Jonah and Mercy

This week in Sunday School we are going to encounter a man by the name of Jonah. The problem of teaching Jonah to a group of children at Briarwood Presbyterian Church is that they have heard the story several times and can recount the important details from memory instantly. It is even likely that my first-graders are familiar with even the debate over the question whether Jonah was swallowed by a whale or a big fish. The focus of this lesson according to our curriculum is God's mercy toward sinners. Of course it strikes one instantly that God’s mercy was shown to the people of Ninevah as well as toward Jonah who deserved the ultimate punishment from God for his disobedience. Instead, God allowed Jonah to survive in the belly of the big fish, and responded to the repentance of the people of Ninevah by delaying their destruction. This short book in the Old Testament also explains part of the reason for the delaying of God’s final Judgment on the Kingdom of Israel by the Assyrians. God promised His judgment on the Assyrians would come after they invaded His people in Israel, but when the Assyrians repented they delayed the process which would eventually lead them to invade Israel and undergo God’s judgment.

What is mercy? If this historical narrative from the book of Jonah is evidence of mercy it provides insight into the definition of mercy. God did not give Jonah, Ninevah, or the people of Israel what they deserved for their disobedience to God. From this comes an understanding that mercy occurs when we don’t get what we deserve. The Christian finds mercy at the cross where Jesus shed His blood and kept us from getting the eternal death that we deserve. Having been raised in a church that is strong in teaching basic doctrines my first-graders have probably heard of mercy so much that they don’t really grasp the impact of its effect. In other words they take the mercy of God for granted. In their minds they think “Of course God showed mercy!” But the people of Ninevah did not take this for granted. They saw that they weren’t going to get away with their sin any longer. Jonah probably figured that mercy missed him when he saw the spray rise around the huge beast’s gaping mouth. I expect that my students would be more like the people of Israel who were basically oblivious to the fact that God’s grace was shown to them every day for allowing them to continue to exist even though they lived in disobedience. Will I be able to lead my students to grasp their need for mercy?