Devotionals

Reflections on the End of the Book of Jonah

by Emeka Buffong
12/28/15
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The book of Jonah ends with a question that reveals the heart of God: Should I not have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know the difference between their right and left hand, as well as many animals?

            God loves people. God hates and will deal with sin, but He loves people. God will create opportunities for warning before judgment. God always sends warning before destruction.

Ezekiel 33:11 reminds us that God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked:

11 Say to them, ‘As I live!’ declares the Lord God, ‘I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn back, turn back from your evil ways! Why then will you die, O house of Israel?’

 Exodus 34:6-7 further describes the character of God:

6 Then the Lord passed by in front of him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; 7 who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.”

            It is interesting to note that in Jonah 4:11 God speaks of His compassion for the people and He even includes animals. This is a powerful way to end a book on the story of a prophet on a cross cultural mission trip; God lets all know that He loves people. He desires that the wicked repent so that He can spare them from destruction.

            God’s response to Jonah’s self-centeredness is basically – I love people! That should be the motivation for the cross cultural missionary – a love for people. A love so strong that it causes one to leave one’s comfort and security at home and reach to a people group that is of a different culture and learning and immersing oneself in the positive aspects of that culture. We should have a love so strong that it causes one to learn a language that may be new. We should have a love so strong that it causes one to critically evaluate one’s culture and cast aside the enthnocentrism that is likely to creep up.

            In our day and age we need not travel hundreds of miles to meet people of a vastly different culture than our own - sometimes they are right next door to us.

John 3:16-17 must be our mantra, because God wants to save the lives of people, not destroy them.

            When God looked at Jonah’s heart He was displeased by what He saw, where there should have been joy because God spared the lives of these wicked people who repented, anger was found instead. Sometimes God sends people in our path and instead of seeing them as being in need of The Savior – we see a problem or an obstacle. The book of Jonah reminds us that even the most unlikely of people can repent and experience God's forgiveness; and the even deeper lesson: God loves all people!