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God's Mercy
Jonah 3.10
Good News Translation (GNT)
10 God saw what they did; he saw that they had given up
their wicked behaviour. So he changed his mind
and did not punish them as he had said he would.
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'Compiled from from the 'word-on-the-web' supplied by Scripture Union
God's Mercy
In this chapter we read that,
at the repentance of the Ninevites,
God relented concerning the punishment
he had threatened to bring upon them.
Jonah wants a God of fixed boundaries,
who punishes evil,
who has favourites,
who fits his expectations.
God is too good to allow this,
so he uses Jonah's circumstances
and even physical discomfort
to challenge Jonah's attitude
and help him grow in his understanding
of and appreciation for God's love and grace.
Do I doubt God's forgiveness?
Am I sure that, if I repent,
God will forgive?
Or do I feel that what I've done
(especially given that I'm a believer, perhaps)
is a bit too hard to forgive?
Chapter 3 verse 10 tells us, of course,
that God did relent.
If God can forgive oppressive tyrants
and cruel kings,
then he can forgive me.
How often do we hear expressions like
'how could God let this happen?'
Most of us have sometimes expressed
such thoughts
and known those who have
even given up their faith
because of resentment against God.
We can sympathise with the strength
of Jonah's feelings here,
but it is interesting that his anger
was not because God allowed him
to be thrown into the sea
or swallowed by a fish,
but because God had forgiven Nineveh.
He had expected this to happen -
but he really, really did not like it.
Nineveh did not deserve mercy,
and therefore God was quite wrong
to show it to them!
The irony of the fact that Jonah himself
had been shown undeserved mercy
seems to have been lost on him.
Like almost every other human being
Jonah classified sins.
The lesson that all sin offends
against God's righteousness -
and a leaky jug is useless
whether the hole is tiny or big -
is a hard one to learn.
What is encouraging here
is the further trouble that God takes
to get his point across to Jonah.
It was important, to God,
that Jonah understood what God was doing and why.
Jonah was upset when a plant died
because it could no longer shelter him.
At no time does Jonah stop to consider
the plight of the people of Nineveh.
Surely he could understand that
God was upset when a city
had to be destroyed
so the possibility of them serving him was lost?
People and their salvation really matter to God.
At the end of the story,
God provides a tree to give shade to Jonah
and then he removes it.
Disproportionately angry
over the fact that the tree,
that sheltered, him has gone,
Jonah has lost all perspective.
God's concern, however,
is for the survival and welfare of others,
human and animal.
The book of Jonah invites the prophet
and the reader to share God's concern,
to disregard our selfish preoccupations
and live compassionately
and generously toward all in God's world.
Other versions are available here
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