THE GOD OF COMPASSION
Jonah 1-4
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.”
God’s relationship with Jonah is truly fascinating. Jonah knew God to be “the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land”, yet he felt free to be totally honest, totally real, before God; even free to be angry at God.
God must have known how Jonah felt about Nineveh. Likely there were many prayers offered, asking God to destroy this great nation that was threatening the very existence of Israel. As the sin of Nineveh piled up, hopes were high that God would indeed act against it.
And so when God sent Jonah to preach against it, Jonah didn’t want to. He wanted no warning, no second chance; he wanted God to destroy Nineveh for her sins.
Clearly Jonah did not count on God pursuing him. He knew he had gone too far; yet, in the belly of the fish, he asked for a second chance. And God gave him that chance and repeated his instructions which Jonah this time complied with. But when Nineveh responded to the message in repentance and God relented, Jonah was upset again.
“I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.”
Jonah wanted God to be gracious and compassionate to him and his country; but not to his enemies. Here lies the error in Jonah’s relationship with God.
Jonah exists to serve God; God does not exist to serve Jonah.
Perhaps at some point we need to examine our own attitude and relationship with God and learn to see things from his point of view. Perhaps we need to see in the things that are happening to us and around us God’s hand and intentions to help us grow out of the restrictions of our presumptions and our self-centred point of view. Perhaps we need to see how even as we think we are serving him (or not serving him as in the case of Jonah) that he is actually graciously serving us and teaching us. But at some point, we need to realise that he is the centre of the universe, not us; his concerns matter for all, and for eternity, while ours often matter only to us, and only for a fleeting moment.
This story of God teaching Jonah patiently is a wonderful lesson in how God may act in our lives. But for me, my heart is drawn to that group of sailors who did not want to kill an innocent man. Somehow God arranged it for Jonah to be on their ship and in the course of Jonah’s journey, these sailors came to know of “the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.” Even when he was running away, God could still use Jonah to accomplish his purpose. What a wonderful God we serve!
“At this the men greatly feared the Lord, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows to him.”