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| Nineveh, the first mega-city in history |
And should I not spare Nineveh, that great city, in which are more than a hundred and twenty thousand men who do not know between their right and their left hand, besides much cattle? Jonah 4:11*
Why did Lot remain silent, when he knew
that God was prepared to save the cities of Sodom
and Gomorrah if
just 10 righteous people could be found?
And he said, “Oh do not
let Jehovah be angry, and I will speak only once more. Perhaps ten shall be
found there.” And He said, “I will not destroy it for ten's sake.” Genesis 18:32
Lot and his
family numbered four or more of the righteous, how difficult would it have been
to find a few extra? Abraham had already “bargained” with God, (Genesis18:16-32)
and secured a stay of execution for the sin-soaked cities. Maybe Lot thought that his lifestyle would be sufficient
“witness” to the wicked living in the city. Lot’s
righteousness appears to be based on God’s mercy rather that anything
especially “potent” within his character; when push-came-to-shove, he was prepared
to sacrifice his daughters’ virginity and honor to appease a mob!
Behold now, I have two
daughters which have not known man. I pray you, let me bring them out to you,
and you do to them as you see fit. But do nothing to these men, for this is why
they came under the shadow of my roof. Genesis 19:8 MKJV
That the sinfulness of the cities of the Dead Sea area overwhelmed
Lot becomes more evident after Lot and his family had fled; his daughters,
seemingly convinced that all flesh had been destroyed, lured their father into
drunken incest; the resultant children of that illicit union were the Moabites
and the Ammonites – likely the Jordanians and Syrians of today.
The silence of a righteous man….
Jonah was acted in a less than righteous manner; in fact he was
on the run, defiant and angry with his assignment, angry at God! It took threes
stinky days in the belly of a large fish** before he came to his senses.
And
the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time, saying, Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city,
and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee. So Jonah arose, and went unto
Nineveh,
according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh
was an exceeding great city of three days' journey. And Jonah began to enter
into the city a day's journey, and he cried, and said, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be
overthrown.”
So
the people of Nineveh
believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of
them even to the least of them. For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from
his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and
sat in ashes. Jonah 3:1-6
What Jonah didn’t know was that God had been busy “preparing” heathen
Nineveh for
Jonah’s visit and call to repentance. In the year 763 B.C. a total solar eclipse was followed by severe, wide
spread flooding that cost many hundreds of lives, causing considerable damage
to the city. The flooding was followed by a famine that killed thousands; this
was quickly followed by an earthquake. Such portents were taken by the populace
to be a warning by their gods against the king. The
god-king, Ashur-dan (Ashur-dan III, according to Assyrian records) took the blame and “resigned” leaving the people leaderless.
When Jonah “got his act together” he didn’t stay silent, he cried in
the streets and marketplaces, “Yet forty
days and Nineveh
shall be overthrown!” Jonah 3:4
And the people of Nineveh believed God. And
they called a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the
least of them. Jonah 3:5
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| Sackcloth and Ashes. |
* Nineveh was in the much in news over the last few years... it's ruins lie across the River Tigris from Mosul in Iraq, overrun by the forces of The Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) It was widely feared that ISIS fighters will destroy what remained of Nineveh
** The "Large Fish" was likely a sperm whale: which while rare in these waters are known to visit the Mediterranean and Red Sea. The whale was used by God to bring Jonah to Nineveh since the Ninevites held the whale, which they called “the horse of the sea”, in admiration as the greatest expression of the power of the gods. Indeed, in just the preceding generation, Assyrian King Shalmeneser III boasted of killing the horse of the sea as a hunter on the open Sea (Mediterranean). There are several reports circulating of people being swallowed by whales, but it's extremely difficult to verify. Read one such report here
*Updated and re-published from 2 July 21014.
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