Jonah’s Lack of Pity

   Most people know the account of Jonah and the whale. God told Jonah to go to the capital city of Assyria and preach repentance to the people. Jonah ran from God until a huge fish swallowed him and spit him up on the shore of Nineveh. When the entire city repented, Jonah was angry that God spared them. Because Assyria was a cruel enemy of Israel, he wanted the Lord to destroy them.  He should have been happy that an entire city got saved at his message. However, it displeased Jonah when God saved the people of Nineveh.

   Jonah pouted and wished to die. Kindly, the Lord caused a large plant to grow up to shade Jonah from the blazing sun.  When Jonah stayed angry, the following morning a worm caused the gourd to wilt and die. Jonah fainted in the sun. God confronted Jonah for his lack of pity.

   Then said the LORD, Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not laboured, neither madest it grow; which came up in a night, and perished in a night: And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle? (Jonah 4:10-11).

   God rebuked Jonah. There were probably 600,000 people in Nineveh and 120,000 were babies. Shouldn’t Jonah have more pity on the babies and even animals, than on his own selfish comfort and convenience?

God Bless

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