Why in the world is this book in the Old Testament canon of Jewish holy writings? The Assyrians repented. What does that have to do with Israel? Other than the prophet was from Israel?
There’s a lot more going on here than a great story about a man that needed help. Here are some things we learn
- God was contrasting Israel’s lack of repentance with the repentance of the Assyrians.
The Assyrians were horrifically wicked and treacherous, torturing the masses of people without mercy. They were a terribly blood-thirsty lot. And deeply, deeply deeply hated. The Israelites I’m sure hoped and wish God would just send fire and smoke them from the earth. So deep was their hate of Assyria that when God called Jonah to go preach to them, he said no, ran away and declared he would rather die.
But God took Jonah by the scruff of the neck and said go. Finally Jonah went. And the Assyrians repented from the king on his throne down to the lowliest animal. The repented and plead the mercy of God.
The main point of this was to show that as wicked and evil as the Assyrians were, they repented when they heard of impending judgment of God. Yet when God brought prophet after prophet after prophet, warning after warning after warning, no matter what God said his own people, Israel, would not, did not and refused to repent. They just hardened their heart more.
God is making a contrast here. And it was meant to be a big slap in the face to the Israelites to wake them up. - God cares for Gentile nations too.
This was also a theme throughout Scripture that the Israelites did not want to hear. They were the chosen people. And yet God cared for the Gentile nations? He absolutely did. And Israel wasn’t meant to be a light just for themselves, but a light to the nations around them. To reflect the glory of God to the peoples. - Bitterness changes everything.
We can never be bitter alone. It is something that infects everything around us. Jonah was bitter and the last thing he wanted was for the Assyrians to be forgiven. He was even more enraged when God was actually going to show mercy on them. - God cares for even the most evil on this planet.
When Jonah was so angry, God asks him should he not also care for the Assyrians who did not know their right hand from their left?
People should pay for their crimes. God is a God of justice. At the same time his greatest desire is mercy. Mercy to the repentant. The truly repentant. And that’s what Assyria was when they repented nationally. - If God can love Assyria, God can love you.
One of the hardest things for some is to feel the love of God. We think he loves others but not us. That he prefers others to us. God somehow doesn’t love us because we don’t have it all together enough, or our personality isn’t enough that God likes us, or something.
But if God can show mercy and love to Assyria, God can love you.
