Episode 611 Jonah and the Compassion of God (Jonah 1:1-17; 3:1-10; and 4:1-11)

This week we’re reading the story Jonah as told in the book of Jonah chapters 1, 3, & 4. The story opens with God sending Jonah to prophesy against Israel’s greatest enemy, the Assyrians, in their capital city of Nineveh. Jonah at first runs away from God, preferring to take his chances in the sea, where he is famously saved by spending three days in the belly of a fish. But when Jonah finally does make it to Nineveh, speaking only the minimum words of prophecy, the city undergoes a massive repentance, from the king to the cows, evoking the mercy of God, who decides not to destroy them. What might this story tell us about God’s compassion toward our own enemies, we wonder. Are there people that we, like Jonah, wish God would not be merciful to? And what small word might God be asking us to say to our enemies so that they, too, might experience God’s compassion?