Should not I spare Nineveh?

“And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?” - Jonah 4v11

I never cease to be amazed at God’s love and mercy. In our eyes He could not have chosen a more unsuitable target for His mercy than Nineveh. There were quite possibly the most wicked city in the known world at the time – vicious, brutal, pagans – they had no regard for human life. It seems like God would have just killed them all.

Yet God saw something else – there were 120,000 children there as well. God chose to give Nineveh a chance – and when the city repented of their sin God marvellously and graciously saved them. His mercy saw beyond what any of us would have seen.

We all deal with similar situations daily. We look around and see the most “hopeless cases” and think that they are never going to turn to God. We must learn to see the world around us with the eyes of Christ. If we are indeed His body – why aren’t His eyes seeing the needy all around us?