What Assyrians Can Teach Us About God's Grace
By Dante Hosseini Published on October 3, 2020
What Assyrians Can Teach Us About God's Grace | The Stream


If you ever wonder why God sent two whole prophets to prophesy about Nineveh capitol of Assyria, you can ask an Assyrian.

God sent Jonah to Nineveh.
The city repented, but it went back to being evil fairly soon after Jonah preached. Then God sent Nahum to prophesy the destruction of Nineveh. If God had done the same for every city before its destruction the Bible would be too big to carry. Why did God sent two prophets for a city he knew he would destroy anyway? A city so cruel, Jonah had to tell them to repent of their wicked ways and violence, as if it wouldn't have occurred to them that violence was wicked? So cruel Nahum, said that the world would rejoice to hear it was destroyed?

You really can ask an Assyrian.

No, I don't mean a Syrian or a long-dead Assyrian. The Assyrian people live in scattered communities throughout the Middle East to this day. Genetic studies, history, and linguistics have completely convinced almost all scholars that the modern Assyrians are the same as the biblical Assyrians. Today's Assyrians, for their part, had already been saying so. Nineveh was destroyed, but Assyrians were not.

God Shows His Care for Lost Sheep

So why did God send two prophets to Nineveh? You don't have to ask. We already know God cares for each lost sheep. So maybe God sent Jonah to rescue the Assyrians who died repentant before their city backslid. But if you can ask a modern Assyrian, he may tell you this:

After Jesus' disciples received the Great Commission, the Assyrians were one of the first ethnic groups to convert to Christianity. And they have remained Christians to this day....