We can struggle with the compassion and forgiveness part of who God is when it applies to those we perceive as enemies or a threat. Like Jonah, we’d be quite happy with the smiting part. Of course, on the other hand, it’s great when God forgives us and has compassion on those we love or like. It feels good. The word says “He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not just ours but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:2)
Bold statement that, and it’s really hard to live by. This struck me when I was reading 1 Kings 21 as part of my daily bible reading. Ahab was King of Israel and the bible records that he did “more evil in the eyes of the Lord than any of those before him” (1 Kings 16:30). Therefore, you would expect that the Lord would bring calamity on him. However, God does not always act the way we expect Him to. In verse 29 it says: “Have you noticed how Ahab has humbled himself before me? I will not bring this disaster in his day, but I will bring it on his house in the days of his son”. I confess to being surprised by this, though I don’t think Ahab’s change of heart was a surprise to God. However, I did ask myself, if it is easier to humble yourself when a man of God, or prophet, pronounces God’s judgement over you? When we would still be angry and demanding justice God alters His decree so that judgement falls on Ahab’s son rather than Ahab.
This reinforced for me the truth that God does not “look at the things people look at” (1 Samuel 16:7), and when He says “vengeance is mine; I will repay” (Deuteronomy 32:35) He also reserves the right to “have mercy on whom I [He] will have mercy” (Exodus 33:19). He does not answer to us, and He does not need to explain Himself. He is Sovereign. We may not, probably will not, understand why He does or doesn’t do something, but as Sovereign it is His right.
We can see the compassion of God operate in the book of Jonah. God pronounces judgement on the people of Nineveh and instructs the prophet Jonah to go and tell them: “The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai: ‘Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me” (Jonah 1:1-2).
Jonah resists the instruction of the Lord and it is not clear why he does this. However, through a whole series of calamities that you can read about in Jonah chapters 1 and 2, Jonah is eventually persuaded to obey God’s instruction: “Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh”. Nineveh and God’s people were enemies which may account for Jonah’s reluctance to obey God, and go to that city. You would think that Jonah, hating the Ninevites, must have relished the thought of Nineveh getting ‘what was coming to them’ but he knew his God. He knew that God was a God of compassion and that if the Ninevites truly repented God would have mercy on them. This is indeed what happened, and Jonah was not quiet about his feelings on the matter:
“When God saw what they did and how they returned from their evil ways, He relented and did not bring on them the destruction He had threatened. But to Jonah this seemed very wrong, and he became angry. He prayed to the Lord, ‘Isn’t this what I said, Lord, when I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity’” Jonah 3:10 – 4:2
Jonah knew the Ninevites had sinned and had no compassion on them. He was entrenched in his own belief system, looking at the people through his own filters, and had actually tried to thwart God’s will by running away. He knew God would show mercy.
We can struggle with the compassion and forgiveness part of who God is when it applies to those we perceive as enemies or a threat. Like Jonah, we’d be quite happy with the smiting part. Of course, on the other hand, it’s great when God forgives us and has compassion on those we love or like. It feels good. The word says “He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not just ours but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:2). Speaking for myself, I have a long way to go to really grasp this.
We can forget that God does not judge on outward appearances, but He looks at the heart: “But the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.’” (1 Samuel 16:7).
For us there are usually only two sides to any situation – our side (the right side!) and their side (the wrong side!) We want God to be on our side so it must have been hard for Joshua to consider that God just might not do what we expect. He doesn’t take sides as we can see in the book of Joshua just before the battle of Jericho. The battle that the Lord has told the Hebrews to fight:
“Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in from of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him and asked, ‘Are you for us or against us?’. ‘Neither,’ he replied, ‘but as commander of the army of the Lord I have now come’.” (Joshua 5:13-14).
It’s so easy to be angry and annoyed when His acts of kindness and mercy are poured out on all men as Jesus says in Matthew 5:45-47:
“…He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even the pagans do that?”.
