Thursday, September 17, 2026
Jonah 3:10—4:11
10 When God saw what [the people of Ninevah] did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them, and he did not do it.
4:1 But this was very displeasing to Jonah, and he became angry. 2 He prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord! Is not this what I said while I was still in my own country? That is why I fled to Tarshish at the beginning, for I knew that you are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from punishment. 3 And now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” 4 And the Lord said, “Is it right for you to be angry?” 5 Then Jonah went out of the city and sat down east of the city and made a booth for himself there. He sat under it in the shade, waiting to see what would become of the city.
6 The Lord God appointed a bush and made it come up over Jonah, to give shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort, so Jonah was very happy about the bush. 7 But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the bush, so that it withered. 8 When the sun rose, God prepared a sultry east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint and asked that he might die. He said, “It is better for me to die than to live.”
9 But God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the bush?” And he said, “Yes, angry enough to die.” 10 Then the Lord said, “You are concerned about the bush, for which you did not labor and which you did not grow; it came into being in a night and perished in a night. 11 And should I not be concerned about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left and also many animals?”
In this new preaching series, we are first focusing on prayer. And in this passage from Jonah, we witness a multitude of emotions from Jonah in response to how God handled the situation in Ninevah. He begins in anger and ends in contentment. But regardless of the emotion, it is all brought before God. This should teach us that our prayer lives with God do not have to be all butterflies and unicorns. We should bring everything to God, not just supplications of praise and thanksgiving, but frustrated and angry rants too, and everything in between.
The story of Jonah reminds us that we can do hard things. As children of God, we were made for times like this. Instead of turning and running from a tough situation (and/or God), what might it look like for us to boldly answer God’s call to face those dark and heavy circumstances head on? In full and honest communication with God. In prayer.
When faced with hard things, God guides us in how to navigate and support one another through them. Like Jonah, we do not want to go there but God expects us to. Jonah did not want to go to Nineveh because he did not think they were worth it, and did not think they would repent, and he did not think God would change God’s mind. But God did, because Jonah went there. To the difficult place he did not want to.
The true irony being, Jonah’s story and journey to Nineveh ended up requiring him to do the same thing he warned of Ninevah. They all faced what they needed to. They repented or turned again to face God. They did not stay facing/devoted to the temporal challenges that were taking their attention away from God.
What is your Nineveh? I know mine right now. And I am constantly in conversation with God about it in prayer. I am working to face my Nineveh, to repent and turn my devotion back to God. Join me, won’t you?
– Pr. Kyle
Emmanuel, God with us, walk with us when to road feels dangerous or altogether in the wrong direction. Remind us that you do not abandon us and that you are always there to listen to and respond to every frustration, every plea, and every praise. Amen.