Tuesday, November 25, 2025
Scripture Readings
- Primary Reading: Jonah 1-4, Micah 1-3
- Secondary Reading: Psalms 136
Devotional Thought
The book of Jonah opens not with a prophet’s vision but with a prophet’s flight. When God commands Jonah to cry against Nineveh, that great city whose wickedness has come up before Him, Jonah rises instead to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. He boards a ship at Joppa, and God sends a great wind into the sea. The mariners, terrified, cast lots, and the lot falls upon Jonah. He confesses, “I am an Hebrew; and I fear the LORD, the God of heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry land.” Yet even after being swallowed by the great fish and praying from its belly, Jonah’s obedience remains begrudging. He preaches to Nineveh, the city repents from the king on his throne to the beasts in the field, and God spares them. But Jonah sits outside the city, angry that God is “a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness.” God’s final question echoes across the chapter: “Should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand?”
Micah, by contrast, stands as a faithful voice in a corrupt age. Prophesying during the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, he declares judgment against Samaria and Jerusalem for idolatry, oppression, and greedy leaders who “covet fields, and take them by violence.” Yet even in Micah’s thundering, mercy glimmers—the LORD will gather the remnant, and His word shall go forth from Zion.
Psalm 136 gathers all of this into a single refrain: “for his mercy endureth for ever.” Twenty-six times the congregation answers the same truth. The God who smote Egypt’s firstborn, divided the Red Sea, led Israel through the wilderness, and slew Sihon and Og is the same God who remembered us in our low estate and giveth food to all flesh. His mercy is not a mood but a covenant steadfastness, woven through judgment and deliverance alike.
As November draws toward its close and Thanksgiving approaches, we do well to number our own Ninevehs—the places we would rather flee than forgive, the people we would rather see judged than saved. Jonah’s story and Micah’s warnings and the psalmist’s refrain all converge on one truth: God’s mercy is not something we earn or control. It endures. It reaches Nineveh. It reaches us.
Reflection
- Where in your life are you running from a mercy God is asking you to extend, like Jonah fleeing to Tarshish rather than carrying grace to Nineveh?
- Psalm 136 repeats “for his mercy endureth for ever” after naming both deliverance and destruction. How does that refrain reshape the way you interpret the hard providences in your own story?
Prayer
O Lord God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land, we confess that we are often more like Jonah than we wish to admit—quick to receive mercy, slow to extend it. Thank You that Your mercy endureth for ever, not because we deserve it, but because You are gracious and slow to anger. Remember us in our low estate, as You remembered Israel in Egypt. Redeem us from our enemies, feed us with daily bread, and give us hearts that rejoice when the Ninevehs of this world repent. Let us give thanks unto the God of gods, for His mercy endureth for ever. Amen.
Psalm Verse
Psalms 136:1 — “O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.”