We Are Not Jonah
God's Mercy Is the Story
By Paul Scribner, CEO, General Holdings Limited and Raven Resources Corp.
With Kelly Delp, Chief Communications Officer, Raven Resources Corp.
The people of Nineveh had forty days to live. They didn't deserve a warning, yet they got one anyway. This simple fact reveals a profound truth: God's intense desire to extend mercy is so great that He once put a man in the belly of a fish to make it happen. The moment we realize we are Nineveh, not Jonah, is when we stop striving to impress God and start receiving the mercy He has been eager to give all along.
God did not spare Nineveh to showcase Jonah's obedience. He spared Nineveh to showcase His mercy.
When we read biblical narratives, we instinctively cast ourselves as the heroes. We want to be David facing Goliath, Moses leading the exodus, or Jonah receiving God's call. We crave the starring role in stories of faith and courage. But this impulse reveals our fundamental misunderstanding of Scripture's message: we are not the heroes of these stories. God is the hero.
In the book of Jonah, it is natural to picture ourselves in the prophet's shoes: reluctant, wrestling with God's call, running in the opposite direction. We imagine ourselves as the flawed but ultimately faithful messenger. The uncomfortable truth is that we are far more like the people of Nineveh than we would like to admit.
Nineveh was notorious for its brutality and idolatry. The Assyrians built their empire on terror, flaying enemies alive and displaying their victims' skins on city walls. The prophet Nahum would later describe it as a city "full of lies, full of plunder, never without victims." By every measure, they deserved judgment. Yet God sent Jonah not to showcase the prophet's courage or condemn his reluctance, but to open the door for an undeserving people to experience His compassion.
The heart of Jonah's message was simple: "Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown." It was not elaborate, persuasive, or even warm. But behind the warning lay a deeper truth: the very act of sending a prophet was proof of God's mercy. If destruction was inevitable, there would have been no warning, only wrath.
This divine mercy that spared Nineveh echoes across the Abrahamic traditions. In Judaism, the call to teshuvah (repentance) affirms that no one is beyond return. In Islam, God's names Ar-Rahman (The Most Merciful) and Ar-Rahim (The Most Compassionate) declare His readiness to forgive. In Christianity, the cross demonstrates that God's desire to save exceeds His demand for justice. The story of Nineveh reminds all who follow the God of Abraham that His compassion is not bound by nationality, heritage, or past sins.
Nineveh believed God's word, repented in humility, and was spared. Jonah’s humanity is displayed in his frustration in the final chapter, and echoes a very real condition of our own hearts - we often want mercy for ourselves but judgement for others. But God's closing words to Jonah remind us that His heart beats for mercy for all.
Here lies the story's revolutionary truth: we want to be Jonah, the chosen messenger, the one who gets to deliver God's word. We want to be the prophet, the leader, the hero. But we are not Jonah. We are Nineveh, the undeserving recipients of unmerited grace. We are the ones who needed the warning, who required the intervention, who stood forty days from destruction until mercy intervened.
Jonah's story is not ultimately about human obedience or disobedience, but about the God who longs to forgive. His desire to rescue far outweighs our failures. His plan to extend mercy will not be stopped by our hesitation. We are Nineveh: guilty, warned, given a chance to turn, and saved not to prove the prophet right, but to prove God good.
In every biblical narrative, we search for ourselves in the wrong places. We are not Moses; we are the Israelites wandering in the wilderness. We are not David; we are the frightened armies watching someone else face the giant. We are not the Good Samaritan; we are the man beaten and left for dead on the roadside. We are not the heroes of these stories; we are the ones who need rescuing. And that is exactly where God's mercy finds us.
About the Authors
Paul Scribner is a corporate leader and communicator with over two decades of experience in global finance, strategic investment, and organizational leadership. He writes on leadership, faith, and the lessons found in both successes and failures.
Kelly Delp is a communications strategist and writer with a background in storytelling, non-profit leadership, and organizational culture. She partners with leaders to craft clear, compelling narratives that inspire trust and action. Kelly writes at kellydelp.com.