“…For I know that You are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, One who relents from doing harm.” Jonah 4:2
Even from the depths of the ocean when Jonah was in the belly of a fish, there remained an overwhelming reality concerning God that Jonah would again confess. It was that God was perfectly good, everlastingly and unchangingly so. After Jonah was delivered from the dark prison of the fish’s belly, and after he had preached repentance to the Ninevites, to avoid God’s intended judgment upon the city, he would again declare the truth of who God was and evermore shall be. In spite of the pending judgment upon Nineveh, and Jonah’s own disdain for the Assyrians, who were the enemies of Israel, Jonah would be forced to declare again that His God was gracious, merciful, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness. This is the God who alone can truly forgive transgressions and sins against Himself, but also against His people. This is the God who has the power and authority to turn from wrath because of the rebellion of men against Him, to respond to the repentant heart of individuals, cities, and nations, then to wash and cleanse from all sin, and give life to those who were heading to death. Though Jonah knew this, he did not align himself with the beauty and wonder of God in Christ, when the call of God was for him to go and preach God’s message to the Ninevites. Jonah wanted their destruction. God wanted and willed that they should live. How can it be that the Lord’s servant, His prophet, could be so very different in nature, perspective, and intent toward those upon whom God causes it to rain, both evil and the good? It is not because of a lack of knowledge of God, but a lack of devotion to Him, His purposes and will.
There came a day during the ministry of Jesus, as He had set Himself to go up to Jerusalem, there to be tried and condemned to the death on a cross, that He and His disciples were passing through a village of the Samaritans. They were not received by these people, in particular because Jesus with fixed resolve had determined to go to Jerusalem and not be turned aside. Because of the refusal of the Samaritans, James and John, two of Jesus’ disciples, said to the Lord: “Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them, just as Elijah did?” (Luke 9:54) Jesus then turned and rebuked the disciples, saying to them: “You do not know what manner of spirit you are of. For the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives but to save them.” (v.55,56) The point of this rebuke of the disciples was to reveal the difference between God and sinful men, though well-intentioned and sincere. The sinful nature of man has no point of reference in the nature of God. The sinful nature of man is self-centered, downward trending, corrupt, absolutely incapable of knowing, or expressing, the beauty and goodness of God. This is man’s state coming into this world, and were it not for the salvation of God, the One who is gracious, merciful, and slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, there would be absolutely NO salvation for men. When Jesus was raised from the dead, after His crucifixion, death, and burial, it was the ultimate proof and declaration to all men of every age, that He was and is God, the Messiah, the Savior of the world, and all that Scripture declares Him to be in His holiness and goodness is true. His resurrection is the foremost, and most complete rebuke to all the unbelief and rebellion of sinful hearts, but also, the proclamation that there is a God who is good, and who has prepared a way for man by which he can not only be forgiven of his sins and rebellion but become a partaker of Christ’s beauty by His Spirit.
Dear Father, Fill us with Yourself. In Jesus’ name, Amen.