Audio listeners, there is additional content included at the bottom of this post that is not mentioned in the audio.

 

 

GOOD MORNING, SIBLINGS!

Today’s readings are the books of Obadiah and Jonah

Read today’s Bible readings at BibleGateway by clicking here.

We’re gonna be drinking from a firehose today so take a deep breath before you jump in!

Rabbit Trails – might wanna grab a snack!

Today we cover two very short books in the Bible. I’m going to start by giving you the quick facts on those books and then I’m going off on the mother of all tangents – because it is really important that we as Believers understand something vital that is intrinsically related to these books.

The Book of Obadiah 

  • This is the shortest book in the foundational texts of our Bible. The author is Obadiah but he tells us nothing of himself or his family, no identifying background. Therefore, although there are several Obadiah’s mentioned throughout the Bible, we have no way of knowing if any of them are the one who authored this book.
  • Obadiah’s Hebrew name transliterates to Ovadyah, which means “servant of YHWH”. Wow, what a name!
  • Obadiah was sent to prophecy against the people of Edom. Their story begins in Genesis 25. We see where they became enemies of Israel in 2 Kings 3:9. It was a downhill slope from there.

Jonah

  • We do not know who wrote Jonah as it is all told in third person. He is mentioned several times in the Bible, including 2 Kings 14:25 but most notably by our Messiah in Matthew 12:39-41, Matthew 16:4, and Luke 11:29-32 which I will focus on in my notes today.
  • Jonah’s Hebrew name transliterates to Yonah because, recall that there was no “J” sound in Hebrew. His name means dove or pigeon. Not as cool as Obadiah’s name but still fitting as he was a sent messenger.

Jonah was sent to pronounce YHWH’s judgement on the people of Ninveh, but they repented and so YHWH showed them grace. This angered Jonah as he had hoped to see them punished. One of the more tragic things I’ve seen in my lifetime are Believers who place their hope in seeing their enemies tormented. We cry out for mercy and expect grace for ourselves, but in today’s world of agenda’s, propaganda, and slander, we often forget to show that to others.

Okay, friends, fasten your seatbelts – AWAY WE GO!
This is a lot to take in and it may not all click today and that is okay. If this is your first time hearing the information I’m going to present, I suggest reading it, digesting what you can, and then tucking it in your back pocket to revisit at a later date. As I said, it’s a lot and it’s gonna need some time to marinate a bit in your mind. As we move into the gospels we will receive even more clarity. So if you read this and feel overwhelmed, that is okay. It’s kinda like Thanksgiving dinner. There’s a lot of good stuff here and you’ll definitely overeat, but it will take some time for your body to get all the nutrients out of it. Just enjoy the meal and leave the digestion to the Father.

We’re going to talk about Jonah, Yeshua (Jesus), and the Passover

Today we read the story of Jonah. Now, I don’t know about you but I can certainly relate to the Father revealing His plan for my life and me running in the opposite direction.

However, there is another important element to this story that outweighs even the whole account of being swallowed by a whale and it is a detail that our Messiah offered up as the validation folks would have as proof that He was who He said He was!

Now catch that, only once in His life did Messiah offer up a way for remaining skeptics to prove that He was the Messiah.

Of course, anyone who knew Scripture and gave it proper weight would likely be able to recognize Him from all of the references. It’s like going to a grandma’s house and seeing pics of her grown grandkids everywhere and then running into them at the nearby grocery store. With a firm knowledge of Scripture and a direct reading of the life of Messiah, He is easily recognizable.

However, if either of those are lacking, the waters become considerably muddied. Unfortunately, many today rely on those who claim to represent Messiah to educate them on who He is rather than YHWH’s Word. Tragically, the result is that we ourselves have misrepresented our Messiah due to our own lack of Scriptural knowledge – and this has greatly contributed to our Jewish brethren not recognizing Him. Y’all, ain’t many folks living like Jesus these days, that’s for sure.

So what did Messiah say about Jonah that is so important?

“An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matthew 12:39-40).

Now remember that this is very significant because it was the only sign Messiah offered as proof of who He was to His skeptics.

Messiah would be in the tomb for three days and three nights, and then He would be resurrected.

John 20:1 tells us that Mary Magdalen went to the tomb on the first day of the week while it was still dark and found it empty so we know that Messiah rose before Sunday morning.
If He was crucified on Friday, in the tomb Friday evening, and rose Saturday evening, how many days and night is that? At best, two days and two nights. At best.

So based on what we are reading in the Bible, this either proves He is not the Messiah (which He is) or….
That we don’t have our math and days right when it comes to reading the word. I know this may seem like an inconsequential thing to our modern way of thinking but we need to take a step back from how we tend to think and realize that something the Messiah holds up as a way for His skeptics to prove He is who He says He is simply cannot be inconsequential.

Does it matter? Do details matter? It is impossible for anyone to read the Bible, see it as authoritative, and come away thinking details do not matter to YHWH. 

The answer to this miscalculation is in the YHWH’s Appointed Times (commonly referred to as the Biblical Feasts, although not all of them are feasts), and in many cases it isn’t until someone keeps them that they recognize it.

Based on the collective descriptions in the Gospels, the following timeline is the most likely.

  • Messiah celebrated a meal with His disciples the night before His crucifixion, but many believe that this was NOT the traditional Passover meal. Note that I’m in that camp, see John 13:1-2. It was after sunset so the date on the Hebrew Calendar had changed to Nissan 14 at sunset. However, a lot takes place on Nissan 14. The Passover lambs are slaughtered and prepared for the Passover meal, which takes place that evening. Therefore, the Passover meal begins on Nissan 14 but tends to last into Nissan 15, which is why unleavened bread is served – because the Feast of Unleavened bread begins Nissan 15.
  • Messiah was crucified later that day, on the same day the lambs were sacrificed.
  • To be clear, the lambs are prepared on Passover day (Nissan 14) and they are not served until after sundown which on the Hebrew Calendar is actually Nissan 15. So Yeshua was already dead and buried in the tomb at night fall when the traditional Passover meal was eaten.

Now the Bible speaks of Messiah being crucified on preparation day right before a High Sabbath and that is why most people assume He was crucified on a Friday, because Saturday is of course the Sabbath.
Friday is traditionally known as preparation day, where those who keep the Sabbath get their homes in order, make extra food, and do general things that allow them to have a peaceful Sabbath the next day.

However, check this out.
John 19:31 says “Since it was the day of Preparation, and so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away.”  Now y’all know I warn you that whenever you see parenthesis in the Bible check the original text because sometimes they are used by translators to add to the text and justify doing so. In this case, the information in the parenthesis is in the original text.

So what is this text talking about? Keeping the Appointed Times teaches us that there is a difference between a Sabbath and a High Sabbath. High Sabbaths are Sabbaths outside of our regular weekly Sabbath, additional days in which we are commanded to “do no regular work.” These are the YHWH’s Appointed Days or Moedim (although not all Moedim are high Sabbaths, only the ones on which we are told not to work) and they also have preparation days the day before them.
Now, hang in there. I have a couple of charts that will help this make a lot more sense but I want to give you the data first.

The day of Passover is Wednesday Nissan 14. It is also the preparation day for a High Sabbath, which is the Feast of Unleavened Bread. I imagine the flurry that took place on the original Passover, with Israel preparing to leave Egypt, the lambs being slaughtered, supper being made, households packed up, and all scurrying to make sure they did everything the Father had commanded.

So, Messiah was crucified on Passover, which was the preparation day for the High Sabbath.

In Matthew 26:1-2 we read: “When Jesus had finished all these sayings, he said to his disciples, You know that after two days the Passover is coming, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified” .

The week of Passover often has two Sabbaths. Since the Feast of Unleavened Bread (a High Sabbath) was on Thursday, the weekly Sabbath was the following Saturday. Note in Matthew 28 the original greek translates verse 1 as “After the Sabbaths” (Note the “s”). https://biblehub.com/interlinear/matthew/28-1.htm There were indeed two Sabbaths just after Yeshua was crucified.

He was buried before sunset that night. He remained in the grave three days and three nights.

Now, let me queue you in on a little shorthand here. Passover is one day. The Feast of Unleavened Bread directly follows and is seven days, in the middle of all of this is the Feast of First Fruits. These are three spring Moedim and they take place right on top of one another so over time those who kept them began referring to all of them blanketly as “Passover”.

Interesting note: Messiah rose on first fruits (defined by Leviticus 23:11 as the day after Sabbath) which was Sunday, He was crucified on Passover as the spotless lamb and rose on first fruits. This also fulfills prophecy.

*There is an error in the first chart featured below. I will explain in my notes today. 

 Here is another great chart:

Used with permission from 119ministries.

Keep in mind that we are looking at Biblical days here. Biblically, we see over and over the pattern of the day beginning at sunset. This pattern was set forth in the very beginning and we see it repeated over and over. However, there are dissenting views on this. I can give you a book full of verses that have the day beginning at sunset and someone else can give you a handful that have it beginning in the morning. That is a rabbit trail each of us should take for ourselves when time permits and seek it out with the Father. You just need to know that this chart is from the perspective of a Biblical day beginning at sunset.

Here is a recap.

  • Messiah had the meal with His disciples on Tuesday evening. Wednesday is Passover and preparation day, He is beaten and crucified on the same day that the lambs were slaughtered, fulfilling prophecy of becoming our Passover lamb. (See the story of Passover in Exodus 12 and John 1:29 as well as Isaiah 53:5)
  • Wednesday afternoon he is put in the tomb before sundown. That makes Wednesday the first night and Thursday the first day.
  • As the sun sets Yeshua is already in the tomb and the calendar rolls over to Nissan 15. This is the first night.
  • Thursday is a high sabbath, the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Still on the first day.
  • Thursday night He is in the tomb (the beginning of Friday, biblically). That is the second night.
  • Friday day He remains in the tomb, the second day.
  • Friday night He is in the tomb, the third night.
  • Saturday is the third day.
  • Saturday evening begins the new day of Sunday which was First Fruits.
  • At some point after sunset on Saturday, He rose.Three days and three nights.
    The sign of Jonah is fulfilled.

I would like to point out an error in the FIRST graphic featured above. It states that “The Jews observed their passover 24 hours after Yeshua did”. First of all, there is no “Jewish” Passover. It’s YHWH’s.  Secondly, this statement is only true if we think that was a Passover meal but I do think John 13:1-2 as well as Biblically based knowledge of the moedim proves that it wasn’t.

This is also in line with how the Father uses the Moedim to tell us of future events and we see a pattern here of the events the Moedim foretold being fulfilled on the actual date of the events. As I’ve mentioned before, the giving of the Holy Spirit took place on Shavuot (known as Pentecost), which is the same day we believe the Torah (ten commandments) were given. Messiah is our Passover lamb and He gave His life for us on Passover, then rose on of First Fruits. Knowing this should encourage our curiosity, passion, and desire to know and keep all of the Moedim.

You see, the spring Moedim foretold events that have been fulfilled at this point. The events foretold by the Fall Moedim are yet to be fulfilled. I even think it is entirely possible that they will be fulfilled on the date they actually take place, just as the spring Moedim were.
What do the fall Moedim foretell?

  • Feast of Trumpets – Messiah returns!
  • Yom Kippur – Day of judgement
  • Sukkot – a restoration of fellowship with the Father in His kingdom

Does this matter? These details are very important. Why? Because they are proof that Messiah offered that He is, in fact, the awaited Messiah. There are still skeptics today with regards to Him and many of them know the Word better than we do. Our misrepresenting Messiah through not knowing Scripture, however innocent and well intentioned we may be, only serves to lead others away from Him. So yes, it matters. It matters a lot. 

In summary: While there is still some debate among the body over some of this exact timeline, it is easy to look the current accepted logic and see that it does not line up with Scripture. Messiah could not have been crucified on a Friday and fulfill the sign of Jonah.

In this case, debate is a good thing because we are not seeking to be right, but seeking with the knowledge that YHWH is right and when our math does not add up, we are in error. When this error “proves” that prophecy is not fulfilled and Messiah could not be the long awaited one, it is a grave error indeed. Therefore, we have to correct ourselves, seek His truth, and do all we can to offer up an accurate representation of Messiah and YHWH’s word.

The main takeaway is that Friday can’t be correct if Messiah is who He says He is and we just can’t afford to continue misrepresenting Messiah.

With the Father’s help, may we grow ever closer to Him each day through the diligent study of His word and steadfast commitment to following the footsteps of our Messiah!

Click here to get the Obadiah/Jonah Focus SheetClick here to view the answer key

Test everything, hold tight to what is good.~ 1 Thess 5:21

We are saved by Grace alone: Obedience is not the root of our salvation, it is the fruit!

May YHWH bless the reading of His Word!

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Christy Jordan
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