I was talking about Jonah!
Today I am remastering that post and renaming it The only prophecy ever!
Why?
Because lately I have been looking into some archaeological videos, finds and documentation discovered in one of the greatest Assyrian empire cities of all times, Nineveh.
And …
And the prophecy I shared is one of the greatest revelations of who God is and the best up-front statement of the truth you can hope to hear, ever.
It was so monumental that it moved the wicket hordes of the capital empire city of Assyria to agree and accept the only good news there can ever be.
The endeavour itself was epic!
What is the story?
Who was the prophet?
Why was there a prophecy?
What makes it so significant?
Let me answer some of these questions to myself and you can decide whether you agree or not.
The city
Nineveh was the largest city in the ancient world before Babylon. Its location is in the modern day city of Mosul in Iraq. Nineveh was later plundered during an uprising of the former subjects of the Assysrian empire, i.e. the Babylonians, Medes, Persians, etc. Before that Nineveh was the capital command post from whence the Assyrian rulers dispensed it’s armies. It was a city devoted to the patron goddess Inanna, the abode of Ninus. Ninus, Nuni or Nina, as the city was known in Assyrian, was one of the Sumerian and Assyrian names for that fish-god/dess.
The first mention of Nineveh in Biblical scripture is in the Table of Nations, describing the cities Nimrod built in Assyria. These include Nineveh, Rehoboth, Ir, Calah, and Resen mentioned in Genesis 10:11–12. In ancient history Nymrod is seen as the original fish-god and was later followed by the Babylonian fish-god, Dagon.
Nineveh was known and notorious for its cruelty and idolatry as well as for great wealth, power, and prestige. The capital, Nineveh, contained many temples. Some of these included temples for Ishtar (Easter, the goddess of fertility). Some scholars believe that Ishtar as a multifaceted goddess, was a reference for Nineveh. Ishtar apparently takes many paramount forms as the goddess of love and sexuality, and thus, fertility, war, etc.
The problem
As the main (only) power house in the middle east, Nineveh and its rulers could do as they like and please. Other nations were violently plundered, subjected and enslaved. The city itself succumbed to all kinds of perverse activities and customs, much like today. No one knew the one true God.
Indeed, Nineveh was a great city with thousands of people living inside the wall of the city. It was a people in a city that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand Jon 4:11. And they were wicket [bad, disagreeable, malignant, bad, unpleasant, evil (giving pain, unhappiness, misery), evil, displeasing, bad (of its kind - land, water, etc), bad (of value), worse than, worst (comparison), sad, unhappy, evil (hurtful), bad, unkind (vicious in disposition), bad, evil, wicked (ethically), in general, of persons, of thoughts, deeds, actions] Jon 1:1.
Wicket.
Wicket, oblivious and uncaring!
But Jesus
But God finds imperfect people in their imperfections, in their sins and sitting in their own waste.
Not just any god!
He is the God who Jonah knew intimately, and the One who Jonah declares in Jonah 4:2 as I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil. Yes, He is the God who shows mercy, regardless. And He lifts us up with His goodness and kindness and grace by revealing the truth, His Truth.
Long before Jonah, God had promised Abraham that in him all nations will be blessed. But ever since then, Israel has become somewhat smug, self-righteous and unwilling to share this good news.
And so the truth had to be told to Nineveh. And God sent someone, His Dove (Jona means dove), the prophet Jonah from far, far (1,300 km) away.
The prophet
Just like priests were the mouth-piece of mankind to communicate with God, prophets were God's mouth-piece to communicate to mankind.
Why prophets?
Because prophets were the only anointed people who would hear the voice of God ever since mankind had rejected God speaking to them and they to God directly (see this post).
The man
Jonah was such a prophet. He was the son of Amittai whose name means my truth (Well, lots of significance there, I’d say!).
Jonah’s family were from a place called Gathhepher, a small village 5 kilometres north-east of Nazareth.
Ever heard of that?
Gathhepher.
Gathhepher means winepress of the well. (Where does the truth come from? - the well of living waters John 7:38. The winepress is indicative of the suffering of Christ and His Blood …). Yip, we don’t need to be rocket scientists to see how it all speaks to One Person, do we?
So, Jonah the prophet was sent.
But true to his human nature, Jonah was neither willing, nor pleased to perform such a mission, especially not to an enemy people that disregarded everything and everyone not subscribing to their own proclivity.
Jonah found it difficult to accept that his God would offer mercy to such ungodly foreign people that deserved nothing but unforgiving judgement instead.
The message
We also see that Jonah was tasked to deliver a message and not to preach repentance as some scholars would like us believe (Anyway, repentance is not what we have been taught - see this post)
The thing about a great message and for it to get a positive response, is that it must be a good-news message, a Gospel! Otherwise people will simply not hear it.
Jonah was called to prophecy, to give God’s message. The word used is qārā' (to proclaim, call out, to say out loud).
What did Jonah have to qārā' to the great multitude of Assyrian people gathered all around him?
Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown is what is documented in scripture, in Jonah 3:4. Short and sweet!
Yes, but that is just the shorter part of the short message and not even the good-news part at all!
What is recorded in the Bible, is the bad part of the short message Jonah proclaimed. But we have to allow ourselves some freedom of logic on what else Jonah had said on that inspiring, fish-odoured day that made the multitude behave the way that they did.
How did they behave?
The response
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. And he caused [it] to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water: But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that [is] in their hands. Jon 3:5-8
So, what was the message that made them behave like this?
And which god did they cry onto?
The answer, we find in the fish
The short part of the good-new-message just gets even better!
If we read the story of Jonah, we’d remember that his disobedience landed him being thrown overboard and being swallowed by a fish (much more prophecy there, which we won’t go to in this post).
So, in the fish, in concluding his desperate prayer and cries to God, Jonah says to God exactly what he would preach: But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the LORD Jon 2:9.
Yes, that is it!
The single shortest Gospel prophecy in the old covenant. The single greatest prophecy ever! And the only relevant prophecy ever!
Salvation is of the LORD. Jon 2:9
And this message came from a man who was spouted out on dry land by the creature the Assyrians worshipped as their god by tradition. The message of this mystical man, birthed from a fish, was bound to be heard.
Whatever he said had to be true.
And the God he declared, had to be the only true God.
The Truth as it should be known
In looking at the public statement Jonah made, we must concord the words yet a tad more to get behind them.
Jonah proclaimed: Salvation is of the LORD. We have to remind ourselves that the Jewish scribes at one point in history and for exaggerated religious reasons, removed the unpronounceable name of God, YHVH (or Yahweh), and replaced it with Adonai (Lord). And it has survived in translation of the Bible until today. So when we read “LORD” in the KJV Bible, it really is YHVH.
Also, some Hebrew words, when translated, lose their face value and their intelligibility. Such is the word Salvation.
Thus, Salvation is of the LORD better translated from the Hebrew is: Yah'shua is Yahweh.
What?
Yes, we can see it in a direct translation!
To understand it clearly, let's translate it back into simple English!
Jonah proclaimed a simple message to a wicked people and that message is merely: Yah'shua is Yahweh - Jesus is God!
Let me paraphrase. Jonah just said: Wicket Assysrians, your city is about to be extinguished and you need a saviour. And that Saviour is the only God who can save you. He is the God Yahweh and His name is Yah’shua.
You’d better believe it!
Jesus is the Lifesaver!
He is God-the-Redeemer!
He is the only Saviour-God who is willing and able to save us from any situation. For the far removed, hostile and wicked Assyrian people of Nineveh who worshipped their own fantasies, this was the only message they’d want to hear in the face of destruction! It was the absolute resolve of passing from certain death to life.
In our case the same is true. However, we have the benefit of hindsight, because the Saviour-God, Yah'shua (Jesus) has already done all that is needed for us to enter into everlasting life (His Life).
The desire of this Saviour-God?
That none be lost!
In Matthew 12:39-41 and Luke 11:32 Jesus contrasts the response of the Ninevites with the unbelief of the Pharisees and Scribes of the day, saying: The people of Nineveh will also stand up against this generation on judgement day and condemn it, for they repented of their sins at the preaching of Jonah. Now someone greater than Jonah is here—but you refuse to repent. (again, repent - see this post)
This is the Gospel!
Saviour-God!
Life!
Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. John 11:25
There is no other prophecy!
There is no other Gospel.
Yah’shua is life!
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