I read Jonah all wrong

Recently I got to see the story of Jonah retold in the form of a play and it came alive to me in ways that I didn’t see before.

Like Jonah, I struggled with the fact that God did not follow through with his threat against the city of Nineveh. Divine justice called for it. God said he would do it. He categorically stated it — like no one could change his mind about it. There were no conditions attached to it. It seemed to me that God didn’t leave any room except for judgement to come in full force.

But he relented.

This is Yana’s favorite story from the Bible. And everytime I read her the story from Sally Lloyd Jones’ ‘The Jesus Story Book Bible’ I find myself wondering why the author took the liberty to add to scripture alluding to the fact that God wanted to actually reconcile with the Ninevites from the very beginning. It wasn’t stated in scripture that God’s plan was for Nineveh to actually escape judgement from the very beginning

But if one were to read between the lines, the reason why Jonah didn’t want to go to Nineveh to give them this terrible message from God was because he didn’t want them to somehow escape that tragedy.

Jonah understood how God worked. He understood that God was actually “… merciful and compassionate, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. He is eager to relent and not punish.” — Joel 2:13.

I forget that. Often. I get stuck up with the technicalities of execution — saying and doing exactly what you want to do, how you want to do do it and following through relentlessly against all odds.

I forget that God always intended for salvation. And ultimately he will bring it to fruit. It belongs to him and he will have it.

And He calls me to repentance. And he calls me to forgive as well. And I forget that often.

I got to watch Sight and Sound’s production with Yana and Jane and Sajan and Preethy and Israel on Sunday, August 23, 2020. It was beautiful to see how Jonah also struggled with unforgiveness and Christ called his prophet to forgive and love and call his enemies to repentance.

By the way, fun fact: Nineveh is the modern day Mosul apparently.