God Cares For All People

The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. - 2 Peter 3:9

Jonah knew this about God. He says in Jonah 4:2, “I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster.” And so when God asked him to go and announce judgment on Nineveh, he decided to go as far as he could in the opposite direction. He wanted so much for Nineveh to be destroyed that he didn’t want to take the chance that his proclamation of judgment would trigger their repentance and avert the promised disaster.

Why was Jonah so anti-Nineveh? Assyria was a powerful neighbour, but Israel’s subjection to Assyria would only happen shortly after Jonah’s time. But maybe Jonah thought that if Nineveh was destroyed, then the future threat of Assyria would be removed (he was a prophet after all). And so when God told him to proclaim judgment against Nineveh because its evil had come up before him (Jonah 1:2), he thought that the best way of assuring Nineveh’s destruction was to disobey God. If no one called Nineveh to repentance, they would continue in their evil and would face God’s wrath. He didn’t want God’s mercy for them. That was something he only wanted for himself and his people.

And so we find Jonah on a ship bound for Tarshish battered by a storm that God had sent to thwart Jonah’s plans. The sailors saw the storm as an act of divine anger and cast lots to find out who was responsible for their trouble. The lot identified Jonah as the problem and so they asked him what had to be done to make the sea calm again. Jonah told them that the only way out of their difficulty was to cast him overboard!

However, unlike Jonah who sought the destruction of the problematic Ninevites, the pagan sailors hesitated to do what they were sure would kill Jonah. They tried their best to beat the storm without risking Jonah’s life but they couldn’t beat God. And so they prayed to Yahweh and asked for his forgiveness before tossing Jonah off the ship. The pagan sailors were more aligned with God’s heart that none should perish than his own prophet was.

How do you react to people that you perceive as being a threat to your comfort or wellbeing? Are you uncomfortable with the idea that God can be good to those who are not good to you? Do you rejoice in God’s mercy for yourself but get upset when others don’t get their “just desserts”?

“You have heard that it was said, You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. - Matthew 5:43-45