This is an edited version of the lecture titled, "Except the Sign of the Prophet Jonah" which was preached on June 28th, 2008The mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints. To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.   (Colossians 1:26-27)The Book of Jonah, Written for the NinevitesWe will read from the Book of Jonah chapter 3 verse 3 through the end of Jonah chapter 4.So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a three-day journey in extent. And Jonah began to enter the city on the first day? walk. Then he cried out and said, "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!" So the people of Nineveh believed God, proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them. Then word came to the king of Nineveh; and he arose from his throne and laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth and sat in ashes. And he caused it to be proclaimed and published throughout Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything; do not let them eat, or drink water. But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily to God; yes, let every one turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. Who can tell if God will turn and relent, and turn away from His fierce anger, so that we may not perish? Then God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God relented from the disaster that He had said He would bring upon them, and He did not do it. But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he became angry. So he prayed to the LORD, and said, "Ah, LORD, was not this what I said when I was still in my country? Therefore I fled previously to Tarshish; for I know that You are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, One who relents from doing harm. "Therefore now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live!" Then the LORD said, "Is it right for you to be angry?" So Jonah went out of the city and sat on the east side of the city. There he made himself a shelter and sat under it in the shade, till he might see what would become of the city. And the LORD God prepared a plant and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be shade for his head to deliver him from his misery. So Jonah was very grateful for the plant. But as morning dawned the next day God prepared a worm, and it so damaged the plant that it withered. And it happened, when the sun arose, that God prepared a vehement east wind; and the sun beat on Jonah? head, so that he grew faint. Then he wished death for himself, and said, "It is better for me to die than to live." Then God said to Jonah, "Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?" And he said, "It is right for me to be angry, even to death!" But the LORD said, "You have had pity on the plant for which you have not labored, nor made it grow, which came up in a night and perished in a night. And should I not pity Nineveh, that great city, in which are more than one hundred and twenty thousand persons who cannot discern between their right hand and their left _ and much livestock?"We will think about the person by the name of Jonah. It says, "So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD." This is the Jonah that is obedient. The Jonah that you find in Jonah chapter 1 did not obey God? commandment to go to Nineveh; he went elsewhere. He boarded the ship headed for Tarshish, but he was thrown into the sea, he entered the belly of a fish, and he was vomited. Then, just as it says, "The word of the LORD came to Jonah the second time," the word came to him the second time.As such, there are many instances in the Bible where something happens two times. I spoke about this last time. In the case of the veil, there is the first veil; then there is the second veil when you enter the Most Holy Place. There was the tabernacle, and then, the temple was built later. In front of the woman who was caught in the act of adultery, Jesus bent down to write something on the ground with His finger, He rose and spoke, and then, He bent down to write on the ground with His finger once again. As for the stone tablets, the first ones were broken, and then the law and commandments were written on the second set of stone tablets. Also, if you read Genesis, there are several instances where the first son has to stand back and the second son is brought to the fore. I explained this through several examples. As such, this was revealed already in the history of the Old Testament, and it continued to be revealed; Jonah? experiences are in accordance with it.Jonah was vomited from the belly of a fish onto dry land, and the Ninevites repented when they listened to Jonah, who had survived in this manner. It refers to the resurrection. If you read Luke? Gospel chapter 11, it says, "For as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so also the Son of Man will be to this generation" (verse 30). If you read the Book of Acts, it says that the resurrected Jesus spoke to the disciples for forty days about the kingdom of God, and then He ascended into heaven. Several days later, it was the Pentecost. The Holy Spirit descended, and since then the apostles began to testify of not only the death of Jesus, but also of the resurrection of the Christ. This comes up often in the early parts of the Book of Acts. The gospel, with the resurrection of Jesus at the heart of it, was preached, and the foundation for the Early Church was being established. In the latter parts of the Books of Acts, it says that Sadducees and other Jews argued over the existence of the angels, and whether or not there is resurrection.As such, many events in the Bible foreshadowed the resurrection of the Christ. The prophet here - who had been in the belly of a fish three days and three nights - was vomited onto dry land, the word of God came to him the second time, and he stood before the Ninevites, in accordance with the Word.So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a three-day journey in extent. (Jonah 3:3)It says, "a three-day journey." You probably understand the number 3 when it says, "three-day."And Jonah began to enter the city on the first day? walk. Then he cried out and said, "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!"Jonah could not have made up the fact that Nineveh would fall after 40 days have passed. In Second Kings, it refers to Jonah (see 2 Kings 14:25); the Book of Jonah was written around 8 A.D. However, it was approximately 150 to 200 years after Jonah? time that the Assyrian Empire, with its capital in Nineveh, fell. This is rather strange, isn? it? Why was this? He said that it would fall in forty days, but historically speaking, it actually fell many years later.We cannot know the exact dates, numbers, and years that we read about in the Bible. In the Old Testament, we read about the relationship between the history of the Jewish people and Messiah. It says that Messiah would be killed, that He would resurrect, and that the resurrected Messiah would return and rule over the Jewish people and many nations. For the Jewish people, who have been waiting for Messiah, it still has not happened. We live in the Age of the Church, we all believe in the Old and New Testaments, and we can see with our eyes God? plan, which had been hidden in the Old Testament. This history continues in order to greet Messiah again someday. Till the time Jesus comes again, we have to lead our lives, accomplishing what Jesus asked of the apostles, in accordance with the Bible. That is our duty. We need not calculate the year, month, and day when He will come.Jonah warned them, saying that Nineveh would fall after 40 days.So the people of Nineveh believed God, proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them. Then word came to the king of Nineveh; and he arose from his throne and laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth and sat in ashes. (Jonah 3:5-6)The voice of the people that used to live in the city of Nineveh is heard for the first time. The Book of Jonah was not written from the viewpoint of Nineveh and of the Ninevites. What is clear is that it was written for the Ninevites. We have to understand this difference. This is because we must consider our perspective of the Old Testament - we as Gentiles in the flesh, as people who have not been born as Jews, and have not received Jewish education. The Old Testament was not written from our perspective as Gentiles. It all focuses on the Jews. It is all about the blessing for the Jewish people; it is all about their experiences.When we come to understand God? profound will as it is revealed in the Bible - the mystery hidden in the many stories in the Old Testament - as described later on by the apostle Paul, "this mystery ... which is Christ in you" (Colossians 1:27), we come to realize that these words were written for us, even though they were not written from our perspective. This is how God presented the Old Testament as a gift to the people of this world. Many religious people, w

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