The Gracious God
In many Hollywood movies, there is a hero or heroine who comes to the rescue of others at the very end. Think of your favorite movie and identify the hero or heroine. It is almost always a human being. In contrast, the hero of Biblical stories is not the human actor but God himself. In the book of Jonah, the focus of the story is not simply the human failure. Before this is a book about Jonah, or a large fish, or a pagan city – before all that, this is a book about God. In particular, it is a book about God’s grace– which is wider than can ever imagine and deeper than we can ever fathom.
In the belly of a whale, Jonah prays to God. Jonah sees that the Lord has helped him – the Lord has saved him. He sees that running away from the Lord and turning to idols instead is a foolish business – and so he says, “But I, with a song of thanksgiving, will sacrifice to you. What I have vowed I will make good. Salvation comes from the LORD.” (v. 9) The chapter then ends on a a rather undignified but grace-filled note: “And the LORD commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry ground.” (Jonah 2:10). God’s grace reached even to the depths of the ocean and the belly of a whale.
As a story, the book of Jonah is pretty hard to beat. As a drama, it doesn’t get more engrossing than this. It is a great read and a memorable tale. But what is this story here for? What are we to learn from it? This story teaches us that the sovereign God is a gracious God to the undeserving and lost. This is actually the basic truth that scandalized Jonah and got him so upset in the first place. Remember where this all started: God commissioned Jonah to go and preach against the great city of Ninevah because of its wickedness. Jonah himself admits “That is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in astounding love, a God who relents from sending calamity.” (Jonah 4:2)
God is so gracious that he actually uses Jonah’s rebellion to bring witness to another group of undeserving Gentiles—namely, a whole crew of pagan sailors When Jonah headed in the opposite direction, God intervened with a storm that caught the attention of the rough, unbelieving sailors who knew nothing of the Lord and his salvation. When the sailors recognized that the Lord God of Israel had made this storm and was able to make it go away, they cried to the Lord. Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard, and the raging sea grew calm. At this the men greatly feared the LORD, and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows to him.
One of the great lessons Jonah needed to learn was the depths of the grace to be found in the heart of God. He needed not only to understand it on an intellectual level, but on a personal level in such a way as to share it. How about you? Do you really understand the heart of God – do you really grasp the depths of his grace to the undeserving? If you feel that you are beyond the grace of God, see from this story—see from God’s heart for the sailors and his heart for Ninevah—that he calls you to turn from sin, and he offers you grace today.