Monday, February 4, 2008
assignment 4
either read or listen (www.podbible.com) to another of the 40 "narratives." (Options include the forty days Moses spent on Sinai; the forty days and nights Elijah spent walking to Horeb; the forty days and forty nights of rain in the days of Noah; the Hebrew people wandering for forty years before the Promised Land; Jonah who gave the city of Nineveh forty days in which to repent). What strikes you about how it connects with your Lenten journey? Email your thoughts.
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As I read Jonah (not in a kids version for a change) I discovered that he spent 40 days in or near Nineveh waiting for its destruction. Then when God has compassion and doesn’t destroy the city Jonah goes out and continues to watch. I wondered what he did during those forty days while his anger was building against God. He’s stuck in city he hates with people he can’t relate to who are repenting in response to his message. Yet he misses the chance to rejoice. How often did he give a call to his own people (if he did) or see another prophet do so and the whole city responded? He was in a place he didn’t want to be and he missed the good in the situation. Even after the forty days he kept hoping for it to end as he expected but God spent more time trying to reach Jonah too. He was as much in a wilderness surrounded by his enemies as when he went outside the city.
I could relate to missing the good in situations – I didn’t expect to be where our family is today with an only child. It’s hard to see God in the place we have ended up when I keep looking for a way for it to turn out as I expected. It’s a good reminder to look for the ways God might be doing something unexpected. Maybe being stuck in grief is a stubborn refusal to look for that?
Jonah finishes with God’s rebuke. I wonder what Jonah did next; sulked some more, enjoyed Nineva, went back to his people the same or different ...
Ps I wrote this a couple of weeks back but wasn’t sure whether to post it. As the 40 days comes to an end I feel stuck in the wilderness so maybe this part of the journey out. I need some angels too though.
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