When God's Mercy Makes Us Uncomfortable Pt.1

- by Gustavo Ferelli

Jonah didn’t run from God out of fear, but because he knew exactly who God is: compassionate, merciful, patient, and full of love, even for Nineveh, the city of his enemies. In this 3-part meditation, we’ll follow a prophet who clung to his own reputation and his own prejudices, while pagan sailors and the people of Nineveh responded to God more readily than he did. Looking to Jesus, who loved and prayed for those who crucified Him, we’ll be confronted with an honest question: are we at peace serving a God who loves our enemies?

Day 1 – Running from the God Who Loves Too Much

When we think of Jonah, we usually picture “the prophet swallowed by a fish” or “the fearful prophet.” After all, who wouldn’t run after being ordered to preach against mighty Nineveh? The city was a center of the Assyrian Empire, notorious for the cruelty with which it treated conquered peoples.

The prophet Nahum called it “the city of murder and lies” (Nahum 3:1 NLT) or “the city of blood” (NIV). To an Israelite, the Assyrians weren’t just foreigners; they were the very embodiment of the enemy. But later on, Jonah himself reveals the real reason he ran. After seeing Nineveh spared, he prays in anger, (ironically) quoting Scripture itself, Exodus 34:6:

“I knew that you are a merciful and compassionate God, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. You are eager to turn back from destroying people” (Jonah 4:2 NLT).

Jonah didn’t run because he didn’t know God, but precisely because he knew Him all too well. He knew that if the Ninevites repented, the Lord would forgive them, and that was unacceptable to him. Jonah didn’t want a God who loved his enemies. He wanted a God who was on his side and against everyone else. Sound familiar?

So he goes to Joppa and boards a ship headed in the opposite direction; in fact, nearly 4,000 km in the opposite direction, to Tarshish (in what is now southern Spain). The text says Jonah went down to Joppa, went down into the ship, and went down into the hold, where he fell asleep. While Jonah sleeps, something intriguing happens.

A great storm strikes the ship, and the sailors, all of them pagans, terrified by the storm, pray and cry out, each to his own god. The captain even has to wake Jonah up and plead with him: “Get up and pray to your god!” (1:6). The great irony: pagans calling on the prophet of the living God to pray. When Jonah says he worships “the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land” (1:9), the sailors become even more terrified. Jonah asks them to throw him into the sea, but the sailors row with all their strength to save the life of a foreigner. Only after asking the Lord for forgiveness do they throw him overboard. The sea grows calm, and those men fear the Lord, offer sacrifices, and make vows (1:16).

Notice that the pagans show compassion for Jonah, pray to the Lord, and end up worshiping Him. Jonah, the prophet, doesn’t pray a single time in the entire chapter.

The “outsiders” were more open to God than the “insider.”

Jesus knew this same spirit up close.

As He passed through Samaria, a region despised by the Jews, a village refused to welcome Him. James and John, indignant, asked: “Lord, should we call down fire from heaven to burn them up?” (Luke 9:54 NLT). They wanted what Jonah wanted: to see the enemy wiped out. But Jesus turned and rebuked them. He had not come to destroy, but to save. And unlike Jonah, Jesus did not run from His mission. Luke says He resolutely set out for Jerusalem (9:51), knowing He would die there for people who would reject Him. Jonah went down to run from God. Jesus came down from heaven to reach the lost, including His enemies.

Maybe you’ve never boarded a ship for Tarshish. But is there a “Nineveh” in your life? A person, a group, or a people you secretly prefer to keep far from God’s mercy?

Sometimes our running isn’t geographical.

It’s the silence, the indifference, the prayer we never pray for them.

Who are the people you would struggle to see forgiven by God?

What does that reveal about your heart?

(Readings: Jonah 1; Jonah 4:1-2; Luke 9:51-56)