March 12, 2025
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Sackcloth and mercy
Jonah began his journey through Nineveh and had gone but a single day’s walk, crying out “Forty more days and Nineveh shall be destroyed!”
Jonah didn’t want to go, Jonah wanted the Ninevites to be destroyed, he must have enjoyed hollering these words over and over. After his encounters with storms on the sea and the stomach of a big fish, Jonah rode the wave of his ancient resentment toward what he expected to be a grand catharsis – destruction of the people that Hebrews loved to hate.
But the people of Nineveh believed God.
Not possible! Well, at least these are just the poor folks on the street. The king in his arrogance will not listen to Jonah or his subjects.
But the subjects proclaimed a fast.
Last week it was ashes, this week sackcloth. What can we do to show our humility to God our Maker?
They did proclaim a fast. They wore sackcloth. And Jonah was disgusted, certain of their hypocrisy.
When the news reached the king he rose from his throne and covered his own self with sackcloth. He sat in the ashes.
The king exponentially increased the intensity of the fast. No water, neither for the people nor for their animals. Cover them all with sackcloth, he decreed.
“Man and beast, both cattle and ship, must call loudly to God and every man must turn from his wicked and any violence he has in hand.”
The Ninevites, the Assyrians, were infamous for their wickedness and violence. But …
Who knows? Thought the desperate king.
Perhaps God will relent and forgive, and withhold his blazing wrath, so that we shall not perish.
Jonah couldn’t believe his ears. He refused to believe any of this ridiculous turnabout by the enemies of Israel. He turned back toward God the Mighty, God the Powerful, God the … patient, God the … kind?
When God saw by their actions how they turned from their evil way, God repented of the evil he had threatened to do to them; he did not carry it out.
In the next chapter the difference between God the Omni-patient and Jonah the Bitter becomes apparent.
Didn’t I tell you this back home, Lord? I know you’re compassionate and gracious, and that you’d forgive my enemies. That’s you, Lord.  You be you. I don’t see it that way. So just let me die, Lord. My life is not worth living.
God looked at Jonah, maybe a little less patient with his chosen vessel than he was with the Ninevites, “who cannot tell their right hand from their left.” Get over it, Jonah! After all, wasn’t it the king who sent his subjects into battle and commanded them to kill the Israelites? Weren’t they just following orders?
And then, what about those thirsty animals, Jonah? Do you want them all to die?
The fast of the Ninevites, and of their king, touches God’s heart, even if it is adorned with sackcloth and ashes. Isaiah wrote chapter 58 (this is the fast I love, God says: untie the yoke, free the oppressed, share your food, provide shelter and clothing, never turn away from your own flesh and blood) BEFORE the book of Jonah was written. Jonah knew the kind of fast God wanted from him, even if the Ninevites didn’t know any better.
Jonah became more angry and more bitter even as God invited him out of his self-righteousness.  He failed to remember David’s example of repentance, how Nathan’s simple story about sheep broke David’s denial into a thousand desperate pieces, how God’s grace surrounded David.
Have mercy on me, O God, in your goodness.
Cast me not away from your presence.
My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit.
Open my lips, Lord, and my mouth will declare your praise.
Jonah’s story ends with God’s words, not his own. God remembers the helplessness of the people and their animals. God invites him into compassion and out of bitterness.
What will Jonah say? What will I?
(Jonah 3, Psalm 51, Joel 2, Luke 11)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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