One of my favorite books of the Bible that I’ve not yet taught through is Jonah. Besides being beautifully and creatively written, it’s a powerful study of God’s character. Throughout the Old Testament, we often read that God is “a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness” (Jonah 4:2 NKJV; Exodus 34:6). Throughout this book’s narrative, this aspect of God’s character is shown repeatedly.
Mercy in His Pursuit
Jonah, despite being a prophet of God, resisted God. When God commanded him to go and warn the Ninevites of the wrath to come (Jonah 1:2), the prophet instead fled on a ship sailing to Tarshish (1:3). Yet, God was kind to him—gracious and merciful. Where he could have destroyed Jonah, God pursued him, even causing a great storm to overtake the ship.
God showed mercy again as, when Jonah admitted that he was the cause and was thrown overboard, the storm ceased immediately. God spared the lives of the sailors and passengers—all of whom recognized the power of Jonah’s God (1:10).
And God’s mercy—his lovingkindness—was shown to Jonah again as God caused a great fish to swallow him, sparing the prophet’s life. And this kindness was compounded not simply because of the appearance of this mysterious sea creature, but because Jonah didn’t die inside of it!
Mercy in Jonah’s Repentance
It’s no wonder that, in light of God’s mercy, Jonah responded with a repentant prayer. He praised God as the only one worthy of worship and vowed to worship him alone, while also including a warning that those who worship idols “forsake their own mercy” (2:8 NKJV). And as he ended his prayer, he said, “Salvation is of the Lord” (2:9 NKJV)—it comes from him alone.
Jonah was right, of course. Salvation belongs to God. And this means God has the right to be gracious to whom he will be gracious and show compassion to whom he will show compassion (Exodus 33:19). “The sovereign Lord acts according to his good pleasure—either in judgment or in grace.”1
This is exactly what God did in showing compassion to Jonah in sparing him from death. And it’s what he would do again when Jonah finally arrived in Nineveh.
Mercy in Jonah’s Preaching
Jonah arrived in Nineveh, but it was obvious that he had no interest in calling the Ninevites to repentance. After all, these were vile and wicked people—cruel and vindictive to their enemies. So all he said to them was, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown” (Jonah 3:4 NKJV). That was all we’re told that Jonah said. And after he delivered this message of doom, he left town to sit and wait to see what God would do.
And this is how gracious and merciful God showed himself to be. Without, apparently, being offered a call to repentance, when the Ninevites heard Jonah’s warning, they repented. They believed God, put on sackcloth, and proclaimed a fast (3:5). Seeing this, God “relented from the disaster that He had said He would bring upon them” (3:10).
Mercy in Jonah’s Anger
When Jonah became angry because the people were not destroyed, his reason had everything to do with God’s character. “I know that You are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, One who relents from doing harm’ (4:2 NKJV). But God once again put his character on display. He caused a plant to grow to give Jonah shade while he waited for judgment to come (4:6). But more than that, he questioned Jonah, encouraging the wayward prophet to think about the Ninevites from God’s perspective, these people who could not “discern between their right hand and their left” (4:11 NKJV).
Mercy in the Message
Jonah is a short book, one that is easy to read, but its message is challenging. It’s one that serves to remind us of our need for God’s grace and mercy and how he has already lavished it upon us. Apart from God’s grace in Christ, we are just as hopeless and wicked as the Ninevites were—doomed to destruction. We should be grateful for this. (I know I am.)
We are also just as prone to be as petulant as Jonah, and to become angry with God when he doesn’t act the way we want him to. But because he is good to us, he doesn’t do what we want. He always does what is right, even if we don’t understand it. And this too, should lead us to be grateful.
And the mercy in the message of Jonah reminds us that no one is outside the reach of God’s grace—not even those we think are most deserving of his wrath. God is better than that. He shows mercy to whom he shows mercy; he shows compassion to whom he shows compassion (Exodus 33:19). He desires that people will come to repentance. And he wants us to desire the same.
- Billy K. Smith and Franklin S. Page, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, vol. 19B (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1995), 237. ↩︎
Image credit: Gustave Doré, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Thank you brother. This is a very good word. This helps correct my focus from Jonah as the main character to the God of Jonah who is rich in mercy.