Remember Jonah swallowed by a whale?
In ~830BC he was sent to ancient
Nineveh, the huge capital of the Assyrian Empire, to warn them of their
idolatry but God graciously showed mercy when they repented - much to Jonah’s
disgust.
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| Nineveh in its glory days |
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| Assyrians impaling Jews |
In 722BC, God used the Assyrians as
‘the rod of Mine anger’ to destroy the idolatrous kingdom of Israel but their
cruelty was extreme and they finished up besieging Jerusalem and blaspheming
God….only to lose 185,000 army officers in one night!
Nineveh needed to be taught a lesson but God mercifully devoted all of
Nahum’s prophecy to again warn them…
- The gates of the rivers shall be opened
- The palace shall be dissolved
- Take ye the spoil of silver, take the spoil of gold
- The sword shall devour thy young lions
…and that is exactly what happened!
God made ‘an utter end of the place’.
After Cyaxares of Media had besieged the city for 2 years, heavy rain in
612BC caused the River Tigris to flood, the city walls began to collapse, the
palace was torched, the treasures were looted and the lion zoo destroyed.
Alexander the Great passed over Nineveh later without even realizing it –
“a desolation, as dry as the wilderness” – just as Jewish prophet Zephaniah had
predicted.
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| Nineveh today! |
It was not found by Europeans until the 18th Century and archaeologists
did not begin digging until 1842.
Well, so much for idols!
Where was Nineveh?
Right beside the city of Mosul in Iraq.
NEXT CITY: Tyre
http://hotspuds.blogspot.com.au/2016/06/2-tyre-tale-of-3-cities.html
Where was Nineveh?
Right beside the city of Mosul in Iraq.
NEXT CITY: Tyre
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