Daily Devotional • March 5
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 1 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
There’s little more relatable to me in all of Scripture than Jonah’s planting himself under a shade God provided for him, furious that God has provided deliverance for his enemies, glaring over the city of people he hates as the sun glares onto his head.
Jonah has been brought to this state by the quick, earnest, and thorough repentance of his enemies, enemies to whom he preached at God’s command only after God saved him from the belly of a large fish. When God sees how the Ninevites have “turned from their evil ways,” he resolves to spare them from the destruction Jonah had proclaimed.
Jonah had good reason to want to avoid the Ninevites, who were infamously brutally violent and perverse. These are the most evil people Jonah can think of, and he wishes for their damnation. That the God of the Israelites would spare these people is an act of betrayal.
At the same time, Jonah knows that this is who God is. Jonah can’t bear this, to the point that he tells God no fewer than three times that he wishes he were dead. God asks, “Is it right for you to be angry?” Jonah’s answer is yes. God replies: “You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow … And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people?”
In this way, God reminds Jonah that he is not only the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but also the Creator of all who cares for all. His love knows no bounds, whether we like it or not. We can never say of any person or group that God does not concern himself with them, and we can never discount the possibility that God will bring any person or group to repentance. If we have trouble admitting either of these truths, we are the ones in need of repentance, and we would do well to imitate the speed and seriousness of the Ninevites’; we are the ones in need of God’s mercy, and we must give thanks for the God who relents.
Laura Howard is a writer from Dallas, TX, now based in Wheaton, IL, where she works in Student Wellness at her alma mater, Wheaton College. Laura’s portfolio of writing, teaching, and artwork can be found at letmebeheavy.substack.com.
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Daily Devotional Cycle of Prayer
Today we pray for:
The Episcopal Diocese of New York
The Diocese of Makueni – The Anglican Church of Kenya
