Distance and Closeness

Jonah 3:3-5 (NRSV)

So Jonah set out and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly large city, a three days’ walk across. Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s walk. And he cried out, “Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” And the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and everyone, great and small, put on sackcloth.

Hey everybody, don't you feel that there's something
But you know in a moment it is gone

"It's a Long Way There" from the first album by The Little River Band

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Jonah's mission was to tell the people of Nineveh that they were about to be overthrown, destroyed. That's it. That's what he spent three days and three nights in the belly of the large fish trying to avoid. With reason, it wasn't a great task.

Imagine telling a large city of people their way of life, their city, their lives were about to come to an end. Forty days more and that's all. Nineveh was so large that it took three days to walk across. It was so large that after the first day's walk, when he made the proclamation, he caused a stir that followed him the rest of the way across the city. It was a long way across the city, but for the Ninevites it was a longer way to God. They had forty days, then after that it would all be gone.

You see, Jonah's message, the one he received from the Lord promised nothing for the Ninevites but destruction. There was no message of peace or mercy. Still, the people of Nineveh believed God; proclaimed a fast, and everyone, put on sackcloth.

When Jonah finished his journey he built a booth and waited to watch the destruction from the front row. But it did not happen. He was in the desert waiting, but thankfully a vine grew to protect him. Then it died.

Jonah was ticked, after all, when a prophecy goes unfilfilled, the prophet looks like a loon. But Jonah was reassured him that as much as the Lord cared for the vine that grew over his shelter, so much more did he care the the city of Nineveh and all it's inhabitants.

It was a long way across Nineveh, and it must have seemed like a much longer leap of faith in the Lord to save a people who were promised no salvation at all. But such is a leap of faith. Faith that the Lord saves, not because they believed in God, but because God believed in them.