The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai: ‘Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.’
As we begin the book of Jonah, about the prophet of that name and his interactions with God and the Ninevites, I little historical background is helpful.
Nineveh was the capital of the Assyrian Empire at this time. The Assyrians worshipped multiple gods, and were a warring nation, seeking to perpetually increase their lands and the people under their rule. The king of Nineveh was named Ashurbanipal. He was an evil ruler who erected images of himself like a god. He ruled with an iron fist. They employed the most vicious of dog breeds to hunt their enemies. When captured, they reveled in extreme torture of these enemies, including skinning them alive.
They were brutes and did not value life. They committed atrocities and called it sport. And Jonah knew about them. Historically, Nahum ruled Nineveh back in the early times of civilization, before Noah, when the Tower of Babel was erected there.
So now we look at God’s calling to his prophet Jonah. He was called to go to this literal “Hell hole”, this decrepit place of evil and sinfulness, and tell them to repent. Jonah would have likely had nightmares and major anxiety about this calling for a few reasons: 1) They were evil and deserved death, not a warning to turn. He probably thought they were too far gone to be saved. 2) The trip was dangerous. And 3) They might just decide they didn’t like him telling them they were sinners (huh, what a strange thought) and respond by doing what they enjoyed doing to people they didn’t like: torturing him and skinning him alive, or feeding him to brutal, savage dogs.
What calling or responsibility has God put on my life that I don’t want to do? Who is God wanting me to share the gospel with who is not deserving or has hurt me or my friends?
Thank you, Lord, for this great book of Jonah. Sometimes I don’t want to love evil people who hurt me and my people. But you love them and want to teach me the freedom I'll experience in loving the toughest cases and the joy of seeing them follow you.
