The Great City

The Great City

Get up! Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it because their evil has come up before me. Jonah 1:2

Nineveh

During the time of Jonah, Nineveh was one of the most ancient, significant cities. It later became the capital of Assyria. Assyria was known for its terror and violence, and its unstoppable move to take over territories in the goriest, most violent means needed. At some point, Nineveh became the capital of Assyria.

However, in the time that Jonah prophesied to Jeroboam II, Assyria was weak militarily and also suffered famine. After they recovered, they regained influence and we see some of their interactions with Israel and Judah.

Too long, please open your Bible 2 Kings 15: 17-20
Too long, please open your Bible 2 Kings 16: 1-9

A history of cities

In the beginning, we have the story of creation. God created a garden full of abundance, and also created humanity to steward the rest of creation. However, after being tempted by a beast, humanity fell and was driven out of the garden.

Man takes on the nature of the beast, and we see a theme of pride, violence and oppression build up as we go on in the biblical story.

City of Cain

After murdering Abel, Cain is condemned to be a wanderer, yet he defies this by founding a city. This is the first mention of a city being built in scripture.

Too long, please open your Bible Genesis 4: 10-17

Cain’s building of a wall for protection is a direct contrast with God’s ideal of a land of abundance that has rivers that nourishes places outside the garden.

We see this culture of violence multiply in the short narrative about Lamech, one of Cain’s descendants. The city becomes a symbol of rebellion, human pride, and bloodshed.

Too long, please open your Bible Genesis 4: 23-24

Cities of Nimrod

Too long, please open your Bible Genesis 10: 8-12

Associating Babylon with these cities gives them also theological significance as cities that perpetuated the culture of pride, evil, violence and corruption.

Chapter 11 then gives us a narrative about Babylon.

Too long, please open your Bible Genesis 11: 1-9

The Tower of Babel narrative depicts humanity uniting in defiance of God, seeking to "make a name for themselves" rather than glorify Him. The city's ambition leads to divine judgment—dispersion and confusion.

Sodom & Gomorrah

Now the men of Sodom were evil, sinning immensely against the LORD. Genesis 13:13
And the LORD said, “The outcry of Sodom and Gomorrah is indeed great, and their sin is exceedingly grave. Genesis 18:20

Egypt

Egypt was a nation that enslaved God’s people and murdered children for the sake of national security.

Too long, please open your Bible Exodus 1: 8-14

Rising Evil

The theme of evil (or outcry against evil) rising up to God is one that is found in scripture to describe when God is ready to confront the wrongdoing of people or civilizations.

Then he said, “What have you done? Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground! Genesis 4:10
Then God said to Noah, “The end of all flesh has come before Me; for the earth is filled with violence because of them; and behold, I am about to destroy them with the earth. Exodus 6:13
And the LORD said, “The outcry of Sodom and Gomorrah is indeed great, and their sin is exceedingly grave. I will go down to see if what they have done justifies the cry that has come up to me. If not, I will find out.” Genesis 18:20
After a long time, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned because of their difficult labor, and they cried out, and their cry for help because of the difficult labor ascended to God. God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. and God saw the Israelites, and God knew. Exodus 2: 23-25

This theme shows us God’s hatred for human systems of oppression and pride. We consistently see God teat down empires that were oppressive and evil.

The Great City

The only times we have the phrase “the great city” appear in the Old Testament, it is mentioned in Genesis 10 and in Jonah. Both times, it is related to the city of Nineveh.

In the New Testament, we have that term reemerge only in the Book of Revelation, where it is used in reference to human evil as an entity. Some examples:

And their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city which mystically is called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified. Revelation 11:8
Too long, please open your Bible Revelation 17: 1-5, 18

Our hope

Too long, please open your Bible 2 Peter 3

God’s judgement of these evil empires in the past is our assurance of the future judgement. However, the future judgement will be final and evil and death will be banished from God’s good world.