Imagine God told YOU to hop on a plane and head for Mosul (where ISIS is wreaking havoc) tomorrow morning. Imagine He said to you to go, be a single solitary lone voice there. To stand in the streets and preach repentance or doom at the hand of God. Would you go? Would you run the opposite direction? I do often feel poor old Jonah has been harshly judged by us folks who’d have been equally terrified.
And maybe ever so slightly conflicted.
Maybe he didn’t WANT the folks of that city to be spared. Maybe the idea of their destruction was awesome in his mind? Maybe the annihilation of their most horrendous persecutors and attackers held more than a little appeal?
And maybe he didn’t WANT to be the one his kin held responsible for their acquittal? Yes obeying God is always the better way… but poor Jonah. What a task.
I bet these two groups of people hated each other.
Makes the words of Jesus, in the light of today’s atrocities, even more startling.
“But I tell you, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! Then you will become children of your Father in heaven. For he makes his sun shine on good and bad people alike, and he sends rain to the righteous and the unrighteous alike. What reward do you get if you love only those who love you? Why, even tax-collectors do that! And if you are friendly only to your friends, are you doing anything out of the ordinary?”