Set a seal upon your heart for love is as strong as death jealousy is as cruel as the grave.” Song of Songs 8: 6

Jonah’s pity for the plant, he was thinking of the shade that it gave him. The Lord pointed out to him that the plant grew in a night and perished in a night. Jonah had no part to play in how the plant lived or died.
But he had a part in saving the people of Nineveh with God by taking God’s message of repentance to them.
For us today we have a part in working with the Lord taking the good news of God’s saving grace to the people of our community. May we have the courage to pray for the Lord to give us a heart felt burning love, his love for how feels about people that are outside of the Christian faith.