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Jonah 4 - Full of Mercy

This concluding chapter of Jonah contains the payoff - the big picture of God that somehow has been overlooked by the doom and gloom crowd.

Jonah 4:2 So he complained to the LORD about it: "Didn't I say before I left home that you would do this, LORD? That is why I ran away to Tarshish! I knew that you were a gracious and compassionate God, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. I knew how easily you could cancel your plans for destroying these people.

Do you see it? The reason Jonah disobeyed God was because he didn't want Nineveh to be saved. He wanted Nineveh destroyed. God had to slap him upside the head with some seaweed to get his attention.  Jonah knew God is gracious and compassionate... filed with unfailing love - and he wasn't happy about it.

I just don't understand why the Old Testament is so commonly portrayed as a book about an angry God? It is, as is the rest of the Bible, a love story. It is about a father wanting his children to listen and do right. At times he must correct and punish, at times he allows natural consequences to do the job. But always, always, he is there waiting to embrace and take them back.

Father, thank You for Your unfailing love. In Jesus' name, Amen.

He loves you. Jan
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Jonah 3 - Nature of God

This chapter and the following one encapsulate the nature of God. Something that somehow is missed by so many. It is that God loves to rescue, to restore, to heal. He wants a relationship.

Jonah 3:10 When God saw that they had put a stop to their evil ways, he had mercy on them and didn't carry out the destruction he had threatened.

He is mercy. God doesn't just have mercy, He is mercy. How have we missed that? What would be the point of Jonah going to Nineveh if God wasn't giving them an opportunity to repent? God is not is the business of gloating. "Ha, ha, in forty days I'm going to wipe you out and you can't stop Me." No, that is not God. His proclamations are calls to change. The word of God is replete in encounters where God issued a judgment and the people repented, thus God relented. His nature is Holy, His nature is justice, yet His nature is also love, compassion, and mercy. And mercy wins over judgment every time - if it is accepted.

Thank You Lord for this story. Thank You that Nineveh did repent. Thank You that You are indeed the personification of mercy. In Jesus' name, Amen.

He delights in Mercy. Jan
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Jonah 2 - Desperate

The stories of people finally coming to their senses when they are down and out, at their wits end are legendary. Jonah's time in the belly of the fish is just such a story.

Jonah 2:7 "When I had lost all hope, I turned my thoughts once more to the LORD. And my earnest prayer went out to you in your holy Temple.

But you don't have to be down and out on skid-row, contemplating life looking down the neck of a whiskey bottle to have lost all hope. You can be like I was, alone after many years of marriage, depressed, suicidal thoughts dancing in my brain. Even though I was a Christian, my thoughts were not to the Lord. No, they were to me and my pleasures, my entertainment and comforts. I was living for me, performing only perfunctory service to God. I was lukewarm.

God will not be ignored and because He loves us, He will discipline His children.

Thank God that He brought me down to the depths. I now know the result of a life lived for me. It took me to the depths of despair. However, when my earnest prayer went out to Him, He reached down and lifted me out of the mire and set my feet on His path! Oh, what joy no fills my soul!

Father, thank You for not letting me continue in my complacency. Thank You for the wake up. May I ever remain conscious of Your grace. In Jesus' name, Amen.

He restores! Jan
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Jonah 1 - Escape?

This is my favorite book of the bible. I see something new in it every time I read it. It boggles my mind that a person to whom the Lord speaks to personally would actually go in the exact opposite direction of where God told him to go.

Jonah 1:3 But Jonah got up and went in the opposite direction in order to get away from the LORD. He went down to the seacoast, to the port of Joppa, where he found a ship leaving for Tarshish. He bought a ticket and went on board, hoping that by going away to the west he could escape from the LORD.

He actually thought that he could escape from the Lord. Wow. But then again, how many times in my life have I done the same? How often have I engaged in sin as if the Lord didn't see, as if I wasn't dragging Jesus with me into the mud? He lives in me, and I in Him. Therefore there is no escape. And how long, oh how long before I came to my senses and repented?

Jonah 1:12 "Throw me into the sea," Jonah said, "and it will become calm again. For I know that this terrible storm is all my fault."

Rather than repent, rather than call out to God - the sailors did - Jonah would rather be thrown overboard to his death. That is one stubborn man.

Father, please forgive me for ignoring Your voice so often. May I quickly repent. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Obey, Jan
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