Aren’t we just like Jonah if we’re truly honest? Our hearts love justice and Jonah was more worried about his own embarrassment than God relenting on destroying 120,000 real, live, human beings.

 

The heart of the prophet should have been one pleading for mercy, standing in the gap for the people. Instead, he was furious that God gave grace to an undeserving city.

 

But what if the script had been flipped and Jonah was the one God was considering destroying. Would Jonah have had the same reaction? I seriously doubt it.

 

If ever we need the love of Jesus for a dark world, it is now, friends. Love covers a multitude of sins. Love looks past the frailty and wickedness of humanity and sees with the eyes of Christ. Love compels us to contend on behalf of hearts in need.

 

Love wins.

 

Let us be cautious that our hearts don’t hide from us a deeply wedged piety, whereby we decide who is offered mercy and who is not. For in that is a warning that we, too, could be under the holy gaze of God Almighty and also be found in need of the same mercy.

 

Nineveh was more than just a city. It was a place that housed 120,000 hearts that God formed in the womb. 120,000 hearts He watched grow through the years. 120,000 hearts that had personal traumas and pain that only God knew intimately.

 

If Jesus is in us then we ought to be able to see with His eyes. His love for “Nineveh” should be residing also in us.

 

After all, the one who formed them is the same one who lives in us.