God, in Jonah’s view, is compassionate and forgiving to the exclusion of truth and justice – a clear misunderstanding of God’s way by Jonah.

The story of Jonah reminds us that God is the God of second chances. While our world cancels, God restores. While others ...

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God, not Jonah, bears the ultimate responsibility for humanity, all creatures and creation itself, and so, God should be merciful. That is the truth and wisdom of God.

Jonah hated Nineveh; he did not want its reconciliation with God; he wanted its destruction. So, he sails away on a ship. When a storm comes, the crew and passengers pray to their gods for ...

God then calls out Jonah’s callous hatred. “You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night.

God orders Jonah to Nineveh, near what is now Mosul, Iraq, to warn that the Lord is going smite it for its sins. Like many folks these days, Jonah isn’t thrilled about his Iraq assignment.

When Jonah, chastened, does what God asks of him and calls upon the city of Nineveh to repent, they do what he says. The people repent. God withholds his wrath. Everything goes as planned.

Act one: God tells Jonah to go to the hated enemy city of Nineveh and tell them to repent of the sin of violence, injustice and war. Jonah runs in the opposite direction and boards a ship.