God Told Him to Preach to the ENEMY — He Bought a Ticket to the Opposite End of the World | Jonah

Jonah was already a recognized prophet in Israel when he received the hardest order of his life: go to Nineveh, capital of the most feared empire in the ancient world, and warn the city. He did not hesitate out of fear. He bought passage to Tarshish — the most distant point an Israelite could imagine — because he knew exactly what God would do with that city if it repented.

The complete story: the storm, the lots cast on deck, the pagan sailors who refused to hand him over, the three days in the belly of the great fish, the prayer recited from memory at the bottom of the sea, the five Hebrew words that brought an imperial capital to its knees, the king who traded his royal robe for sackcloth — and the question the book ends with, unanswered to this day.

In this episode:

Historical sources and context: Assyrian royal records, the Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III, the excavations at Kuyunjik and Nebi Yunus, the Assyrian lists recording the total solar eclipse of 15 June 763 BC, and the fall of Nineveh in 612 BC.

Bible in Stories — biblical accounts told with the care of a documentary and the respect Scripture deserves.

📖 Bible in Stories — Bible stories told like a series.