Tuesday, June 14, 2016

In our last visit we noted that Jonah knew The God of Israel to be “gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.” In reference to Nineveh, God was gracious and compassionate, in that He was slow to anger. For years Nineveh attacked surrounding nations, plundering them and leaving them in ruins. They were a constant nemesis to Israel. Finally God said to Jonah, their “wickedness has come up before me.” The way this happened was by Israelites crying to God for deliverance from the injustices Nineveh and the Assyrians had inflicted on them. Now the Assyrians had crossed God’s red line. His justice and compassion for Israel demanded that He act in judgment. But even then He was slow to anger, giving them an extra 40 days to change their ways. God relented to send calamity upon them. In the message Jonah was to bring them there was no promise that God would forgive them. Just, judgment is coming. The reason Jonah wanted to run from God was, he knew God abounded in love and didn’t want Nineveh to be the recipient of that love. This is all contrary to what many believe the God of the Old Testament is like. But Jonah was right. God is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. So why is there so much blood, gore and ruthless judgment found throughout the Old Testament? We’ll consider this in our next visit.