Jonah 3:9,10

God repented or changed His mind -- Jonah 3:9-10: The message was, "You must also pray to the Lord God with all your heart and stop being sinful and cruel. Maybe God will change his mind and have mercy on us, so we won't be destroyed." God does not want people to die lost and hopeless. He is gracious and compassionate and desires that sinners repent. The text says, “When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it." He was pleased with their repentance and had mercy on them. This was the hope of the King of Nineveh when he called upon the people to repent.

Through His mercy God wanted to spare the children of Nineveh. "And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?” God was willing to save this city in order to save the young children of Nineveh. He even had pity on the cattle of Nineveh. We serve a God that cares.