Jonah 3:1-5, 10 (NRSV)
Read Jonah 3:1-5, 10 on biblegateway.com
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. Verse 10When 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.
Devotion
Jonah's prophetic words to Nineveh are short and clear. In the original, only five words, it is easily understood by one and all. It is important for us to master languages, whether our own or biblical ones. Yet, for many of the most critical potentially catastrophic issues, the simplest and clearest message is enough. "It's a red light!" "Wet Paint!" "Stop, thief!" My late mother told of a teacher who silenced a noisy class with, "THAT'LL DO!" There is a place for courtesy, yet justified words of judgment serve nobody's interest if they are too complicated for the listener to understand. "Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!" Words enough to save many lives.
Prayer
O God, our living Word, teach us to speak the ignored and neglected truth as boldly and clearly as Jonah
so that those who hear will be brought to the renewal of Christ's own Gospel. Amen.