Let Them Give Up Their Violence

Overview

History tells us the Assyrian empire brought cruelty and massacre to a new level. It was a violent empire that slaughtered helpless people. And Jonah’s response to it is anger. He wants them punished.

Yet, in the book of Jonah, we see one of the greatest surprising turns of all the stories in the Bible. God refuses to accept either the violence of Nineveh or the poisonous anger of Jonah.

Let’s look at three things that this text tells us about violence: 1) the surprising sources of violence, 2) the remarkable strategy we should take with violence, and 3) the ultimate solution for violence.