JONAH AND THE GOD OF SECOND CHANCES

"Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, 2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you.” 3 So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city,[a] three days' journey in breadth."

Jonah, Jesus, and the God of Second Chances  

by Jonah

When people learn my name is Jonah, they usually smile and make a joke about big fish or running from God. But for me, the Book of Jonah is not a children’s story. It has become a lens through which I see Israel, the nations, Jesus, and even myself. In this essay I want to trace how Jonah—prophet and book—sits at the crossroads of Jewish and Christian faith, repentance, and atonement, and how his story reaches from Nineveh all the way to Yom Kippur and the words of Jesus.

Jonah, The Reluctant Prophet Of Mercy

Jonah didn’t run away because he doubted God’s power. He ran because he knew God’s character. And make no mistake, God knew Jonah when he chose him!

After Nineveh repents, Jonah finally spills the real reason for his flight: “I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster” (Jonah 4:2). He wasn’t afraid that God would fail to judge; he was afraid God would succeed in showing mercy. Jonah understood that the covenant formula from Exodus 34—gracious, merciful, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love—could be applied to Gentiles too, even to Israel’s brutal enemies.

In other words, Jonah knew that if the Ninevites repented, the God of Israel would forgive them.

That knowledge infuriated him. Jonah wanted God for Israel, not for Assyria. He embodies an Israel that is happy to receive covenant mercy, but deeply reluctant to see that mercy poured out on the nations—especially Israel’s enemies.

The Final Question: Jonah And Israel

The Book of Jonah ends on a question and then goes silent:

“Should I not pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left…?”

We never hear Jonah’s response. That silence is intentional. The question is addressed to Jonah’s heart, but it is aimed over his shoulder at Israel. Jonah is a mirror held up to God’s people. The closing question forces Israel—and later, the church—to ask: Do we begrudge God’s mercy to those we count as enemies? Are we offended that God loves those we fear or despise?

The phrase “do not know their right hand from their left” is an image of moral and spiritual ignorance. In Israel’s frame, it is precisely what it means *not* to know Torah, not to know the way of the Lord. Nineveh is pictured as a people without covenant instruction, morally disoriented, and therefore objects of pity rather than mere targets of wrath. Jonah wants them destroyed; God wants them restored.

Asleep In The Ship: Israel Asleep To Its Calling

Before Jonah ever reaches Nineveh, the pattern is staged on a smaller scale in the boat.

The pagan sailors are crying out to their gods while Jonah is “fast asleep” in the hold as they are about to perish. The captain’s rebuke—“What do you mean, sleeper? Arise, call on your God!”—is almost prophetic. Jonah, appointed to be a messenger of the living God, literally sleeps through Gentile distress.

It is not hard to hear the theological message: Jonah’s sleep is Israel’s sleep. Israel, called to be a light to the nations, a kingdom of priests, is spiritually asleep to its vocation. Surrounded by perishing Gentiles, the bearer of revelation is unconscious, uninterested, even when his own disobedience has contributed to their danger.

And yet, God still uses Jonah. The sailors end up fearing YHWH, offering sacrifice, and making vows. This “conversion of the pagan sailors” foreshadows the repentance of Nineveh. The irony is sharp: the Gentiles are responsive; the prophet is resistant. The nations are awake; Israel is asleep.

Jonah In The Fish: Idols, Salvation, And Vows

In the belly of the fish, Jonah’s prayer crystallizes the theology of the book:

“Those who cling to empty folly [worthless idols] forsake their own mercy.  
But I, with the voice of thanksgiving, will sacrifice to you;  
what I have vowed I will pay.  
Salvation belongs to the LORD.”

Here Jonah recognizes that idol‑worship is self‑destruction. To cling to idols is to let go of your own welfare; to hold onto false gods is to abandon the very mercy that could be yours. Praying to idols is not a path to salvation. “Salvation belongs to the LORD” is one of the clearest statements in Scripture that all true deliverance—physical and spiritual—is God’s work alone.

His line, “what I have vowed I will pay,” is modest next to what comes later in the canon, but it still matters. Jonah emerges from symbolic “death” with renewed resolve to fulfill his commission. In that sense, his descent, “death,” deliverance, and return to obedience form a faint, imperfect pattern that will be fulfilled and magnified in the obedience of Jesus.

Dagon, The Fish God, And Jonah’s Sign To Nineveh

Jonah’s story resonates with earlier biblical confrontations between the God of Israel and the gods of the nations—especially Dagon.

In 1 Samuel 5, the Philistines place the ark of God in the temple of Dagon. Twice Dagon falls before the ark; finally, his head and hands are broken off. The message is unmistakable: the idol is powerless before Israel’s God. And yet the Philistines, instead of turning to YHWH, simply send the ark back and cling to Dagon. Confronted with the true God, they choose their god of choice.

Dagon is remembered in tradition as a fish‑associated deity. Assyrian and Mesopotamian iconography includes fish‑man figures, and there is at least a strong symbolic connection between fish imagery and some of the gods venerated around the region of Nineveh. Against that backdrop, the idea that a man vomited out of a great fish would carry particular weight to a fish‑fixated culture is not far‑fetched. To Ninevites surrounded by fish‑god imagery, Jonah’s emergence from the depths in the belly of a great fish would mark him as a man stamped, in their idiom, with divine significance.

In that sense, God takes the cultural “language” of Nineveh—their fish symbol—and uses it against their idolatry. Jonah does not belong to the fish‑god; his story proves that the Lord of heaven and earth commands the sea and its great creatures. Jonah comes out of the fish not as a priest of Dagon, but as a prophet of YHWH. The true God wields the “fish” to assert His supremacy over the fish god.

No wonder the Ninevites listen. Jonah himself becomes a living contradiction of their idolatry and a sign of a greater power.

Samson Between The Pillars: Arms Outstretched

The struggle with Dagon appears again in Samson’s death.

Samson was seduced to give up his Nazarite vow. Blind, betrayed and humiliated, is brought into Dagon’s temple, where the Philistines praise their god for delivering him into their hands. Samson asks to be placed between the two central pillars. With his arms outstretched—right hand on one pillar, left hand on the other—he pushes, the temple collapses, and the house of Dagon falls with its worshipers.

Samson was set apart as a Nazarite from birth. In the Scriptures we see this same pattern of lifelong consecration in two other key figures: Samuel, whose mother vowed that no razor would ever touch his head (echoing the Nazarite law), and John the Baptist, who was set apart from the womb and forbidden wine or strong drink in a way that clearly recalls the Nazarite pattern. Together, these Nazarite—and Nazarite‑like—lives form a line of men specially dedicated from birth whose ministries prepare the way for God’s anointed king, culminating in Jesus Himself.

Judges 16:28—Then Samson prayed to the Lord, “Sovereign Lord, remember me. Please, God, strengthen me just once more, and let me with one blow get revenge on the Philistines for my two eyes.”

We see the silhouette of a figure with arms outstretched, dying among enemies, and in his death overthrowing the powers behind the idols. Samson’s death is deeply flawed and violent, but ultimately Samson brings down the house of false gods. Samson’s posture between the pillars foreshadows the cross, where the greater one with outstretched arms breaks the power of the principalities and powers behind all idols.

When I line up Dagon in 1 Samuel 5, Samson in Dagon’s temple, Jonah from the fish in Nineveh, and Jesus on the cross, I see a consistent theme: the God of Israel humiliates idols and wins Gentiles through self‑giving acts that look like defeat but are actually victory.

Jonah, Yom Kippur, And The Shared Grammar Of Repentance

Jonah is not marginal in Judaism; he stands at the heart of the holiest day of the year.

Every Yom Kippur afternoon, the Book of Jonah is read in synagogues. The story is the liturgical climax to a day devoted to confession, repentance (teshuvah), and atonement. Jonah reminds the congregation that:

- No one is beyond judgment.  

- No one is beyond mercy.  

- Even a violent Gentile city can be given mercy if it turns.  

- Even a reluctant prophet is pursued by God’s grace.

The logic is simple and profound: if God accepted the repentance of the Ninevites, how much more will He accept the repentance of Israel? Jonah becomes a didactic lesson in God’s readiness to forgive, His compassion for those “who do not know their right hand from their left,” and His patience even with His own sullen prophet.

Christians read Jonah through the lens of Jesus, but the grammar is the same: sin, judgment, repentance, forgiveness, and a God who is “gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.” Jonah is a shared text. Jew and Christian may articulate atonement differently—especially in relation to the cross—but we kneel under the same words: “salvation belongs to the LORD.”

Jonah, Jesus, And The Sign

Jesus does not “replace” Jonah; He interprets and fulfills him.

When the religious leaders demand a sign, Jesus replies that no sign will be given except “the sign of the prophet Jonah.” As Jonah was three days and nights in the belly of the great fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and nights in the heart of the earth. Jonah’s descent into the depths and return to the land of the living becomes a prophetic sketch of death and resurrection.

But Jesus presses the comparison further. The men of Nineveh will rise at the judgment and condemn “this generation,” because they repented at Jonah’s preaching, and now One greater than Jonah is here. The contrast is devastating: Gentile Nineveh, steeped in violence and idolatry, hears one reluctant prophet and repents; many of Israel’s leaders, saturated in Torah, hear and see the Messiah Himself and refuse.

Jonah was a sign to Nineveh, to Israel and the nations: the living embodiment of God’s mercy and the crossroads of judgment and grace.

Tradition, Evidence, And Faith

There is a long tradition—Jewish, Christian, and Muslim—that Jonah ended his days in or near Nineveh, in what is today Mosul. A shrine on the ancient mound has been venerated for centuries as his tomb. Archaeology has uncovered an Assyrian palace under that site, situating the tradition in authentic Assyrian soil.

Can I prove, historically, that Jonah stayed there and continued teaching Torah to the Assyrians? No. The text of Scripture is silent after the book ends, and archaeology can’t yet trace the prophet’s last steps.

Perhaps that is precisely where faith enters—not as blind belief in any pious legend, but as trust that the God who really spoke through Jonah, really turned Nineveh, and really raised Jesus has woven more into His story than I can document. Jonah himself becomes a sign at this point: a man whose narrative ends with an open question, inviting me to respond in my own life rather than demanding a tidy epilogue to *his*.

My Name Is Jonah

All of this lands a little differently when your own name is Jonah.

I hear God’s question—“Should I not have compassion on Nineveh?”—as addressed to me. Do I want God to be generous only to people like me, or am I willing for Him to lavish mercy on those I might secretly prefer He judge? Am I asleep in the hold while the world around me is in a storm, clinging to idols that cannot save? Am I clinging to my own “empty follies,” forfeiting the mercy that could be mine? Do I really believe that “salvation belongs to the LORD,” or am I still trying to manage who gets it?

The ancient prophet Jonah stands at the intersection of Judaism and Christianity, of Israel and the nations, of idols and the living God, of death and resurrection. His story confronts me with all my reluctance and resentment, but it also comforts me with the same truth he finally confessed from the depths:

"Those who cling to empty folly forsake their own welfare. Salvation (Yeshua) belongs to the LORD."

Epilogue:

Did you know that in the fish jonah prayed the psalms?

FULLY REAL AND FULLY SUPERNATURAL

On the Shroud of Turin, the bodily image is created in a different way than the blood stains. The cloth presents two distinct “layers” of data: natural blood evidence and a non-natural image, yet the two are in perfect anatomical registration. The human forensics pair to the supernatural image. 

The forensics testify to the man's crucifixion and death. The image testifies to the identity and ressurection. The fact that the two are in perfect alignment is an out-and-out miracle. 

Blood vs. Image: One Artifact; Two Different “Events”

- Forensic and chemical studies show the blood on the cloth is real human blood (type AB), with hemoglobin, serum albumin, bilirubin, and UV-visible serum “halos” around many wounds, consistent with fresh traumatized blood from scourging, crucifixion, and a post-mortem spear wound.

- Those same investigations conclude the body image is not paint, dye, or stain: no pigment particles bound to the fibers, no brush strokes, no binder, no cracking over fold lines, and color confined only to the top fibrils of the linen.

- Critically, the blood was on the cloth before the body image, because the image “stops” at the edges of blood clots and never appears underneath them, which is nearly impossible to reproduce as an artistic forgery.

So the blood corresponds to an actual wounds on the corpse in contact with the linen, while the image corresponds to some later, non-contact (distance-coded) process when the body left the linen it was wrapped in.

Wounds that “Pair” with the Image:

- The blood flows line up point-for-point with the body image of a scourged, crucified man: over 100 scourge marks, scalp bleeding from a cap-like crown of thorns, wrist and foot nail wounds, and a lance wound between the ribs with separated blood and clear fluid consistent with pleural effusion after death.

- The directions of blood flow correspond to a body first upright on a cross, then horizontal in burial, matching classical crucifixion posture and movement.

- Modern forensic reviews emphasize that the presence, placement, and morphology of the bloodstains certify that a real, wounded human body lay in the cloth, while the ventral and dorsal images encode body–cloth distance information instead of simple contact transfer.

In other words, the forensic data (blood chemistry, flows, wound placement) say “real crucified corpse,” while the optical/physical data of the image say “not produced by any known artistic or physical mechanism.”

The Forensics Pair to the Supernatural:

Scientific teams have been able to describe what is there—real blood, anatomically and physiologically precise wound patterns, and a superficial, non-pigment image with 3D distance properties—but have not been able to reproduce how such an image could form under known natural processes.

That is why some researchers speak of a natural sequence (death, bleeding, burial) followed by an image-forming event that behaves as if it were a brief, vertically directed, non-contact radiation or energy burst from the body, something for which there is no established physical analogue.

Separate and Apart: 

The Sudarium is the face cloth (handkerchief) the was put over the crucified victim's head & face as he was taken down from the cross. It would have been removed and placed to the side while the body was prepared for burial. In other words, while they are both in contact with the same body, they were not stained at the exact same moments and they have never been directly on the body at the same time.

Furthermore, the Sudarium was NOT on the body at the time of the formation of the image of the individual was created. This explains why the Sudarium ONLY has forensics data. There is no image! 

Factoring in the Sudarium which has the blood stains without the image, strengthens the case beyond the shadow of any possible basis for doubt.

Together for the First Time

John 20 and the subsequent history line up exactly: two distinct cloths, separated in the tomb and then separated across centuries and geography.

The Shroud and Sudarium were separate in the tomb and for the last 2000 years have been stored in different locations.

Modern data collection, digital and scientific technology have made it possible for our generation (those alive in this modern age) to overlay the Shroud and the Sudarium for the first time.  

Bringing the Sudarium (Oviedo face cloth) into view with the Shroud exactly reinforces the pattern I'm pointing to: natural, coherent blood forensics that dovetail with a non-natural image event.

What the Sudarium Adds:

- The Sudarium is a smaller linen cloth (about 84 × 53 cm) kept in Oviedo, used only on the face and head and bearing no image at all, only complex blood and serum stains.

- Its stains are consistent with a man who died upright of asphyxiation with pleural edema fluid exiting nose and mouth—precisely the expected pattern in crucifixion, including vertical and later horizontal body positions.

- Blood on the Sudarium is type AB, matching tests reported for the Shroud’s blood.

So here again, we have purely natural forensic data (blood, fluid, gravity, posture) without any image phenomenon.

Congruence with the Shroud’s face

- Detailed overlay and geometric studies find multiple congruences between the Sudarium’s facial stains and the Shroud’s face: matching nose length (~8 cm), alignment of beard/chin region, and thorn-related puncture stains at the nape of the neck.

- Comparative catalogues list dozens of distinct correspondences in anatomy, trauma patterns, and fluid flow between the two cloths, arguing they were in contact with the same head at different moments (on the cross and during/just after removal, then later burial).

- The Sudarium, used earlier and bearing only blood, naturally precedes the Shroud’s later, distance-coded image; its stains help reconstruct a continuous timeline of death, removal, and burial with consistent forensics across two independent artifacts.

The Cumulative Structure:

- Sudarium: blood and fluid only, no image, early application to the crucified head.  

- Shroud: extensive blood PLUS a non-contact, 3D-encoded body image that forms after the blood has already transferred.

Together, They Make the Case: 

Two separate linens, converging in the same AB blood type, same facial geometry, same crown-of-thorns and nape wounds, the same crucifixion physiology—yet only one cloth carries an inexplicable image. The more the forensics line up, the more the “normal” blood evidence seems to be framing a single, extraordinary, image-forming event.

One more thing—The Xylon.

Conclusion

The odds of so much forensic data matching with an unexplainably formed image are numerically beyond astounding.

The cloth’s forensics anchor us in a real, tortured, crucified man, while the mode and timing of the image formation point beyond ordinary causality. The wounds and blood “lock” the image to history, and the image’s physics press the mind toward a miraculous, one of a kind explanation.

The Shroud is the Sign of Jonah: Fully Real and Fully Supernatural. 

‐--------------------------

Consider these other thoughts concerning the Shroud of Turin. 

JONAH PRAYED THE PSALMS

Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God
from the belly of the fish

Below are verses from Sefer Jonah, chapter 2.

I have spent many meditative moments in the Book of Jonah. In a sense, I have put myself in Jonah's shoes. I have been in the fish. Below are the verses from Jonah when he was in the gadol dawg (the great fish):

Jonah 2 NIV

2 He said:
“In my distress I called to the Lord,
    and he answered me.

From deep in the realm of the dead I called for help,
    and you listened to my cry.

3 You hurled me into the depths,
    into the very heart of the seas,
    and the currents swirled about me;
all your waves and breakers
    swept over me.

4 I said, ‘I have been banished
    from your sight;
yet I will look again
    toward your holy temple.’

5 The engulfing waters threatened me,
    the deep surrounded me;
    seaweed was wrapped around my head.

6 To the roots of the mountains I sank down;
    the earth beneath barred me in forever.
But you, Lord my God,
    brought my life up from the pit.

7 “When my life was ebbing away,
    I remembered you, Lord,
and my prayer rose to you,
    to your holy temple.

8 “Those who cling to worthless idols
    turn away from God’s love for them.
9 But I, with shouts of grateful praise,
    will sacrifice to you.

What I have vowed I will make good.
    I will say, ‘Salvation comes from the Lord.’”

Jonah Prays Psalms In the Fish

Jonah’s prayer in Jonah 2 is deliberately “psalm‑shaped”: almost every line echoes language, theology, and imagery from the Psalms of lament and thanksgiving, as if Jonah is praying from inside the Psalter.

Verse‑by‑verse Links

- Jonah 2:2 – “In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me… from deep in the realm of the dead I called for help, and you listened to my cry.”  

  This matches the laments where the psalmist cries out from “distress,” “Sheol,” and “the depths,” and God hears from his temple: see Psalm 18:4–6; 116:3–4; 120:1; 130:1–2.[1][2][3]

  Example: “In my distress I called upon the Lord… from his temple he heard my voice” (Psalm 18:6), and “The cords of death encompassed me… then I called on the name of the Lord” (Psalm 116:3–4).[1][2]

- Jonah 2:3 – “You hurled me into the depths… all your waves and breakers swept over me.”  

  This closely echoes Psalm 42:7, “all your breakers and your waves have gone over me,” and similar sea‑judgment imagery in Psalm 69:1–2, 14–15.[3][4]

- Jonah 2:4 – “I have been banished from your sight; yet I will look again toward your holy temple.”  

  Parallels the sense of being cut off from God and yet looking toward his sanctuary: Psalm 31:22 (“I am cut off from before your eyes”) and many prayers focused on the temple as the place of heard prayer (e.g., Psalm 18:6; 28:2).[2][3]

- Jonah 2:5–6a – “The engulfing waters threatened me, the deep surrounded me… To the roots of the mountains I sank down; the earth beneath barred me in forever.”  

  Water as chaos, threat, and near‑death is classic lament language: Psalm 69:1–2, 14–15 (“I sink in deep mire… let not the deep swallow me up”); Psalm 88:6–7 (“you have put me in the depths of the pit… your waves have overwhelmed me”).[5][2][3]

- Jonah 2:6b–7 – “But you, Lord my God, brought my life up from the pit… my prayer rose to you, to your holy temple.”  

  “Pit” and “Sheol” language, with God lifting up the life of the suppliant, echoes Psalms like 30:3, 40:1–2, and again 18:4–6.[1][2] Jonah’s “my prayer came to you, into your holy temple” is almost a prose paraphrase of Psalm 18:6.[2]

- Jonah 2:8 – “Those who cling to worthless idols turn away from God’s love for them.”  

  This line resonates with anti‑idolatry statements and contrasts between idol‑worshipers and those who trust the Lord: e.g., Psalms 31:6; 115:4–11; 16:4.[2][3]

- Jonah 2:9 – “But I, with shouts of grateful praise, will sacrifice to you… Salvation comes from the Lord.”  

  The vow‑paying, sacrificial thanksgiving, and doxology are thoroughly psalmic: compare Psalm 3:8 “Salvation belongs to the Lord,” and the frequent “I will offer sacrifices… I will pay my vows” (Psalms 50:14–15; 66:13–14; 116:17–18).[2][3] One study notes explicitly that Jonah 2:9 stands in verbal parallel to Psalm 3:8.[2]

Overall pattern with the Psalter

Scholars have laid out Jonah 2 side‑by‑side with many psalms and shown sustained allusion: Jonah 2 uses phrases and motifs found in Psalms 3, 18, 30–31, 42, 69, 88, 120, 130, and others.[1][6][3][7] It is not usually a verbatim quotation but a dense mosaic, the way a worshiper steeped in Israel’s songbook would naturally pray.

Several implications of this pattern are often highlighted:

- Jonah’s prayer is structurally a thanksgiving psalm (like Psalm 30 or 116): it moves from distress, to cry, to deliverance, to vowed praise.[2][3]

- By praying in the language of the Psalms, Jonah places his personal crisis inside Israel’s larger story of crying from the depths and being heard.[1][8][9]

- Some interpreters argue that the heavy use of psalm‑language may even expose Jonah’s heart: he can “pray like David,” yet the narrative will show his compassion does not match the psalms’ concern for all nations turning to the Lord.[10][2][11]

Read Jonah 2 alongside Psalms 18, 42, 69, 88, 116, and 130; the repeated vocabulary of depths, Sheol, waves, temple, vows, and “salvation belongs to the Lord” makes the interconnection unmistakable.[1][2][3]

Citations:

[1] Psalms in Jonah 2 – PeterGoeman.com https://petergoeman.com/psalms-jonah-2/

[2] 2. The Psalm of the Prodigal Prophet (Jonah 2:1-10) - Bible.org https://bible.org/seriespage/psalm-prodigal-prophet-jonah-21-10

[3] Jonah's prayer (2) https://sb.rfpa.org/jonahs-prayer-2/

[4] Jonah 2:3 | Psalm 42:7 https://intertextual.bible/text/jonah-2.3-psalms-42.7

[5] Jonah and the Psalm | Christianity 201 - WordPress.com https://christianity201.wordpress.com/2020/04/19/jonah-and-the-psalm/

[6] Jonah 2 - Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible - StudyLight.org https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/eng/bcc/jonah-2.html

[7] Jonah's prayer life and the Psalms | - Communion Church https://communionchurch.org/2021/04/26/jonahs-prayer-life-and-the-psalms/

[8] Patterns of Allusive Poetry in Jonah's Psalm: Intertexts ... https://scholarlypublishingcollective.org/sblpress/jbl/article/144/1/85/399524/Patterns-of-Allusive-Poetry-in-Jonah-s-Psalm

[9] recursion and variation in the "prophecy" of https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2342&context=auss

[10] An Evidence of Repentance or Hypocrisy: Why Does Jonah 2 Cite ... https://davidschrock.com/2018/04/03/an-evidence-of-repentance-or-hypocrisy-why-does-jonah-2-cite-so-many-psalms/

[11] Jonah and the Art of Being Broken - The Gospel Coalition https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/jonah-art-of-being-broken/

[12] Jonah 2 NRSVA - A Psalm of Thanksgiving - Bible Gateway https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Jonah+2&version=NRSVA

[13] Jonah 2 Parallel Chapters - Bible Hub https://biblehub.com/nas-esv/jonah/2.htm

[14] A Prayer Inside A Whale - Jonah 2 (Prayers Of The Bible) https://derekcharlesjohnson.com/blogs/latest-news/posts/5608670/a-prayer-inside-a-whale-jonah-2-prayers-of-the-bible

[15] Jonah's Prayer - She Reads Truth https://shereadstruth.com/jonahs-prayer-2/

SEDUCTION: The Power and Peril that Frames the Bible’s Story

Delilah's Seduction of Samson the Nazirite

Lamentations 3:22-23—Steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

The Scriptures open with a seduction in a garden and close with a seduction in a global city. Between those bookends, story after story shows how seduction targets even “good” people—and why adultery stands as such a high commandment. At the center of it all is covenant love. 

The First Fall: Eden as Spiritual Adultery

In Eden, humanity begins in covenant intimacy with God. Adam and Chavah (Eve) walk with Him, receive His word, and live under His generous boundaries. Their loyalty is meant to be exclusive: one God, one voice, one source of wisdom and life.

The serpent does not attack with open violence but with a whisper. He questions God’s word: “Did God really say…?” He hints that God is withholding something: “You will be like God, knowing good and evil.” The fruit appears good for food, pleasant to the eyes, and desirable to make one wise. Desire is awakened, and the boundary suddenly feels narrow.

This is more than disobedience; it is spiritual adultery. Instead of trusting the covenant Partner, they give their ears, eyes, and desires to another voice. They reach for a rival lover—a different source of truth and life. The pattern is set: seduction reframes rebellion as enlightenment and paints the forbidden as beautiful.

In the biblical sense, God is fiercely protective of an exclusive covenant love, not petty or insecure. When Adam and Chavah cross that line, it is not a small technical violation.

Seen in that light, being “kicked out” of Eden and having the way barred by cherubim and a flaming sword is exactly what a jealous Lover‑God does.

Seduction in the Lives of “Good” People

From Genesis onward, Scripture shows how this Eden pattern plays out in human stories, especially around sexual and spiritual unfaithfulness.

Joseph and Potiphar’s wife (Genesis 39)

Joseph and Potiphars Wife

Joseph is a righteous young Hebrew serving in an Egyptian household. Potiphar’s wife sees his attractiveness and repeatedly says, “Lie with me.” Her strategy is persistence and proximity. She catches him by his garment; he flees and leaves the garment in her hand.

Here seduction is direct and physical, but Joseph names it accurately: “How could I do this great evil and sin against God?” He sees adultery not only as a betrayal of Potiphar, but as a covenant offense against the Holy One. Seduction is resisted by a greater awareness of God’s presence and claims.

Samson and Delilah (Judges 16)

Samson is set apart as a Nazirite from birth, empowered by the Spirit for Israel’s deliverance. Yet his weakness is his heart for women who do not share his calling. Delilah presses him “day after day” to reveal the source of his strength. She uses tears, questions of love, and emotional pressure. Eventually he “tells her all his heart.”

Seduction here is patient and relational. It does not simply promise pleasure; it trades on Samson’s longing to be understood and loved. The result is catastrophic: his hair is cut, his strength departs, his eyes are gouged out, and he is bound. The strongest man in Israel falls not to armies, but to a persistent seduction that separated his heart from his God‑given consecration.

David and Bathsheba (2 Samuel 11–12)

David is called a man after God’s own heart, yet one evening he walks on the roof, sees a woman bathing, and sends for her. Whether Bathsheba is more victim, pressured participant, or complicit is debated, but the text is clear about David: he uses his power to take what his eyes desire.

The seduction here is partly self‑seduction: David allows beauty, opportunity, and power to override covenant loyalty—to God, to his wives, and to Uriah. The ripple effects are severe: deception, murder, family collapse, national consequences. Adultery is revealed as a seed that grows into a forest of sorrow.

Israel at Baal‑Peor (Numbers 25)

Israelite men begin to sleep with Moabite women, who invite them to the sacrifices of their gods. What begins as sexual compromise becomes spiritual compromise. They eat and bow down to the Baals; the covenant people are seduced into idolatry through the gateway of physical intimacy.

Here the link between sexual and spiritual adultery is explicit. The body’s unfaithfulness opens the door for the heart’s idolatry. Seduction operates on two levels at once.

The “adulteress” in Proverbs (Proverbs 5–7)

Proverbs personifies sexual seduction in the figure of the forbidden woman. She uses flattery, charm, perfume, and an atmosphere carefully prepared: “I have perfumed my bed…come, let us take our fill of love.” The simple young man follows her “like an ox to the slaughter.”

This is the pedagogy of seduction: it is sensory, urgent, and it always downplays consequences. The wise father warns his son not because desire is evil, but because misdirected desire destroys. Fidelity—sexual and spiritual—is a path to life, not deprivation.

The High Commandment: Adultery as the Shape of Apostasy

Why is “You shall not commit adultery” placed so high among the Ten Words?

1. Marriage is a covenant icon.

   From Genesis 2 onward, marriage is a one‑flesh, exclusive covenant. It is not just about companionship; it is a living parable of God’s own covenant with His people. When a husband and wife pledge exclusive faithfulness, they act out in miniature the drama of God and Israel, and later, Yeshua and His Bride.

2. Adultery is covenant perjury. 

   To commit adultery is not only to seek pleasure in the wrong place; it is to break sworn loyalty, to welcome a third party into a two‑person covenant. That mirrors what happens when the people of God introduce idols, rival trusts, and competing loves into the covenant with Him.

3. The prophets call sin “adultery.”

   Ezekiel, Jeremiah, and Hosea all describe Israel as a wife who “plays the harlot,” chasing other gods as lovers. Sin is narrated not mainly as lawbreaking, but as marital betrayal.

Because of this, the command against adultery stands as a guard around the most powerful metaphor God uses for His relationship with His people. To treat adultery lightly is to treat the covenant lightly.

The Last Seduction: Babylon the Great Prostitute

Without "the Harlot" at the end of the bible, the story is not complete. The seduction of Eden returns in grand, global form.

Harlot of Babylon on the Dragon

Revelation pictures “Babylon the Great” as a richly adorned prostitute, drunk with the blood of the saints. She seduces kings and nations with her luxuries, her power, and her pleasures. Merchants grow rich from her trade; the nations drink the wine of her immorality.

Here seduction is cultural and systemic. Babylon is not just a person; she is a world‑order, a way of life that invites humanity to give its allegiance, fear, and desire to her instead of to God. She promises abundance and glory—but at the price of spiritual adultery.

The language deliberately echoes the prophets: fornication, idolatry, harlotry. Humanity, meant to be the pure Bride, is intoxicated by the world’s charms. The temptation of Eden (be like God, define good and evil for yourself) becomes the full‑blown religion of Babylon, where human achievement and wealth replace worship of the Holy One.

Yeshua: the Faithful Bridegroom in a Seductive World

1 John 4:10—10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

Into this web of seductions steps Yeshua of Natzeret. He Himself faces a concentrated assault of temptation in the wilderness. Yeshua resists every offer by cleaving to the Father’s word and will. Where Adam and Israel yielded, He stands.

Yeshua also teaches on adultery in a way that reveals its depth. He insists that lustful looking is already adultery in the heart, because seduction begins with the gaze and the imagination. He calls Himself the Bridegroom and speaks of a coming wedding feast. His mission is not only to forgive individual failures, but to cleanse and restore an unfaithful Bride.

The Power and Danger of Seduction, and the Path of Faithfulness

Seen through this lens, seduction is not a side theme; it is the main strategy of the enemy throughout Scripture.

- It beautifies rebellion, making it look wise, liberating, and desirable.  

- It questions God’s goodness before it openly rejects God’s commands.  

- It targets the heart’s loyalties, not just outward behavior.  

- It echoes the pattern of adultery: leaving a true covenant Partner for a rival who promises more.

And adultery is such a high commandment because it is the bodily, visible enactment of that spiritual pattern. It is the sin that most clearly shows what all sin is: turning from a faithful Beloved to a tempting stranger.

The way forward is not fear alone, but a deeper love. The more the heart is captivated by the beauty, faithfulness, and tenderness of a loving God, the less persuasive the serpent’s whispers and Babylon’s glitter become. Fidelity—both in marriage and in the secret places of the heart—becomes an act of worship, a prophetic sign that in a world of seduction there is still a people who can say, with simplicity and joy:

“I am my Beloved’s, and my Beloved is mine.” 

Samson, Dagon, and the Final Fall of the Dragon  

In Samson’s last act, a blinded Nazirite is brought into the temple of Dagon as entertainment for his enemies. Leaning against the pillars, he calls on the God of Israel one more time. With his death, the pillars collapse, the temple falls, and the worshipers of Dagon die under the weight of their own god’s house. The scene is stark: a humiliated servant of YHWH, standing between two columns, becomes the instrument by which a false god and his revelers are brought down.

Revelation’s closing visions echo this pattern on a cosmic scale. The great harlot, Babylon, intoxicates kings and nations in her own kind of temple—an order of wealth, power, and idolatry. The dragon empowers the beast and shares in the world’s worship. For a time, the Lamb’s witnesses seem defeated; the powers of the age mock and triumph. But in the end, the harlot is stripped and burned, the city falls, and the dragon is cast down. The very system that exalted itself against God collapses under judgment.

Samson’s death under the ruins of Dagon’s house is a miniature of this larger drama. In both scenes, a world that trusts in a false power structure—a Philistine temple, a Babylonian world‑system—finds that its own “house” becomes the site of its undoing. A seemingly defeated servant of God (Samson in chains, the slain Lamb in Revelation’s earlier visions) is, in fact, the hinge of the story. The toppled temple of Dagon anticipates the toppled city of Babylon; the shamed Nazirite pulling down pillars foreshadows the final downfall of the harlot and the dragon when every rival object of worship is brought to the ground.

Deuteronomy 7:9—Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations,

THE MOST CONSEQUENTIAL WORDS EVER SAID

 וַיֹּ֥אמֶר אֱלֹהִ֖ים יְהִי־א֑וֹר וַֽיְהִי־אֽוֹר

Above are the most consequential Hebrew words ever said. They translate to:

'And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light."

Yehi" (יְהִי) is Hebrew for "let there be." Ohr (אוֹר) is the Hebrew word for "light." So Yehi Ohr (יְהִי־א֑וֹר) is translated as "let there be light."

Let's be clear from the beginning who said "Let there be Light."  יֹּ֥אמֶר אֱלֹהִ֖ים (Vayomer Elohim) translates to "And God said." (Remember, Hebrew is written right to left.)

That's how easily all life and goodness began! Without the Light, Earth would be like every other lifeless planet. Elohim simply spoke. I say "goodness" because in the very next verse, verse 4, it reads, "And God saw that the light was good." Elohim did not call the "darkness" good. In fact, "God separated the light from the darkness." This reminds me of the establishment of the Nazirite vow in Numbers 6, seperating the "Nazir." 

 

וַיֹּ֥אמֶר אֱלֹהִ֖ים יְהִי־א֑וֹר וַֽיְהִי־אֽוֹר, "let there be light," is the third verse in "Bereshit" (בְּרֵאשִׁ֖ית). Bereshit is the Hebrew title of the first book (sefer) in the Torah. "Bereshit" is more commonly known as "Genesis."

Bereshit (בְּרֵאשִׁ֖ית) is Hebrew for "In the beginning." Bereshit (בְּרֵאשִׁ֖ית) is the also the first word in Genesis. Therefore, "in the beginning" is the word "In the Beginning," 

The Apostle John wrote in his book, "In the beginning was the Word." Sure enough, In Bereshit the word was Bereshit. 

Ancient pictograph of Bet

The first Hebrew letter in the word Bereshit is the letter Bet בְּ. The letter Bet is pictured as a house. The Hebrew word for "house" is בַּיִת (pronounced bayit),  So it said that the first thing Elohim spoke into existence was a house, a place for all of existence.  

In Jewish mystical and midrashic interpretation, the Torah’s first letter Bet—shaped and named as a bayit, a house—suggests that when God began to create, He was, in effect, speaking a house into existence: His dwelling.”

The very next letter in the word Bereshit is Resh (רֵ). Rosh (רֹאשׁ) is Hebrew for "head" or the "authority." One midrashic/kabbalistic reading sees in bereshit the components (bayit/house) plus rosh (head), suggesting “the Head dwelling in the house,” i.e., God choosing to dwell in His created house.

The first three letters in the word Bereshit (בְּרֵאשִׁ֖ית) are בְּרֵא.  They spell the Hebrew word bārā' (בָּרָא) which is a verb meaning "he-created". It is exclusively used in the Old Testament with God as the subject. Bārā' (בְּרֵא) is also the second word in verse 1. Lo and behold, 

then "God created the heavens and the earth."

After the Bet בְּ (House) but before the three letters Bārā'-בְּרֵא (Create), we have the two letters Bet (בְּ) and Resh (רֵ). בְּרֵ is a word as well. It is the Hebrew/Aramaic word "Bar" (בַּר) meaning, Son. (E.g. Jonah Bar Truth, etc.) 

Aleph-1

After the letters בַּר-Bar (Son) there is the letter Aleph (א). Aleph is the first letter in Elohim (אלהים) God. Aleph is the first letter of the Hebrew aleph-bet, symbolizing divine oneness and beginning. It is a silent consonant with a numerical value of 1. Aleph represents God as creator and leader. It is historically derived from a pictograph of an ox's head. Aleph signifies strength, power, and unity. 

Putting This Together

The Torah put it together this way:

Bereshit 1:1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. 3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.

The Apostle John put it together this way: 

John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

I put this together in order:

In Beginning, the book Genesis.
We have the word, Bereshit.
We start with the letter Bet, a house for God and his creation to be together. 
There we discover the Bar, Son. 
Son is together with Aleph, God. 
Bar with Aleph create the heavens and the earth. 
Then God brought His Light into the world when He said "Let there be Light." 
The "Light" was Good, unlike the Darkeness. 
So Elohim seperated (Nazir) the Light from the Darkness in the world. 
God didn't eliminate the Darkness. Therefore, our Day contains light and darkness. 

CONCLUSION:

We better remember who turned on the Light. Since God seperated the Light from the Darkness, He can let the darkness hover back over the face of earth. 

WHAT DOES A NAZARITE KNOW?

Samson, by Jacques Bellange
 Late 16th–early 17th century. Met Museum

Numbers 6:2—Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When either a man or a woman makes a special vow, the vow of a Nazirite, to separate himself to the Lord,

The other day in Naples Florida I met a man named Aaron (אהרן). I automatically thought of Moses's brother Aaron who blesses the Israelites in the wilderness. My interaction with that Aaron in Naples inspired this blog post.  

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In the book of Numbers chapter 6, there is a blessing Adonai provided for Aaron to say over the people in the wilderness. It is known as the Aaronic blessing and otherwise as the Priestly Blessing (Birkat Kohanim). 

Numbers 6:22-27—The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. “So shall they put my name upon the people of Israel, and I will bless them.”

If you will look at the verses in chapter 6 before the blessing, you will find that Numbers 6 is carefully arranged so that the Nazirite vow (6:1–21) prepares for and is framed by the concern for holiness that culminates in the priestly blessing. 

The point I am trying to make is that the blessing Aaron is about to bestow on the Israelites, first requires that the Priest meet a necessary standard of holiness. He needed to be a Nazirite. 

Nazirite, Nazir (נזיר) in Hebrew, is derived from the Hebrew root N-Z-R (נ-ז-ר), meaning "to separate," "consecrate," or "abstain". It refers to a person voluntarily taking a vow of separation to God, characterized by not cutting their hair, abstaining from wine/grape products, and avoiding corpses.  The Nazir was considered "holy unto YHWH".

Flow of Numbers 5–6

Before a Nazir takes the Nazarite vow, the camp (you could say place or even village) has to be prepared. The place around the Nazir has to be purified. 

• Numbers 5–6 form a unit about protecting the holiness of the camp so Yahweh can dwell in Israel’s midst.
• Numbers 5:1–4: removal of the ritually impure from the camp, so that God’s dwelling is not defiled.
• Numbers 5:5–10: restitution for wrongs, cleansing moral/relational guilt.
• Numbers 5:11–31: the ordeal of jealousy, protecting the marriage covenant and the camp from hidden sin.
• Numbers 6:1–21: the Nazirite vow, an intensified, voluntary separation to Yahweh within Israel.

All those preparations lead up to Numbers 6:22–27: the priestly blessing, Yahweh’s own word of blessing and keeping over the whole people.

The pattern moves from purging impurity, to restoring wrong, to dealing with hidden sin, to a model of heightened holiness (the Nazir), and finally to blessing poured out on all Israel.

Famous Nazirites in the Bible

Amos 2:11–12 refers to Nazirites whom God raised up in Israel alongside prophets, showing that there were multiple, unnamed Nazirs in Israel’s history. But as far any specific names, I could find VERY few; I only found three.

The first Nazir is the prophet Samuel who anointed David as the future king of Israel, acting under God's instructions in 1 Samuel 16:1–13. This private ceremony occurred in Bethlehem. Much could be said about Shiloh's significance in Samuel's life too. 

Samuel is considered a lifelong Nazirite based on the vow his mother, Hannah, made before his birth in 1 Samuel 1:11, promising he would be dedicated to God and that no razor would touch his head. While the Hebrew text does not explicitly use the word "Nazirite," it describes the same vow of separation (no alcohol, uncut hair). 

Another is Samson. Samson was a Nazir who was destined to fight the Philistines, but he lost his God-given strength when his hair was cut, violating the core of his vow after being betrayed by Delilah. 

Samson regained his strength in the biblical account after his hair grew back during his imprisonment. While captive and blinded, he prayed to God for strength one last time, allowing him to destroy the temple of Dagon and kill more Philistines in his death than during his life. 

The last famous lifelong Nazir is found in the New Testament. He is John the Baptist. John the Baptist was never explicitly labeled a Nazirite, but John’s desert life, abstention, and prophetic calling created a man radically detached from ordinary social ties and deeply attuned to God’s word, which is exactly what you’d expect from a Nazirite idealized in Numbers 6. Within that consecrated context, he is “filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother’s womb,” like Samuel in Hannah's womb, and his whole ministry is described as preparing the people for the Lord’s coming (Luke 1:15–17; 3:2–6).

Each of these Nazirites has a very special role in biblical history. 

Samuel identified King David. John the Baptist identified Yeshua, who by they way, was "of Nazareth." Nazareth in the time of Jesus was a small, Jewish village in Lower Galilee. So, interestingly, there is a Nazirite vow, BEFORE there is a place called Nazareth. 

Intensification of Holiness

The priestly blessing itself is the textual climax of this holiness section in the Torah, Numbers 5 and 6.  Placing the priestly blessing immediately after all the intense preparation of holiness distinguishs the Preistly blessing in a way. The text of the blessing becomes a ritual frame for divine favor.

This all suggests two important messages to me:

1. The Nazirite giving the blessing is uniquely empowered by Adonai.
2. The blessing itself has special God given potential for the recipients.

Examing the Blessing

The blessing is actually provided by Adonai.

Numbers 6:22-23—The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, Thus you shall bless the people of Israel: you shall say to them, 

The blessing itself is simply three lines: 

Numbers 6:

22 The Lord bless you and keep you;
25 the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;
26 the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.

These three lines compress Yahweh’s protective care, gracious favor, and gift of shalom. The Christian believer may notice something profound. The first line is God the "Father." The second line is the face and grace of Jesus. The third line is the peace that is recieved in the form of the Holy Spirit after Jesus is crucified. 

After all the provisions to guard holiness, God Himself speaks the final word in the last verse.

Numbers 6:27—“So shall they put my name upon the people of Israel, and I will bless them.” 

Fast Forward

That expression, "put my name upon the people" reminded me of verses in the last book of the bible—Revelation. 

Revelation 14:1 pictures 144,000 having the Lamb’s name and His Father’s name written on their foreheads, explicitly signifying that they belong to God and stand under His protection. Revelation 22:4 describes the consummation: “They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads,” combining the shining face and the name themes in Numbers 6 in an eschatological, priestly blessing scene.

Implication

If the connections I am drawing are accurate, I believe that would make Jesus the embodiment of the Aaronic Blessing. 

Here is the biblical‑theological line:

The Nazirite role is explicitly to “prepare the way of the Lord” and “give knowledge of salvation to His people,” which is essentially to stand just before the coming blessing and announce it. 

The Nazirite stands at the threshold of the Aaronic blessing in Numbers. John the Baptist embodies that threshold role. Thus the case can be made that Yeshua is the Aaronic blessing fulfilled. 

When the risen Yeshua appears to the disciples, His repeated greeting “Peace be with you” is often read against “the Lord…give you peace” in Numbers 6:26, presenting Him as the giver and embodiment of that promised shalom.

Studies on intertextual “echoes of the Aaronic blessing” point out that Jesus’ blessing posture, His gift of peace, and the language of God’s face shining in the New Testament allude back to Numbers 6:24–26 and apply it Christologically*.

* Shout out to my cousin Brandon. 

22 REVEALS

When Hebrew uses letters as numbers (dates, chapters, verses, page numbers, etc.), 22 is written as: כב. Kaf Bet is commonly used as an abbreviation for the word for Honor/Honorable, Kavod. Kavod also means Glory. 

Kaf (20) + Bet (2)

Because there are 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet, in Jewish and biblical numerology, 22 is often associated with completion and the totality of God’s revealed Word. The Hebrew aleph-bet is seen as the building blocks of Scripture and of the holy tongue (lashon ha‑kodesh). 

The 22 letters construct every word in the Tenach. In the beginning was the word and the 22 letters revealed every word. Since every letter is a number, I believe 22 reveals clues and insights into God's word.  I believe Hashem revealed significant signs in His verses which are connected to 22. 

Here are bible verses based on 22 22:

Exodus 22:22—You shall not mistreat any widow or fatherless child.

Leviticus 22:22—Animals blind or disabled or mutilated or having a discharge or an itch or scabs you shall not offer to the Lord or give them to the Lord as a food offering on the altar.

Numbers 22:22—But God's anger was kindled because he went, and the angel of the Lord took his stand in the way as his adversary. Now he was riding on the donkey, and his two servants were with him.

Deuteronomy 22.22—“If a man is found lying with the wife of another man, both of them shall die, the man who lay with the woman, and the woman. So you shall purge the evil from Israel.

To shorten this blog post, I only selected a few other books in the Tenach:

Isaiah 22:22—And I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David. He shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open.

Psalm 22:22—"I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will praise you". This verse marks a shift in the psalm from desperate suffering to a vow of praise, 

Ezekiel 22:22—As silver is melted in a furnace, so you shall be melted in the midst of it, and you shall know that I am the Lord; I have poured out my wrath upon you.”

Those are all great and revealing bible verses, and there is much to be said about each.  

I expected to find something of special significance in Genesis 22.22. After all, Genesis 22 is where we find the story of the "Binding of Issac." 

Genesis 22.2—He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.” 

The Hebrew name Isaac is יִצְחָק, transliterated Yitzchak. Spelling: י (yod) + צ (tsadi) + ח (chet) + ק (qof).Basic meaning: “he laughs / will laugh,” from the root צחקd “to laugh.” 

Perhaps that's a clue, but 22.2 is not 22.22.  In Genesis 22:22 we find only a list of five names. 5 was an immediate hint to me, since that is a number and letter that means "behold, reveal, breath."

Genesis 22:22—Chesed, Hazo, Pildash, Jidlaph, and Bethuel.

I thought perhaps their is something in that list of names that points to the Messiah, so I broke it down. 

• Chesed – Kindness / mercy
• Hazo – Vision / seer
• Pildash – Meaning uncertain (no solid root).
• Jidlaph – Weeping / dripping.
• Bethuel – House of God.

I thought it interesting that one name, the name in the middle, didn't have a meaning. I knew it wasn't a coincidence, so I went another level deeper.

Pildash is spelled פִּלְדָּשׁ (pe–lamed–dalet–shin). The name’s overall meaning is debated, but you can still read basic letter-level ideas:

• פ (Pe) – “mouth,” speech, expression; numerically 80.
• ל (Lamed) – “staff,” goad; often linked with teaching, leading, urging forward; numerically 30.
• ד (Dalet) – “door,” access, entry/exit, humility or poverty (the one who needs); numerically 4.
• ש (Shin) – “tooth,” consuming, fire, sharpness, destruction or refining: numerically 300.

There is so much to be said about each of those letters, so I included links to the meaning of each letter which I have written about.  Then I digged to see what the numerical values (Gematria) would reveal. 

The standard Hebraic Gematria for פִּלְדָּשׁ (Pildash) is:

פ (pe) = 80

ל (lamed) = 30

ד (dalet) = 4

ש (shin) = 300

Total: 80 + 30 + 4 + 300 = 414 

In the context of Chabad-Lubavitch mysticism and Jewish thought, the number 414 holds specific symbolic meaning relating to joy, the Messianic Age, and the rebuilding of the Holy Temple. 

Numerical Value (Gematria): 

414 is also linked to the Hebrew word for "house" (bayit - בית), which has a numerical value of 412. Through a deeper, twice-the-value calculation of "light" (or - 207 x 2 = 414), it represents the concept of a "house filled with light and laughter". Source

Messianic Era: Chabad teachings often cite that the future Messianic Age, when the Divine light is fully revealed, is connected to joy and laughter. 

Psalm 126:1-2—When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream. Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy; then they said among the nations, “The Lord has done great things for them.”

Gematria (numerical conversion to find hidden meaning) can work in reverse. We can convert each number back to a Hebrew letter. When we do that with 414 we get the following Hebrew letters and their symbolic meaning. 

Using reverse mapping (4–1–4 → ד–א–ד), dalet–aleph–dalet. Read symbolically, ד–א–ד can suggest “door–One–door” or “a doorway on each side of the One.” 

Here are the core symbolic associations often given to these letters:

Dalet (ד) – for both 4’s:

Picture: Door, doorway, or gate. Openness to receive, movement from one state to another.

Aleph (א) – for 1:

Picture: The ancient pictograph of the letter Aleph was an "Ox" and it symbolizes "strength."  The meaning of the Aleph is unity, the Oneness, primacy. 

I think having a 4 (Door) on either side of the 1 (Aleph) is profoundly symbolic. From the center, it is 14 both ways.

22 has revealed much more. I could go on & on with 22 related signs.