While there are many lessons to be learned from the book of Jonah, in the end it is a story about God’s compassion.  The mercy He shows to the Ninevites is characteristic of who He is.  Though He is omnipotent and omniscient, the essence of His being is love, from which His constant compassion flows.

The book of Jonah closes with God reasoning with him about his illogical hatred for the Ninevites.  Jonah is so mad about God’s decision not to destroy the Ninevites that he says it would be better for him to die than to live (4:3).  We know he is just being dramatic because when he was previously hurled into the sea, he immediately began to pray for deliverance.  God calmly responded to Jonah with a simple question, asking him, “Do you do well to be angry?” (ver. 4).  Like a petulant child, Jonah storms off without answering, leaving the city completely and going to a location where he could watch is see what would become of Nineveh (ver. 5).

As Jonah sat under a booth he made,  God caused a plant to spring up to give Jonah more shade (ver. 6).  The next morning, however, God brought forth a worm to kill the plant (ver. 7), and then, when the sun came up, He brought forth a scorching wind that discomforted Jonah, causing more dramatics from him.  “It is better for me to die than to live,” he said (ver. 8).  God asked Jonah the question, “Do you do well to be angry for the plant?”    Being emotionally inebriated by anger, Jonah answers affirmatively, “Yes, I do well to be angry…” (ver. 9).  In a final question, God exposes his hypocrisy.

Jonah 4:10-11 (ESV)
¹⁰  And the LORD said, “You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. ¹¹  And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?”

It is hard to imagine a prophet caring more about a plant than he does people, but that was Jonah.  What hypocrisy it was for Jonah to be mad with God for caring about people whom He created, while he cared about a plant with which he had nothing to do. It is a sad way for this book to end.  We are left wondering whether this probing question of God had any effect on the heart of Jonah.

What we never have to wonder about is the compassion of God.  The cruelness of the Assyrian Empire is lengendary, but God still loved the people.  The word pity in ver. 11 literally meant :to cover,” and figuratively “to be compassionate.”  God’s compassion covered the transgressions of the people of Nineveh, even though they did nothing to deserve it.  It was God’s compassion that gave them the opportunity to repent and be saved from destruction.

Are we not all covered by the compassion of God?  Like the Ninevites, we had no chance of being saved without God taking the first step toward our salvation.  Paul put it perfectly in Ephesians 2:4-5.  Be sure to read that passage.

When we were dead, with no way of resuscitating ourselves, God brought us back to life by sending, not Jonah, but Jesus, His only begotten Son.  It was the most compassionate act the world has ever seen.

As you wind down for the night, think about these things.