Can you hide from God’s presence? Of course not! God is a spirit, so he can see you when you hide in your closet or at the bottom of a boat. Jonah should have known that. During his boat ride “the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea . . . so that the ship threatened to break up” (1:4). The sailors knew that this big storm was big trouble. And they soon found out that Jonah was the reason for the storm. Jonah told them he was disobeying God, and he suggested a plan. “Throw me overboard and the sea will calm down.” Sure enough, once he splashed into the sea, the storm stopped. The sailors were amazed that they had been saved, and they praised the Lord for his mercy. But what about Jonah? Did he drown?

No! God sent a huge fish to swallow and save him! Jonah was amazed and praised the Lord inside the fish. When Jonah was the recipient of God’s mercy, he liked it! God told the fish to spit Jonah out on the dry land. The fish obeyed God (maybe God’s prophet could learn a thing or two from that fish). Once again God told Jonah, “Go to Nineveh.” This time Jonah listened. When he got there, he announced, “In forty days, your city will be overthrown!” Jonah was glad the nasty Ninevites would be judged. But do you know what happened? They believed Jonah’s warning, showed they were sorry for their sins, and changed their ways. In response God was merciful on the disobedient Ninevites. Just like he’d been merciful to his disobedient prophet. Nineveh was saved!

Now that’s a happy ending for the Ninevites, but it made Jonah mad! He was thankful God forgave him and saved him. But he hated that God would forgive and save his enemies. But God wanted his prophet to repent just like he wanted Nineveh to repent. So the merciful God hatched a plan. While Jonah was sitting in the hot sun, God made a huge plant grow and provide shade for him. Jonah was happy, but not for long. The next day, God destroyed the plant. Jonah was steaming mad! God asked him, “Why do you care more about one plant than the 120,000 people in Nineveh?” The Bible doesn’t tell us if Jonah repented or if he learned to be merciful. But it does tell us that we worship a gracious and merciful God who is slow to anger and abounds in steadfast love (see 4:2)—even to really bad people who repent.