(All scripture from the World English Bible, ebible.org, all rights reserved)
“But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. He prayed to Yahweh, and said, “Please, Yahweh, wasn’t this what I said when I was still in my own country? Therefore I hurried to flee to Tarshish, for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, and you relent of doing harm. Therefore now, Yahweh, take, I beg you, my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” Yahweh said, “Is it right for you to be angry?””
(Jonah 4:1-4)
“The cords of death surrounded me,
the pains of Sheol got a hold of me.
I found trouble and sorrow.
Then I called on Yahweh’s name:
“Yahweh, I beg you, deliver my soul.”
Yahweh is gracious and righteous.
Yes, our God is merciful.
Yahweh preserves the simple.
I was brought low, and he saved me.
Return to your rest, my soul,
for Yahweh has dealt bountifully with you.
For you have delivered my soul from death,
my eyes from tears,
and my feet from falling.
I will walk before Yahweh in the land of the living.”
(Psalm 116:3-9)
“Brothers, I don’t regard myself as yet having taken hold, but one thing I do: forgetting the things which are behind and stretching forward to the things which are before, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, think this way. If in anything you think otherwise, God will also reveal that to you. Nevertheless, to the extent that we have already attained, let’s walk by the same rule. Let’s be of the same mind.”
(Philippians 3:13-16)
Jonah didn’t want God to be merciful. Jonah didn’t want to have the enemies of his people – cruel enemies with a reputation for brutality – to get off the hook. He was willing to die. But when he almost died, when he was at the brink of destruction, he cried out to God and he got a second chance. He did go to Nineveh. But he only did the bare minimum. He didn’t do it with a grateful heart. He did it while resenting it. And then, when the people repented, he got angry. Because he KNEW God was merciful. He KNEW God was gracious. He KNEW if the people obeyed God would spare them. And that made him mad. Because he was stuck in human thinking. He was stuck in an enemy-friend dichotomy that couldn’t see beyond his own desires, opinions, and thoughts.
Yes, in our distresses God answers us. When we cry out to Him, He hears us. When we realize we’ve been disobedient and repent of that, He responds to us. But we need to go the whole way. We need to apply that same mercy He shows toward us and make sure that we are pointing it at all those around us. No, we might not WANT to. No, we might not AGREE. But agreement isn’t necessary for obedience. It is the ideal. Transforming our minds until we have the same mind as God about what we’re facing. But at the very least, obedience while trusting His plan (vs obedience while bitter) is needed. He sees more than we do. He knows more than we do. And He is more compassionate than we are.
In Jesus, we are saved. You, me, that person down the street, that dictator in another country, the best examples of human beings, and the worst examples of human beings. We are ALL offered the same salvation. Their sins are not worse than ours. It isn’t about performance. It is about MERCY. God has it for all of us. God still tries to reach those who have heard the truth, know the truth, have rejected the truth, and fight against the truth with full knowledge of it. The unrepentant. God still tries to reach them. Even knowing it won’t work. That is how merciful He is. It is only in and through Jesus that any of us makes it. What right do we have to take attitude about people God is trying to reach? Who are we to look down on them in any way at any time? God reached for us. God reaches for them. We need to humbly submit, swallow our pride and our thinking, and reach out as well. Cooperating with God in His mercy every time we are given the opportunity.
Summary
We get VERY full of ourselves and our moral ideals. We look down on other people. We scorn them. We hold them more responsible for the sins they indulge in than we ever do to ourselves. We’re quite biased. But the truth is that we ALL fall short of where we should be. We ALL were born with a sinful nature. We ALL indulged it in one way or another – internally, if not externally. We ALL failed. Why hold that failure against someone else just because you don’t like their brand of failure? Just because you have issues with what they have embraced? They’re in the SAME situation you were in before you accepted Jesus. They’re in the SAME situation you would be without Jesus. They need Him just as much as you did. Reach out to them. Help model God’s MERCY. Show them Jesus’ loves them by your loving of them. Be merciful as He is merciful.
Leave a comment