The Culture of Hope Founded on Faith
God’s Boundless Mercy
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy has begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead…” (1 Pet. 1:3).
God chose Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to father His chosen people, Israel. He gave them commandments for obedience and holiness to God alone. Throughout the Old Testament God’s chosen people repeatedly followed the neighboring nations in idolatry, turning their backs on God. God extended mercy to Israel time and time again, drawing them back to purity in worship again through a variety of circumstances. But the unbelieving nations around them did not generally experience God’s mercy or redemption.
The Old Testament does record, however, God’s mercy to the Assyrian city of Ninevah. The little book of Jonah tells the story of Jonah who was called to go to this city to “cry against it for their wickedness is come up before me” (Jon. 1:2). We all know the story of his faithlessness in running away instead, only to end up in the belly of a great fish prepared by God for this very purpose. When he finally made it to Ninevah, his message was that the city would be destroyed in forty days because of the wickedness of its inhabitants.
Jonah 3:5-9 records the people’s response:
“So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them. For word came unto the king of Nineveh and he arose from his throne, laid his robe from him, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, ‘Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed nor drink water. But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God. Let them turn every one from his evil way and from the violence that is in their hands. Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger that we perish not?”
Verse ten shows God’s mercy at work:
“And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way. God relented of the disaster that he had said that he would do unto them, and he did it not.”
The Ninevites were not part of God’s chosen people, and yet when they repented, starting with the king, God showed them this amazing mercy. What lively hope this gives us, then, who are Gentiles! When Jesus died on the cross to pay the penalty for sin, it was not just for the Jews. It was for all humans, Jew and Gentile alike. His boundless mercy responds to faith and repentance with spiritual birth into eternal salvation.
