A Heart of Compassion

Jonah is a prophet of God who struggled deeply with His relationship with God.  And because he was growing distant with God, the book of Jonah reveals that instead of compassion and forgiveness for his enemies, he became bitter towards them.  Because Jonah stop seeking God’s with His life, he ultimately lacked compassion, love and forgiveness for those God called Him to reach.

We see this lack of compassion after Nineveh and its king repented.  Instead of joy, Jonah went to a hill on the eastern edge of the city and sat down waiting to see what God would do. (Jonah 4:5)   Based on the context, it is clear what Jonah wanted God to destroy the city for its wickedness and pagan idolatry. 

But God would not destroy Nineveh.    After Jonah called the king and city to turn from evil and turn to God, we read that Nineveh repented and “God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.”  (Jonah 3:10)

But Jonah struggled to find joy in this amazing miracle.  He struggled to forgive and love, because he grew distant with God.   And because he grew distant with God, his life was characterized by selfishness and pride.  He wanted judgment and destruction, not redemption.  But God doesn't give up on Jonah.   The book reveals that God presses in and wants to teach Jonah a lesson as he waits on a hill waiting for the city to be destroyed.  God appoints a plant, a worm and a scorching hot wind. 

When the plant grew it provided comfort for Jonah from the hot sun, which he becomes “exceedingly glad” about.  (Jonah 4:6)   But the next day God’s appointed worm destroys the plant and then as to put an explanation point on the lesson God sends a hot wind.    

Jonah is so upset about it all  that he tells God He wants to die.  This is where the lesson becomes clear in the last two verses of the book, “The Lord said, ‘You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?” (Jonah 4:10-11)

I asked myself as I read and reread these last two verses: what should the lesson for us be in the midst of the COVID crisis we are facing.  I think there are several.  First, I think it teaches us that often we lack gratitude and thanksgiving for the simple things around us—things like friendship, fellowship with other believers, and material comfort and provision.  We like Jonah often forget that all the comforts in life are GIFTS from God, things that “we do not labor for or grow.”    

James 1:16-17 challenges us this way, “Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.”  Often in our busyness, we put God on the periphery and take for granted many of the good things God gives us.  And now as we live with the loss of some of them during COVID, it has revealed how often we take things for granted, instead of being thankful for them.

Another lesson I think we can glean here is our response to a world in suffering.  Are we in prayer and going to God on behalf of our nation and world that is suffering with COVID, or have we become so upset and anxious with our personal losses that the deaths and casualties being paraded before us have just become numbers?  Perhaps like the worm and hot wind in Jonah’s life, COVID has revealed how prone we are to selfishness instead of being filled with compassion. 

A final lesson I think we can learn here, is to see God’s love for sinful man.  Even though we may know the Lord and have already experienced His forgiveness in Christ, have we stopped remembering God’s unfailing love and His compassion for others in this world.  That is why Jesus came. 

“In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.  In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.  Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”  (I John 4:9-11)