APOCALYPTO OF NINEVEH - by Catalyst ✍️

I was fifteen when they came for us. I remember waking up to the sound of people screaming and houses burning. The men who entered our town were soldiers from Nineveh. They did not come to trade. They came to conquer. They dragged people from their homes, killed those who resisted and took the rest of us as slaves. I was one of the boys they captured. They tied our hands and marched us for days. I remember looking at the soldiers and wondering how they could look so calm while people were crying around them. They spoke about killing as if it was nothing. Some of them carried the heads of people they had killed. Others wore symbols of their victories like medals. They wanted everyone to see what they had done. Fear was their weapon, and they enjoyed making people afraid. When we finally reached Nineveh, I understood why people feared that city. The walls were enormous, but what happened behind those walls was worse. Prisoners were treated without mercy. People who had been captured from different nations were beaten, tortured and humiliated. Some were used as examples to frighten others. I learned very quickly that in Nineveh, a person's life meant little if they were considered an enemy. I spent years there as a slave. I watched people lose their homes, their families and sometimes their lives. I watched soldiers celebrate their victories while the people they defeated mourned. Eventually, I stopped asking when I would be free. I only asked myself how long I could survive. That was the Nineveh I knew. So when I later heard that God had sent a prophet to Nineveh, I could understand why he did not want to go(That was not the real reason though). People who read the story today sometimes ask, “Why did Jonah run? God told him to go, so why didn't he simply obey?” Because we know Nineveh from a Bible story.Jonah knew Nineveh as a real place. He knew what those people were capable of. He knew what could happen to a man who stood in front of them and told them to repent. He knew the smell of their streets, the sound of their soldiers and the fear that followed their armies. I knew it too.That is why I do not laugh when I remember that Jonah ran. But I also understand something now that I did not understand as a slave in that city. Jonah saw Nineveh as a place full of wicked people. God saw Nineveh as a place full of people who could still turn back to Him. I had seen their worst, God was still looking for their repentance. And that is the part that still amazes me. Even after everything Nineveh had done, God did not immediately destroy them. He sent someone to warn them first.Sometimes, mercy looks strange when you have been hurt by the people receiving it. I know, I was one of the people they captured.

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