That Story Of Repentance

​So the people of Nineveh believed God, proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them. Jonah 3:5

We often think of the great turns in the Bible such as, Paul meeting Jesus on the road to Damascus, or Gideon taking up the leadership of Israel in a time of oppression, but what about this city of Nineveh? Israel and Judah struggled for centuries to believe God, but Jonah walks into Nineveh one day and the entire city, great in extent, believes God! And as we read in our verse today, they did something immediately to show their belief. Word got to the king of Nineveh, and he sent out his word saying, "Let's repent!"

That such a great city can believe God and repent of their evil ways gives me great hope for a great nation of our time. Notice how the repentance in Nineveh began with belief in the people, what we would call a great awakening, then the ruler responded to the will of the people and led the city to repent. And God relented of the destruction that He had brought near to that great city. All of that started with believing what God had to say.

May our great nation believe God today,

Bucky