Nineveh Repents and God Shows Mercy

Jonah finally came to Nineveh and proclaimed that in forty more days the city would be overthrown. To everyone's surprise, from the king down to the common people, everyone put on sackcloth, sat in ashes, fasted, prayed, and truly turned back to God. When God saw that they had turned from their evil ways, He did not bring disaster on them. But Jonah was furious; he thought God should not have forgiven His enemies. God made a vine grow up to shade Jonah, and then made a worm kill it, in order to teach him: God had mercy on Nineveh, on its one hundred and twenty thousand little children who could not tell their right hand from their left, and on all its many animals — that love is far more precious than a single plant. God shows us how wide His grace is: anyone who truly repents can receive His forgiveness and mercy.