Military Devotion – The Merciful God – September 18, 2026

I don’t know about you but every time I read the story of Jonah in the Bible, I am amazed. It’s not so much that part where the giant fish swallows Jonah to preserve his life. . . And I apologize, if you’re totally lost right now. Go and read the book of Jonah before you continue reading this devotion. It’s only four chapters long. It really won’t take you long. Ok, now. . . what amazes me about that story is that God spared the entire city of Nineveh. This was the seat of power for the Assyrian kingdom. It was also the seat of wickedness and witchcraft and all sorts of godlessness.  

The LORD sent Jonah to the city of Nineveh to call them to repentance. God wanted to teach Jonah a lesson about his mercy and grace. And Jonah was actually upset about this—that God would spare the Assyrians. Not only were they godless and wicked, but they were mortal enemies of the people of Israel! The amazing part about this story is that the people listened to Jonah’s call to repentance. God listened to their genuine repentance, and he spared the people.  

The city of Nineveh was eventually destroyed by the Babylonians 150 years later. The region changed political hands over the years but about 500 years later St. Thomas, one of Jesus’ own apostles, traveled to Nineveh and proclaimed the message of God’s grace. That seed of the gospel was planted and remained there for about 2,000 years. Because of your military service and deployments some of you have been there—the city of Mosul in northern Iraq, on the eastern bank of the Tigris River.  

Christianity has been there up until about 2014 when ISIS came in and either drove all the Christians away or slaughtered them. Some reports say that less than 70 Christian families reside in Mosul. Maybe it’s time to go back? That would be a little bit tricky wouldn’t it, to send a pastor as a missionary to Iraq? It wouldn’t be safe. What about you? Would you go?  

The amazing thing about this story of Jonah is that God still works this way. He sends people with his radical grace and mercy to others who clearly don’t deserve it. They listen and they believe and God saves them from themselves and from destruction, from death and hell and all of it, and he gathers them into his house—people from all over the world with different skin colors and languages and cultures. Amazing!  

What’s amazing about this story is that it involves you! You are one of those to whom God sent someone to pour water on your head. In your baptism he gathered you into his home. You are one to whom God sent someone to speak his words: “You are forgiven in Christ.” He caused his Word to be planted in your heart, and he caused faith to grow in your heart to trust that Word so that you know—as unworthy as you and I are, and we know that we are unworthy because of the things that we have done and the things that we have left undone—we know the amazing impossible thing is that God causes us to believe and to trust that this is for us.   

The apostle Paul put it this way: “It does not, therefore, depend on man’s desire or effort, but on God’s mercy” (Romans 9:16). The Father is generous with his grace and mercy. He told Jonah, “Should I not be concerned about that great city?” (Jonah 4:11). The amazing thing about this story is that God is concerned about our cities, too. 

I don’t need to go over to Iraq. There are Iraqis living right here in San Diego. You should meet my neighbors who live in my little part of San Diego. All the different nationalities and cultures they represent; it’s incredible. I’m sure the same is true for you and the important city where God has placed you. What’s incredible is that he calls you and me to be dispensers of this same amazing grace.