Jonah 4: 1-3 (NIRV)

“But to Jonah this seemed very wrong. He became angry. He prayed to the Lord. Here is what Jonah said to him. “Lord, isn’t this exactly what I thought would happen when I was still at home? That is what I tried to prevent by running away to Tarshish. I knew that you are gracious. You are tender and kind. You are slow to get angry. You are full of love. You are a God who takes pity on people. You don’t want to destroy them.”

Jonah 3: 9 (NIRV)

“Who knows? God might take pity on us. He might not be angry with us anymore. Then we won’t die.”

We can trust the heart of God.

Jonah 4:3-5 (NIRV)

“Lord, take away my life. I’d rather die than live. But the Lord replied, ‘Is it right for you to be angry?’ Jonah had left the city. He had sat down at a place east of it. There he put some branches over his head. He sat in their shade. He waited to see what would happen to the city.”

God is not dictated by our human emotions.

Deuteronomy 4:31 (NIV)

“For the Lord your God is a merciful God; he will not abandon or destroy you or forget the covenant with your ancestors, which he confirmed to them by oath.”

Psalm 103:8-12 (NIV)

“The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.”

Exodus 22:27 (NIV)

“I am compassionate.”

We know a lot about God, but have we experienced the compassion of his heart?

Jonah 4:8-9 (NIRV)

“When the sun rose, God sent a burning east wind. The sun beat down on Jonah’s head. It made him very weak. He wanted to die. So he said, “I’d rather die than live.” But God spoke to Jonah. God said, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?” “It is,” Jonah said. “In fact, I’m so angry I wish I were dead.”

Jonah 4:10-11 (NIRV)

“But the Lord said, “You have been concerned about this plant. But you did not take care of it. You did not make it grow. It grew up in one night and died the next. And shouldn’t I show concern for the great city of Nineveh? It has more than 120,000 people. They can’t tell right from wrong. Nineveh also has a lot of animals.”

Jonah understood the heart God had for himself, but he didn’t understand the heart of God for Nineveh.

Roman 1:16 (NIV)

It’s what Paul teaches when he says, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.”

“If Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins, that’s how God can be infinitely just, because all sin was punished there,and it’s how God can be infinitely loving, because he took it onto himself.”

Timothy Keller

Does your heart break for the things of God?

Where in your life, do you need to trust God’s heart, even though you do not understand it?