Dear Ones:
We can very easily get in the way of God’s mercy. How can this be, since He is sovereign and all-mighty? When Jonah was sent by God to preach to the Ninevites, he did not want to go. There arose in his heart what he would later describe as a “lying vanity,” which would move him to brazenly “flee from the presence of God.” This “lying vanity” of which Jonah spoke was a false, twisted view of God…a lie. Because of the untruthful nature of the “thought” or concept of God, it was vain, empty, totally worthless. What specifically was this lying vanity? It was the thought that if he, Jonah, would flee from God, and turn his back on his calling and the specific mission that God had given him, God might take his life, but then, he would not be the instrument of the the mercy of God towards the Ninevites, and spare them judgement. He wanted them to suffer judgement because of the past atrocities that they had committed towards Israel. However, Jonah forgot what he knew to be true of God, specifically as it applied to him, as well as the Ninevites. For as he would later explain to God: “I fled before unto Tarshish: for I KNEW that Thou art a gracious God, and MERCIFUL, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil.” (Jonah 4:2)
We know the story, how that Jonah is singled out to be the problem in the midst of the storm, and is thrown overboard, to be swallowed by a fish. God who prepared the fish, would keep Jonah alive in the belly of that fish for three days, until Jonah would cry out to God, so that He would be MERCIFUL to him. Jonah had put himself in a position of “forsaking his own mercy,” for a time. He was not willing to live in the light of the mercy of God because of his bitterness towards the Ninevites. But there would come a moment when he again would avail himself of the blessed reality and truth of the mercy of God, and this by “remembering the Lord” and declaring, “I will sacrifice unto Thee with a voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord.” (2:7-9) Jonah is now back on track…in that place of certain good, that place of himself receiving the mercy of the Lord, committed to following Him, and leaving the matter of salvation to whosoever He will. Mercy’s mission is being accomplished.
Mercy’s mission is to everyone in this story. The mercy of God is for the prophet who needs to be saved from himself…his bitterness. The mercy of God is for the mariners on the ship who are idolaters, needing to know the one and true living God. Then the mercy of God is for the whole population of Nineveh, to forgive and cleanse them, thus sparing them judgement. Mercy’s mission is all-encompassing because of the One who is gracious, merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, …always seeking to save that which is lost.
Love, Dad