Jonah 3:1-5 (NRSV)
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Chapter 3The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time, saying, Verse 2"Get up, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you." Verse 3So 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. Verse 4Jonah began to go into the city, going a day's walk. And he cried out, "Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!"
Verse 5And the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and everyone, great and small, put on sackcloth.
Devotion
“And all the people put on sackcloth to show that they had repented.” What a result: poor, stubborn, angry Jonah convinces the great city of Nineveh to turn to the way of the Lord. Where would we look for a voice like Jonah’s today? Even if we knew where to look and had it in our power to repent, what would our sackcloth be? God loves and protects us as children, but we must respond to the message with the willpower of adults. As Christ’s death approaches, our sackcloth must be meekness and admission of sin.
Prayer
Give us the power to ask for and humbly receive your forgiveness, that we may be agents of peace in a turbulent world. Amen.