love your enemies

Good news for the enemy?

Jonah balked at loving the cruel Assyrians

"Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty people ..... should I not concerned about that great city?" (Jonah 4:11)

Jesus told his followers, "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you" (Matt 5:44).

while everyone talks admiringly about that command, loving your enemies is no easy thing. Many people doubt whether it is even right.

The book of Jonah tells the story of a man whom God instructed to love his enemies in Nineveh.

True to life, the prophet Jonah did the opposite of what God command. He refused to go there people he hated.  Inst-ed, he tried to run away from the Lord.

Nineveh was a large, important city in Assyria, situated on the river Tigris. It posed a grave military threat to tiny Israel. God sent Jonah there, and he responded without hesitation: In Joppa he caught a boat going in the opposite direction.

Obviously, Jonah didn't want to warn Nineveh's citizens they were about to be destroyed.

He suspected they would repent and God would forgive them.

Why Jonah did not want to go

We can't be sure why Jonah hated Assyria, but another short Old Testament book, Nahum,gives a clue. This book also completely dedicated to Nineveh, describes a ruthless, bloodthirsty people. 

The Assyrians themselves left monuments to their cruelty - long, boastful inscriptions describing their torture and slaughter of people who opposed them.
Israeli ties had reasons to hate and fear Nineveh.

But God loved Nineveh.he wanted to save the cit, not destroy it

He knew Nineveh was ripe for change.
When Jonah finally preached there, the entire city believed his message and repented. Through cruel and hardened, Nineveh was ready to believe God. 

Israel had never responded to a prophet like these Assyrians did.

An attitude like God's

Since God repeatedly warned the Jews not to intermarry with people of other religions, and even ordered them to drive other nations out of the promised land, some readers conclude that the Old Testament is racially narrow - minded. 

The New Testament gives the first indication that God cares for non - Jewish people 

The book of Jonah is a miraculous change in Nineveh, but even more a story of miraculous change in Nineveh, but even more a story of miraculous change in Jonah.