"Should I not be concerned about that great city?"  Jonah 4:11 

The book of Jonah ends with a question that speaks to the heart of what God is trying to do. Can God's Holiness and Righteousness ever be reconciled with God's Love and Compassion? Jonah is angry because he perceives that God has grown soft and wants to relent when God should really smite.

What Jonah, and probably us as well, has failed to understand is that when we ask God to smite those evil-doers we must be very careful because we could very well be the ones bring evil to the world, just as Jonah did to the innocent sailor on the sea. God tries to each Jonah this lesson by growing a vine to shade him (see Psalm 121 'the Lord will your shade at your right hand."] for which Jonah is very happy, but does not appear to thank God for it. It's just expected. When the vine withers, Jonah is angry unto death for what he must endure.

"You've taken it all for granted Jonah" God says. "You didn't make it grow and you didn't make it wither yet you're more concerned about this vegetation than you are real people."

When we get hooked on judgment we blind ourselves to God's other side; that of compassion and forgiveness. So how do we keep a healthy balance.

 

God's Answer: Jesus Christ

"For the Law was given through Moses, Grace and Truth came through Jesus Christ."

In Jesus we find judgment and mercy finally reconciled. The Good News is that in Jesus God's Judgment and God's Love are satisfied and we live without guilt in life and fear in death. Are you still holding on to God's Judgment waiting, hoping, longing for God to smite the wicked of which we're part?

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