JONAH 3:5

The Ninevites believed God. A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.

TO PONDER

I have really appreciated slowing down and taking a longer time to go carefully through the book of Jonah. The one chapter a week approach we have been taking over the last few weeks is the first time I've really stopped to consider how Jonah delivers the message God has sent him to proclaim. In my humble opinion, this is the greatest miracle of the whole story. Not that Jonah did what he was told, or that he was swallowed by a fish and after three days was vomited back up on a beach somewhere still in one piece. The real miracle here is that with eight simple words, no preamble or introduction, not three point structure, no law/gospel distinction, not obvious forethought or planning Jonah speaks the message and the people believe.

As a Lutheran pastor in Australia, I underwent 5 years of tertiary study to make sure I could deliver an effective and theologically sound message or sermon. Let me assure you, Jonah's message doesn't hit any of the marks I was taught to aim for. However, I think the joy for me in this part of Jonah's story is that even though Jonah did not preach the word's best sermon to the people of Nineveh (in fact it would rank pretty poorly), the people believed anyway.

The comfort here for me as a pastor/preacher, and the comfort I hope you will see too is that it is not the elloquence of our words that is important. It is the faithfulness of our proclamation. Jonah did what God asked, nothing more and nothing less - he reluctantly, but faithfully, proclaimed the warning God had asked him to deliver. After that, what comes next is out of his hands.

I sometimes think that when we consider talking to others about Jesus or faith, we feel like the outcome depends on us and the words we say are all that count. Really what counts is our willingness to say anything at all. It's when we just manage to put our own fears aside and, like Jonah, reluctantly but faithfully proclaim what God has shown us to others, that He then has the opportunity to work through that proclamation, just like He did in Nineveh.

Don't assume the people you are talking to will have a negative response and stay quiet. Maybe, like the king and the people of Nineveh, they are just waiting for God to send them someone to tell them what's really going on? Maybe that person is you!

PRAYER: Heavenly Father, Thank you that you are a God who sends messengers with your word to proclaim Jesus and His death and resurrection to us. Thank you for those who shared all that you have done with me so that I might know you and grow in my faith. Please help me to faithfully take on the task of proclaiming who you are and all that you have done so that others may also know your steadfast love and faithfulness. Amen

Today's devotion written by Mathew von Stanke, LifeWay Newcastle