God Is Merciful To Us
by Dan Jones, M.D.
Jonah 4:4-9
But the LORD replied, "Have you any right to be angry?"
Jonah went out and sat down at a place east of the city. There he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city. Then the LORD God provided a vine and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the vine. But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the vine so that it withered. When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah's head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die, and said, "It would be better for me to die than to live."
But God said to Jonah, "Do you have a right to be angry about the vine?"
"I do," he said. "I am angry enough to die."
Amazingly, Jonah is angry with God because He is too merciful. So God set about to teach Jonah an important lesson about His mercy. Jonah went outside the city of Nineveh to wait to see what God would do, hoping to see the destruction of the city because that is what he felt the people deserved. Jonah was waiting in a desert and was exposed to the hot sun. He built a small shelter for protection, but it was inadequate. God then caused a vine to grow over the shelter to provide comfort from the sun and heat. Jonah was happy about the vine.
The next day, God sent a worm to destroy the vine. And Jonah was now mad about something else. He was angry with God for sending the worm to destroy the vine. He seems to have missed the point that it was God who, through His mercy and love, had provided the vine.
How many times does God show his mercy to us and we are never aware and never acknowledge His love and mercy for us? Have you stopped today to thank God for the privilege of working in the healing professions. Have you acknowledged that any comfort in your life, any security, is from God through His love and mercy?
Like Jonah, I tend to ignore and take for granted God’s love and mercy for me. I wake up most days feeling well and pain free. A few years ago, I experience my first and only kidney stone. I finally understood the pain my patients had described. It is excruciating. I still remember my plea to God for relief from the pain. In those prayers, I promised I would never take for granted again the mercy of a pain free day.
Lord, make me more aware of your mercy toward me.
Dan Jones, M.D., MACP, FAHA, a board-certified Internist, a former medical missionary to Korea, professor of medicine at the University of Mississippi School of Medicine, Dean of the School of Medicine, and Chancellor of the University of Mississippi until 2015. Dr. Dan Jones is a member of CMDA.
Dr. Jones welcomes any comments or questions about what he has written and can be reached at - djones@umc.edu
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