Beloved radio friends, in the precious and worthy name of the Lord Jesus, we greet you warmly. We welcome you to the Bible study. We trust with humble sincerity. The Lord Jesus is being edified and glorified in the hearts and lives of those of you who listen to the word of God. We pray that every listener may receive a divine blessing from the ministry of this precious word over this radio program. We are now giving some closing comments on the prophet of Jonah in relation to the story as we have followed it in chapters one as well as in chapter two. For there is one aspect of divine truth that we would like to mention today that illustrates for us in the story of Jonah with blessing and instruction a dispensational aspect of this wonderful book. Now by this we mean the events that happen to Jonah graphically illustrate to us the history of the nation of Israel in a very precious way. Now let me seek to explain it as far as we have gone in our story in these first two chapters. In chapter one The disobedience of the prophet illustrates to us the experiences of the nation of Israel. In the book of Exodus chapter nineteen, verses five and six, God said through Moses to his people, If ye will obey my voice, indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people. For all the earth is mine, and ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. God's purpose in relation to Israel was to exalt them above all other nations, but at the same time they were to obey his voice and to magnify him before all other nations. The subsequent history of Israel is well known to us, and it reflects their disobedience without any shadow of doubt. And consequently, as in the story of Jonah, the storms of divine judgment have swept across the path of this nation throughout their sad history. This none of us could ever deny. Now in chapter two of the book of Jonah, where the prophet is preserved by God within the great fish, though under the chastening hand of God, he is preserved. And in this we can well recognize, while Israel as a nation has been scattered among the nations of the world by God's chastening rod, nevertheless the nation has been miraculously preserved in spite of the many persecutions of Satan's power through wicked men to destroy them. Moses, that great prophet of God, long before portrayed what would happen to the nation of his people if they failed to obey their God. I would like to commend to any interested person, for time doesn't permit the reading of it, A careful reading of the twenty-eight chapter of Deuteronomy from verses fifty-eight through sixty-eight. And in that portion, verse fifty-eight through sixty-eight of Deuteronomy chapter twenty-eight, you will find that Moses, by divine inspiration, foretold that Israel would be oppressed, they would have no rest and comfort for body and soul. and that their lives would be in constant danger and fear. Now has not that happened to them? So just as Jonah feared again and again that his physical life was at an end, so Israel has been brought into despair, to despair for their national existence again and again. Any observant person with an ounce of common sense can even see this same condition prevails today, even in our own day, in the land of Israel where God has permitted them to return. Through all the chastening experiences of Israel right up to this time, God has been faithful to preserve them as a race, though persecuted by the nations of the world. Jonah was swallowed up by the great fish in the midst of the sea, And so has the nation of Israel, under God's divine chastening hand, been swallowed up by the nations of the earth, and they have been scattered throughout all the world. Had you ever realized that when Jonah was swallowed up by the great fish, it was impossible for the fish to digest the prophet. God preserved the prophet and kept him alive. Likewise, Wherever the earthly people of God, Israel, have been absorbed in and by the nations of the earth, they have miraculously maintained and retained their identity, their Jewish origin as a nation. This itself is a miracle, not to be considered accidental by any means, but providential under God. And also it is true that God has used the nations to chasten his earthly people. But when God is finished with his dealings of punishment upon Israel, then God will reckon in judgment with the guilty nations. And that day of reckoning seems to be very near now. Under the chastening hand of God, Jonah ultimately cried to the Lord in prayer for deliverance. Now listen to what Moses the prophet foretold, that after his people would be scattered. He added these words in Deuteronomy chapter four in verse twenty-nine, as he has written concerning their scattering. Now he declares, But from thence ye shall seek Jehovah thy God, and thou shalt find him, when thou searchest after him with all thy heart, And so. Now when Jonah turned to the Lord in repentance, and in truth and contrition, God heard him and restored him, and brought him to land again. So will Israel be restored to the land of their fathers. So will they be brought back from the far corners of the globe. Now you may say, has this not been done already in our days? Beloved, may we say, what we see today is only the preliminary stage for what God is yet to do. For the nation of Israel has yet to suffer further persecution under God's chastening at the hands of the nations around them. The nation of Israel will yet go through the day, what is called in Jeremiah thirty, verse seven, the day of Jacob's trouble. In Matthew chapter twenty-four in verse fifteen, the Lord Jesus called it the Great Tribulation. And what you and I see today in relation to the land of Israel and the people of Israel within that land, with all the problems that they are surrounded with, their very present condition and their present dangers will be greatly accelerated and facilitated indeed, even in a greater way. But their deliverance will be effectively accomplished, for at the end God is going to send forth his angels with a great trumpet and sound to gather his people from one end of the heavens to the other. For Jesus said of that day, And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. Matthew chapter twenty-four in verse thirty-one. And may we stay, please take home this wonderful lesson. a wonderful and a beautiful lesson of dispensational truth. Just as surely as Israel has been scattered, preserved, chastened, she will yet be fully restored by the Lord, to her own land and heritage, and in the wonderful way, when she turns to the Lord, not to any nation, But to the Lord with all her heart, she will be restored. And God will turn the captivity of Israel. He will have compassion and return these earthly people, the godly remnant, who will turn to the Lord in that coming day. And they will be restored as a nation under the reign of the glorious Messiah, their soon-coming king, none other than even our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now may I point out in the lesson of Jonah, the one thing above everything else that is real, that every Jew needs to learn today, they are the great words that Jonah closed his prayer with in Jonah chapter two and verse nine. Jonah said, Salvation is of the Lord. The nation of Israel today clearly understands the perils they face, I'm sure. They recognize the diabolical enmity that seeks to persecute and destroy them. But there is one thing that the nation has not yet learned and will learn in a future day, through future trials, and that is, their salvation must be and will be of the Lord. Political intrigue, Political alliances will never succeed for them. They will all fail to solve their problems. Social and educational efforts will fail. These and thousands of other devices can but fail. But when repent and Israel like Jonah, helpless and hopeless, to effect deliverance, confesses salvation is of Jehovah, then and not before, But then God will forever plant them in their own land, never to be removed again. Oh, my beloved, what a day that will be for Israel. But there are many individuals today, Jews and Gentiles alike, who need to learn this lesson for their own precious soul. Salvation is of the Lord. Only one can save you, neither is there salvation in any other, for there's none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved, the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Our Blessed Father, we thank thee for the truth that we've learned today, sanctify you to every heart, but bring salvation to every soul out of Christ, in Jesus' name. Amen.