Jonah
Jonah is read every year on the most Holy Day in the Jewish calender, the day of Atonement. (Yom Kippur) To understand why we have to back up and explain a little bit about the Jewish feasts.
There are 7 major Jewish feasts. The Hebrew word for feasts (moadim) literally means "appointed times." You need to grasp a hold of that meaning of the word, because it reveals that the feasts tell us about God's appointed times. Or said another way the feasts teach us about things that God has appointed to happen.
This is what we read in the book of Colossians:
Col 2:16 Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day.
Col 2:17 These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.
In other words the feasts are a shadow of things that they teach us about Christ. As I said earlier there are 7 feasts and they are divided into two seasons of the year, Spring feasts, and Fall feasts. So they deal with the begninning of, and the close of the harvest. Things appointed with the beginning of the harvest and things appointed with the closing of the harvest. Spiritually they teach of things that would happen at the beginning of the church age and the close of the church age. (The beginning and end of the harvest)
Things appointed in Spring or early harvest are the Passover, Unleavened Bread, First Fruits, and Pentecost.
Those 4 feasts or appointed times have already been fulfilled. I don't have time to explain all that today. But I will use one of them to show how they are a shadow of Christ. In the Passover, a lamb was slain, its blood put on the doorposts of the house, and when the death angel came, every house that had blood sprinkled on the doorposts was spared. In the NT we read: "Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us..." and again He that believeth on the Son has everlasting life, He that believeth not the wrath of God abidieth on Him. Jesus is the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world. So when we ask God to spiritually cover us with the blood of the Lamb, then we can have assurance that when the wrath of God is poured out, the death angel will pass us by.
So there were 4 Spring feasts, that have already been fulfilled in Christ, there are also 3 Fall feasts that have yet to be fulfilled. They have to do with the end of God's harvest season.
Rev 14:15 And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in thy sickle, and reap: for the time is come for thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe.
The feasts that will be fulfilled in this appointed time are: The feast of trumpets, The day of Atonement, and the feast of tabernacles.
The feast of trumpets is the first of the fall feasts. So then it is the next thing on God's calander of appointed times. This feast is about two things: 1. It is the beginning of the Jewish civil year. 2. It is a short period of time that is given so that judgment can be averted.
1. It is the beginning of the Jewish civil year.
Le 23:24 "Say to the people of Israel, In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall observe a day of solemn rest, a memorial proclaimed with blast of trumpets, a holy convocation.
This feast occurs in the 7th month of the Jewish calendar, which coincides with our September. The Jews have two calanders, the religious calender and a civil calender. The religious calender follows a solar year and begins with spring, it also commemorates the Jews coming out of Egypt, and God telling them it was to be the first of months for them. They were to mark time, from their deliverance from the Eqyptians. The civil calender which begins in September, on the feast of trumpets, is said to be the day in which man (Adam) was created.
The reason this feast is called the feast of trumpets, is because the distinguishing feature of this feast is the blowing of trumpets. and on this feast the Jews will hear the trumpet, or shofar blow almost 100 times. Trumpet calls were in the bible were associated with the calling of a holy assembly, a warning of danger, or the arrival of a king. Many Christians, myself included, believe that the feast of trumpets is a feast that foreshadows the rapture of the church, and that Jesus will return and rapture the church on this special day. The rapture for those who don't know is an event where Jesus comes in the clouds and captures believers away, those who remain will have to undergo one of the most difficult times the worlds has evern known, it is called in the bible the Great Tribulation.
A distinguishing feature of the feast of trumpets is the last, climactic blast, the Teki'at Shofar. This is not the usual series of short bursts, signaling alarm or bad news. Rather, it is a long blast, signaling victory or good news. It is this last blast that is referred to as the last trump.
"For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and thus we shall always be with the Lord." 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17
1Co 15:51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—
1Co 15:52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.
So we see the feast of trumpets comes at the time of the end of harvest, and it ends with what is called the last trump. Even so at the end of what the bible calls the time of the gentiles, the final trump sounds and we are raptured away. The feast of trumpets is the beginning of the Jewish civil year. The time of the gentiles ends, and the time of the salvation and judgment of Israel begins. Very interesting how this all ties together.
2. The feast of trumpets is a time of Judgment.
The celebration of this holiday is marked with solemnity, as it is the day on which the whole world is judged for the coming year. The Jews believe Rosh Hashanah is the birthday of the humanity, as it was on this day that G-d created Man on the 6th day of His creation. It is the day when God critiqued what He had made.
Ge 1:31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, [it was] very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
The Jews believe that G-d has "books" that He writes our names in, writing down who will live and who will die, who will have a good life and who will have a bad life, for the next year. They believe that God writes down everyone's fate on the feast of trumpets, based on how they have lived in the previous year. Even though that fate has been written down, it is not set in concrete. Between the beginning of the feast of trumpets and the end of the day of atonement, are 10 days, and these are known as the days of awe. Jews believe these are the days given to Israel to prepare to meet the Lord. God inscribes each person's fate for the coming year into a book, the Book of Life, on Rosh Hashanah, and waits until Yom Kippur to "seal" the verdict. During the Days of Awe, the 10 days between the two feasts, a Jew tries to amend his or her behavior and seek forgiveness for wrongs done against God and against other human beings. It was believed that in these days your final destiny was sealed in the Book of Life. The Book of Life is sealed on Yom Kippur, just before sundown, after which Gods decrees for the upcoming year are fixed. The last thing they did on the day of atonement was to close the temple gates this literal closing was associated with the symbolic closing of the heavenly gates, after which your fate was unalterable sealed. The Jews pray on this day: At the time of the closing of the heavenly gates forgive our iniquities.
Days of Awe. These are days that are even more awesome than eternity...the days of eternity do not determine your days on earth, but your days on earth determine your days of eternity.
Use your Days of Awe wisely.
So how does the book of Jonah fit in?
There is a very special prayer recited on Rosh Hashana.
"THE GREAT SHOFAR HAS SOUNDED. A STILL SMALL VOICE IS HEARD. EVEN THE ANGELS ARE FRIGHTENED...THE DAY OF JUDGEMENT IS HERE...WHO SHALL LIVE AND WHO SHALL DIE? WHO SHALL HAVE A FULL LIFE-SPAN, WHO SHALL NOT...WHO SHALL FIND REST AND WHO SHALL BE RESTLESS? ...WHO SHALL BE FREE FROM SORROW AND WHO SHALL BE TORMENTED? ...WHO SHALL BE RAISED AND WHO SHALL BE HUMBLED? ...WHO SHALL BE RICH AND WHO SHALL BE POOR? BUT REDEMPTION, PRAYER AND GOOD DEEDS LIFT THE HARSH DECREE.
Jewish lore tells the story behind this prayer. The Catholic Bishop of Mainz, in Germany, summoned Rabbi Amnon, a great Torah scholar, to his court and offered him a ministerial post on the condition that Rabbi Amnon would convert to Christianity. Rabbi Amnon refused. The Bishop insisted and continued to press Rabbi Amnon to accept his offer. Of course, Rabbi Amnon continued to refuse. One day, however, Rabbi Amnon asked the Bishop for three days to consider his offer. As soon as Rabbi Amnon returned home, he was distraught at the terrible mistake he had made of even appearing to consider the Bishop's offer and the betrayal of G-d. For three days he could not eat or sleep and he prayed to G-d for forgiveness.
Interject story about why Muslims believe they will get all of Jerusalem. (Appended)
We will not consider for 1 second dividing Jerusalem.
Link: http://www.jewishpress.com/pageroute.do/45169/
When the deadline for decision arrived, the Bishop sent messenger after messenger to bring Rabbi Amnon, but he refused to go. Finally, the Bishop had him forcibly brought to him and demanded a response. The Rabbi responded, "I should have my tongue cut out for not having refused immediately." The Bishop angrily had Rabbi Amnon's hands and feet cut off and then sent him home. A few days later was Rosh Hashanah, and Rabbi Amnon, dying from his wounds, asked to be carried to the synagogue. He wished to say the traditional prayers to sanctify G-d's Name and publicly declare his faith in G-d's Kingship. With his dying breath, he uttered the words of prayer I just cited. Three days later Rabbi Amnon appeared in a dream to Rabbi Kalonymous ben Meshullam, a scholar and poet, and taught him the exact text of the prayer. Rabbi Amnon asked that it be sent to all Jewry and that it be inserted in the prayers of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur for all time. The prayer portrays G-d as a Shepherd over His flock, counting and examining each sheep one by one as it passes under His rod. So does He review the flock of humanity one by one, determining each individual's fate for the coming year. But the individual human being is not just a helpless sheep! Rather, he or she can contribute to their verdict by altering their behaviour towards G-d and Man.
The message of the book of jonah is this: yet 40 days and Nineveh will be destroyed. The sentence of death had gone forth. The days of awe are given that you might reverse the decree as the Ninevites did.
The reading of the book of Jonah on the day of Atonement is not a tradition of men, but a tradition of God.
You are now living in your days of awe.
http://www.jewishpress.com/pageroute.do/45169/
How Low We Have Fallen
More Articles By Rebbetzin Esther Jungreis
Rebbetzin Esther Jungreis
Posted Sep 07 2010
It seems like almost yesterday when, after the Camp David accords initiated by President Carter, former Prime Minister of Israel Menachem Begin, a"h, told me, "Rebbetzin, I have just returned from an American concentration camp. The pressure that President Carter exerted upon me was greater than anyone can imagine. And then, to top it off, he wanted to put Jerusalem on the bargaining table as well. When I vehemently objected, he tried to reassure me by telling me that we would not be negotiating, but merely 'discussing' Jerusalem." After all, the president added, 'There's no harm in discussing.'
"To explain my position, I related to the president the story of the U'Nesaneh Tokef prayer that we recite on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur."
And that which Menachem Begin related to President Carter speaks to us more powerfully today than ever before.
The prayer itself was composed by the eminent sage, Rabbi Amnon, who lived about 1,000 years ago in Mainz, Germany. The Bishop of Mainz, who was the most powerful man in the city, befriended Rabbi Amnon and tried to prevail upon him to convert, but Rabbi Amnon consistently rebuffed all pleadings. Despite all his imprecations and promises of riches as well as threats of terrible consequences, Rabbi Amnon stood strong as a rock in his faith in Hashem and loyalty to Torah.
On one occasion, however, the bishop's exhortations became so intense, so overbearing that, just to obtain a little respite, Rabbi Amnon asked to be given three days to consider the matter. No sooner did Rabbi Amnon depart from the bishop's palace, than he was overcome by terrible anguish. A torturous question kept repeating itself in his mind, heart, and soul. "How? How could I have said that? What if future generations who hear of this conclude that I succumbed to pressure and considered conversion for even a second? How could I have fallen so low?"
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For the next three days, Rabbi Amnon prayed, fasted, and wept and no one could console him. When the appointed time passed and Rabbi Amnon did not return to the palace of the bishop, soldiers came to fetch him and forcibly took him away.
"Why didn't you come?" the bishop demanded menacingly.
Everyone in the chamber waited with baited breath for Rabbi Amnon's response and they were shocked to hear him say in a determined, powerful voice, "Your Honor, allow me to pronounce my own punishment for not having come. This tongue that spoke falsehood and said that I would consider conversion, has to be severed. Please know that never for a moment was that even a possibility for me."
In a fury, the Bishop responded, "Your tongue spoke correctly, but your feet that did not bring you here acted treacherously... and he immediately ordered his henchmen to cut off Rabbi Amnon's feet joint by joint, toe by toe... and after each barbaric amputation the question was repeated: "Are you willing to convert?"
But Rabbi Amnon resisted the torture and would not relent, so the bishop ordered that the same be done to his hands and fingers. Thus mutilated and crippled, Rabbi Amnon was sent home in a wheelbarrow with his severed limbs at his side.
It was a few days before Rosh Hashanah, and when the great awesome day arrived, Rabbi Amnon asked to be taken to shul. As the congregation got ready to recite the holy Kedushah, Rabbi Amnon requested to be taken to the Holy Ark and there, in a trembling voice, he composed and recited the U'Nesaneh Tokef prayer - and with those words, his pure soul returned to its Creator.
A few days later, Rabbi Amnon appeared in a dream to Rabbi Kalonymus ben Meshulam, a great Torah scholar in Mainz. In the dream, Rabbi Amnon taught him the prayer and asked that it be sent to all Jewish communities - and today, it is an integral part of the High Holy Days liturgy.
It was that story through which Menachem Begin explained to President Carter why he could not even discuss Jerusalem. "For if I did," Prime Minister Begin continued, "I too would have the same fate as Rabbi Amnon."
That story seems to have occurred eons ago. Today, the Israeli prime minister is not only willing to discuss Jerusalem, but he has indicated his readiness to give away a great part of it - and the silence of our people is deafening. How could we have fallen so low in such a short period of time?
As I write these words, yet another incident comes to mind. Soon after the Six- Day War, I was in Hebron, the city of our holy Patriarchs and Matriarchs. At that time, I had a little discussion with a local Arab. "This land," he claimed, "belongs to us," and to prove his point, he said, "Your own King Solomon would agree. When the two mothers came to Solomon claiming ownership of the same baby, Solomon decreed that the baby be cut in half. One of the women cried out 'No!' to which Solomon responded, 'She is the real mother.'
"We," the Arab said, "will never allow our land to be cut up. We will fight to the end until we get it back - but you are willing to see it sliced up and given away. So you see, it is our land, not yours."
Already, in the wake of the Six-Day War this policy of giving away our G-d- given land started. The logic behind it was that the Arabs would appreciate our generosity and live with us in harmony. And the secularists argued that we didn't really need those religious places. History however, has proven that not only have they failed to be grateful, but on the contrary, with every "giveaway" their violence has increased, their hatred has intensified, and today their determination to wipe Israel off the map has become their official policy and unabashedly, they proclaim it to the entire world. As for us, we have learned nothing. We keep returning to the same self-destructive bargaining table - and now it is Yehudah, Shomron, and Yerushalayim that are on the "giveaway."
What will it take to wake up our nation? How far do we have to fall before we come to appreciate the gift that Hashem gave us at Sinai - the gift which proclaims that Torah, the Jewish People, the Land of Israel chad hu - are one.
May Hashem have mercy on all of us and despite ourselves seal us in the Book of Life and Blessing. Kesivah v'chasimah tovah to all our readers and Klal Yisrael.
