One of the best parts of going to Tel Aviv is strolling down the beautiful seaside boardwalk to ancient Joppa. Amazingly, very little remains visible to speak of Joppa’s significance. But history tells a different story.
Only a few fishing boats float in Joppa’s modest harbor today, hardly representative of its significant past. Beyond goods and trade, Joppa greatest export was something else.
It may actually surprise you.
Joppa’s name first appeared on the pages of history when the Egyptian Pharaoh Thutmose III captured it in the fifteenth-century BC. In fact, the Egyptian rubble I saw in Joppa reminded me why all foreign powers wanted to control Israel.
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(All pics courtesy of the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands)
The prophet Jonah began his famous, fateful journey in Joppa (Jonah 1:3). Boarding a ship bound for Tarshish, Jonah fled from God’s presence only to find himself swallowed by a great fish which the Lord appointed to save him.
Some skeptics see the book of Jonah as a parabolic, non-historical fish story that’s hard to swallow.
God’s compassion on Gentiles urged Jonah to go preach to them. Instead, Jonah headed to Joppa to do just the opposite. Jonah knew about God’s grace and that the Lord would relent of his intent to destroy Nineveh if the Gentiles repented.
That’s exactly what happened.
In the first century, God’s concern for Gentiles again appeared at Joppa.
The site of Simon the Tanner’s house in Joppa owes its tradition to an ancient well that exists there. Tanners would need the fresh water to clean the hides.
After Caesarea’s destruction as a port city, Joppa once again rose to prominence as the principal port for what was then called Palestine.
When I walk around ancient Joppa, I see only a few fishing boats and pleasure vessels floating in the modest harbor. But every time I go there I ponder what seems an ironic thought. The message of God’s concern for Gentiles went out from Joppa, among many other places, through the lips of a reluctant Jonah and a confused Peter.
Joppa’s greatest export was God’s compassion.
Every year, literally thousands of Gentiles go to Joppa as part of their pilgrimage to the Holy Land. The message left from Joppa, and the Gentiles come to Joppa.
I am one of them.
Tell me what you think: How does God’s compassion make a difference to you? To leave a comment, just click here.
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