Sparing Ninevah

 He knew God.

    -knew that He was kind.

That's why he didn't want to go. 

Ninevah deserved the worst. They deserved punishment. The city was filled with wickedness. The opposite of a God-fearing nation. -evil and violent. A bully of a nation. Strong and powerful. 

Wouldn't it be great to sit and watch them finally get what was coming to them?

Vengeance belongs to the Lord! Do it God! Give them what they've been asking for!

He knew they would listen and be sorry - for a while. They would cry. -make promises...

Ugh!

God would give them another chance.

Which means: The bullies would get another chance to destroy the world!

Why did they love violence so much?

Give them a taste of their own medicine! 

Maybe, if he didn't warn them, they would be caught off-guard. No time to repent. 

So, he left. As far away from Ninevah as he could get. 

He ran.

He hid.

He ignored.

But God didn't see things the way Jonah saw them. God saw people who were ignorant and vulnerable.

He knew they weren't on top of the world -like everyone seemed to think they were. They were just humans, like you and me, and Jonah. People who could only see things one way and thought that they were in the right. People who had never stopped to think about what was right, or wrong; left, or right. 

How could it be possible for such a strong, powerful group of people to not know the difference between right and left? Surely some of them knew.

"Oh, they KNOW what they are doing is WRONG!"

 Suddenly, it is not Jonah talking, but me, and Ninevah is not the subject.

Do something, God! I will sit here and watch while you take them down.

But HE was done talking.

He was done when he said there were a lot of cows there.

What a strange way to end a conversation. 

I wasn't done.

This couldn't be right.

So, I sat and sulked in the sun, next to my wilted vine.

MY vine?

Why, yes, it was MINE!

I DESERVED shelter from the wind and shade from the sun! All of nature blesses those who are good. 

I looked, in disgust, at the city sprawled out before me. The sights, sounds and even smells violated my senses. 

Go home, Jonah!

Go back to your understanding of how the world should work.

If YOU were God, Jonah, the plant would have lived, and the people would have died!

Why is it so hard to have compassion on the bully?

 Bully? Oh, you mean, Jonah? The one who wanted a whole city to be destroyed.

 No, Jonah wasn't the bully. The king of Ninevah was. But that isn't told in this story. We don't see all of what was before. The images in Jonah's mind when God told him to go. All of the horrible things that Jonah would never be able to unsee or forget when he heard the word: Ninevah. And yet, here God was, not feeling sorry for Jonah. But feeling sorry for -THE BULLY!!!

We are Jonah. More willing to jump into the sea in the middle of a tsunami than to look in the eyes of the one we hate and see a human: made in the image of God. 

Lest you think this means we should allow ourselves to be abused, let me remind you why Jonah was sent: To warn Ninevah that God saw and knew everything they had been doing and was about to destroy them.

Running, hiding and ignoring are natural responses. Jonah wasn't so different from us. 

But God IS very different than us humans. 

He sees things we do not see. He is merciful, gracious and good. 

What if the group of people WE despise- that person, or nation, we wish God would take vengeance on- what if they have an untold story too? A story only God knows. If we knew their story, maybe we would be compassionate too. And maybe, instead of wishing for their demise, we would run to them with the GOOD NEWS!

The message found in Jonah 3 and John 3. The way to LIFE!

By Sarah Whitney 12/5/2024