God Stories – Attributes of God
The God of Mercy – Jonah May 25, 2003
Last week – the God of Justice – we are thankful that he is the God of Justice, that he does not let evil deeds go unpunished, but we are also thankful that he is a merciful God because we find it easy to say with the psalmist
“If you, O LORD , kept a record of sins,
O Lord, who could stand?” – Psalm 130:3
When we take a good look at ourselves we recognize that it is so good that
“he does not treat us as our sins deserve
or repay us according to our iniquities.” - Psalm 103:10
Let me tell you a story of God’s mercy
I did a series in Jonah just last year at this time, but I wanted to return to it to speak about God’s Mercy
Jonah was a prophet of God whose job it was to speak the very words of God to his people. At the beginning of the book, the word of the Lord comes to Jonah: “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up against me.”
Nineveh was the capital city of Assyria. And Assyria was a very powerful and significant nation. Assyria was Israel’s enemy, and Nineveh was the capital city. The Assyrians were a cruel and heartless people the stories of their violence would curdle your blood. Assyria eventually invades and destroys Israel in 722BC.
Jonah hears the word of the Lord and hops on a boat – going in the opposite direction. Have you ever done that? You know what God wants – you know what the right thing is, but you do the opposite
The Mercy of the Storm
God doesn’t let Jonah go far – after the boat has put out to sea, God sends a great wind and a huge storm. The sailors are terrified, but Jonah is asleep below deck. The Captain is so terrified that they’ve given up bailing, and stated praying – so they wake Jonah up and tell him to pray to his God – maybe one of their Gods will hear and rescue them. They draw straws to figure our whose fault this storm is – Jonah pulls the short straw, they ask him what’s up, and he tells them that he is running from the God of heaven and earth. The sailors are amazed that he would do such as stupid thing!
Jonah tells them that in order to be saved they need to throw him overboard – he may be rebelling, but he is still a prophet, and he knows the solution to the problem. They don’t want his blood on their hands, so they try to row back to shore, but the storm gets worse and they throw Jonah over into the raging sea.
As soon as he hits the water, the storm goes calm. The sailors are totally amazed and change their religion and start to serve God.
When we are trying to run from God, often times he sends a storm to bring us around. Sometimes the troubles that come our way are just the stuff of life – the troubles that are common to everyone. Other times they are persecution for doing the right thing, but there are times when troubles come because we are not following the voice of God in our lives. There are times when we are going through troubles and we want to blame the devil, but it might not be the devil that is sending troubles our way – It says that God sent the storm on Jonah!
This what I like to call “harsh grace” – it is harsh because it hurts, but it is mercy because the intention is that the storm stops us from running from God.
We see this when Peter denies Christ in the courtyard of the High Priest – Peter is trying to fly under the radar and he denies that he even knows Jesus three times. On the last time, the rooster crows, and Jesus turns around and their eyes meet. Peter recognizes what he has done and runs from to courtyard crying. The look that Jesus gives him is one of the most painful experiences of Peter’s life, but it is mercy because it wakes Peter up to what he is doing, and it stops the downward spiral of denial.
God did not have to chase after Jonah with a storm – he could have just let him go, to live out a Godless life in Tarshish, separated from the one who created him, and the one who called him. God could have got another prophet to go, but because he has mercy on Jonah he chases after him.
Often times if God sends a storm to stop our run from him, we say that it is judgment, but it is not, it is mercy, because the worst place to be is outside the will and presence of God. God sends the storms before we get too far from him.
There might be some of you who would say, “God is so mean, he doesn’t let me get away with anything!” What I would say is “God is so merciful, he won’t let you get away from Him.”
The Mercy of the Fish
Jonah starts to slip down through the water, weeds are wrapping themselves around his head, he is about to pass out from lack of oxygen, and God sends a great fish that swallows him hole. You might think of being swallowed by a fish as punishment, but Jonah sees it as mercy and salvation.
Listen to what he says:
From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the LORD his God. He said:
"In my distress I called to the LORD ,
and he answered me.
From the depths of the grave I called for help,
and you listened to my cry.
You hurled me into the deep,
into the very heart of the seas,
and the currents swirled about me;
all your waves and breakers
swept over me.
I said, ’I have been banished
from your sight;
yet I will look again
toward your holy temple.’
The engulfing waters threatened me,
the deep surrounded me;
seaweed was wrapped around my head.
To the roots of the mountains I sank down;
the earth beneath barred me in forever. (GULP)
But you brought my life up from the pit,
O LORD my God.
"When my life was ebbing away,
I remembered you, LORD ,
and my prayer rose to you,
to your holy temple.
"Those who cling to worthless idols
forfeit the grace that could be theirs.
But I, with a song of thanksgiving,
will sacrifice to you.
What I have vowed I will make good.
Salvation comes from the LORD ."
There may be times in your life when you feel like you are in the belly of the fish – it is dark, uncomfortable, maybe smelly, and there is nothing that you can do yourself to get yourself out of the situation you can only wait, but it is better than being in the storm!
Just as God didn’t have to send the storm, he didn’t have to send the fish – he could have let Jonah expire in the waves.
Remember that Jonah is a prophet – he knows what God’s voice sounds like, he know what God’s response to disobedience is, and still he runs away. Jesus teaches in Luke 12:48 “From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.”
Jonah was one for whom much was given. There are many examples in the Bible of harsh judgment given out to prophets who disobey God, but not Jonah – Jonah receives the mercy of a storm and a fish. This is what mercy is – it is almost the opposite of what justice is – it is when God gives us what we do not deserve.
The Mercy of the Second Call
The fish spits Jonah back on shore three days later and there is this amazing verse “then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time” 3:1
“a second time” what a beautiful phrase
You would have thought that even if God was merciful enough to not kill Jonah, he would have sent him home and said – stay here and don’t bother anyone, I’ll find someone else to take my word to the people.
But the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time – you would think that God would say, “How can I trust you with my word, you don’t even obey it yourself!”
But the word of the lord came to Jonah a second time.
He is the God of second chances, and 3rd, and 4th, and 5th … He is so full of mercy!
Graham Cooke has this teaching on trials – that they are tests that God gives us to see if we have learned what he has taught us. Graham says that God is so merciful that he never fails you – he just let you take the same test over again until you get it right. So if you find yourself going through the same trial over and over again – it maybe that God is trying to teach you something, listen to Him for what it is, or in his mercy you’ll have to take the test all over again!
The Mercy on Nineveh
God comes to Jonah a second time with the same word – “Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you”
Jonah learns his lesson, and goes this time. The city is big and would take 3 days to walk through. Jonah starts in walking through proclaiming “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned.”
The Ninevites had more fear of God than Jonah did because they heard the message and believed God. They put on sackcloth and ashes, and went about mourning and fasting. The King got wind of it and he too repented and proclaimed a fast for everyone, even the livestock.
The book of Nahum is a prophecy against Nineveh, Chapter 3 describes the ferocity and the brutality of the Assyrians.
1 Woe to the city of blood,
full of lies,
full of plunder,
never without victims!
2 The crack of whips,
the clatter of wheels,
galloping horses
and jolting chariots!
3 Charging cavalry,
flashing swords
and glittering spears!
Many casualties,
piles of dead,
bodies without number,
people stumbling over the corpses-
4 all because of the wanton lust of a harlot,
alluring, the mistress of sorceries,
who enslaved nations by her prostitution
and peoples by her witchcraft.
The Assyrians were a cruel and heartless people - Assyrian engravings depict people being tortured, skulls worn around their necks to show their cruelty. When they took over a town in battle they would take any survivors and they would impale them on stakes in front of the town. After a battle they’d pile up the skulls of their enemies making pillars out of them. Their leaders would often remove the heads of their enemies and wear them around their necks.
And on these people – these people who deserve judgment if anyone did, on these people God has mercy.
3:10 “When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction he had threatened.”
If God had wiped Nineveh from the map it would have been justice, but he didn’t and it was mercy. It doesn’t matter what you done in your life – it doesn’t come close to the Ninevites, and if you truly repent as they did, God will have mercy on you.
The Call to Mercy
Of course Jonah is as pleased as punch that God had mercy on them – what is good for the goose is not good for the gander.
Jonah was furious. He lost his temper. 2He yelled at GOD, "GOD! I knew it--when I was back home, I knew this was going to happen! That’s why I ran off to Tarshish! I knew you were sheer grace and mercy, not easily angered, rich in love, and ready at the drop of a hat to turn your plans of punishment into a program of forgiveness!
3"So, GOD, if you won’t kill them, kill me! I’m better off dead!"
Isn’t this us? (or maybe just me?) we want mercy for ourselves and justice for everyone else. We don’t worry about justice – we worry about mercy – those rotten people are just going to take advantage of you!
So Jonah leave the city and sets up camp outside on a hill overlooking it to see if God will come to his senses and destroy the place. – teach those Ninrevites a lesson.
But God has a lesson to teach Jonah
“The LORD God provided a vine and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the vine. 7 But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the vine so that it withered. 8 When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die, and said, "It would be better for me to die than to live."
9 But God said to Jonah, "Do you have a right to be angry about the vine?"
"I do," he said. "I am angry enough to die."
10 But the LORD said, "You have been concerned about this vine, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. 11 But Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about that great city?"
Aren’t we like Jonah – we gladly receive mercy for our own lives, and get angry when he gives it to others, we are angry we lose the things in life that give us comfort, all the while asking God to destroy those who have ticked us off.
God doesn’t just give us mercy, he calls us to mercy.
We need to recognize the mercy that he has given us.
Titus 3:3-8
At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. This is a trustworthy saying. And I want you to stress these things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good. These things are excellent and profitable for everyone.
Our call to Mercy
James 2:12-13
“Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment!”
Concluding Illustration – Jean Valjean in Les Miserables receiving mercy from the bishop
The Movie starts with Jean Valjean is a convict – spent that last 19 years in prison for stealing bread. He comes into a town and everyone refuses him. Finally someone tells him to knock on the bishop’s door. He does and is invited in. He is an angry man and can’t believe that someone would take in a convict. The Bishop and his house keeper live very simple lives – their only luxuries are the silverware and some candlesticks. In the book, the bishop is called “Monsignor Beinvenue” – “Father Welcome” - what a moniker for a Christian to have!
In the night Valjean gets up and steals the silverware – the bishop catches him and Valjean knocks him down and escapes.
This is where we begin the clip
– God takes us in even though we are a convict, and then he gives us the things that we would try to steal from him because with his forgiveness. Just as Monsignor Beinvenue’s prized possessions are the silverware and candlesticks, God’s prized possession is his one and only son, and he gives us even this. And like the bishop he says “with my son I have redeemed your life, and purchased your soul, now remember you promised to be a new person.
Valjean lives the rest of his life giving out the mercy that he received, and we must do the same.
The priest is merciful to Valjean to allow him to stay in his house – and he gets burnt, so what does he do? he continues to be merciful.
God is so merciful that he gives up his own Son to die for us, and what do we do? even after receiving his mercy? we usually burn him by continuing to sin. Paul says we are crucifying him all over again. And how does God respond? With mercy. Over and over, again and again.
You have received great mercy – go and give great mercy.
Response Song
Sea of Grace
Matt Stowel
Have compassion on me, God
and hear my desperate cry
I’ve turned away from truth
and followed after lies
So I’m waiting for You here, I’m longing for your mercy
Draw me back to you
Restore my soul completely
For who God is like you?
You Pardon my sin
You love to show mercy,
show mercy again
And take all my sin,
take all my shame
And throw them into Your never-ending sea
Sea of Grace
© Harvest Songs 2002
