My People Are Destroyed

Do you remember as children what an honor it was to be chosen for a team? We would all line up and after captains were chosen, they would take turns each choosing one person until everyone was on a team, all the while each child was screaming, "Pick me!!! Pick me!!!!!" Well, God did pick Jonah to speak to the people of Nineveh but as we learned yesterday, Jonah did not want to be picked. He forgot to remember what a honor it is to be chosen.

God has a way of being very persistent and He persuaded Jonah to go to Nineveh. This is where the men of the ship threw Jonah overboard and the sea calmed for them! The Bible tells us that God had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah. Now if I had been Jonah here, I would have thought being swallowed was the end of me, how about you? This was actually God's salvation of Jonah. It's funny how sometimes God's salvation is what appears to us to be the end. Hmmm, that's something to think about. Now after the big fish regurgitates Jonah onto dry land, Jonah goes to Nineveh but still with a bad attitude because when the people quickly repented, he was so angry he wanted to die! God relented and forgave the people for their wickedness and was even very gracious to Jonah in spite of his attitude. Jonah sat outside the city to see what would become of it but it was very hot. Jonah 4:6-11 says, "And the LORD God prepared a plant and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be shade for his head to deliver him from his misery. So Jonah was very grateful for the plant. But as morning dawned the next day God prepared a worm, and it so damaged the plant that it withered. And it happened, when the sun arose, that God prepared a vehement east wind; and the sun beat on Jonah's head, so that he grew faint. Then he wished death for himself, and said, 'It is better for me to die than to live.' Then God said to Jonah, 'Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?' And he said, 'It is right for me to be angry, even to death!' But the LORD said, 'You have had pity on the plant for which you have not labored, nor made it grow, which came up in a night and perished in a night. And should I not pity Nineveh, that great city, in which are more than one hundred and twenty thousand persons who cannot discern between their right and and their left--and much livestock?'"

Do we ever question God's mercy on people? None of us deserve His mercy but I thank God we all receive it. God wanted to show mercy to these people who had no knowledge of what they were doing. One of the scariest verses in the Bible to me is Hosea 4:6 which says, "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge". We are all chosen by God to share with others about His love, His goodness and certainly His salvation. What an honor it is to be an ambassador of Christ!