And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?”
NIMBY. Not in my backyard. This is a phrase used for a good thing that everyone knows we need like a sewage treatment plant or a nuclear power plant, but they want it elsewhere. They don’t want it anywhere near them. They love the way it is and do not want to think of those outside their sphere. That is Jonah, the reluctant prophet who had already learned one hard lesson about obedience. Eventually somehow, he came around to seeing God’s side of the issue of Nineveh. Here though, he went right back to his Johah ways. He could not see past Israel. He just was not interested. Especially in the cattle.
Missionaries spend a lot of their time and energy raising awareness of their area of ministry to supporting churches and individuals, with varying results. This is simple human nature. A mother cares more about her husband and children than children in China. The only cure for human nature is the filling of the Holy Spirit which gives us a divine global perspective. Jonah ends abruptly with God’s question to Jonah. There is no recorded answer but the heart of Jonah is exposed.
Today, think about Jonah and pray for the persecuted church around the world. Christians in Afghanistan are in grave danger. The Haitian people are suffering terribly after yet another earthquake. Europe is so post-Christian that it is hard to envision another revival there. But God’s perspective is much bigger than ours. We know he owns the future, like…
The cattle on a thousand hills.
Pastor Brad Boyer
Cape Community Church