Jonah 3:5  And the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and everyone, great and small, put on sackcloth.

The people of Nineveh deserved judgment for their evil ways. But when the people of Nineveh heard the message of judgment, which Jonah was commanded by the Lord to deliver, they repented. The whole city fasted and put on sackcloth and sat in ashes as a sign of their repentance. But more than that, they believed God.

Their believing was very much like that of Abraham, who was without offspring of his own for quite some time. In the midst of great despair and an uncertain future, Abraham even considered God as one who defaulted on his promise. Abraham was commanded to come out of his tent of despair, and to look up to the heavens and count the stars. In the vastness of the stars of the universe, the Lord said to Abraham, "So shall your descendants be." Abraham "believed the Lord, and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness" (Genesis 15:5,6)

Judgment, even our own, only puts us and others down and leaves us unable to rise from our failure. But God has greater things in mind. Even the people of Nineveh are among those descendants who believed in God. So are we as we look with eyes of trust to the Seed of Abraham on the cross, through whom we do not perish but find grace and mercy.

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