God’s Grace, Mercy And Compassion For All
As I was writing this message, my hometown basketball team made one of the great playoff comebacks in NBA history. I had given up on the game and turned it off at halftime. But the Pistons never gave up. They came back from 22 points down at the half, and won by 14. Epic! In Jonah 3:1–5; 4:6–11, God sends Jonah to preach to the people of Nineveh and offer them the opportunity to repent and avoid destruction. Jonah didn’t want to go. Instead, he wanted God to destroy them, not save them. But God didn’t want to give up on them, and because they repented, they were saved. They too were His creation and He cared for them. I pray that we would have God’s compassion and desire that all would come to Him and be saved…even those we may think of as our enemies. Amen
Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time: “Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.”
Jonah obeyed the word of the LORD and went to Nineveh. Now Nineveh was a very large city; it took three days to go through it. Jonah began by going a day’s journey into the city, proclaiming, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.” The Ninevites believed God. A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth. (Jonah 3:1–5)
Jonah attempted to run and resist God’s first call (see Jonah chapters 1 and 2). But God in his great love for us is the God of another chance, and He is long suffering in His desire to see us move in obedience to His call. And so, Jonah responded obediently to God’s second call to go and preach in Nineveh. There, he preached God’s word of warning to Nineveh. In response, the king and the people heard God’s warning, believed in God and repented.
Then the LORD God provided a leafy plant and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the plant. But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the plant so that it withered. When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die, and said, “It would be better for me to die than to live.”
But God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?”
“It is,” he said. “And I’m so angry I wish I were dead.” (Jonah 4:6–9)
After Nineveh repented and God spared them, Jonah became very angry with God because God spared them from destruction. So, God prepared an object lesson for Jonah. He made a leafy plant grow over Jonah’s head to give him a cool place to rest. Then God sent a worm to destroy the plant. And finally, God sent a scorching wind that caused Jonah great discomfort. Jonah then became angry about the plant’s destruction. In his anger over God’s choice to destroy the plant and to save Nineveh, Jonah prayed that he would just die. But God asked him if it was right for him to be angry about the plant that he didn’t create. Jonah’s angry response was the same response we might sometimes have when God doesn’t do what we think He should do, particularly regarding other people.
But the LORD said, “You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?” (Jonah 4:10–11)
God’s lesson for Jonah and for us, is that He has love and compassion for everyone that He has made. We shouldn’t care more about temporal things than God cares about our eternal souls. We sometimes feel that we have the right to be angry at God regarding His will and His desire that all should be saved… especially if we see them as our evil enemies. Jonah cared more about the death of a plant that lived for just a day, than he did about the souls of the 120 thousand people who lived in Nineveh. God wants us to have His same compassion and love to share the gospel message of His grace, mercy and salvation with whomever He sends us to.
Conclusion
God will sometimes call us to do things that we don’t understand and we don’t want to do. Like share His word with people outside of our comfort zone, especially those we think of as our enemies. Certainly, they deserve punishment, not salvation… right? But God’s thoughts are above our thoughts and His ways are above our ways. And as a result, we may not understand His purposes for calling us to do what He has assigned to us. But the story of Jonah challenges us to be obedient anyway.
Jonah didn’t want to go to Nineveh, because he knew that the Assyrians were Israel’s enemies and therefore a threat to them. He was right! The Assyrians eventually did invade and conquer Israel, taking the people into captivity. And after their captivity, Israel would never be the same.
That is why Jonah was so mad at Nineveh’s repentance and God’s mercy in not destroying them. God’s point to Jonah was that He made Nineveh (and Assyria) and He would do with them as He determined for His purpose. They were His creation too. If it is His will that He allows even the worst sinner to repent and come to Him for salvation, do we have the right to be angry with Him about that? They are His creation too. He is God over all creation, even those we may deem to be unworthy of His compassion, grace, mercy and salvation. So, the next time God calls you to share His word with someone you dislike, remember the lesson of Jonah. And determine to align yourself with God’s compassionate grace and mercy to offer salvation to all. Amen
Blessings,
Rev. Glenn
