Jonah, Who Loved God and Was Loved by Him

Commanded to proclaim judgment on Nineveh, Jonah fled to Tarshish instead. Only after he had been caught in a storm, thrown into the sea and kept three days in the belly of a great fish did he go to Nineveh and preach the word, and the king and his people repented.

Jonah did not run away merely because he feared what might befall him for proclaiming judgment. He was unwilling to go because he already knew that God would spare the city even without him. When Nineveh repented, Jonah grew angry with God instead, and through a vine that withered within a day, God showed him that he cared more for his own comfort than for the lives of a hundred and twenty thousand people.

When God sent Jonah to save Nineveh, it was not a command but love. God longs to give life to the world even when it sins, and to understand that heart and proclaim the gospel is the calling given to God’s people.