Locations & Times

What did the fish do with Jonah? (The fish spit him out onto dry land.)

What did God ask Jonah to do? (go to Nineveh)

Did Jonah obey? (Yes!)

Read: Jonah 3-4

When Jonah ended up back on dry land after his adventure in the fish, he headed straight to Nineveh to do what God asked in the first place. And when Jonah began speaking God’s truth to the people in this evil city, something incredible happened. They listened. They repented. And God had mercy on them. The problem was, this was exactly why Jonah had such a sour attitude about going to Nineveh in the first place.

It’s funny, isn’t it? The same mercy and grace that saved Jonah’s life made him bitter as he watched it play out in other people’s lives. Jonah was angry at God’s compassion. It is really easy to judge Jonah. But when we’re honest, we judge Jonah because there’s a part of each of us that is exactly like him. Do we get angry at God’s compassion and grace for the people who hurt us? Are we uncomfortable with the fact that God loves our enemies?

Jonah was right to obey God in the end. But he stopped way short of the finish line. After all God had done, showing grace to Jonah and immense compassion to Nineveh, Jonah looked at God and said, “I’m so angry I wish I were dead.”

Jonah’s bitter response meant that he missed an amazing truth about God. There’s this miraculous, although uncomfortable thing that happens when we start to embrace the reality of God’s undeserved love. If we can’t be at the top of our own ladder, achieving God’s love, then we also can’t be at the bottom of it, unworthy of God’s love. If we’re all disqualified, then we’re also all qualified. It’s the backwards way of grace and the wonderful truth of God’s love for us.

We all want hearts that are too full of compassion to have a ranking system, but like Jonah, we are bent towards disobedience, running away in fear of exposure, and anger at our enemies. We need God to give us a new heart. Thankfully for us, that is exactly what he promises.

“I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart,” Ezekiel 36:26.

Where in your life do you need God to give you more compassion and grace for others?

Who do you see the way Jonah saw the people of Nineveh—as disqualified for God’s love? Pray that God would give you a new heart for this person/these people.