It is easy to be thankful for God’s love and patience with us, but how do we feel when God extends that same long-suffering compassion to our enemies? As Jonah thought about God’s grace to the people of Nineveh, he became angry. The Lord’s response to their repentance, which was completely consistent with His character, “seemed very wrong” to Jonah (v. 1). Jonah became so angry, in fact, that he declared “it is better for me to die than to live” (v. 4).

The Lord had heard Nineveh’s repentance and “did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened” (Jonah 3:10). This made Jonah angry—“this seemed very wrong, and he became angry” (v. 1). The prophet clearly knew that God was “a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity” (v. 2). In fact, Jonah was quoting the Lord’s own words back to Him, words first spoken to Moses in Exodus 34:6–8, just after the Lord relented from destroying the Israelites. You read that right! God spoke these same words to Moses after the golden calf incident (Exodus 32), when the people of Israel cast an idol to worship, while Moses was receiving the Law atop Mount Sinai.

Think about that. Jonah knew that God showed compassion to Israel after they committed gross idolatry and “indulge[d] in revelry” (Ex. 32:2–5). Jonah didn’t want to go to Nineveh because he didn’t want God to show that same compassion to the Ninevites. Put another way, Jonah was pleased to accept God’s mercy for himself and his own people, but he loathed the thought of God also showing kindness to people outside of Jonah’s group. Jonah’s theology only went skin deep.

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Uncertainty was a hallmark of ancient Near Eastern religion. The worshipers of false gods never really knew how to please—and appease—the gods they worshiped. If a worshiper of such gods could figure out 1) which god they had angered, 2) how they had angered him or her, 3) and what would make that god happy, even then they still couldn’t be sure that they would be forgiven. What a terrible way to live. The true God, however, is different, and “when God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened” (v. 10).

The New Testament book of Hebrews drives home God’s approachability and willingness to forgive sinners. Not only is He compassionate toward repentant sinners—just like we see in the book of Jonah—but God has also given people “a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God” (Heb. 4:14). This high priest can “empathize with our weakness” because He “has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin” (v. 15). And rather than causing us to shrink back from approaching God, Jesus our high priest enables us to “approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” (v. 16).

Neither the sailors in Jonah 1 nor the king of Nineveh in chapter 3 knew if God would forgive them because a God who would forgive and who had made Himself known was foreign to their worldview. Our God is utterly and entirely different, and He welcomes us to His “throne of grace” and invites us into intimate relationship with Him. What a gift that we don’t have to wonder whether or not the Father will forgive us!

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When you think about kings or national leaders throughout history, you probably think of strength and power. After all, that’s how they came to be leaders. So it might be hard to imagine any world leader “cover[ing] himself with sackcloth” and sitting “down in the dust” (v. 6)—both markers of repentance. Yet that’s exactly what the king of Nineveh did in Jonah 3.

What’s more, the king went beyond personal repentance and called on all his people to “give up their evil ways and their violence” in the hopes that “God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish” (vv. 8–9).

Jonah’s short sermon had cut to the heart of the king of Nineveh! And the king didn’t just command all the people to turn from their wickedness; the king commanded that even “the animals be covered with sackcloth” (v. 8)! The situation was deadly serious, but the author of Jonah gave us a bit of comedic relief with this picture of animals across Nineveh covered in sackcloth.

All of this, and the king is not even sure God would relent. You can hear the desperation in his voice when he states, “Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish” (v. 9). Though the king doesn’t know that God will relent, the readers have an inkling that He will be based on how He responded to the sailors in chapter 1 (see 1:6–16). In addition, Jonah certainly knows that the Lord will show compassion. Despite the king’s lack of knowledge of God’s compassionate ways, he and his nation have repented and thrown themselves upon God’s mercy. Just like the sailors in chapter 1, here in chapter 3 pagans demonstrate trust in God more clearly than the prophet Jonah.

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