Your Grace Is Enough
Introduction:
Reprimand To A Naïve Deity
I will not advertise
This crazy scheme
of Yours
God, what a farce
that men should sin and find
escape.
I mean, of course,
not me
but all our mutual
antagonists.
Dear God, kind God, don’t listen
To their prayers.
~Thomas John Carlisle (You! Jonah!)
The poem above is part of a collection from the poet and minister Thomas John Carlisle (1913-1992) reflecting and meditating on the book of Jonah. As I read through this poem and others in the collection…I’m struck with how well he portrays Jonah’s attitude towards God. Particularly God’s love, grace and compassion for the people of Nineveh.
When we read the book of Jonah, I find that it is very easy to condescendingly call out Jonah’s attitude (wrong as it may be) …as if we are so much better. To better understand Jonah’s attitude in contrast to God’s love and justice, let’s look at some background, as well as other examples from Scripture to get more of a full picture…
Devotional:
The city of Ninevah became the capital of the Assyrian Empire under King Sennacherib. This is the same empire that conquered the Northern Kingdom of Israel, sending the people into exile. These events are documented in passages like 2 Kings 17.
The Assyrians were particularly known for their brutality. They used terror tactics and psychological warfare such as: flaying captives, impaling rebels, and putting them on display to intimidate enemies into surrender. This is just a small sample of the violence they were known for. It was brutality on a different level. What’s worse…based on archeology, we know that King Sennacherib himself showed immense pride in these tactics by depicting them on wall art that lined the corridors of his palace in that very city of Nineveh.1
This is the city to which God is calling Jonah. Putting myself in Jonah’s shoes…I try to imagine how difficult it would be to follow through with this, knowing the type of evil that this city represents. What if in our modern day, I was asked to go to a city that practices and even prides itself in this type of violence and terror? What would be going through my mind? Hard to say how I might react if placed in that same situation, but as is the case with Jonah, he flees. God sends a storm, he is thrown overboard and swallowed by a great fish. God delivers him and he eventually does go to Nineveh. What is the city’s response?
5 And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them. 6 The word reached[c] the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. -Jonah 3:5-6 ESV
The king of Nineveh himself…perhaps surrounded by prideful depictions of terror and brutality in his palace…repents! He then issues a decree for all the people to repent. Not only do they afflict themselves…but the King calls for actual repentance, turning away from evil. He decrees to the people…
but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. 9 Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.” -Jonah 3:8-9 ESV
A people known for brutal violence are called on by their own king to turn from evil and ‘from the violence that is in his hands’. This is truly an unbelievable turnaround! But instead of rejoicing…we read:
But it displeased Jonah exceedingly,[a] and he was angry. -Jonah 4:1 ESV
The ESV adds a footnote…The literal Hebrew reading says: “It was exceedingly evil to Jonah”.
And he prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster. –Jonah 4:2 ESV
In other words…’I knew you might do this, God! I know you are gracious, merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love…this is evil!’. Wow…what a response! I wonder how Jonah might know this could have been the result. Probably because THIS WAS ISRAEL! Israel’s history is recounted in Psalm 106. The Psalmist says of Israel:
They did not destroy the peoples,
as the Lord commanded them,
35 but they mixed with the nations
and learned to do as they did.
36 They served their idols,
which became a snare to them.
37 They sacrificed their sons
and their daughters to the demons;
38 they poured out innocent blood,
the blood of their sons and daughters,
whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan,
and the land was polluted with blood.
39 Thus they became unclean by their acts,
and played the whore in their deeds. -Psalm 106:34-39 ESV
The very evil that Jonah saw in the people of Nineveh is the same evil that the people of Israel practiced which lead them into exile…
Then the anger of the Lord was kindled against his people,
and he abhorred his heritage;
41 he gave them into the hand of the nations,
so that those who hated them ruled over them. -Psalm 106:40-41 ESV
And how did God treat Israel when they repented from this evil? The same as he treated Nineveh! Psalm 107 reflects on Israel’s deliverance and return from exile…
Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble,
and he delivered them from their distress.
14 He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death,
and burst their bonds apart.
15 Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love,
for his wondrous works to the children of man!
16 For he shatters the doors of bronze
and cuts in two the bars of iron. -Psalm 107:13-16 ESV
All we have to do is read the book of Judges to see this cycle repeated over and over again with Israel.
There is a line in one of our worship songs this week that keeps playing in my head. It is a short line, but it speaks volumes about this topic…
“Great is your love and justice, God” – Your grace is enough
Love and justice.
-God is just. He punished other nations for evil just as he punished Israel for their evil.
-He is also abounding in steadfast love. Just as He showed mercy to Nineveh when they repented from their evil, He also showed that same grace and mercy to Israel when they cried out and repented. He rules with justice, equity and shows no partiality.
The Psalmists call on the people to remember their story. If we forget our story and where we came from…we not only risk falling into sin, but we risk becoming like Jonah…resenting the same love and justice God showed to us, when he shows it to our enemies…people WE may see as undeserving.
I am thankful that He is God…and we are not.
I close with the same words the Psalmist uses to close Psalm 107…
Whoever is wise, let him attend to these things;
let them consider the steadfast love of the Lord. -Psalm 107:43 ESV.
Amen.
Sean Wagner
- Mark, Joshua J.. “Assyrian Warfare.” World History Encyclopedia. World History Encyclopedia, 02 May 2018, https://www.worldhistory.org/Assyrian_Warfare/. Web. 05 Jun 2025. ↩︎