Jonah page2

Jonah 3: 4-9 (NIV) - Jonah began by going a day’s journey into the city, proclaiming, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.” The Ninevites believed God. A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth. When 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. This 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. But let people and animals be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence. Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.”

The image at the upper left is the British Museum's reconstruction of what the ancient city of Nineveh looked like in the time of Jonah. According to the Precious Moments Children's Bible, Jonah warns the people of Nineveh and they all automagically repent. Yeah, right? Try that in any major US city and they will either laugh at you or arrest you. But they will certainly not repent! The Bible doesn't tell us why Nineveh took Jonah seriously. But according to archeologists, history does. The classic reference is Tyndale Bulletin 30 (1979) 29-52, The Tyndale Biblical Archaeology Lecture, "Jonah's Nineveh" by Donald J. Wiseman. It is 23 pages long and highly technical. Here I give only a short summary. The Assyrians kept careful records on clay tablets, which last a long long time! Consequently, we know that in the time of Jonah the nation of Assyria was on the verge of collapse. They had experienced famine, plagues, civil war, and repeated invasions by foreigners. To top it all off, on June 15 763 BCE the path of a total eclipse passed right through Nineveh. In that superstitious culture a solar eclipse was an extremely bad omen. Specifically, it was believed that a solar eclipse signaled the downfall of the king and the ruin of the nation. The Bible doesn't tell us the precise date of Jonah's visit to Nineveh. But the date of this eclipse fits the time frame for the life and career of Jonah. It also provides a credible explanation for why the King of Nineveh was so supportive of Jonah's message. The surmise is that the wicked people of Nineveh took Jonah's warning to heart because they were ready to listen; God had already shaken them badly multiple times. What will it take before America is ready to listen?