I came across this verse while reading Jonah, and also recently heard a sermon preached on forgiveness.
And he prayed unto the LORD, and said, I pray thee, O LORD, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil.
Jon 4:2, KJV
Jonah was a prophet during king Jeroboam II’s reign over Israel (Jon 1:1, 2 Kings 14:23-25).
Please refer to Amos 9:11-12 article, for a prophetic word by Amos during the time of Jeroboam II’s reign.
He was tasked by God to preach repentance to one of Israel’s hated enemies: Nineveh, which was the capital of Assyria.
And at first he fled the opposite direction, and didn’t want to preach (Jon 1:3).
But God sent a tempestuous storm on the boat he was in.
Then he was swallowed by a big fish, and asked again to go and preach repentance to Nineveh (Jon 2, Jon 3:1-2).
When Nineveh did repent after Jonah’s preaching, and they put on sackcloths even on their animals / flock, then God withheld His punishment on them (Jon 3:6-10).
Jonah was very offended as seen in this verse, because of God’s forgiveness, and hence compassion on Israel’s enemies.
Because they are people that oppress Israel bitterly: severely and cruelly (2 Kings 14:26).
In particular, Syria which was part of the Assyrian empire was the one who kept attacking Israel, and even during king Ahaz’s (of Judah) reign.
During king Hezekiah’s reign, Assyria had already re-risen to so much power taking northern Israel: Samaria, and now threatening Judah.
Please refer to 1 Kings 12:20 article, for a recap of when northern Israel was taken by Assyria.
What would you do if you were Jonah?
Jonah had unforgiveness and bitterness in his heart towards his enemies.
And forgiveness is an important prerequisite, before we are able to show (agapao) love towards the offender (please refer to 1 Cor 13:1 article).
We know that God stands with His people: Israel, and those who destroy Israel would be cursed (please refer to Isa 41 article).
And so God stands with us too, and does not condone the evil actions / intents of the enemy.
But God loves everyone too: all people in the world (John 3:16).
Thus we should love even our enemies too.
And the first step usually: is by forgiving them.
Forgiveness may seem like a straightforward thing to understand and do.
But as long as we still feel bitter, angry, hatred, and wanting to get even with the offender, we need to forgive again.
As long and as many times he / she keeps offending us, we have to forgive (Matt 18:21-22).
In this passage, God showed an excellent example of doing something so hard: forgiving those that don’t deserve forgiveness.
He probably forgave Nineveh before they repented, despite the many times they attacked Israel, and thus asked Jonah to go and preach repentance (Jon 1:2).
In other words, this is His mercy, which we are supposed to have too.
And mercy is withholding punishment due to a person, which God has withheld from us the punishment of our sins.
Because God is righteous, sin / evil cannot go unpunished, and Jesus thus suffered the punishment on our behalf.
Please refer to Rom 6:23 article, and John 1:1 article, respectively.
And similarly, God needs Nineveh to at least repent, as part of fulfilling His righteousness, on their wickedness.
God is compassionate too, as seen in this verse. And He doesn’t desire that any of us, even those in Nineveh to go through punishment.
Please refer to Exo 3:4 article, for other attributes of God.
Indeed, we should not wait but accept Jesus and his finished work on the cross for our sins, right now.
For the punishment of our sins is eternal hellfire, and none of us should ever go through this eternal torment in hell.
Please refer to Luke 23:42-43 article, for judgement day and how those who don’t believe in Jesus would be thrown to hell.
Let’s confess and repent of our sins, believing in Jesus for the remission of our sins.
Please refer to Sinner’s Prayer article.
