Continued from yesterday. Now the Lord had arranged for a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was inside the fish three days and three nights. Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from inside the fish: "In my great trouble I cried to the Lord and He answered me; from the depths of death I called, and Lord, You heard me! You threw me into the ocean depths; I sank down into the floods of waters and was covered by Your wild and stormy waves . . . When my life had almost gone, I remembered the Lord. Lord, I prayed to You. And You heard my prayers in Your Holy Temple. People who worship useless idols give up their loyalty to You. Lord, I will praise and thank You while I give sacrifices to You. I will make promises to You. And I will do what I promise. Salvation comes from the Lord!" Then the Lord spoke to the fish. And the fish spit Jonah out of its stomach onto the dry land. Then the Lord spoke His word to Jonah again. The Lord said, "Get up. Go to the great city, Nineveh. Preach against it what I tell you."

   So Jonah obeyed the Lord. He got up and went to Nineveh. It was a very large city. It took a person three days just to walk across it. But the very first day when Jonah entered the city and began to preach, the people repented. Jonah shouted to the crowds that gathered around him, "Forty days from now Nineveh will be destroyed!"

   And they believed him and declared a fast; from the king on down, everyone put on sackcloth - the rough, coarse garments worn at times of mourning. For when the king of Nineveh heard what Jonah was saying, he stepped down from his throne and laid aside his royal robes and put on sackcloth and sat in ashes.

   And the king and his nobles sent this message throughout the city: "Let no one, not even the animals, eat anything at all, nor even drink any water. Everyone must wear sackcloth and cry mightily to God, and let everyone turn from his evil ways, from his violence and robbing. Who can tell? Perhaps even yet God will decide to let us live, and will hold back His fierce anger from destroying us." And when God saw that they had put a stop to their evil ways, He abandoned His plan to destroy them, and didn't carry it through.

Taken from Jonah 2, 3, The Everyday Bible and The Living Bible.
For free Lifescope book, write to Box 1575, Carlsbad, NM 88221.
Please send $1.00 for postage and handling.