Sabbath
December 6
Finally! This Is It!
INTRODUCTION
Jon. 4:3-5
Is it not interesting how we appreciate God's mercy toward us but fail to accept
His compassion toward others? Now, thousands of years after God spoke to Jonah,
we can rationalize and criticize God's actions versus Jonah'’s. If we were in Jonah’s
position, however, how differently would we react toward God and the people of
Nineveh?
Imagine declaring to your classmates that they are not going to graduate
because the head of your department has checked their records and they have
been found to be cheating. Such
a message is the last thing you . ;
of all persons would want to take They will get just what
to the class. You know that they they deserve.
cheated, and you try desperate-
ly to extricate yourself from it, but
the head of your department insists and assures you that they will get just what
they deserve. Visualize the look on their faces as you deliver the message. They
are disturbed. They become frantic. You're content. You feel satisfied—actually happy.
They deserve it, don't they? They become repentant that they ever cheated and
rush to the department chair's office to beg for mercy.
It's now graduation day. What happens? They graduate! They wear the same
robe and receive the same award as you, though you made it clear quoting the
chairs instructions, “You will not graduate.”
What on earth could have caused this? After semesters of erring, they are
pardoned, and their judgment reversed. How could this be? Not only has he
surprised you but also embarrassed you. He has caused your words to lose their
weight and effect. How could he have pulled you out of your complacency to talk
against such lack of integrity just to prove you a liar? Now Jonah's actions don’t
seem so irrational. Jonah 4:11 makes it easier for us—maybe not to understand
grace better, but easier to accept. It ends with God asking, “And should | not spare
Nineveh?” We all need to see the relevance of this statement to us as modern-day
Jonahs as we seek to proclaim the Lord’s word to the people of our land. We need
not only to see, accept, and understand God’s mercy to us, but also to others. We,
too, need to be merciful even in our thoughts and desire to others. This lesson has
many powerful points for us in our mission to call to repentance this world so
deeply sunk in sin.
Tara Collins and Allett Duncan, Mandeville, Jamaica
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