“What is that smell?!” If he’d heard it once that day, he had heard it 20 times! He knew that he smelled… for goodness sake, he had bathed 4 times that morning… and still… yep… he stunk. He stunk bad! But it wasn’t his fault… not really… well… maybe, kind of… indirectly, but what could one expect? After all, he had been inside the stomach of a fish for three stinking days (no pun intended). Couldn’t these folks at least be grateful that he was finally in Nineveh preaching about the importance of repentance? Why bring up the obvious and add further shame to his already pathetic week. He was God’s messenger! Albeit, a reluctant one.
And you would think… you would think… the fact that he smelled and was a reluctant messenger wouldn’t ultimately matter to him because, wonder of wonders, the people of Nineveh received the message from the Lord and they actually repented! Surely enduring a little fish gut smell was worth it because people had turned to God! What a victory! God’s power unleashed! Salvation comes in the name of the Lord! And what of Jonah? He sits under the shade of a plant angry at God for allowing the people of Nineveh to repent.
Jonah… Jonah… Jonah. How can someone be so hardhearted? How can someone revile a certain people so much that he would rather see them turned into Holy French Fries than experience the lovingkindness of God? “He prayed to the Lord, “Isn’t this what I said, Lord, when I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. Now, Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.” Jonah 4:2-3
(Editor’s Note Here: Ok, I know the Holy Smack really isn’t a biblical thing, but If I was there Jonah would have gotten one!) Really? Jonah: “I know that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love” (and dog gone it — you just proved it and I’m so ticked off!) Did he even consider his own wretched soul’s condition? Did God rescue him? Did God demonstrate graciousness and compassion to Jonah? Was he slow to anger and abounding in love when he caused that giant fish to puke out Jonah rather than let it digest him? (It probably would have gotten indigestion).
Sure God was loving and compassionate, and you had better believe Jonah knew it… but the bottom line for Jonah was that some people deserved the mercy and grace of God… and others… did… not. I don’t know about you, but I am so grateful that God is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, because I need to experience all of these things.
So, today I am pondering, who are the folks that some Christians today don’t think are worthy of God’s compassion and grace? Atheists? The evolutionist? People who are pro-abortion? What about the LGBTQ community? Muslims? Let’s remember the lesson from Jonah. The Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love. Why? Because he desires to see everyone repent. No one is too far gone for God to rescue. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. John 3:16-17
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