Jonah

The little nissan sped past me. I made eye contact with the teenager at the wheel, his girl in the passenger seat. "Cheap show-off," I thought to myself. "I'm already going 10 over. I hope he gets pulled over." Have you ever noticed that everyone going faster than you on the road is insane and anyone going slower than you is an inconsiderate moron?

Only 10 seconds later a squad car zoomed past in the left lane, flipping on his lights as he pulled in between me and the 'moron.' My condescension was met with a convicting thought of Jonah. Did I really have a desire for a young guy to get pulled over, pay a fine, and be shamefully embarrassed in front of the girl he's probably hoping to marry - all because he was going 14 over instead of the much more reasonable 10? And who am I to be going 10 over in the first place? Its not like I was late for anything.

Now I know what you're thinking. No one thinks its wrong to go 10 over. Lets be honest, it would actually be quite inconsiderate to go the speed limit and slow down all the people behind you. I mean, who doesn't go a little over the limit, who doesn't cheat once in a while, who isn't at times just a little self interested at the expense of others, right?

I have these nervous dreams that I'm going to one day give an account of my actions and someone from the 12th century will ask me why I have so many instances of speeding on my inventory of naughty actions. But I have a more pressing nervousness that I will one day stand before a righteous judge who will allow me in to heaven by the grace of Christ, yet all the same allow me to walk with great sorrow past those destined for eternal punishment. Among them, I'm afraid I will see faces that I know - people on whom I refused to overflow the great grace that I had been given.


When Jonah’s warning reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust. This is the proclamation he issued in Nineveh:

“By the decree of the king and his nobles:

Do not let people or animals, herds or flocks, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink. But let people and animals be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence. Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.”

When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened. But to Jonah this seemed very wrong, and he became angry. He prayed to the Lord, “Isn’t this what I said, Lord, when I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing 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. (Jonah 3,4)