Written by Davis Wetherell, a contemporary writer and editor.
The Ninevites were some of the worst people. Jonah was either so afraid of them or thought they were so hopelessly lost that when God called him to go there, he went the other way. But Jonah did go and proclaim God’s Word to them, he proclaimed God’s offer of repentance to them. They responded in faith, and God withheld their due judgment. Remember the Ninevites’ story next time someone describes God as one who lacks mercy in the Old Testament. The Ninevites so deserved their punishment that Jonah himself—a prophet of God, having seen many conversions—still believed God would condemn them after they repented. Jonah’s lack of mercy in his story contrasts the overwhelming mercy and love God has for humanity.
“Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.” When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it. [Jonah 3:8-10]
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