“...for I knew that you are a
gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and you relent
from the destruction.” Jon 4:2
Jonah is the most missionary book in the Old Testament. It portrays a
side of Jehovah that was alien to the average Israelite of that day. Quite
typical of human nature, the Israelites had taken the symbolic sacrificial
system instituted by Moses and have, over centuries, converted it to a religion
in itself; at the same time presuming themselves as the only people worthy of
God’s love.
They got so embroiled in the bloods and the grains, the rules and regulations,
the prohibitions et al, that they forgot the true nature of the God they were
serving.
Yet in that same Old Covenant YAHWEH describes Himself as, “The LORD,
The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness
and truth” (Ex 34:6).
The Psalmist said of Him, “For you, Lord, are good, and ready to
forgive; and abundant in mercy unto all them that call upon you... full of
compassion, and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in mercy and truth” (Ps
86:5,15).
Unlike his contemporaries, Jonah knew something about God’s heartbeat. In
our opening text, he explains that he avoided Nineveh, not because he was
afraid to die, but because he knew that if they repented of their wicked deeds
of idolatry, bloodshed and plunder, YAHWEH would forgive them; even if said
wickedness was against His people Israel. (Jon 4:2)
This was a radically different perspective of Israel’s God. Yet this was
what He was all along, (Mal 3:6). This was the God that men like Abraham, Moses
and David worshipped; this was Jonah’s God.
Even in the Church today, many are still yet to meet this God. They run
away from Him and dread coming close because of their filthiness and
unworthiness.
They have a picture of an austere and unsmiling God who is out to get
them for their sins. But God, who at many times and in various manners spoke
in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Has in these last days spoken
unto us by his Son, (Heb 1:1,2). And the picture we get of Him from His Son
is of a loving father who is “longsuffering toward us, not willing that any
should perish, but that all should come to repentance”. (Lk 15:11-32; 2Pe 3:9).
Have you met Jonah’s God, or are you still running away?
AMEN.
More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus Name.
GREG ELKAN
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