Ninevah, mentioned in the book of Jonah in the Bible, was an extremely wicked city and their treatment of the Jewish people is comparable to the more recent Holocaust. So when God told Jonah to "Go to Ninevah and proclaim judgment on it, for I have seen their wickedness", Jonah would have no part in it.
More than anything Jonah wanted justice for the Jewish people and wanted Ninevahs to be severely punished for their evil against the Jewish people. One would think that Jonah would get great joy out of proclaiming to them how God was going to punish them. However, Jonah did not want to give the message of doom.
Why? Jonah gives us the answer after he's finely done what God has told him and then when the people of Ninevah respond with repentance, God decides to not destroy them after all.
Jonah wanted justice. He did not want God to forgive the people who'd done such evil things and he knew that God was "Gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and relenting from disaster" (Jonah 4:2)
There are several lessons in this event but two of them are:
God is NOT the angry, hateful, vengeful God that many have portrayed Him as, although He is a God of justice, He is more than willing to give chances to the people to turn (the people in Noah's day had 120 years to turn before God actually brought down the judgment He'd promised). God wants to give us second chances. He does not relish in carrying out His justice. He does not desire that anyone is destroyed.
The second is, our attitude toward those who rightfully deserve God wiping them into oblivion but then they repent and turn from their wicked ways and God decides to not wipe them out after all. Not only that but He accepts them as one of His children! Each of us is just as deserving of punishment for evil as the next. "There is none that does good" (Romans 3:10).
Forgiving others, meaning not holding their sins against them is important. I'm not talking about letting criminal activity go in accordance with the law of the land, but forgiving another so that you can receive the peace that comes from you being forgiven by your Heavenly Father. Remember in the Lord's Prayer that line, "Forgive us our debts AS we forgive those who trespass against us"? As portrayed with Jonah, it's not easy but it must be done.
More than anything Jonah wanted justice for the Jewish people and wanted Ninevahs to be severely punished for their evil against the Jewish people. One would think that Jonah would get great joy out of proclaiming to them how God was going to punish them. However, Jonah did not want to give the message of doom.
Why? Jonah gives us the answer after he's finely done what God has told him and then when the people of Ninevah respond with repentance, God decides to not destroy them after all.
Jonah wanted justice. He did not want God to forgive the people who'd done such evil things and he knew that God was "Gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and relenting from disaster" (Jonah 4:2)
There are several lessons in this event but two of them are:
God is NOT the angry, hateful, vengeful God that many have portrayed Him as, although He is a God of justice, He is more than willing to give chances to the people to turn (the people in Noah's day had 120 years to turn before God actually brought down the judgment He'd promised). God wants to give us second chances. He does not relish in carrying out His justice. He does not desire that anyone is destroyed.
The second is, our attitude toward those who rightfully deserve God wiping them into oblivion but then they repent and turn from their wicked ways and God decides to not wipe them out after all. Not only that but He accepts them as one of His children! Each of us is just as deserving of punishment for evil as the next. "There is none that does good" (Romans 3:10).
Forgiving others, meaning not holding their sins against them is important. I'm not talking about letting criminal activity go in accordance with the law of the land, but forgiving another so that you can receive the peace that comes from you being forgiven by your Heavenly Father. Remember in the Lord's Prayer that line, "Forgive us our debts AS we forgive those who trespass against us"? As portrayed with Jonah, it's not easy but it must be done.
