Lessons from Jonah: Trading Idols for Mercy

If you've grown up in church, I'm sure, like me, you've learned valuable lessons from the story of Jonah in the Bible.

Here's a quick refresher: God calls the prophet Jonah to go to the Ninevites to implore them to repent and live for God.

Jonah rebuffs, runs the other way, and pays to hop on a ship going in the wrong direction! No way was he going to give those people a chance to repent and live in God's favor!

We all know the rest of the story. God sends a huge storm, making the sailors terrified for their safety! They toss out the ship's cargo, then find Jonah sleeping below. They cast lots and realize he's the problem.

Jonah then volunteers to go overboard, probably relieved to just die instead of facing the people of Nineveh!? But the mariners refuse - at first - until their rowing gets them nowhere!

They finally toss Jonah out into the sea, and he's promptly swallowed by a large fish and stays put for three days and nights. Jonah finds humility in that fish's belly and cries out to God. His prayer is recorded in Jonah 2:

I called out to the LORD,

out of my distress, and he answered me;

Out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice. For you cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the flood surrounded me;

all your waves and your billows passed over me. Then I said, ‘I am driven away from your sight;

yet I shall again look upon your holy temple.’

The waters closed in over me to take my life;

the deep surrounded me;

weeds were wrapped about my head at the roots of the mountains.

I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever;

yet you brought up my life from the pit, O LORD my God.

When my life was fainting away, I remembered the LORD,

and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple.

Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love.

But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you;

what I have vowed I will pay.

Salvation belongs to the LORD!

From this account, we know not to run from God. We learn that God's plans will not be thwarted. We see that He desires the salvation of all people, even the wicked who are seemingly unreachable. We see God wants to use willing hearts.

But there are more lessons in this short four-chapter Old Testament book.

Open-Handed Mercy

I recently noticed this part of Jonah's prayer in verse 8: Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love. Another version records it this way:

Those who regard worthless idols forsake their own mercy. Jonah 2:8

Mercy was an option for the Ninevites, should Jonah carry the message. And mercy was readily available to the seaweed-covered prophet when he finally humbled himself and traded his plans for God's. Worthless idols were in the way.

In my own chronic illness journey,

I worshipped the idol of self-sufficiency.

I bowed at the altar of a life of ease.

I exalted a pain-free life as the best life.

I would not let God's mercy break through my own exalted Life Plan. 

I thought if I couldn't serve in ways I had when I was able-bodied, the season was wasted and purposeless. I believed I could earn a Good Life with good works. I outright rejected God's hope and steadfast love. But Jonah's prayer in the belly of the fish gives me hope. It's as simple as remembering God is with us in the pit.

With humility and gratitude, we can unclench our worthless idols and accept God's mercy with open hands.