Today I was wondering, “Why do the people in Nineveh involve the beasts, herds, and flocks in their fasting and donning sackcloth?”

I discovered that it is because non-human creation is the exemplar of worship.

Humanity stubbornly resists glorifying God, but all non-human creation intuitive and insatiably renders all glory to God (e.g. sun, moon, stars, outer space, the sky, rain clouds, ponds, lakes, rivers, seas, sea creatures, fire, hail, snow, mist, stormy winds, mountains, hills, fruit trees, cedar trees, wild beasts, domesticated beasts, creeping things, birds, etc. [#Psalm148]). All non-human creation inherently and indelibly testifies to the fact that God commands their existence, and they are incessantly fulfilling His Word. All non-human creation is, all-the-time, incontrovertibly bearing witness to God’s invisible attributes, His eternal power, and His divine nature [#Romans1]. Humanity has taken pains to promote the absurd idea that they are self-determined and self-sufficient, and yet – literally EVERYTHING around them pours forth speech, revelation, and knowledge contradicting man’s asinine claims [#Psalm19].

The people of Nineveh are a picture of what happens when humanity is brought to their senses, and arrives at the joyful decision to murder the myth of autonomy. [#Matthew12:41&Romans8:23,26]

The people of Nineveh are no longer pretending to be big. They have become like children. They’re like needy infants, and they’re hungry to be helped and trained in the ways of true worship. Now having an awareness of their treason, and being awakened to the wreckage their treason has wrought, the first act of worship is to groan; and being like children, they need an example to follow …and the whole of creation stands ready to lead [#Romans8].