Reading
SAA Notes
The Assyrians were a savage and cruel nation who practised terrible barbarities on the peoples they raided. Jonah wanted judgment, not mercy for them! Our thoughts are not God’s thoughts! Isaiah 55:8
SJA Notes
* Loving God, please open our hearts to hear Your word today.
“And the people of Nineveh believed God.”
This is a wonderful picture of revival.
And at the heart of it, as always, is a trust in God and in what He says (believing what Jonah told them the Lord had said).
We are reminded of Abraham as we read in Genesis 15,
“And he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness.”
This is an active hard-won daily trust in God, a faith accompanied by good works.
We see from this passage in Jonah that all the people of Nineveh patterned the same, casting away their sinful practices, and instead walking in obedience before the Lord.
Here is a word for us.
Do we pray for a revival in the hearts of those around us such as what happened in Nineveh?
Not the count of people so much as the true conversion seen in the outworking of obedience, the turning from darkness to light as eyes are opened.
Do we ask God for help in believing in Him as Abraham did, as the people of Nineveh did? – That His word is true, that He is the one and only God.
* Great God,
Please save those around us, please revive dead hearts for Your glory!
And Lord, please help us to grow in our trust and belief in You, in what You say.
Amen.