Jonah 3 ~ God saw what they did

Jonah 3

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, three days' journey in breadth. 4 Jonah began to go into the city, going a day's journey. And he called out, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” 5 And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them.


6 The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. 7 And he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh, “By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water, 8 but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. 9 Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.”

10 When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.





Dan Carlin, Hardcore History, had something to say about the Assyrian Empire, "The cruelty of the Assyrian Empire’s actions were publicized via text, colored wall paintings and carvings in stone. Historian Arthur Ferrill compared them to photos of Nazi concentration camps, and said they had few parallels in history. Artwork showing the skin being cut off of living captives, the impaling of prisoners on stakes, mass forced deportations of conquered peoples, captives being burned or having their tongues torn out and everywhere piles upon piles of human heads are highlighted. One can only imagine what Ashurnasirpal might have done had he possessed video technology."

The Assyrians used stone as the vehicle for their marketing of atrocity.

“I built a pillar over his city gate and I flayed all the chiefs who had revolted, and I covered the pillar with their skin. Some I walled up within the pillar, some I impaled upon the pillar on stakes, and others I bound to stakes round about the pillar…And I cut the limbs of the officers, of the royal officers who had rebelled…Many captives from among them I burned with fire, and many I took as living captives. From some I cut off their noses, their ears, their fingers, of many I put out the eyes. I made one pillar of the living and another of heads, and I bound their heads to tree trunks round the city. Their young men and maidens I burned in the fire.”




Jonah. John the Baptist. One of God's Repeat Situations.

Mark 1

1 The beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God, 2 as it is written in Isaiah the prophet:

“I will send my messenger ahead of you,
who will prepare your way”—
3 “a voice of one calling in the wilderness,
‘Prepare the way for the Lord,
make straight paths for him.’”


Jonah sounds too cute to be true. The Hittite Nineveh was just about to lead to the Assyrian Empire. Same geographical area.

Three Empires - Hittites - regular human rights.
Assyrian - incredibly horrible.
Babylonian Chaldean - amazing standards of high human rights.

Assyrian and, next, Babylonian Chaldean were polar opposites of human rights.

The Assyrians had a next-door-neighbor. His name was King Hezekiah of the country Judah. Hezekiah was interested in staying alive after his country men saw the Nation of Israel taken doooooown. Some of the 12 tribes were decimated to oblivion. King Hezekiah decided to follow his father's advice, King Ahaz's, advice to strip the Davidic and Solomon gold off the Temple and become a puppet state to the Next Door Neighbor Assyrians.

Isaiah was his cousin, and Isaiah had 2 kings before Hezekiah ignore all his godly counsel. Suddenly, God provided a time for Isaiah to be listened to. Hezekiah and the people of Judah gave God many, many good gifts until Hezekiah had to ask the Children of God to stop. Instead they dug underground passages for water to withstand Assyrian war and siege.

The 700 BC sign in this  passage reads: 

... the tunnel ... and this is the story of the tunnel while ...

the axes were against each other and while three cubits were left to cut? ... the voice of a man ...

called to his counterpart, (for) there was ZADA in the rock, on the right ... and on the day of the

tunnel (being finished) the stonecutters struck each man towards his counterpart, ax against ax and flowed

water from the source to the pool for 1200 cubits. and 100?

cubits was the height over the head of the stonecutters ...

Zada means prosperous or fortunate.

Hezekiah then turned to Isaiah and decided not to tear the gold off the other Temple Door and not be a client/puppet king. Hezekiah would turn to God Himself.

Puppet Client Kings are not very prosperous for paying Bribes.  Hezekiah for his bravery in standing up the Assyrians and the sons and fathers quarreled - Hezekiah had the strongest reign seen since Solomon.

An Egyptian Bulla asking Hezekiah to continue to sell Egypt Grain.

The reason for the good will towards Hezekiah was Jonah - while the Assyrian Empire was actually the Hittite Empire centered in Nineveh. The people had extreme good will to Judah for their help to avoid being destroyed by God. The people liked Judah, Jerusalem, the Temple, the Jews. They knew God had saved them.

Jonah Profoundly, Profoundly, Profoundly made a path for the the Children of God within a 100 years of Jonah's Efforts. The Story of Jonah is from "The Word of the Lord." Jonah went in impossible odds to do something few would volunteer to do. In fact, Jonah wasn't volunteering. Israel lived because of Jonah.

Abba, Father God,

God of Love. God of Encouragement. We ask for Your Willing Blessings. And thank You for the Blessings You give to us Today.

We ask to be Blessed With Numbers 6, Psalm 30, Psalm 130 and All Your Promises. Lifting our hands and hearts to You.

Blessing our families, Blessing those we Love, caring for dear friends with cancer. We ask You to heal.

Bless the Cajun Navy and all of Louisiana and Mississippi to recover and thrive from this Hurricane.

Blessing our communities becoming the Nations seeking Jesus.

We pray for more Heaven on earth with all of Your Beloved Children around the world.

In Jesus we have our Hope. Amen.

♔ Lord Jesus Saves! †