“Now we do have a set of facts that are not disputed, neither by God nor by Jonah. First, they both agree, rightly, that Nineveh is a wicked place with wicked people. Second, the fact that God is mighty enough to save is not disputed. Jonah knows that. He has seen that toward Israel. And he has experienced that personally on a number of levels, including his salvation from the mouth of the great fish. And third, both God and Jonah know that God has the compassion to save. Jonah’s confession about this in v. 2 is a beautiful one, “…you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster.” But his next confession in v. 3 is an ugly one. This beautiful confession of worship of the character of God becomes a root of complaint and condemnation. ‘O LORD, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.’ Jonah wants God to be quicker to anger slower to love and compassion toward the Ninevites. So we have a God of compassion and a prophet of condemnation and anger. In v. 1 we read, that God’s compassion on the Ninevites ‘displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry.’ More literally, we could translate the Hebrew as, “It made him boiling mad.” and to him it, (what God had done) was a great evil. (Note: that is an alternate translation for v. 1 ‘displease him’.) “Jonah wants God to be slow to anger and quick to compassion for himself, for his own people, only.” “We shouldn’t see this [immigration] as something that threatens us. We should see this as a wonderful opportunity.”
SERMON ACTIVITY
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Michael is president and founder of Christ Bible Seminary in Nagoya, Japan ( www.shingakkou.net). Born and raised in the Philadelphia area, Michael attended the University of Pennsylvania as an undergraduate where he also received his Master's degree in Education and his PhD in...
