Jonah as a representation of reluctance to evangelize

Yesterday we covered Babylon and Chaldea, which represent an inversion of the Church such that, as a Whore, it cares not about liberation but about enslavement; and not about enlightenment but about dumbing down. Today we will cover another sort of inversion of the Church, the reluctance of the Church to evangelize to those outside the Church. For one Church will differ from another in its willingness to share spiritual truth with the outsiders who are tossed about like dead leaves in a tornado for lack of just such words from the Father's mouth. 

The book of Jonah especially highlights this reluctance of the Jewish pretend-Church to evangelize to the Gentiles, those outside its ranks. That the Lord did in fact want the Jewish Church to evangalize to the Gentiles may be seen quite clearly: 

"Declare his glory among the heathen, his wonders among all people" (Psalms 96:3).

Jonah, who represents the Jewish Church, receives the command from the Lord to warn Nineveh to turn from its evil and false ways or face destruction with distaste; whereupon he flees in the opposite direction for Tarshish, which probably lay beyond the Pillars of Hercules or Strait of Gibraltar. Whatever the case may be, that destination lay far away from Jonah's actual responsibility to warn Gentiles with divine truth.

Indeed, when God finally succeeds in dragging Jonah to his urgent appointment, and Jonah successfully gets through to Nineveh with his message -- they repented -- the guy actually became upset at the very success of his mission: 

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

2 And he prayed unto the Lord, and said, I pray thee, O Lord, 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" (Jonah 4:1).

Have you ever encountered a situation wherein someone wants someone or something all to themselves? and feels jealous about competition? Yes, well, the Jewish pretend-Church wanted to be exalted over other nations and to keep the Word for itself; as far as they were concerned, things were already fine and dandy without warning any Ninevehs because... box ticked.

God's nature, of course, very much agrees with the description of Him that reluctant Jonah gives: "for I knew that you art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of greatest kindness, and repentest thee of the evil". Of course, God does not repent: people repent. But the language of the Word often says something of God which is in reality about us and a lesson for us.

But the rest of the description of God there is spot on and essentially a little microcosm of the qualities that His name represents.

It is very clear that the Jewish pretend-Church understood this aspect of God; but their natures were such as not to like this part at all, since their primary concern was being Special and having -- of course! -- special privileges.

Now, God being aware of this aspect of Jonah, and thus of the Jewish Church, prepared a gentle demonstration to teach Jonah some compassion. He caused a gourd to grow up and cover Jonah from the dreadful heat of the sun, but a worm killed it; so that was that. The destruction of this gourd by the worm represents the self-love of those in the Jewish Church, as does the beating heat of the Sun; while the scorching east wind represents the spiritual error and falsehood 'married' to that self-love.

The central message has been made quite clear without any need for such extra details, however:

"10 Then said the Lord, 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:

11 And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?" (Jonah 4:10-11).

If we have access to divine truth, which can spare people much inner and outer suffering if known and practiced -- both in this life and the life to come -- then we should really feel sufficient compassion to share that precious information far and wide with anyone who will listen; in the hope that they will shun evil and make their lives an abundant, helpful, giving, resounding Thank you! to the Creator.

Now we will apply some of the information already taught to those fun verses. I say they are fun because once you know the teachings about right, left, cattle and 12 it all clicks into place and makes perfect sense. These people did not know the difference between their right and left hand; in other words, did not know how to behave properly in relation to God and humankind ("their right hand" or what to believe in relation to said behavior ("their left hand").

These people, who were six score thousand in number, therefore represented the sum total of the sins and errors to which ignorance of the difference between the right hand and the left hand leads; which number would mean the sum total of the goods and truths in the event of their repenting of the former. For twelve tribes and twelve disciples and twelve bronze oxen and 6 score all alike encode the sum of the goods and the truths of the Church; as we have seen of the washing of the disciple's feet as an equivalence of the 12 bronze oxen baring precisely a laver and bronze sea.

These people have been described as having much cattle, and to be clear here: everyone has much cattle! Everyone has a bunch of behaviors on the outside and desires on the inside. God has, in effect, noted that the Ninevites have many unruly behaviors and desires; with the implication that the sharing of divine truth can lead to the ordering of those behaviors and desires; with many benefits accruing to them on that account both in this life and the next.

Fast forward to the New Testament, and we arrive at the scene where Jesus talks to the Samaritan lady at the well, known as Jacob's well. This well represents the Word of God and more broadly divine truth, and the encounter between Jesus and the Samaritan lady represents telling people outside the Church about divine truth, the water which we drink so as never to thirst again.

Here we read:

"9 Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.

10 Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water" (John 4:9-10).

As you can see, the members of the Jewish pretend-Church barely had anything to do with people outside their number to such an extent that even asking an outsider for drink occasioned comment. But Jesus not only asked for the lesser drink which leaves us thirsty again; but gave the greater drink which figuratively means that we will never be thirsty again. The episode dramatically underlines how important it is for those who have spiritual riches -- the Word of God and the answers as to its meaning -- to share that water with outsiders and thus accomplish one of the two central tasks of the Church.

The one task of the Church is to facilitate the repentance, regeneration and abundance of those within its ranks; and the second task of the Church is to facilitate the same aspects of those outside its ranks. Here we have these tasks described as "pure religion and undefiled":

"Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world" (James 1:27).

The first task one mentioned  is keeping oneself unspotted from the world. The second task is visiting the fatherless and widows in their affliction; which requires a bit of explanation of fathers, widows and affliction. 

An orphan -- typically described as fatherless despite the fact that it might as easily be described as motherless conventionally-speaking -- has no father because a father represents good or evil; such that a spiritual orphan is one who may know something of spiritual truth but lacks spiritual good; and needs help from the Church to bridge that gap between spiritual knowledge and applying it to becoming a good, loving person. 

A widow is someone whose married partner has died, conventionally-speaking. Again, as with orphans in natural life -- who can be fatherless or motherless -- this would ordinarily mean that it could be either a man or a woman who remains alive subsequent to their partner's death. But in the Word, a widow will typically be specifically a woman; because a husband represents spiritual truth and the wife spiritual good. That means that the widow has something of spiritual good in her nature; but lacks spiritual truth. 

That is why the details of Elijah's visit to the Widow of Zarephath involve her giving him "a morsel of bread in her hand"; because Elijah represents the divine truth of the Word and she, as a widow, represents having some spiritual good -- so that she gives him that bread -- but lacks spiritual truth and very much needs proper instruction in it to marry her spiritual good (1 Kings 17:11). 

So that is why pure religion and undefiled involves keeping oneself unspotted while ministering specifically to orphans and widows, which has been described as the two essential tasks of the Church. 

The Jewish Church was reluctant to minister to orphans and widows, aka to evangelize, aka to warn the numerous Ninevehs outside of its ranks.

That is why the prophetic Word so frequently enjoins the Jewish Church to help the fatherless and widows and, as here, frowns on their actual doings which are opposed to such help:

"For if ye throughly amend your ways and your doings; if ye throughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbour; If ye oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your hurt: Then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, for ever and ever" (Jeremiah 7:5-6).

Now we will jump back to the New Testament. The Jewish Church's reluctance to evangelize to outsiders has been sort of 'spoofed' by the Lord in the following manner:

"22 And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil.

23 But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth after us.

24 But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

25 Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me.

26 But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it to dogs.

27 And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters' table.

28 Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour" (Matthew 15:22-28).

It might be imagined, especially if the conclusion has not been focused upon, that the Lord comported Himself somewhat cruelly with this lady. But as we see from the conclusion, He was merely using the experience to make a broader point which resounds to this day; and her daughter received the requested help. But one described this episode as the Lord's sort of 'spoof' of Jewish Church reluctance to evangelize because, basically, this was their attitude: "It is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it to dogs". 

Who are those dogs? Dogs in the word mean various things, including people in the Church who prate about religion while doing very little, but in this case dogs have the significance of Gentiles, of people outside the Church.

We see this same significance of dogs used in a parable that has much the same meaning as this story of the Canaanite lady, the one about the rich man Dives (his traditional name albeit not one found in the Gospel itself) and the poor man Lazarus:

"19 There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day:

20 And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores,

21 And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores" (Luke 16:19-21).

The rich man represents those who have the Word, and the purple and fine linen which he wore represent the knowledges of good ("purple") and of truth ("fine linen") which they thus possess.

Lazarus' desire to be fed by the crumbs falling from the rich man's table -- here are those crumbs again, just as in the words of the Canaanite woman! -- represents the longing on the part of people outside the Church for divine truth.

And the rich man's caring not at all about Lazarus and the dogs -- here they are again, likewise representing people outside the Church -- involves the same reluctance to evangelize to outsiders; who have not the same access to proper instruction in goodness and truth. 

It should be noted that Peter, presumably present at this teaching, still did not understand or consequently practice his duty to evangelize to people outside the Church and thus minister to orphans and widows in their affliction. For an episode of Acts concerns Peter having to be explicitly instructed in how non-Jewish people were not unclean and were to be ministered to just the same as Jewish people (ch. 10 & 11).

This is a good time to note how important it is for the righteous remnant -- salvageable people within a dying Church becoming a Whore or one that has already become a Whore -- to separate themselves from that dying Church or Whore! Because if they do not "Come out her, my people!" then they are vulnerable to the ambient sin and error of those in that group, however holy and religious they might appear on the surface. Even after God had extricated Peter from the Whore of the desolated Jewish Church, He still had to give Him more instruction to get him where He wanted him, evangelizing to non-Jews.

How much more difficult might this have been if Peter had not been plucked out of the Jewish Church and planted in the Christian Church!

These are difficult, transitional times, times when the righteous remnant within the dead Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox anti-Churches "know only the baptism of John", the "baptism of repentance". It is good for them to know this, for it is the basis for their being that righteous remnant. But it is a very good idea for them to get out of those dead groups, because like Peter it can be difficult enough to get through to them where they offend or can become more abundant without the extra hassle involved in being surrounded by evil people pretending to be religious!

Those in this category will have to work out that sort of thing with God, and some will not wish to make that step; but they should be aware of what one has said, that's all one asks.

Now then. The reluctance of the Jewish Church to evangelize has been sufficiently detailed, although we will probably return to this theme when covering the parable of the Good Samaritan. Suffice it to say that we as believers do not just hoard spiritual information, do not just apply it only to our own lives, but see it as of huge importance to all of humanity; for much of humanity, like Nineveh, does not know its right hand from its left and yet has much cattle and thus a proportionally great need for such knowledge.

Let us practice that knowledge and provide it, that those many Ninevehs may repent.

Amen.