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fascinating story.
To the Lord, the future is an open book, even as the present. The word
is spoken, telling of the event to come; it is written on the parchment
scroll by the prophet's pen. Time passes; centuries come and go. Then,
when the hour of the prophecy arrives, lo, there appears the fulfilment.
And it is seen in matters pertaining to individuals, as well as in the
affairs of cities and empires.
The Word Fulfilled after Long Waiting

In the dream divinely given to the lad Joseph, it was plainly foretold
that his brothers would one day come as suppliants before him. His
father rebuked him for telling the dream, saying, "Shall I and thy
mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to
the earth?" Gen. 37:10. The brothers sold the lad into slavery, to be
well rid of him. Yet twenty years later, all unconscious of his identity,
these same brethren presented themselves before the prime minister of
Egypt, and "fell before him on the ground." Gen. 44:14.
Again: the wicked stronghold of Jericho had been utterly destroyed.
Joshua declared:
"Cursed be the man ... that riseth up and buildeth this city Jericho: he
shall lay the foundation thereof in his first-born, and in his youngest
son shall he set up the gates of it." Joshua 6:26.
The hands of angels had thrown down its walls, and its ruin was to
stand as a memorial. More than five hundred years later, when the
apostate Ahab was ruling, and Israel and Judah had departed from the
Lord, Hiel the Bethelite set out to rebuild Jericho. "He laid the
foundation thereof in Abiram his first-born."
But accident and death may come at any time. The work on the walls
went on, no one thinking of the neglected Scriptures with their warning
of long ago. So the full account runs:
"He laid the foundation thereof in Abiram his first-born, and set up the
gates thereof in his youngest son Segub, according to the word of the
Lord, which He spake by Joshua the son of Nun." 1 Kings 16:34.
The fate of some of the mightiest cities the world ever saw has borne
testimony through the centuries to the fulfilment of the prophetic word.
The Witness of Nineveh
Nineveh was founded by Nimrod. He built not only his capital here by
the Tigris, but other towns round about, conceiving first of all the idea
of grouping the capital and its suburbs into one great city, the "Greater

Nineveh," as we would say in these days of Greater London and
Greater New York. At the dawn of history Nineveh was "a great city."
Gen. 10:11, 12. In Jonah's day it was an "exceeding great city."[A]
Sennacherib, of the Bible story, was its beautifier. Rawlinson says:
"The great palace which he raised at Nineveh surpassed in size and
splendor all earlier edifices."--"Second Monarchy," chap. 9.
A description is preserved on the clay cylinder in the king's own words:
"For the wonderment of multitudes of men I raised its head--'the palace
which has no rival' I called its name."--Taylor Cylinder, "Records of
the Past." Vol. XII, part 1.
At the preaching of Jonah the city had repented; but in later years pride
of conquest and luxury and wealth were filling it with blood. The
prophet Nahum warned it of certain doom, appealing to those who had
any fear of God to turn to Him. The message was:
[Illustration: THE SITE OF NINEVEH
"How is she become a desolation!" Zeph. 2:15.]
"The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; and He knoweth
them that trust in Him." Nahum 1:7.
Some, no doubt, heeded the warning and turned to God for refuge. But
the city's life of sin ran on. Then the prophet Zephaniah spoke the word,
just as the stroke was to fall:
"Woe to her that is filthy and polluted, to the oppressing city! She
obeyed not the voice; she received not correction; she trusted not in the
Lord; she drew not near to her God." Zeph. 3:1, 2.
Prophecies uttered against the mighty city had declared:
"He will make an utter end of the place thereof." "The palace shall be
dissolved ["molten," margin]." "She is empty, and void, and waste."
Nahum 1:8; 2:6, 10. "How is she become a desolation, a place for

beasts to lie down in!" Zeph. 2:15.
The Medes and the Babylonians overthrew Nineveh. The king
immolated himself in his burning ("molten") palace. Nineveh became a
desolation. Describing a battle that took place there in the seventh
century of our era, between the Romans and the Persians, the historian
Gibbon bears testimony to the fact that it has indeed become "empty,
and void, and waste:"
"Eastward of the Tigris, at the end of the