Jonah 4

Last Sunday we concluded our series in Jonah, seeing Jonah’s reaction to God’s mercy. In this rather uncomfortable final chapter, Jonah exposes our hearts by exposing his own: he sees God’s staggering mercy and grace towards guilty Nineveh, and he hates it.

Who are our ‘Ninevites’? Who do we consider to be so wicked – so proudly rebellious – that it’d make us angry if God were to relent from the disaster they deserve? As people who have ourselves received mercy, does God’s mercy ever seem evil to us?
Or do we ever shy away from evangelism, wanting to preserve our churches as a comfortable social club, rather than getting on board with God’s mission?

The book of Jonah leaves us with a powerful and double-edged motivation for evangelism: people are very lost, and very valuable. Let’s pray for a right compassion that drives us out to join in the mission of our God, the LORD – a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster.