Last week while visiting Joplin I got to go to my sister's church in Carthage. I always enjoy the sermons there. This particular Sunday the topic was on the Book of Jonah. I learned so much! I suppose because I have never really heard a teaching on that book before. I had read the book on my own, but I had some misunderstandings about it.
We all probably know the story. God calls Jonah to go to Nineveh to tell the people there to repent and turn to God. Jonah refuses and ends up in the belly of a big fish. I always thought that Jonah didn't want to go because he was scared. However, that is not really the reason (well, I suppose that could have been part of it). The people of Nineveh were enemies of the Israelites. To put it bluntly, Jonah hated them. The reason He didn't want to go is because He knew God's character and He didn't want to see God show compassion to his enemy. Jonah wanted God to punish them for their evil ways.
So Jonah goes to Nineveh, tells them to repent and they do! And God shows them mercy!! Jonah's response to God not only reveals his own heart, but it reveals the heart of God:
He prayed to the LORD, "O LORD, is this not what I said when I was still at home? That is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. Now, O LORD, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live." Jonah 4:2-3
God is...
gracious
compassionate
slow to anger
abounding in love
one who relents from send calamity
