God shows mercy to whomever he chooses. The sovereign of the universe made that clear when he spoke centuries before Jonah to the man Moses (Exodus 33:19). Likewise Jesus made this claim in his use of a parable. Stating that a boss can pay his laborers all equally despite that some did not start working until very late in the day. At the outrage of one of the workers the boss replies:
But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? 14 Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you. 15 Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?’ (Matthew 20:13-15)
So God’s grace is his to give as he pleases. In essence we might borrow the phrase of Jonah: Salvation belongs to the Lord. It’s his to do with as he pleases. He saves whomever he chooses to save. This is a crucial phrase for understanding the book as a whole.
It is sometimes suggested that the whole book of Jonah is a midrash on Jeremiah 18:7-10. The passage in Jeremiah is a conditional covenant between God and the nations. If he threatens to punish a nation and they repent then He will relent of the judgment. The covenant, it is suggested, is depicted in tangible ways by Jonah. Jeremiah reads:
7 If at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, 8 and if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I intended to do to it. 9 And if at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it, 10 and if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will relent of the good that I had intended to do to it. (Jeremiah 18:7-10)
In some ways that does sound like what’s going on in Jonah. It happens on the small-scale with Jonah himself in the belly of the fish, and then points to the larger picture happening among the people of Nineveh.
When Jonah prays this prayer in 2:9 he is repentant of his rebellion. Having run from God he knows he deserves to be punished. The Old Testament tells a very unsettling story of a prophet who did not obey God’s command in 1 Kings 13. Here a man of God is told not to return and eat and drink at another prophet’s house, he does though. And on his way later is attacked and killed by a lion. It’s a rather devastating picture of what can happen to those who reject God’s commissions and commands. And here sits Jonah in the belly of fish and he knows what he has earned. So he cries out in repentance and acknowledges that only God can save Him, and only if he chooses to.
The story of Jonah’s repentance and salvation mirrors that of Nineveh. When they are confronted with their sin and threatened by God’s judgment they repent and God spares them. Salvation is his to give. Jonah seems to like it quite well when it applies to his story, but hates it when God does the same thing to Nineveh. But salvation belongs to the Lord. He can save whomever he chooses, and can show mercy to whomever he chooses. I wonder if we are ready to admit this about our God?
Isn’t there a sense in which we all feel dignified in saying God must do something? Aren’t we sometimes demanding of God’s mercy and grace, as if it ought to be offered under certain conditions to certain people regardless of their relationship to God? I know I’ve felt frustrated with God’s mercy. I know I’ve wanted it for myself and others in particular ways that God did not see fit to give. Now God is always gracious in one sense: the sense that I and any other sinner are still alive at this moment. But there have been times where I’ve felt that God’s mercy should give me or another specific things. But mercy belongs to the Lord! He gives as he sees fit and how he sees fit. Salvation is his to do with as he pleases? At some level the question Jesus’ “boss” raises in the parable is the question we ought all to ask ourselves when we are frustrated with God: Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?
Do you begrudge God’s generosity? If I am honest, there are times when I do. I must remember like (perhaps better than) Jonah: salvation belongs to the Lord. He can do and does do as he pleases.
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