Saturday, December 30, 2006

An Epidemic-esc Spread

Jonah 3:3-5'Now Nineveh was a very large city; it took three days to go all through it. Jonah started into the city, going a day's journey, and he proclaimed: "Forty more days and Nineveh will be destroyed." The Ninevites believed God. They declared a fast, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.'

Nineveh was big. A tourist would have to allow three days to "go all through it," and that would mean few pit stops along the way. Jonah went only "a day's journey." The Word of God was unleashed like an epidemic. The whole city (from the greatest to the least) ended up contrite. That means the Word spread the other two day's length on its own, without the sluggish & reluctant prophet.

It gives new meaning to the phrase "by word of mouth." Really, Jonah was just a spark that the Lord used to create a raging inferno.

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