WEEK 4 – PURSUIT OF MERCY

Day 1 – Mercy Triumphs
Read Jonah 3:6–10
What? (describe what happened in the story in your own words)

Mercy Triumphs
There is a beautiful contrast—that we serve a just God who is also full of mercy. In the first two chapters of the book of Jonah, God asked the prophet Jonah to travel to Nineveh and tell them to repent of their sins. Instead, he ran as fast as he could in the opposite direction. Jonah didn’t feel that the people of Nineveh deserved God’s mercy. Traveling away on a boat, God sent a storm, and the other people on the boat threw Jonah overboard. He spent three days inside a big fish before being vomited up on a shore near Nineveh, where he went and preached the message that God had originally asked him to. The Ninevites repented, and God showed them mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

That last sentence rings as true now as it did in Jonah’s time. God’s goodness never changes. In many ways, the Bible speaks of us before we knew Christ. We were children of wrath, dead in our sins, and slaves to fear, sin, and death. That was our identity before we knew Jesus. But regardless of where we come from—our religious background, what we have done, who we were—the mercy of Jesus is poured out equally on those who have received Him. And those who have received Him are now His masterpieces—children of God and sealed by the Holy Spirit.

Study Questions:
What was the king’s response upon hearing of his people’s sin?

Application Questions:
When you are confronted with sin in your life, what is your response?