I am writing this on June 4, 2026 in the comfort of my home in Mobile, AL. Coffee is poured, candles are lit, classical piano music is playing in my headphones, all paired with warm lamp lighting and natural sunlight through the windows, which makes for a cozy environment to write some thoughts down. Thank you for joining me at the table today. I pray your doxology is deepened.
My church (Mars Hill Church, Mobile) is currently preaching through the book of Jonah. At the end of the first sermon on verses 1-3, my pastor, Kyle Beshears, asked a question at the end of his sermon that took me back when I first heard it. He asked the question, “Who is your Nineveh?” My first thought was, “What an odd question. (sorry Kyle:)” However, the more and more I thought about it, the more and more I found it to be spot on for me and I think most Christians. However, to properly understand where my thoughts are going, we first need to understand the broad context of the book of Jonah before moving forward…so here goes nothing!
Broad context of the Book of Jonah
(very broad strokes…I mean very)
Jonah is a prophet of God who is commanded to go and preach to the capital city of the wicked (that is a kind way of putting them) Assyrian Empire, Nineveh. However, Jonah does the complete opposite. He flees. He not only flees, but travels in such a way that his fleeing takes longer than it would have taken him to just go to Nineveh in the first place.
Then he gets on a ship to go to Tarshish (Tarshish was eastward, Nineveh was westward), which most scholars tell us what the ancient world thought to be the edge of the world at the time. However, the Lord appoints a great storm to overpower the ship, which ends up with Jonah in the depths of the sea. Then the Lord appoints a great fish to save Jonah, and bring him to the place that he hates, the great city of Nineveh. Jonah then preaches the most mediocre sermon to the most wicked and hated people on the planet at the time, and they actually repent! Praise God right? Well…not in Jonah’s case.
The wicked Assyrians repenting greatly displeased Jonah. He even says to God in Jonah 4:2-3, “And he prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster. 3 Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” (my emphasis added). Wow. A prophet of God praying God’s own character back to Him, displeased with grace and saying that he would rather die, than to see God’s unconditional love and grace save wicked people.
Okay we will stop there, now back to regularly scheduled programming.
Why did Jonah hate Nineveh/Assyrians?
At first read through/glance, it is so easy to judge Jonah, or even condemn him for his actions and rebellion of God. However…let’s be honest, we are all Jonah in this story. To be completely fair and honest if we lived in the time that Jonah did, we would hate the Assyrians too, and do the exact same thing Jonah did.
We know from historical records that the Assyrians reveled in their evil deeds, and that they did not try to hide them from the world. They thought of them as routine. As just another day at the office per say. Examples of their evil is, flaying people alive and putting their skin on city walls, beheading people and putting their heads on stakes throughout the city, pulling people apart by horse, etc. The list could go on and on, however you get the point…these people are beyond evil.
The analogy Kyle used in his sermon to put it into a more modern context was this…it would be as if God called you to go straight to Berlin and preach to the Nazis during the height of the Holocaust. The only difference is, that the Nazis tried to hide their evil, whereas the Assyrians did not.
So yes, who could blame Jonah. Who would want to go to people so evil and so perverted? Hmmmm………………
Grace is unconditional
Many of us condemn Jonah, as I said earlier, however we are Jonah. But how? Why are we Jonah? I want to take us back to the title of this article. Who’s your Nineveh? A basic, but very pointed question, that carries a lot of theological meaning.
If we are really and truly honest with ourselves, there are people in our lives that we think are so beyond grace, or so beyond saving, or so embedded in sin, that “we just don’t see how God would even desire to save them.”
How sick and twisted of us to think that way. This line of thinking leads to us “gate-keeping” salvation. As if salvation is ours to give in the first place. Newsflash, it’s not. Salvation is of God, wholly belonging to Him and Him alone. We are not the dispensers of salvation, the triune God alone is. Why? “Salvation belongs to the LORD.”—Jonah 2:9
God is not a God of partiality. He saves whom He pleases. There is no condition in which a person could ever meet that would “qualify” them for grace. There is none!
This is what makes grace so astounding and humbling. The same God who saves the proud Pharisee and the rebellious runaway prophet, is the same God who saves people like the Assyrians. Why? The Assyrians and Nazis of our world are at the same level of depravity as the 90 year old unrepentant grandma who sits under Gospel preaching every Sunday, who thinks her “good works” can save her. Grace is that good. Grace is unconditional, because all humans are under the same curse…total depravity. In thought, word, and deed we have all sinned against a Holy God. This offense against Him deserves death. Yet, in the Lord Jesus, He gives grace to those whom believe in Him instead.
What is your gut instinct to evil?
So, who is your Nineveh? Is it a family member who “just doesn’t get it,” is it a certain political party, is it the LGBTQIA+ community, is it a runaway parent who abandoned you, is it someone who hurt you physically, emotionally, mentally, or spiritually, etc. The point is, whatever/whoever came to mind when asked that question, God desires to save that person(s). We must not and cannot gate-keep salvation. Why? It doesn’t belong to us. God alone is the owner and dispenser of grace and salvation. All we are called to do is to unconditionally preach the Gospel to all, and see His unconditional grace change even the “worst” people imaginable. Why? Because that’s what God does. He has always saved, is saving, and will continue to save the worst. Why? Because that’s all of us. We are all the worst, but praise be to God that He is not a reluctant Savior. The darkest parts of our souls is where grace meets us the most. The darkest areas of our world, is where grace is most needed.
If all that is stated above is true, why is our first reaction so often to wicked and evil people, “Yeah!!! They got what they deserved! God will judge them for their wicked deeds. Vengeance is mine says the Lord. This world and it’s evil people are going to be burned when Christ returns anyway, who cares?! Hell’s gonna be hot for you.”
Our first reaction should not be that. God does not rejoice in wrong-doing or unrighteousness. Yes that’s true. Yes, those who do not believe will be judged for their unrighteous deeds in hell. Yes, yes, yes all true. But, that should not be our first thought when we see evil in our world.
Our first thought should be heartbrokenness over the evil we see. Our first thought should be grace and compassion. Our first thought should be, the Gospel is for them. Why? Because the Gospel was for you when you were in a pit of evil so deep that you thought your evil deeds was just another day at the office…much like the people of Nineveh.
"6 The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, 7 keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation.”—Exodus 34:6-7
This is who God is. This is what God does. He is merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in unconditional love. And He shows said character unconditionally to a rebellious and underserving people. To a rebellious and undeserving person. Said person includes you, me, and your Nineveh. Why? Well that’s easy. It’s what grace does, it meets the most wicked, evil, and vile people and utterly changes them. All for their good, and the glory of the Lord.
Conclusion
I asked a question earlier when talking about Nineveh that I want to go back to, to close. Who would want such wicked, evil, and vile people? God does. When He sets His sovereign will to save a people for His own possession by His grace, it will happen. That’s such good news, because He doesn’t keep us in our depravity. He brings us from death to life. He makes dead, wicked, evil, vile, corrupt, profane, sinful, defiled, arrogant, and prideful people trophies of His grace and glory.
The truth is, unconditional grace humbles us because by it, we receive a righteousness so foreign to us, that it leaves no room for boasting. This humility should lead us to seek the salvation to the sinful people around us, not their destruction. Why? Because deep down we know that we deserved the same destruction we are so keen to wish upon them, and grace changes that. It shows no partiality, and goes to the most undeserving. That’s what grace does. It’s just that good.
“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the flesh and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”—Ephesians 2:1-10
As the old hymn says…
Grace, grace, God’s grace! Grace that is greater than all my sin!
What a marvelous truth that this evil sinner can proclaim…and so can your Nineveh.
In Christ,
Dalton G. Mathis—Numbers 6:24-26