Jonah is one of the more colorful characters in the Old Testament. He boards a ship to escape the call of God, gets thrown overboard in a storm, is swallowed by a BIG fish, finds himself regurgitated by that fish onto the shore, preaches judgment to a sinful people in Nineveh, then wishes he were dead because the God who called Him to preach repentance exhibits grace and saves the very people Jonah came to condemn. In our text today, Jonah doesn't try to hide his disgust with God's grace. He says in verse 2b, "I knew that you are a God who is kind and shows mercy. You don't become angry quickly, and you have great love. I knew you would choose not to cause harm." I knew it...I knew you would cave in...those people deserved judgement and you showed them mercy!!! How could you do that? That's not the way I would have done it! What's next...are you going to give and give and give until you have given everything to a people who deserve nothing good from you? The question of a righteous man...
God answered such a question in the affirmative when God gave His one and only Son...that whoever believed in Him would not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved." (John 3:16b-17) Grace abounds for the unrighteous and the righteous. We, like Jonah, do not always understand the grace of God, particularly when it is offered to those we deem unworthy. The truth for Jonah, and for us, however, was and is that none of us are worthy of God's love. Where sin abounds...so too does God's grace.
Therefore, with the apostle Paul, let us proclaim, "Thanks be to God for his gift that is too wonderful for words!" (II Corinthians 9:15) Amen.
Jim Abernathy
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