Thursday,
February 23, 2023
Then the Lord spoke to
Jonah a second time: “Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh, and
deliver the message I have given you.” This time Jonah obeyed
the Lord’s command and went to Nineveh, a city so large that it took three
days to see it all. On the day Jonah entered the city, he shouted to the
crowds: “Forty days from now Nineveh will be destroyed!” The people
of Nineveh believed God’s message, and from the greatest to the least, they
declared a fast and put on burlap to show their sorrow. Jonah 3:1-5
I’ve never spoken to anyone who has never heard of Jonah. Most of
the time, whether it is someone who has been in church all his life, from the
cradle roll to Senior Adult class – or someone who has never set foot inside a
church, their immediate recollection of Jonah is his disobedience and being
swallowed by a huge fish. Thus proving the point, being a bad
boy gets a lot more press than obedience.
I get the feeling that after Jonah’s unplanned submarine ride God spoke
to him that second time a little more slowly, and with a tone somewhat like
what my Dad used to have when I was dangerously close to my last chance to get
it right (and treading on his last nerve!).
God said: Jonah…son…let me
say this one more time….slowly…
NIN-E-VEH….NOW!
Seven of the sweetest words you’ve ever heard followed:
This time Jonah obeyed
the Lord’s command…Jonah 3:2(NLT)
While most people remember Jonah’s disobedience, it is the best news to recall
how he began to get it right by repenting and being forgiven and used in God’s
service.
Certainly Jonah still had attitude problems to deal with later, but with
his bigger problem solved – obeying the unmistakable command of God to proclaim
a message of love to his enemies – Jonah was now able to hang around and have
God do some major repair on the prophet’s sense of compassion.
And doesn’t that sound like somebody YOU know?
Well, more slowly this time…isn’t that US?
For You Today
I don’t mind that being remembered about me.
(Today’s devotion is a
re-posting of this title from 3/2/17)
There are about 2,000 devotional
posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions
library. To dig deeper on
today’s topic, explore some of these:
Do What? and Pyxis Points
Images: Title Pixabay.com Images without citation are either personal
property of the author, or in public domain.
Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©
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