Jonah 4:9-11
But God said to Jonah, “Do you do well to be angry for the plant?” And he said, “Yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die.” And the Lord said, “You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?”
Tag: Mercy Is At the Heart of God’s Love
Like most Jewish people, Jonah did not believe that Gentiles (anyone who is not a Jew) was worthy of God’s love or grace. The Jews thought they were “special” (chosen by God). When he was sent to Nineveh to offer God’s grace, Jonah rejected that call and ran the other way. Here is why he did so:
Jonah 4:2
And he prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster.
Jonah did not want the grace of God to be shared with a Gentile nation. Yet, as we see in the top verse, God did. God wanted to share His grace. To demonstrate this to Jonah, God created a plant to keep Jonah cool from the summer heat. God then destroyed the plant (God can do what He wills). Yet, Jonah was upset. God uses the plant to show Jonah his hypocrisy and evilness. He was concerned about a plant but not the people of Nineveh.
God is concerned about the lost and we should carry the same desire. Here is what Peter said, centuries later:
2 Peter 3:9
The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
Every believer should ask if we want out creature comforts over taking a risk to speak the gospel to an unsaved and evil world?
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