NINEVEH was the last place on earth Jonah wanted to go. He had never been there, but he knew it was terrible. He had never met anyone from Nineveh, but he was convinced they were all awful. He didn’t know anyone who had preached there, but he was certain no-one would listen.
It might be fair to say Jonah carried a few pre-conceived ideas and prejudices in his head! But was he unique? Don’t we all jump to conclusions about places we have never seen and people we have never met? Aren’t we all challenged to be a bit more tolerant in our perceptions of others?
God asked Jonah to go to a new place, but the prophet had no intention of stepping anywhere near Nineveh, the Assyrian city close to modern Mosul in northern Iraq. In fact Jonah tried to get as far away from the place as he could. Instead of going east, he travelled to Joppa and boarded a ship heading west, to Spain. Considering how little experience he and his compatriots had in seafaring, that can only be seen as a desperate choice.