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约拿书 4

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1 这事约拿不悦,且甚发怒,

2 就祷告耶和华耶和华啊,我在本国的时候,岂不是这样吗?我知道你是有恩典、有怜悯的神,不轻易发怒,有丰盛的慈爱,并且後悔不降所的灾,所以我急速逃往他施去。

3 耶和华啊,现在求你取我的命吧!因为我死了比活着还好。

4 耶和华:你这样发怒合乎理吗?

5 於是约拿出城,在城的东边,在那里为自己搭了一座棚,在棚的荫,要那城究竟如何。

6 耶和华安排一棵蓖麻,使其发生高过约拿,影儿遮盖他的,救他脱离苦楚;约拿因这棵蓖麻喜乐。

7 次日黎明,却安排一条子咬这蓖麻,以致枯槁。

8 出来的时候,安排炎热的东,日曝晒约拿的,使他发昏,他就为自己求:我死了比活着还好!

9 约拿:你因这棵蓖麻发怒合乎理吗?他:我发怒以至於死,都合乎理!

10 耶和华:这蓖麻,不是你栽种的,也不是你培养的;一夜发生,一夜乾死,你尚且爱惜;

11 何况这尼尼微城,其中不能分辨左手右手的有十二万多人,并有许多牲畜,我岂能不爱惜呢?

   

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Mercy

  
‘Brother Juniper and the Beggar,’ by Spanish Baroque painter Bartolomé Esteban Murillo. Juniper, one of the original followers of St. Francis of Assissi, was renowned for his generosity. When told he could no longer give away his clothes, he instead simply told the needy, like the beggar in the painting, that he couldn’t give them his clothes, but wouldn’t stop them from taking them.

In regular language, "mercy" means being caring and compassionate toward people in poor states. That's a position we are all in relative to the Lord, all the time. Without Him we would be unable to choose what is good; without Him we would be unable to formulate a reasonable thought. Without Him, in fact, we would instantly cease to exist; we have life only because He constantly gives us life. So we are, quite literally, at His mercy. Fortunately, the Lord is caring and compassionate to a degree we cannot fathom. He is the source of all caring and all compassion, and of love itself. His mercy toward us never lessens, never abates, never ends; His whole purpose is to bring each of us, individually, to heaven. The meaning of "mercy" in the Bible is closely tied to this idea: it represents love in a general sense, and the desire for good that comes from love. It can also represent the desire for good and the ideas that describe it when those thoughts and desires are inspired by love of the Lord.