Can we welcome God’s mercy when it reaches someone we resent?
Jonah knew that God was gracious. That was the reason he fled. He did not want Nineveh, a city guilty of real evil, to receive the kindness he knew the Lord could show.
Yet Jonah needed that same mercy. After his disobedience brought him into the sea, God preserved him in a great fish. From that dark place, the prophet prayed with gratitude.
“Salvation belongs to the LORD!” Jonah, chapter two, verse nine.
Later, Nineveh heard God’s warning and turned from its evil. God spared the city. Jonah became angry. The mercy that had sustained his own life was difficult to welcome in theirs.
We can recognize that struggle in ourselves. Wanting someone to stop doing harm is right. Hoping they never receive forgiveness asks something very different of God.
Repentance means abandoning the evil. We can seek justice, protect those who suffer, and still pray that a wrongdoer will change.
As people who have received mercy through King Jesus, whose repentance have we stopped hoping for?
May the mercy we receive teach us compassion for others.
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