What is the lesson of Nineveh? Often, we concentrate on Jonah and his unique journey with God’s discipline of entrapment in a fish. But why was he there? Jonah reveals his own heart when he watches Nineveh relent and turn to God. When God decides to show mercy, Jonah says, “Isn’t this what I said, Lord, when I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.” (Jonah 4:2) Jonah did not want Nineveh to turn around. He wanted divine judgment. he even tried to guarantee it by delaying God’s goodness. He despised the mercy of God. But whatever his desire, Nineveh now stands as a symbol of God’s divine mercy. On their last chance, they changed course, and God withdrew his judgment.
“Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled; that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.”
Hebrews 12:14-17
There are two concepts of judgment here. One, we could characterize as consequence. The other is better-called justice. Consequences are the natural laws by which life functions and proceed logically from our behaviors. Justice is the determination of the condition of our soul as fitting before God or to be rejected. Here, we see an example of Esau reaping the natural consequences that come along with obeying carnal desires. He lost his birthright, and there was no recovery. The writer of Hebrews draws a parallel to the concepts of bitterness and sexual immorality. He says that, like Esau, we can subvert the birthright God is trying to give us by getting our reward in the moment. Sexual immorality and bitterness provide us with temporal consolation, and steal (naturally push out) the birthright, which is life abundant, from us.
But there’s more. Because many of us combine the two forms of judgment together and end up asking a terrifying question.
How many times have you asked yourself if you are too far gone for God to love you or redeem you? How many times have you given off a pained sigh after someone reminded you that you are saved? That God is merciful. So many of us are caught in a cycle of despising God’s mercy because we are holding on to judgement for ourselves. Indeed, it is not God who must still forgive us, but ourselves. At some point, if you want to receive the abundant life that God wants to give you, you will have to give God His job back. It is HIS to judge. It is HIS to sustain consequence and enact justice on a cosmic scale. In short, stop hating God. Stop downplaying His goodness by submitting His divine way to your earthly way. Hate what is evil and cling to what is good. And who is good but God?
The lesson of Esau is that consequence follows our actions, but the justice of God is His alone to dispense and He does so in respect of the saving blood of Jesus Christ. Celebrate in your victory, do not despise the mercy of God. Let the lesson of Jonah, the bitter one, teach you the heights and depths of the love of God.
Make no mistake, it is not good to sin and break down the abundant life of God. But we should say clearly: you are never beyond the saving grace of Jesus Christ.
Question: How are you actively slowing down the goodness of God? What behaviors, attitudes or lies are obstructing the movement of His grace through your life? What has God called you to do that challenges the outcomes that you desire? Are you bitter or unforgiving? Is God calling you to be the one who moves in and delivers His mercy? There will come a time when you will wish you had done so, and at that time the choice will no longer exist. But if you allow Him, God will divinely bring the freedom that you can enjoy in cooperation with Him.