Nineveh - #AtoZChallenge

Nineveh was teeming with people. The annual music festival had just ended. It had grown in past years to the point where even the week before and after were crazy with tourists - lingering music fans and newly arrived gawkers - determined to keep the party going.

Ben and Junias sat near the city gate, having a drink while watching people pass through the guarded gates. Someone got into an argument with the guard and was sent home. They laughed. "Ah, see? You always have to be nice to the ones in charge!" Ben said.

"He'll know better for next year." 

"Innkeeper! Two more!" 

They were laughing at a trio trying to stuff everything back into one of their bags after it spilled in the road, when Junias noticed a tense looking man trying to get around them. "He doesn't look like a party-er," he said, pointing him out. Ben took a drink and angled his head, as if to make sense of the one very serious, uptight looking man standing out like a sore thumb in the middle of the noisy, laughing revelers. 

He was looking around, trying to find something or someone. Striding with determination toward the nearby intersection, the two friends saw him climb onto an upturned crate and raise his arms. "Repent!" he cried out. "Repent from your evil ways!" 

"Oh, not this again," Junias said. Every year, some ascetic or group of reformers would come and try to tamp down the festivities. "Isn't he a bit late?"

A prostitute approached him from a nearby doorway, her covering dipping dangerously low beneath her neck as if to give him a peek and a thrill. She got close enough to reach out and touch the cuff of his sleeve. He jerked back and stared down at her. "The Lord has seen your wickedness!" 

A group of rowdy boys strutted over to knock him down. He saw them and shouted "You have 40 days!" before jumping down and getting lost in the crowd that was moving toward the city center.

"Crazy," Ben said, shaking his head. Junias drained his cup. "I better go."

"Can't keep the wife waiting, huh? See you tomorrow." Ben stayed where he was a while longer. The stream of people passing in and out of the gate grew more chaotic before it tapered off around dark. All that night, a cacophony of music and partying could be heard throughout the city.

At Junias' house, his wife was telling him about coming home from the market. "I was running late, you know, had to get back to make dinner, and this - this - I don't know - crazy man? - had stopped traffic, shouting about the destruction of the city."

"Really? I think I saw that guy come in. Was anyone listening?"

"Mm, some maybe. I think more were jeering and telling him to get out of the way."

"Typical. There's one every year, isn't there?"

"Yeah, but - this guy seemed really serious. There's something different about him, if you ask me."

Two days later the king declared a city-wide fast. "Fast! Pray! Turn away from violence!" The prophet Jonah had convinced the king that the entire city needed to repent or risk destruction.

"You have got to be kidding me," Junias said when his wife declined to serve him breakfast the next morning. It was going to be a long 40 days. Stupid prophets.

Reference: This second part of Jonah's story is in the book of  Jonah, chapter 3. Credit to Lu of Lulu-By Place, who left as a suggestion on my Theme Reveal post "a citizen of Nineveh". What other Bible stories, or other perspectives would you be interested in?