messy heart.

Throughout Scripture, God parallels nations with individuals. For example, the whole Old Testament is the story of Israel, God’s chosen people, and how they continue to rebel and how He continues to show grace. This parallels the way He cares for and pursues each of us individually. The book of Jonah is no exception. If you’ve heard of the story of Jonah, you probably are thinking it’s about a big fish. But in actuality the focal points of Jonah are God’s pursuit of Nineveh (a city) and His pursuit of Jonah (a person).

A quick rundown of the story goes as follows: God asks Jonah to go preach God’s word to Nineveh (a sleezy city. Think Vegas). Jonah runs away. Literally. Buys a ticket for a ship [midnight train] going anywhere. (Don’t stop believing.) So God brings a storm and the crew of the ship figures out that Jonah brought the storm on them. (These guys believe in bad luck, casting lots, etc.) So Jonah fesses up and lets them throw him overboard so they can be saved. Then— and I love how this is written in Scripture— God had *appointed* a fish to swallow Jonah. Not to punish him, but rather to keep him safe from the sea and give him a little time to think. When Jonah had surrendered to the idea of preaching to save Nineveh, he was spit out onto shore. So Jonah tells the city of Nineveh about the Lord, and lo and behold, they repent! The King issues a decree that the whole place should fast and repent of their sinful ways. And get this. Jonah is pissed. He says to God, in so many words, ’I knew you were going to forgive them. Why did you send me all the way up here. You are a God of mercy and that’s why I ran away.’ Pretty much, this is the religious kid that’s pissed about God loving the nonreligious kid. Familiar, huh. So the story gets better. Jonah hikes up to pout somewhere and watch to see if God randomly decides to blow the city up anyways. (He doesn’t.) But in the mean time, God *appoints* a plant to sprout up and give Jonah shade. Jonah is obviously happy about this. But when Jonah wakes up in the morning, the plant has withered. Jonah gets so angry about being hot while he’s pouting that he literally tells God he is angry enough to die. This is where God comes in with one of his awesome sarcastic argument winners. “You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?”  Hahaha. ‘Jonah, you’re a baby. You are angry enough to kill yourself over a weed that you didn’t even try taking care of. But I made every single person in that city, shouldn’t I care if they destroy themselves??’

Now, looking at the big picture. It is clear that God’s intent for Nineveh was to be saved. He intentionally sent a prophet out to them to tell them how to be saved, to tell them to stop raping and killing each other and seek the Lord. Clearly His intention was not to just destroy the city. But He also had some tough love in mind for Jonah. If God were less loving, He could have let Jonah drown on that ship, or be eaten by the fish, or be mobbed in Nineveh. Or worse, He could have let Jonah run away and never again associate with Jonah. But God loved Jonah, and took the time to cleverly discipline Him. God, who doesn’t need Jonah, watches Jonah reject Him, run away from Him, lie to Him, disobey Him, and He STILL doesn’t write Jonah off. Not only does He forgive Jonah, but He allows Jonah to be the messenger of God’s Holy Word. What amazing love! What forgiveness! God pursued this sinner and lovingly taught him. As a Christian today, so often I believe that God couldn’t use me because of my sin. Not only CAN God use me, He WILL use me. Despite my sin. God loves me enough to chase me, teach me, correct me, and still use this broken vessel to share His Word. How crazy!

Poet Robert Frost said, “after Jonah, you could never trust God NOT to be merciful again.” Jonah had hoped for some action. He had put trust in God not saving Nineveh so that his trip would be ‘worth it.’ Maybe some fire or explosions to destroy the city. What a proud snob. But in reality, God was showing great mercy to Jonah himself. Even now, we can’t trust God NOT to show mercy to sinners. Including us. How freaking amazing is that. Thank you Jesus Christ for chasing after us and giving us the forgiveness we run away from.