Inconsistent
Does God contradict himself? Numbers 23:19 says, "God is not a man, that he might lie, or a son of man, that he might change his mind. Does he speak and not act, or promise and not fulfill?" So how can God declare that Nineveh will be demolished, and then avoid demolishing it? Is God changing his mind? Can we disrupt his eternal plans?
Read Jonah 3:10 and Jeremiah 18:4-11
"I'm sorry, Daddy." My kid's apology dissolved my anger. Moments earlier, I'd been frustrated that they'd hurt their sibling. But now? Their apology was sincere. So we hugged, and started to play together again. The Ninevites aren't little kids acting out. They're adults, guilty of evil, who deserve God's judgment. But their commitment to repentance matches their earlier commitment to evil. The king requires of his community, "Each must turn from his evil ways and from his wrongdoing" (Jonah 3:8). It's exactly what God says to his people in Jeremiah 18:11, "This is what the LORD says: 'Look, I am about to bring harm to you and make plans against you. Turn now, each from your evil way, and correct your ways and your deeds.'" The same formula for repentance in Jeremiah is what the Ninevite king proclaims to his people. So has God changed his mind? Only if we don't understand his character. In Jeremiah 18:7-8, God reveals the general principle: "At one moment I might announce concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will uproot, tear down, and destroy it. However, if that nation about which I have made the announcement turns from its evil, I will relent concerning the disaster I had planned to do to it." Christopher Wright explains, "It is not that God is changeable, but that God will consistently respond to our changeability." It's easier to see the principle when God is merciful to people we want him to spare. In Exodus 32:14, Moses asks God to be merciful to his people, even though they are worshipping a golden calf. God responds to Moses' prayer, and he "relented concerning the disaster he had said he would bring on his people." In the Hebrew, it's identical language to Jonah 3:10. When religion is man-made, it tends to look like "God is on our side, and he hates our enemies as much as we do." But in the Bible, the God who spared Israel when Moses pleaded for mercy shows the same mercy to the repentant Ninevites. The God of the Bible isn't contradicting himself. His warning to the Ninevites didn't reveal a desire to hurl down lightning bolts, and it wasn't reversed because he got distracted. He warned the Ninevites because he wanted to show them mercy.
What does it tell us about God that he gives the Ninevites the same offer he gave to his own people?
Who would you resent even if they completely turned away from doing wrong and started to follow God?
If God gave you the same mercy that you show to others, what would change in your relationship with God?
Tell God, "Thank you for showing me mercy. I didn't deserve it and I don't deserve it. But I am so grateful that you have relented from judgment. Help me to be like you."
Source:
Christopher J. H. Wright, The Message of Jeremiah, The Bible Speaks Today (IVP, 2014)