3 Then the Lord spoke to Jonah a second time: ² “Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh, and deliver the message I have given you.”

³ 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. ⁴ On the day Jonah entered the city, he shouted to the crowds: “Forty days from now Nineveh will be destroyed!” ⁵ 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.

⁶ When the king of Nineveh heard what Jonah was saying, he stepped down from his throne and took off his royal robes. He dressed himself in burlap and sat on a heap of ashes. ⁷ Then the king and his nobles sent this decree throughout the city:

“No one, not even the animals from your herds and flocks, may eat or drink anything at all. ⁸ People and animals alike must wear garments of mourning, and everyone must pray earnestly to God. They must turn from their evil ways and stop all their violence. ⁹ Who can tell? Perhaps even yet God will change his mind and hold back his fierce anger from destroying us.”

¹⁰ When God saw what they had done and how they had put a stop to their evil ways, he changed his mind and did not carry out the destruction he had threatened.

Jonah 3

Dear God, this makes me think of the Prodigal Son. The Ninevites are him while he’s out living wild. Jonah’s threat of destruction is him longing for the food the pigs are eating. They are staring down the barrel of their own destruction and scared. What will they do? Will they stay there and accept the fate they brought upon themselves, or will they humble themselves and hope for mercy? Like the Prodigal Son, they decided to simply hope for mercy.

I just peeked ahead and saw that tomorrow we will get Jonah’s reaction, and I imagine I’ll think of him as the Prodigal Son’s older brother. But that’s for tomorrow. For today, I want to kind of sit here for a minute and think about humility and what it takes to get there. It’s usually rock bottom. It’s the thing I pray for when I or others experience great pain–make the pain count. Don’t let it be wasted. I’m thinking about a man someone called me about last week. He’s addicted to alcohol, but he’s not 1.) ready to stop and 2.) acknowledge you or accept any process that leans into you for healing. He’s not there yet. But the friend and I talked, and you are using this to bring his wife back to you. You’re making the pain count for her.

Father, help me to understand where I am still arrogant, and help me to humble myself so that I might be spared hitting bottom. Help me to humbly love. Help me to not judge, but simply love. I don’t want to be so arrogant that I bring on my own destruction. I don’t want to be so judgmental and vindictive that I don’t want to help and love the repentant person who is coming to you. I want to be what Jonah and the older brother should have been, not what they are. And I don’t want to be the Ninevites or the Prodigal Son either. I want to be completely humble and laid out before you. I want to be used by you however you see fit.

I pray all of this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen