Assyrians?

The Heart is Decitful

"The Assyrian came down like a wolf on the fold

and his cohorts were gleaming like purple and gold" (Lord Byron)

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Cruelty .. your middle name was Assyria! The Assyrians believed in making an example of the leaders of a city or nation as they began their 

assault: Usually that took the form of stringing 100 men up outside the walls and whipping them until they died from nerve shock, loss of 75% skin tissue or blood loss. Jonah had seen it all. It was rehearsed over and over in the psyche of every Israelite.: They had grown up with it in their head and in their hearts and in their history: Oh how he hated those savages! Oh how he longed and prayed for vengeance! (Psalm 137:9)

No wonder Jonah behaved like he did when word came from God to go to Ninevah and warn them of coming destruction. Warn? Jonah knew that if God is fore warning then in fact He is saying there is still hope. Even the Ninevites knew that much and I'm sure Jonah had figured it out also. "Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not? the king of Nonevah pleaded:

"Over my dead body" thought Jonah.

Jonah was convinced he knew better than this" gracious and merciful God of great kindness" and his plan was if he got as far away as possible then just maybe those wicked  Assyrians would be wiped out: Nobody in Israel would shed a tear: Good riddance to the lot of them!

So he decided to travel 2500 miles in the opposite direction to Tarshish and abandon the Assyrians to their doom: Let the wrath and Destruction begin!

"It was obvious God was making a basic mistake, and someone had to stand up for justice:"Totally vindicated he slept soundly even as massive turbulence rocked the boat.  "Better for him to die" he thought, than see that lot of perverts escape their hellish punishment!

Forward a few thousand years to 2017 and a very similar scenario unfolds. " Look how wicked and ungodly these trash are " I hear: "Look at all the filth and debauchery and darkness they are involved in; LGBT and Satanic clubs and Pornography and drugs and licentiousness: Stupid morons not knowing their left hand from their right! The very least God requires of them should be a long period of heartfelt repentance and public humiliation in the form of circumcision or water submersion". Most of them have never stepped inside the doors of a church in their lives! Hell is not hot enough for many of them! "

(N.B I don't condone sin or irreverence of any kind but , let's be honest now, Law has failed to deal with sin for over 6000 years: Grace is guaranteed to do what Law never could do:  See (Titus 2:13ff))

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Peter was dumbfounded when God sent him to the house of Cornelius. There the most amazing thing happened: Peter was gob smacked! 

Luke records Peter's words as follows:in Acts 10:15ff  (Remember up to now Peter had witnessed that this gift of tongues only fell on repentant baptised Jews who were saved and worshipping within the existing structures) But watch what he is about to experience:

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"Now as I begin to speak, the holy spirit falls on them, even as on us also in the beginning. Now I am reminded of the declaration of the Lord, as He said that 'John, indeed, baptizes in water, yet you shall be baptized in holy spirit.' If, then, God gives them the equal gratuity as to us also, when believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I -- able to forbid God?"

Before his eyes Peter was witnessing salvation of gentiles in an non traditional way: How could this happen? The gift of God-Faith somehow made redundant the former need for repentance and water baptism: (Peter, not fully understsanding, as indeed many today can't, felt that God had forgotten a few minor details, and so he had them baptised: (bowing to the peer pressure of his companions)  

Fast forward now another 12 years and Peter had come to understand that being "cleansed by faith" was a totally new aspect of the gospel and not an add on to the old..Yes it had taken 12 years for the penny to drop that in the case of gentiles water baptism and repentance were all included within this God-faith package: Maybe, like you, he struggled with it daily for 12 years.Thankfully in Acts 15 he was man enough to revisit the issue and correct matters at a critical gathering: