Dearest e-votees-
This Sunday’s Old Testament text is from the book of Jonah. The assigned text is below as well as the pericope bits that were left on the cutting room floor (set off with the square brackets).
I hope that you have been blessed and encouraged this week. I pray you will be even more so after our devotional interaction here.
Peace,
Karl
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3 The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time, saying, 2 “Get up, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you.” 3 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. 4 Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s walk. And he cried out, “Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” 5 And the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and everyone, great and small, put on sackcloth.
[6 When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. 7 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. 8 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. 9 Who knows? God may relent and change his mind; he may turn from his fierce anger, so that we do not perish.” ]
10 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.
It seems to me that something needs to be said about not including vv. 6-9. By excising these verses we lose the reasoning behind the fast and the signs of repentance. When you stop at verse 5 you have the people believing that God will overthrow Nineveh in 40 days. If they were convinced that the calamity was sure to come to pass one might think a different reaction would come from the people—scattering in fear (kind of like Jonah when he fled God’s call) or celebrating the last days (“Eat, drink and be merry for in 40 days we die!”) or something. This repentance in hopes that God might change God’s mind (there’s a linguistic connection between repentance and God’s changing the divine mind) seems less clear with the middle verses removed.
What were those who devised the pericope (literally a “cutting around”—extracting the selected lessons) thinking by striking these verses? Perhaps they thought that a king telling the people to repent was too autocratic or dictatorial for our modern sensibilities. Perhaps they thought that the fast and signs of repentance were diminished if they were mandated. What do you think? Why might have been the reasoning for selecting the lesson as it has been done? I find that when assigned lessons step around excisions I am drawn to the “forbidden” texts.
The leader of the people heard the news (Jonah’s message or about the people fasting and putting on sackcloth—not entirely clear). Was the king codifying what the people had already begun to do?—quite possibly. The king and his nobles decree that all animals shall neither eat nor drink in hopes for a change. And the people and the animals and the king did it. They didn’t scatter in fear. They didn’t squander precious last moments in debauchery. They collected and focused themselves and hoped and trusted and prayed that God would deliver them.
How are things in our lives and in the world around us? Do things seem dire? Is calamity imminent? Is the future uncertain? Perhaps we should do what is required to focus ourselves, our lives and our times on the callings and plans of God. God cares about us who don’t know our right hand from our left (see Jonah 4:11) and about the animals who don’t know their right hooves from their lefts.
God stir us to seek you fervently as if everything that was important depended on it. When we feel put upon help us not flee by foot nor by escapism but rather run to you—our loving Father—who loves to wait at the end of the driveway and run towards us. Amen.
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