Word for the day by Christian Education Forum



CHRISTIAN EDUCATION FORUM
Word for the Day
"Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path".
Psalm 119:105
Jonah Corrected by God
Jonah 4:6-11
And should I not be concerned about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who do not know their right hand from their left, and also many animals? (Jon 4:11).
 
The passage for our meditation brings forth Jonah's prophetic commitment being altered by the ignorance of a narrow minded believer and the arrogance of a haughty leader. It is these aspects that God intends to correct in us too for a fruitful living in the midst of divergent attitudes and diversified religions.
1. From his initial commission, Jonah's mind was preoccupied with the alternatives that could deter the salvation of Nineveh from taking place. The booth built on the east of the city was one such alternative that he made to witness what would become of the city. We see his message of doom being used an instrument of bringing a population of more than 1,20,000 persons and cattle to repentance. Yet it affects Jonah exceedingly. Ignorance causes a person to be affected exceedingly. Chapter 4 displays the extreme attitude of a narrow minded believer which gets confronted by a conversation that is both rational and emotionally charged.
2. Being the prophet of Yahweh in an alien nation which had caused atrocities to befall his nation, the attitude of prophet Jonah seems plausible and convincing. It is God's intervention through the appointments of the plant and the worm that bring him to terms with his haughtiness over his own appointment. It is the arrogance of being appointed to be God's people which had been Israel's undoing within God's magnificent plan of redeeming the whole of creation. Undergoing the ridicule that he would face for bringing the people of Nineveh to safety when he could have been their nemesis must have caused this outburst. Yahweh's heart is seen to encompass a worm's i.e. Jonah's haughty attitude to being used for a different purpose other than destruction and decay.
PRAYER 
O Lord do not let my ignorance and arrogance cause a dent in the redemption of my neighbors and the ones who have caused me pain hut let me be humble enough to value your appointment of me as a witness in your world, Amen.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

The more humble we are to receive correction the more capable we are to grow.
Christian Education Forum, Diocese of NAE of the Mar Thoma Church


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