NOTES for Jon 2:8

For what man could leave the one who behaves towards him with mercy? And what in such case this person would lose? If we speak about relationships between God and His people, the scale of the loss becomes immediately visible. It is no more and no less about salvation, about the possibility of entering the Kingdom of God, which the people can receive only in the case if God shows manifests to him His mercy. Mercy means, above all, the will to do to someone more than he deserves, more than what he is entitled according to the law or the concluded agreement.

All the prophets of Israel testify unanimously that the union-covenant concluded with God on the Mount Sinai was violated by the people more than once, and each of these violations, in fact, became its break. The torn union deprived the people of all these possibilities, which had appeared to them on Sinai. It remained only to hope on God's mercy, that God will all the same achieve the promise made to the people on Sinai. In such a situation any refusal of God's mercy looks like a real madness. Why do many decide so easily on it? Perhaps, because they do not simply realize all the depth of the problem and all the gravity of the situation. But other thing is possible: the people want a quiet life.

Indeed, even a merciful God remains demanding or, expressing in the biblical language "jealous". He is ready to give His people another chance, but His exactingness as regards the commandments, the way of righteousness and generally all that is connected to the spiritual life, is the same. The heathen gods are mostly created by people in their image, and it is not surprising that man is more comfortable with such gods: the religious feeling (and it exists to everyone) is satisfied, seen that no uncomfortable requirement the gods created by the man, will not present of course to their creator. Only that in a critical situation these gods will not help and will not open the Kingdom.