The Doorpost: True faith depends on His mercy

Then I said, “I am driven away
from your sight;
yet I shall again look
upon Your holy temple.”
Jonah 2:4

Jonah’s prayer from the belly of the great fish reveals the foundation of His belief in God—he was convinced of God’s goodness and mercy. Even though Jonah had disobeyed God, he fully expected to be with God in the end. Four verses later he says, “Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love.” Ultimately, true faith in God depends on God’s mercy, not on our own efforts or some lesser god.

The first three verses in Jonah 4 reveal that Jonah’s conviction of the mercy and grace of God actually influenced his earlier disobedience to God. He didn’t want God’s mercy to be extended to his enemies. God’s final appeal to Jonah in the last verses of the book could be a question for us—His followers—today. Do we desire that our enemies experience God’s mercy?