Daily Devotion – January 19, 2021 – Dr. Pat Taylor Ellison
Jonah 3:1-5, 10
3:1 The word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time, saying,
3:2 “Get up, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you.”
3:3 So Jonah set out and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly large city, a three days’ walk across.
3:4 Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s walk. And he cried out, “Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”
3:5 And the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and everyone, great and small, put on sackcloth.
3:10 When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them; and he did not do it.
This brief story takes place AFTER the episode of Jonah’s being swallowed by the big fish. This story happens once Jonah is back on dry land. God is unrelenting. Jonah never did want to go to Nineveh. That was where Israel’s enemies lived. Why should he lift a finger to have them repent and be saved? Let God go ahead and rain down destruction on them. It would serve them right.
But, after the fish episode, Jonah does what God commands. He arrives at the edge of Nineveh, and the next day he walks all day to get about a third of the way into the city – just at the edge of downtown, maybe. I picture him stopping there, before turning in that night, finding something to stand on, and then crying out this single sentence: “Forty days more and Nineveh shall be overthrown.” Then he gets off his soapbox and finds a place to eat and sleep for the night.
He does not seem predisposed to do any more than that. And he certainly was not known in that city. So some of those folks who heard the single sentence must have recognized from his dress or accent or some other attribute that he was a prophet of the God of Israel, because Jonah certainly did not tell them. I really like the stubbornness of Jonah. I don’t know. Maybe I can relate to him.
Almost despite Jonah’s unhelpfulness, because, after all, he hated Nineveh and did not WANT to be helpful, word spread and people believed his prophesy, and everyone, right down to the king and his household, repented. And God, being more faithful than Jonah, spared them.
God makes the most of a single sentence from a reluctant prophet who does not want his hearers to repent because then God will save them. God can turn the stingiest of offerings into a big deal. Why? Because God is God. No matter who or what WE are, GOD is still God. Isn’t it miraculous? God could do what God wishes to do without humans to help it happen, and yet God continually gets humans involved in God’s great mission to reconcile the whole world to God’s self. Whether we are good at it or not. Whether we want to or not. God is like the parent of a recalcitrant teenager determined to spoil the party. And still God makes good come out of the party. Aren’t we lucky to have just that sort of God?
Lord God, Thank you for loving us. Despite everything, thank you for loving us. Despite our ill wishes or our reluctance or our laziness. Despite our un-god-liness. Thank you for loving us. Amen.
