Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.” – Jonah 3:9

Today’s Scripture Reading (June 17, 2013): Jonah 3 & 4

I recently read Todd Burpo’s book “Heaven is for Real” for a Hot Topics discussion night. I am still not sure that I agree with the basic premise of the book, but I do agree that God moved in a miraculous way in young Colton’s life. But it hit me how often the worst that could happen, was exactly what did happen in the story. Mom and Dad were afraid that Colton’s appendix had burst, even when the doctor’s at the hospital indicated that that was not the case – only to find out that Colton’s appendix had indeed burst. The scene in the story where the family finally gets to go home, and they get all of their stuff packed up and get to the elevator doors only to find out that the infection has spread – and they are not going home. And again, it may have not been voiced, but this was the moment that mom and dad would have feared.

A couple of years ago, I was in the hospital and the guy in the bed across me actually experienced the “you’re going home – you’re not going home” scenario. He was actually from a small town in the north country, a couple of hours away from the hospital. And in the morning he was told that he was going home – and he phoned a friend to get someone to drive down to the hospital to pick him up, but by the time the friend arrived to take him home the prognosis had changed and he was no longer allowed to leave the hospital. And when that happens to you, it plays with your mind and your expectations.

Jonah finally gets to Nineveh and speaks God’s message to the people. Miraculously, the people actually listened to Jonah, and the king heard the message of Jonah and issues his own decree to the people. The message of the king to the people is that they should repent, because maybe even now God will relent and not bring judgment on the nation. And that was exactly the message that Jonah feared the most. He wanted Nineveh to pay for their evil, and he feared that God was a merciful God who would refuse to send calamity in the final frame.

Some experts have said that Jonah would have been a good evangelist because he knew firsthand the effects of repentance and the mercy available from God. But I think the truth was the reverse. Jonah knew the mercy of God and therefore he did not want to be the missionary to Nineveh. And the message that he preached, he probably spoke to fulfill the letter of the command of God, but no more than that. What the king suspected, Jonah knew was true. God was a merciful God, full of grace and forgiveness that was available even to the evil people of Nineveh. And that knowledge filled Jonah with fear – not hope.   

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Amos 1