Daily Devotional • October 17
A Reading from Jonah 3:1-4:11
1 The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time, saying, 2 “Get up, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you.” 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. 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!” 5 And the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and everyone, great and small, put on sackcloth.
6 When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. 7 Then he had a proclamation made in Nineveh: “By the decree of the king and his nobles: No human or animal, no herd or flock, shall taste anything. They shall not feed, nor shall they drink water. 8 Humans and animals shall be covered with sackcloth, and they shall cry mightily to God. All shall turn from their evil ways and from the violence that is in their hands. 9 Who knows? God may relent and change his mind; he may turn from his fierce anger, so that we do not perish.”
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.
4 But this was very displeasing to Jonah, and he became angry. 2 He prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord! Is not this what I said while I was still in my own country? That is why I fled to Tarshish at the beginning, for I knew that you are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from punishment. 3 And now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” 4 And the Lord said, “Is it right for you to be angry?”
Meditation
Which of us would choose Jonah for a challenging mission? Called to go to Nineveh, he sails in the opposite direction. Thinking he is sacrificing himself to save his shipmates, he asks them to throw him to his death. Yet instead of heroic death, he gets a miserable ride back to shore, comically draped in seaweed. Even when he finally obeys God and preaches to the Ninevites, he hates them.
During the week-long caravan trip to Nineveh, he had time to frame his prophecy in the Akkadian language. In 40 days God will destroy those cruel Syrians. Excellent! God abhors their violence, their cruelty, and the lascivious rites of Ishtar. That will preach!
Jonah must have spoken eloquently, though he didn’t expect the Syrians to listen. Yet his preaching was a huge success. To his horror, the city’s king put on a sackcloth and asked the whole city to turn from evil, fast, and pray for mercy. Worse, God heard their prayers!
Perched in a hut above the city, Jonah once again had a death wish. It was good for God to show mercy to Israelites like himself (even when he ran away from God), but a serious error to pardon those horrible Syrians. If Jonah were God, he’d destroy them.
Did God laugh a little at this absurd prophet, who couldn’t stand success? A vine grew over Jonah’s flimsy shelter, and his mood improved in the shade. But when the vine shriveled, Jonah raged again in the heat. Patiently God explained that Jonah’s desire for the vine to flourish was nothing compared to God’s desire for the children and animals in Nineveh to flourish.
When I wonder why God has not eliminated contemporary warlords, Jonah speaks to me. God is concerned about the children and the animals, not just the rulers — and not only in the countries I approve.
Dr. Grace Sears is past vice president of the board of the Living Church Foundation and past president of the Order of the Daughters of the King, as well as former editor of its magazine, The Royal Cross.
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Daily Devotional Cycle of Prayer
Today we pray for:
The Diocese of Kamango – Province de L’Eglise Anglicane Du Congo
St. Pierre’s Episcopal Church, Gautier, Mississippi