Jesse Tree Devotional for December 16th

December 16

Staggering Extremes

Today’s reading: Jonah 3:1-4:4, 11
And the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the second time, saying, Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee. So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days’ journey. And Jonah began to enter into the city a day’s journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them. For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water: But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands. Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not? And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.

But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry. And he prayed unto the LORD, and said, I pray thee, O LORD, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil. Therefore now, O LORD, take, I beseech thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live. Then said the LORD, Doest thou well to be angry?

And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?

It is just like You, God: You’d go to any and all lengths—even having a prophet sit for three days in the cavernous belly of a great fish—to turn people to Yourself. And when Jonah relents and finally brings Your message to Nineveh, Nineveh does just that: confesses, repents and turns towards You, Lord.

Yes, our God is, as Jonah ironically laments, “…a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love…” (Jonah 4:2) And You do indeed go to stunning lengths to draw people to Yourself: like taking on flesh, being as born as a helpless baby in a smelly cattle pen, hanging on a bark-covered cross by nails pierced through flesh, descending three days into the very pit of hell, to buy back people as wicked as any Ninevite--just like me. Yes—You are a God abounding in love--- mind-boggling, staggering love.

Lord, You come, a wild lover of souls, driven by extreme passion, to turn us to You. And we do, Lord—we turn with open arms to You.