Celebrate!预览

Mercy of God Jonah is the best known of the Minor Prophets, probably due to the big fish story. But the point of the book is not the big fish but the small-hearted prophet. Jonah was a prophet sent to preach to a Gentile nation. But he ran away! Why? Believe it or not, Jonah ran away from God’s call because he knew what the God of Israel was really like! Why, if he went and preached to those heathen Gentiles, God might save them! And they were the enemy. Surely God would not spare them! After a second chance, Jonah went, reluctantly. And sure enough, Nineveh repented. God relented. And Jonah was angry. “Should not I pity Nineveh, that great city?” asked God. God loves idolatrous city-dwelling Ninevites. Do we? Like Jonah, we may know God is “gracious, merciful, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness.” Are we reflecting His heart toward the hated and violent “Ninevites” in our cities? Are we answering His call to go to them and preach His word of repentance and forgiveness?