Transformed through Repentance: The Ninevites

The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time, saying, “Get up, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you.” So 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. Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s walk. And he cried out, “Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” And the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and everyone, great and small, put on sackcloth.
When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. Then he had a proclamation made in Nineveh: “By the decree of the king and his nobles: No human being or animal, no herd or flock, shall taste anything. They shall not feed, nor shall they drink water. Human beings and animals shall be covered with sackcloth, and they shall cry mightily to God. All shall turn from their evil ways and from the violence that is in their hands. Who knows? God may relent and change his mind; he may turn from his fierce anger, so that we do not perish.”
When 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. ~ Jonah Chapter 3


 Who repented here?

 God. God changed God's mind and turned back from the violence planned for the Ninevites.

 Who else?

 The entire city of Nineveh, from the greatest to the least.

 In scripture, Nineveh is known as a "wicked" city. One that deserved what it was supposed to get - destruction.

 It's place is in modern day Iraq. On the outskirts of Mosul.

 A place we still view with judgment. A place still of violence.

 But God changed God's mind.

 And the king of Nineveh changed his mind.

 And the city was spared and transformed from one of wickedness to one of repentance.

 Unfortunately, the change didn't stick. Ultimately, Nineveh turned back again and was destroyed for its wickedness.

 Sometimes transformation doesn't stick. Sometimes temptation to old ways of thinking and being win out.

 Fortunately, we don't worry about a God who is out destroy us when we fall back into old ways of thinking or being.

 Instead we have a God who walks beside us, hopes for us, dreams for us, and guides us to find again that place where we can be turned around.

 Instead we have a God who has transformed the way of being itself so that we can rest in hope and rest in grace that God's transformation always wins out in the end.
Prayer: Help be back again and again and again when I forget myself, O God. Amen



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