Good Morning Friends,
“Jonah was greatly displeased and became
angry. 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.’ But the LORD replied, ‘Have you any right to be angry?’”
(Jonah 4:1-4)
When Nineveh repented, God relented and did
not send the destruction He had been prepared to send upon them. God’s action
was an evidence of His grace. The people of Nineveh deserved destruction. Their
actions had already earned it. But God was gracious and compassionate toward
them to provide them another chance.
The strange thing is that Jonah was angry
with God because of His grace toward the people of Nineveh. What a strange
attitude for a preacher! That attitude probably came out of Jonah’s sense of
fairness -- Nineveh deserved destruction. There was probably some fear in it,
too. Nineveh was the enemy of Israel, if God did not destroy the city perhaps
it would once again come against Jonah’s people.
What is so strange is that Jonah and his own
people had received and were continuing to receive God’s grace. They, too,
deserved destruction, many times, but received, instead, opportunity after
opportunity to turn back to God.
Jonah had no right to be angry about God’s
grace. He should have been rejoicing in God’s grace for Nineveh, even as he
rejoiced in God’s grace toward himself and his own people.
The next time you wonder about the fairness
of some evil person receiving God’s grace, remember that you, too, have
received God’s grace. You received His grace when you definitely didn’t deserve
it.
His, by Grace,
Steve
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