3Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh. Now Nineveh was a very large city; it took three days to go through it. 4Jonah began by going a day’s journey into the city, proclaiming, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.” 5The Ninevites believed God. A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.
6When Jonah’s warning reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust. 7This is the proclamation he issued in Nineveh:
“By the decree of the king and his nobles:
Do not let people or animals, herds or flocks, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink.8But let people and animals be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence. 9Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.”
10When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened. (Jonah 3:3-10)
23In the fifteenth year of Amaziah son of Joash king of Judah, Jeroboam son of Jehoash king of Israel became king in Samaria, and he reigned forty-one years. 24He did evil in the eyes of the Lord and did not turn away from any of the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, which he had caused Israel to commit. 25He was the one who restored the boundaries of Israel from Lebo Hamath to the Dead Sea,e in accordance with the word of the Lord, the God of Israel, spoken through his servant Jonah son of Amittai, the prophet from Gath Hepher.
Thoughts: Jonah lived during the reign of Jeroboam II (786- 746 BC). He went to prophesy to Ninevah the capital of the most powerful empire at the time. Ninevah is the modern city of Mosul in Iraq, which was just freed by Iraqi forces. Why would such a prominent, powerful, evil and infamously brutal city make such a sudden change? There was a huge eclipse over Assyria June 15, 763. Wiseman noted that this eclipse and the accompanying earthquake along with famine five years previously, and a few military defeats left the land ripe for making a turn toward repentance. Wiseman notes that the Enuma Elish (the ancient book that records Assyrian religion and history) notes that when an eclipse comes a change in power comes as well. If indeed Jonah came out of a fish's belly he would be a sight to see- bleached white from the stomach acids. They made an about face, and God saved them from destruction.
I wonder, what would it take for our country to soften its heart in repentance? We easily explain such things as eclipses, earthquakes, and famines. Because we can describe such things in detail we believe we can remove God's hand from them. I believe, along with Wiseman, that the total solar eclipse helped elicit the repentance of Ninevah, but I am not sure that it will cause any in America think twice. We are oblivious to God's speaking to us through creation or in the scripture. No matter what we believe about signs in the heavens, it still would do us good to call out to the God who is sending this eclipse.
I wonder, what would it take for our country to soften its heart in repentance? We easily explain such things as eclipses, earthquakes, and famines. Because we can describe such things in detail we believe we can remove God's hand from them. I believe, along with Wiseman, that the total solar eclipse helped elicit the repentance of Ninevah, but I am not sure that it will cause any in America think twice. We are oblivious to God's speaking to us through creation or in the scripture. No matter what we believe about signs in the heavens, it still would do us good to call out to the God who is sending this eclipse.
Prayer: Lord, help me to have eyes to see, and a willing heart to repent and turn toward you.
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/tomhobson/2017/08/jonah-eclipse-ancient-nineveh/
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