[Darris McNeely] We all know the story of the prophet Jonah from the Bible, where Jonah was told by God to go to that great city, Nineveh, and prophecy to them. And we all know what Jonah did – he went the other way. He didn’t. He fled, he got swallowed by a fish, and then he was vomited up on land, and he finally did go to that great city, Nineveh, and he preached to them.

Why did he flee? Why did Jonah not do what God told him to do, and he went the opposite direction?

Well, when you read commentaries about the Bible and the book of Jonah, you will read some very interesting explanations, suppositions why scholars feel that Jonah didn’t go immediately at the word of God. But as I was studying this, researching it for one of our Beyond Today Bible Studies, it occurred to me that there’s a modern reason that we should understand that I think really does get to the human element of why Jonah didn’t go, why he did flee. The Assyrians, where Nineveh was, was a very powerful, violent, warlike empire in its day. They were known to flay their subjects and their captives alive. They would behead them, cut their heads off – they did not mind putting this on their great walls of their buildings and show their great prowess in all the battles and how fierce and cruel they were. And they were a cruel people.

You know where the ancient city of Nineveh was located? In today’s world, there’s a city nearby called Mosul, in the modern nation of Iraq. If you look at a map, you will see that the current caliphate rogue nation called ISIS actually occupies roughly the same territory of that of the ancient nation of Assyria, especially right there at Nineveh. We’ve all seen the pictures – we know the stories of how ISIS have beheaded their own captives and shot them mercilessly when they would not convert to Islam – the atrocities that thy have done. It’s been quite common over the last couple of years with their rise over there.

Would you want to go to ISIS today? Would you want to go to Mosul, that area where ISIS controls? You want to go and preach to them a message for them to turn from their evil ways? Think about it. I don’t think you would. It would probably cause me to go turn the other way, as well.

I think Jonah knew what the fierceness of the Assyrians was like, and he was, frankly, fearful to go there. I think that is one very good reason to understand why Jonah fled. Think about that. You want to know the rest of the story about Jonah? Look at our Beyond Today Bible Study on the Minor Prophets and on the book of Jonah.

That’s BT Daily. Join us next time.