ISIS AND JONAH’S NINEVEH
2800 YEARS AGO
I studied for an article
on Jonah when the Lord jolted me with two instructions. The first was to look
up the location of Jonah’s Nineveh and see if it is the same as where ISIS is
murdering people today. It is. And the demons are just as viscous now as they
were over 2800 years ago in Jonah’s time.
I read the following in
Holman’s Bible Dictionary about the people of Nineveh in Jonah’s time: “They
fought with the Israelites continually, their brutality renowned. They impaled
their enemies on stakes in front of their towns, hung their heads from trees
and covered city walls with the skins of their victims. And when they took
prisoners they tortured them—men, women and children—by hacking off body parts,
gouging out their eyes or tearing off their lips or hands.” Horrendous inhumane
deeds, then and now: same evil brought about by the same demons.
Now I see why Jonah ran
the other way when God told him to go to Nineveh. And that brings me to the
second instruction God gave me: pray for the soldiers of ISIS. Some of them
will turn. I sure wasn’t expecting that!
Right after I got both
instructions I looked at the news on the computer and saw a video of an ISIS
defector. It was God’s assurance to me and I know there will be more.
Jonah didn’t want God to
do anything good for any of those murderers. And I wasn’t all that thrilled
about praying for any of them either. But we have to remember who our God is.
He “has no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the
Lord God.” He says, “wherefore turn yourselves, and live” (Eze 18:32). We can
pray that some will turn. The defectors are doing just that.
Another
scripture we can pray is Isaiah 55:7
“Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man
his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him;
and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.” I pray some will see and
witness firsthand the greatness of our God and change allegiance.
But some will need a
heftier impetus and motivation to change. Some will need to be brought to their
knees and stripped of their power before they would even think of changing. God
has put scriptures in the Bible for that too.
We know
that people committing such horrendous crimes against humanity serve Satan,
even if they don’t call it that. And Satan protects them, often pays them well,
and gives them a false sense of security.
But when
we pray verses like “their bows shall be broken” (Ps 37:15), “his violent
dealing shall come down upon his own head” (Ps 7:16), “let the creditor seize
all that he has and let strangers plunder his labor. Let there be none to
extend mercy to him” (Ps 109:6-13), “let their eyes be darkened so that they do
not see; and make their loins shake continually” (Ps 69:23), “let the angel of
the Lord chase them. Let their way be dark and slippery” (Ps 35:4-6); and from
the New Testament, let envy and strife be among them, “for where envying and
strife is, there is confusion and every evil work” (James 3:16). I pray to God
that the above things run rampant among the ISIS ranks.
Praying
these scriptures is powerful prayer. God’s mighty angels, who “excel in
strength, do his commandments and hearken to voice of his word” (Ps 103:20)
will attack the demons who are protecting ISIS and working in them. God’s
wonderful mighty angels will wreak havoc and destruction upon the plans and
devices of the enemy, stripping them of their demon protectors and bringing
them to their knees—putting them in the best place possible for switching
allegiance.
God’s
will has always been to save even the vilest of men. Have we forgotten how
rotten the Apostle Paul was before his conversion?
He was a
murderer of Christians just like ISIS followers and soldiers. Acts 9:1 says he
was “breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the
Lord.” He was in charge, the leader who called for many to be murdered. Paul
was one of those who Jesus called “children of hell” (Matt 23:15) and one of
the generation of vipers. “Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers,
how can ye escape the damnation of hell?” (Matt 23:33).
The
Christians in the first century church were powerful in prayer. I believe Jesus
taught his disciples to pray for their enemies the way David did, the way I’ve
shown you in this article. Paul’s miraculous change of allegiance, I believe,
is an indication of this.
His
conversion was astonishing. It didn’t come about by the Christians praying nice
things for him or being extra kind to him. It came about by him being struck
suddenly blind, thrown down from his horse and having a volatile encounter with
Jesus himself!
Once Paul
turned, the Christians in the area had peace. And that’s certainly what we want
for the current day areas where ISIS is working.
Jesus
said, “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that
hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute
you” (Matt 5:44). I don’t think we’ve fully understood this verse. In
situations where someone is committed to doing the devil’s work, the only good
we can do for is pray for confrontation just like the Apostle Paul got; or that
they be stripped of their power and see that the power of our God is greater.
I believe
that if some of us will take these scriptures and pray them over the ISIS
soldiers, we will see more turn from their evil actions.
I will
pray for defection and astounding conversion, but I don’t stop there. I also
pray strongly that if they don’t turn or are not going to turn, then I pray Ps
139:19 “Surely thou wilt slay the wicked, O God.” I pray, “Destroy their
plans and allow strife among their members and let them even kill each other
and be killed, in Jesus name. Amen.”
Jonah
went to Nineveh and they changed their ways. Jesus confronted Paul and he
changed. Some of you will confront the evil in these ISIS soldiers with the
scriptures I’ve shared. God bless you for that. You are making the world
a better place through scriptural prayer and obedience.
Love,
Carolyn
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