Passage Read: Jonah 1-4
Meditation Verse: 4:2
Thought
Jonah at first refused to obey the Lord, fleeing in the opposite direction, but God wouldn't let him off. Whether in wrath to destroy or just pressure to bring Jonah to repentance, God sent a mighty wind against the ship, so that all despaired of life. In the moment, Jonah was happy to sacrifice himself for the sake of the sailors, and the circumstances ended up a witness and testimony to them of the truth of the Lord! Jonah's unwillingness to warn the Ninevites became a testimony to these sailors. But God wasn't done. As Jonah sank down, he regretted his coming death and prayed for mercy, which God granted. So Jonah experienced the same mercy that he wanted to deny to the Ninevites and inadvertantly brought to the sailors! God relented of destroying Jonah, and Jonah was glad for that. And fully understanding God's willingness to save repentant sinners, Jonah hated the thought of warning the Ninevites, but he did it. Jonah hated the Ninevites and wanted them destroyed.
Application
We justify our hatred of certain people; we have our reasons. Jonah hated the Ninevites for how they attacked and oppressed his people and led them to worship other gods. Jonah was jealous for his own people, for God's people. So is God. But God's people were rebellious and unrepentant, so God sent Jonah to prophesy to them and call them to repentance. God brought the Assyrians against Israel to punish and humiliate them in hope that they would return to the Lord and seek His favor. He didn't hate the Ninevites; rather, in God's original plan, an obedient Israel was to be a witness and testimony even to the Assyrians, that they might seek the Lord too! So it turns out that the Assyrians weren't the villains, but the Israelites were! Not villains that God absolutely hated, but people who needed repentance. Jonah's hatred was unjustified in God's eyes. If God loved His own people in their rebellion, shouldn't He also love others who were rebellious in ignorance? He had always desired the repentance of the nations, and an obedient and blessed Israel was supposed to be His means to bring that about! But His mercy could still be offered, even if Israel was not the model they were supposed to be. Jonah couldn't get past his hated, as far as the Scripture testifies. Can I? Can I accept that God wants to use me as a witness even to people who are my enemies--enemies perhaps because God is using them to discipline me? I need mercy and I know stuff about God! How about those who do wrong because they have no clue who God is? I need to be willing to extend God's mercy to them, even as I plead for it for myself.