PT-2 “Historical Context”

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/26/2025 9:04 AM

My Worship Time                                                                      Focus: PT-2 “Historical Context”

            This morning I continue to look at the different things that John MacArthur has written at the beginning of his commentary on the book of Jonah, and today’s SD will begin about “Historical Context.”  My prayer is that all who read these SD’s from the beginning of the study of Jonah will receive a blessing.

            “At the time of Jonah, the major center of Assyria and the surrounding Gentile world was the city of Nineveh.  The city had a long and storied history.  It first appears in Scripture in Genesis 10:11-12, when Nimrod went to Assyria to build ‘Nineveh and Rehoboth-Ir and Calah, and Resen between Nineveh and Calah.’  Nineveh was briefly mentioned in a record in the context of ancient Akkadian kings, indicating that a temple was build there for Ishtar, the goddess of love and war (ca. 2300 BC).  Hammurabi (ca. 1792-1750 BC) also recognized Nineveh as a place of importance, and in the reign of Tiglath-pileser I (ca. 1114-1071 BC), Nineveh was developed into a grandiose metropolis.  About 550 miles from the Israelite town of Joppa (cf. Jonah 1:3), the city was situated on the east bank for prosperous trade and rich agriculture.  There appears to have been religious significance to the city as well, as the name Nineveh has been linked to the Sumerian word for ‘fish’ and associated with the river-goddess Nina.

            “As the capital of Assyria, Nineveh was home to the royal palaces of Assyrian rulers, culminating with the magnificent palace of Sennacherib (cf. 2 Kings 19:36; Isa. 37:37).  The city was also an academic center as Ashurbanipal (ca. 669-663 BC) assembled a great library there.  While the inner city was about three to four square miles, the rest of the city extended to fifty-five miles all around.  And with a population in Jonah’s day of about six hundred thousand people (cf. Jonah 4:11), Jonah would have needed three days to travel through the metropolitan area as he preached (cf. 3:3).  All of this demonstrates why God called Nineveh ‘the great city’ (1:2).  As one ancient writer declared, ‘No one afterward built a city of such compass or with walls so magnificent.’

            “At a time when Israel’s animosity against the Gentiles was growing, the Lord called Jonah to go and minister in the capital of the hated Assyrians.  In God’s providence, as noted above, Nineveh was suffering from internal strife and weakness at the time.  Famine and plagues in 765 BC and 759 BC added to Nineveh’s woes, and a full eclipse of the sun occurred in 763 BC, which the Assyrians interpreted as an omen of doom.  While none of these circumstances caused the conversion of the Ninevites, the Lord used them to pave the way for His prophet to be heard.  As the book of Jonah emphasizes, the greatest sign God gave to Nineveh was to send a prophet who was delivered from a great fish (1:17).  The Lord sovereignly orchestrated these circumstances surrounding the prophet’s ministry to ensure that the message of His marvelous grace was clearly heard.”

Spiritual Meaning for my Life Today:  Like the message that Jonah gave to those in Nineveh that message is something that is my desire to give to those around the world who read these Spiritual Diaries, and that message is that “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God,” but the good news of the gospel is that the Second Person of the Godhead, Jesus Christ came to earth over 2000 years ago as a baby, and grew up and then at the age of 30 He began His ministry as he trained His disciples to carry on His ministry after He would die on the cross for the sins of the world, be buried for three days, and then come back to life in a new body to prove that He was alive.  The gospel is believing that you were born a sinner, to realize that on your own you can do nothing about it, and then to accept the forgiveness that Christ offers you by paying for all your sins when He died on the cross.  Many in Nineveh believed the message that Jonah gave to them and therefore they to became believers as they believed that in the future their sins would be paid for by the One that God sent to earth.  You can do the same thing too.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  I am trusting that the outcome of my wife’s MRI this afternoon will bring good news to us.

8/27/2025 9:32 AM