by Jim Pence

Jonah is one of my favorite Old Testament books, but not because it is a great story.

Of course, the book of Jonah is one of the great stories of the Old Testament. It is full of drama and excitement, and as a storyteller, I appreciate that.

But that’s not why I love Jonah.

The story of Jonah also shows God’s power and sovereignty over nature in awesome ways. God causes a storm to come up, and then He provides a great fish to swallow (read that: rescue!) Jonah when the sailors throw him overboard. Then after Jonah repents, God causes the fish to deposit Jonah on dry land.

But that’s not why I love Jonah.

I love Jonah because it paints a portrait of God that is directly contrary to what many people are claiming today.

It has become fashionable in some circles to describe the God of the New Testament as loving and merciful and the God of the Old Testament as angry, wrathful, mean-spirited and vengeful. Some might even point to the book of Jonah as an illustration of this. After all, God did send Jonah to Nineveh with a message of divine judgment.

But if you take time to read and absorb the book of Jonah, you walk away with a very different picture of God.

When Jonah ran away from God, refusing to go preach against Nineveh (the capital of Assyria), it wasn’t because he was afraid of what they might do to him. It was because he hated the Assyrian people. The Assyrians were cruel and they posed a great threat to Israel. Jonah wanted God to destroy them.

Jonah also knew that if the Assyrians repented, God would forgive them and have mercy on them.

And so Jonah ran.

And, of course, God caught up with him and turned him around, so to speak. But after Jonah preached—and Nineveh repented—Jonah went into a major pouting session. He admitted that his purpose in running away was because he knew God would forgive the Assyrians.

Then God gave Jonah the object lesson of a lifetime.

As Jonah sat on a hill, overlooking Nineveh—and hoping God would “zap” them—the desert sun began to wear on him. Then God caused a vine to grow up and give Jonah shade. Jonah enjoyed that for a while, but then God caused a worm to chew up the vine, and the leaves wilted and died. Jonah was angry—again.

God asked Jonah if he had a right to be angry about the vine, even though he had nothing to do with its growth.

Jonah replied that he did have a right to be angry.

Here comes the punch line, and the application of the book of Jonah:

“But the LORD said, ‘You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. 11 And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?’”(Jonah 4:10-11)

The “angry, jealous, vengeful,” God of the Old Testament, who is so maligned today, was concerned about the 120,000 people in the city of Nineveh, and even about the animals.

For those who believe that the “God of the Old Testament” is different from the God revealed in the New, the book of Jonah is a good place to start learning that, from Genesis to Revelation, God is a God of love, grace, mercy, and forgiveness.

Coming on Thursday's Blog: How to Draw a Wave in Chalk