Friday, September 11, 2026

Opening Scripture

Blessed is the one whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the one whose sin the LORD does not count against them and in whose spirit is no deceit. When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy on me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer. Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD.” And you forgave the guilt of my sin. Psalm 32:1-5

Opening Prayer

Most Merciful God, I confess that I have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed, by what I have done, and by what I have left undone. I have not loved you with my whole heart; I have not loved my neighbors as myself. I am truly sorry, and I humbly repent. For the sake of your Son Jesus Christ, have mercy on me and forgive me, that I may delight in your will and walk in your ways, to the glory of your name. Amen.

Daily Bible Reading

Jonah 3:6-10

When Jonah’s warning reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust. This is the proclamation he issued in Nineveh: “By the decree of the king and his nobles:

Do not let people or animals, herds or flocks, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink. But let people and animals be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence. Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.”

When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened.

Reflection  

Clearly, the king of Nineveh heard, understood, and believed Jonah’s warning. Fasting, sackcloth, dust, and ashes were ancient universal symbols of sorrow and repentance. As we saw in verse 5, “all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.” The king modeled repentance for his people. “He rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust.”

The king not only fully participated himself, but he also decreed that even the animals would fast and would be covered with sackcloth. This collective expression of humility removed the external trapping of status and privilege. Everyone in the city was “equal” before God and one another in their repentance.

These brutal, immoral people responded in the hope that “God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.” Was this conversion genuine? Jesus seemed to think so. In Matthew 12, He rebuked the Pharisees and religious leaders by saying, “The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now something greater than Jonah is here.”

Some question the validity of the Ninevites’ conversion because, less than forty years later, in 722 B.C., the Assyrians destroyed the Northern Kingdom of Israel. That divine punishment was a long time in coming. Also, a genuine repentance by the Ninevites to Jonah’s message is not negated by the actions of different leaders at a later time. Perhaps the next generation naturally gravitated back to the violent and pagan ways of the Assyrian culture. As we well know, a lot can change in a nation over a few decades!

Just as God chose to spare Jonah after his disobedience and rebellion, God chose to spare the Ninevites. Though the Assyrians were known to be a cruel, violent, and immoral people, their collective humility and contrition led God to withhold punishment. God has also made that offer to His own people.

“When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land. Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place” (2 Chronicles 7:13-15).

Flourishing Habit

It is easy sometimes to criticize the nation of Israel for its repetitive “cycle of sin.” As “God’s Chosen People” for hundreds of years, we imagine that their faithfulness should be reflected in a straight upward line on “the graph of godliness,” as each successive generation, in devotion to the Lord, built on the righteousness of the previous one.

Instead, Scripture tells the story of a rebellious and unfaithful people who repeated the sequence of wickedness, punishment, repentance, and restoration generation after generation. As Deacon Stephen declared before an angry Jewish crowd stoned him to death, “You stiff-necked people! Your hearts and ears are still uncircumcised. You are just like your ancestors: You always resist the Holy Spirit! Was there ever a prophet your ancestors did not persecute? They even killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One. And now you have betrayed and murdered him – you who have received the law that was given through angels but have not obeyed it” (Acts 7:51-53).

Even though the Assyrians responded in repentance to Jonah’s warning, the next generation returned to their extreme wickedness, cruelty, and pride. A hundred years after Jonah, the prophet Nahum received a vision from God about Assyria’s eventual destruction, which came to pass in 612 B.C.

“Woe to the city of blood, full of lies, full of plunder, never without victims! The crack of whips, the clatter of wheels, galloping horses and jolting chariots! Charging cavalry, flashing swords and glittering spears! Many casualties, piles of dead, bodies without number, people stumbling over the corpses – all because of the wanton lust of a prostitute, alluring, the mistress of sorceries, who enslaved nations by her prostitution and peoples by her witchcraft” (Nahum 3:1-4).

Everyone (and every generation) must claim the Gospel for themselves! God has no grandchildren. We must each choose to confess our sin, accept God’s forgiveness, claim the righteousness of Jesus, and receive the Holy Spirit for ourselves.

Our Opening Scripture from Psalm 32 expresses the joy of forgiveness. “Blessed is the one whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the one whose sin the LORD does not count against them.”

How has the joy of forgiveness made a difference in your life?

Who do you know that needs to experience that same joy?

This week’s collective prayer: Father, place someone on my heart who needs to hear the Good News of Jesus. Give me the opportunity to share with them. Amen.

Remember: Nothing changes until something changes!