Several weeks ago as I had been doing study and research about the April 8th total eclipse over American, I had a vivid dream about it. In fact, it was so real that it awakened me and I looked at the clock and it was 4:11. As I prayed into that, God began to speak to me the words “the third day” as 4:11 translates to April 11th three days after the eclipse. Three days or the third day is a Divine design or pattern in scripture that was to prepare and alert us concerning spiritual activity and completed redemptive acts. With this in mind, I would like for us to examine passages in the Bible that reveal Divine truths for us to hold on to in the days to come. 2 Chronicles 16:9 assures us of God’s Divine Presence as He works all things together for our good and His glory: “For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him.” Dr. Charles Stanley had this to say about God’s plan: “We must be anchored in the Father’s plan, not in the things of the world.”
In Scripture THREE is the number of union, approval, co-ordination, completeness, and perfection. It is the number of the Trinity—THREE persons in One God—three Members of Divine perfection. Truly there are only THREE definitions of God. God is Love! His love surpasses illustration, defies comparison, and description. God is Light! What light is in the material world, God, the source of material light, is in the spiritual. God is Spirit! The Father of Love gave His Son to light a world dark in sin; and the Holy Spirit glorifies the light of the world along with His work of reproving the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment.
The resurrection of our Lord on the THIRD day speaks of Divine Power. Human power could not accomplish it. Jonah was THREE days and THREE nights in the great fish as a sign of Christ’s burial and resurrection. God is calling our attention to the account of Jonah and Nineveh because the days are similar. God is rewriting the story across America in the sky and across the land in the total solar eclipses of 2017 and 2024! WAKE UP AMERICA! God is real, God has a plan, God is in control and God loves us!
It is no accident that we are experiencing God’s panorama in between His appointed times of Purim that was on March 24th and Passover April 22-30! Both are revelations of God’s Divine Reversals and Restoration. Christ was crucified on Passover at the THIRD hour. He hung on the Cross six hours—THREE in darkness and THREE in light. At noon God brought a solar eclipse that was the darkest moment of all history. The Father turned His face from the Son. Christ’s tormentors could no longer see the agony on His face. The inscription over His head was written in THREE languages suggesting the completeness of man’s rejection of Christ, but on the THIRD day, after the burial, He arose victorious; thus the Divine Completeness of THREE—God’s plan of redemption of the ages!
There are THREE offices of Christ, showing His perfection. He was Prophet, Priest, and King. It was on the THIRD day that Jesus walked with two Emmaus disciples (Luke 24: 13-32) and they described Him as a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people. Not only was He able, by His own power, to perform miracles, but also His message was completely harmonious with the Word of God, He Himself being the living Word. He told forth divine truth and foretold the divine prophetic program. According to Zech. 6: 12-13, Christ is the Branch that will sit and rule upon His throne as King and be a Priest. The completeness of His Shepherd care is seen in His THREE titles—the Good, the Chief, and the Great Shepherd.
The perfection of Christ in His temptation is shown in His THREE-fold use of, “It is written.” It was also to the disciples on the road to Emmaus that Jesus expounded upon the Old Testament scriptures as they all spoke of Him. Indeed, Jesus is Christ the Living Word and the Written Word! There are THREE enemies of man: world, flesh, and the devil. Therefore, it was necessary for the complete testing of Christ—lust of the flesh, lust of the eye, and the pride of life. These temptations led to the fall of Eve. She saw that the fruit was good for food, pleasant to the eye, and desirable to make one wise. In the wilderness Satan tempted Christ: “change the stones to bread”—lust of the flesh; “view the kingdom”—lust of the eye; “cast thyself down”—pride of life. Christ overcame the world, the flesh and the devil and by His power we can overcome by the power of His Word and His Spirit. God has bestowed upon us three great gifts of grace; faith, hope and love. Faith is an imitation of God; hope is the aspiration to God; love is the manifestation of God. Faith and hope acquire blessing, but love bestows blessing. Before hope and faith, love said, “I AM.” Love was before the world. Love is eternal. Love is the nature and whole of God.
So we come again to the solar eclipses of 2017 and 2024 and the annular eclipse of 2023 across America. They tell a story of God’s love for this nation and its people. They form two crosses and pass over the Bold Knob Cross of Peace (111 feet) in Alto Pass, Ill. God’s love flows eternally from the Cross. The message to America is get back to the Cross if we want peace—Salem. As was pointed out earlier, the Hebrew letter Aleph is formed across America by the three eclipses which is the name for the Oneness of God. The point of conversion forms a X which is the Hebrew letter Tav which means a cross, seal, sign and truth! God indeed is saying to America—“I have chosen you as My client nation to spread the Gospel across the world and your work is not finished.” The letter Tav is the final letter in the Hebrew alphabet written across America. Is God giving us a final wake-up call to be about the Father’s business until Christ returns?
In Matthew 12: 39-41 Jesus said this to the Pharisees: “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonah…” The Pharisees were a group of religious watchmen, secure in their own self-perceived faithfulness to God and superiority over others. Jesus connected the sign of Jonah to end-time events. Both Jonah and Jesus had a call upon their lives—a mission to preach repentance and return, deliverance and reveal the great love and mercy of God. What is God’s message to us today in the sign of Jonah?
We have already established that Nineveh was a large Gentile nation noted for its cruelty, lawlessness and pagan practices. Jonah was a prophet of Israel who lived about the time of Jeroboam II. Jonah’s name means dove and he was the first foreign missionary! God gave him an assignment to go to Nineveh and proclaim the message: “…cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before Me. In 40 days the city will be overthrown.” Jonah was not obedient and ran from God’s call and boarded a ship going in the opposite direction. In the particulars of his story, Jonah is a paradox of Christ. He didn’t actually want to go to Nineveh; he ran away specifically because he did not want them to repent. He wanted them to suffer for what they had done, to feel the fires of wrath unleashed against them. By contrast, for Jesus, the repentance and homecoming of his people was the “joy set before Him.’ (Heb. 12: 2) Jesus never ran away from His mission; He ran toward it. His entire ministry on earth was running toward it. Jesus declared that He is greater than Jonah. And like Jonah, he would soon become a sign—the great sign, the only sign we will ever need. That sign that God is alive and all-powerful. The sign that God is loving and all-merciful. God is calling America but more specifically believers to recognize Him and respond, as the Pharisees did not! In Jonah 2: 8-9 we read Jonah’s testimony after spending “whale time”: “Those who regard worthless idols forsake their own Mercy. But I will sacrifice to You with the voice of thanksgiving, I will pay what I have vowed. Salvation is of the LORD.” This is the theme of the Bible—salvation comes from the LORD who made heaven and earth! Psalm 3:8 affirms: “Salvation belongeth unto the LORD; thy blessing is upon thy people.” Because the sign of Jonah has been given to us, we need not forsake our own Mercy. We too can recognize, with the ancients, with millions in our own day: salvation is of the LORD! “Ah, LORD God! It is You who have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by Your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for You.” (Jer. 32: 17)
In the days of Nineveh the king declared a fast and prayed to God and called for a turning from evil and to God. God saw their works that they turned from their evil way; and God had mercy and brought about the greatest revival in recorded history—a spiritual miracle. Adrain Rogers said this many years ago and the hour is much later now: “Is there any hope for America? The God who sent revival to England in the 16th century, who sent revival on Mount Carmel and to Nineveh—That God is alive and well. God will hear from Heaven. Democrats, Republicans, Independents—all need to bow before Him, and the mighty God who rules from the heavens will hear from Heaven, forgive our sins, and heal our land.” Let us pray for a turning of this nation to repentance to seek the face of God for far too long we have sought His hand but our hearts are far from Him. God, have mercy and send us a spiritual miracle! God is about to do a mighty work to reveal His power and glory! May we see Him working and join in the work He has set before us! Jesus left us this calling as believers and equipped us by His Spirit to accomplish it: “All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.” (Mt. 28: 18-20) The commission is not to just a few but to all of us as believers!
A dear saint of the Lord, Shelia Holm, gave these instructions for believers at such a time as this: Learn the lessons of Nineveh and stop repeating the pagan practices. Get with God, listen to Him, refuse to run from God’s call like Jonah. Get with family—seek peace and pursue it with God and others. Put on the whole armor of God each day and stand for truth. God wins!
It is time for the United States to wake up and return fully to God; turn from our wicked ways; turn from believing the enemies. Return to making this Nation “one Nation under God” once again, and respect God’s power and glory. It is a time of repentance, but it is also a great time to obey God’s Word, His commands, and His instructions. We must remember that God is the Deliverer; He is the victory; He will not fail; He is faithful! That is the message of the THIRD day! God is our Father, our Protector, our Provider—everything we need every time and in every situation! We must hold on to God and His Word because He is holding on to us! So, take heart and don’t be deceived or discouraged, or allow your love to grow cold. The signs of the end are simply proof that God is on His throne and His sovereign Word is being fulfilled exactly as He spoke it. Continue in His love. Radiate His light. Be filled with His Spirit! Wherever you are, wherever you go, bring His love. Love will endure, even forever! The best is yet to come!