Categoria: Jonah

The ironic thing is that Jonah who had been miraculously and mercifully saved by God becomes angry at God’s mercy and compassion for Nineveh! God reacted saying: “Have you any right to be angry?” God then proceeded to give Jonah an object lesson from a vine which gave him shade one day but not the next owing to destruction by insects. This annoyed Jonah for having lost the shade even it had not been planted by him. So God pointed to Jonah’s incoherent upset about a plant whereas the saving of 120,000 people was criticized. For God’s compassion is far greater than human prejudice and self-interest. God desires repentance rather than destruction!

Now God commands Jonah to go to Nineveh for the second time and this time he went as he had learnt his lesson. His message from God to the inhabitants of Nineveh was: “40 more days and Nineveh will be destroyed”! The Ninevites believed God, declared a fast, and everyone, including the king, put on sackcloth. Then the king issued a decree for everyone to urgently call upon God, and give up their evil ways and violence, so that they will not perish. When God saw their sincere repentance he had compassion on them and relented from the destruction he had threatened. 

The book of Jonah is a short prophetic book showing God’s mercy and compassion on all people. God told Jonah to go to Nineveh and preach against it because of its wickedness. However Jonah ran way in the opposite direction boarding a ship to get away. The ship was engulfed in a violent storm and the sailors cast lots to see who was the cause of the life threatening storm, and the lots fell on Jonah. So Jonah asked them to throw him into the sea to calm things down, and he was swallowed by a large fish where he survived inside it for 3 days and night!