A Word about a Tale of Two Cities

Today I want to share a word about A Tale of Two Cities as I comment on passages from Jonah Chapter 3 and Joshua Chapter 2:.

One of the most famous works of Charles Dickens is “A Tale of Two Cities" which is a novel set in both London and Paris about the time of the French Revolution. The opening lines of this book are probably more familiar than the book itself:

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way . . .

The citizens of the Biblical cities of Nineveh and Jericho might have had similar feelings about their situation. The outcome of their deliberations would be determined by a decision that their citizenry made. Let's look at these two cities:

Jonah 3:4-10 says: 

Jonah began to go into the city, going a day's journey. And he called out, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them.  The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh, “By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water, but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.” When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.

Joshua 2:1 and 8-14 says

And Joshua the son of Nun sent two men secretly from Shittim as spies, saying, “Go, view the land, especially Jericho.” And they went and came into the house of a prostitute whose name was Rahab and lodged there. Before the men lay down, she came up to them on the roof and said to the men, “I know that the Lord has given you the land, and that the fear of you has fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land melt away before you. For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and Og, whom you devoted to destruction. And as soon as we heard it, our hearts melted, and there was no spirit left in any man because of you, for the Lord your God, he is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath. Now then, please swear to me by the Lord that, as I have dealt kindly with you, you also will deal kindly with my father's house, and give me a sure sign that you will save alive my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all who belong to them, and deliver our lives from death.” And the men said to her, “Our life for yours even to death! If you do not tell this business of ours, then when the Lord gives us the land we will deal kindly and faithfully with you.”

Two Cities:

Both cities were powerful in their own times, Nineveh was a huge city that took three days to walk through, and Jericho was a walled city which was virtually impregnable from assault by an army of its day. Both cities were prosperous, but they both lived their collective lives estranged from God. Nineveh was certainly a wicked place, and since the only citizen of Jericho named in the Bible, Rahab, was a harlot, we can guess that the moral character of that town was not the best. The citizens of both cities needed God; there is no questioning that fact. The Bible records that, in different ways, but to a similar degree, both cities were confronted with the facts of their relationship to the God of the Universe. 

Nineveh was confronted with the preaching of Jonah, who if he was the most reluctant evangelist imaginable, also turned out to be one of the most effective. His message was simple, and direct, as he called out, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” An old saying is that there is no such thing as a bad short sermon, but this has to be the shining example of the most effective short sermon of all times.

Jericho, on the other hand, heard the truth of God through the grapevine, so to speak. They were not confronted directly with a preacher, but instead they observed God’s power and might as he dealt with other nearby kings and peoples. Actions speak louder than words, and the actions of God thundered in the distance, growing closer each day like the increasing rumble of an approaching storm. The people of Jericho knew as powerful as they were in human terms, they were as weak as kittens before the Lord God of the Universe. They heard no sermon, yet they trembled in their sandals as they contemplated the power of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Two Decisions:

While both of these cities had the same spiritual condition and they were both confronted with the might and righteous judgment of God, a great difference can be seen in how they responded to this knowledge. The citizens of Nineveh saw the wickedness of their ways and the approaching judgment of God, and they chose the way of wisdom. They repented! “They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them.”  Their king agreed with them, and called for all people to entrust themselves to God’s mercy:  “Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.”

The people of Jericho, on the other hand, even as they quaked with fear, simply closed the city gates, and hunkered down, waiting for their fate to make itself known. Their response reminds me of the three possible biological responses to a threat or crisis: fight, flight, or freeze. Like frightened little bunnies, the people of Jericho, except Rahab and her family, froze in fear. They preferred their fear to the rule and way of God almighty, and their fate was sealed from that moment on.

This tale of two cities ends in a similar way to Dickens’s novel: justice is served. 

Two Outcomes:

Nineveh, the city that experienced a revival and whose citizens repented en masse, was saved. It was spared God’s wrath because the people repented and sought His forgiveness. Jericho, the city that was set in its ways and in its beliefs, was destroyed. It received the full measure of God’s wrath and judgment, because the people failed to repent and they failed to seek His forgiveness.

Just think for a moment. Nineveh, whose people received the frail and limited message of a frail and limited messenger, was saved. Jericho, whose people heard from many sources and in many ways the powerful acts of God, was lost. The difference was not the message or the messenger, but how it was received.

This tale of two cities reminds of a timeless and all important fact: regardless of how we hear the Gospel, the crucial element is our response. The only response that can save us is repentance. 

And that’s a fact.

Every blessing,

Dr. Otis Corbitt