"But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."

God is kind to us. Yes, we recall those burning moments when He grew sick and weary of His people's wickedness and disobedience and lost patience. But we remember them because they were so uncommon and rare throughout the hundreds of years He led the Israelites. God has expressed His feelings to us. Despite Jonah, God revealed His heart to Nineveh. God revealed what was in His heart through Jesus' kindness to others. God has shown His kindness and love by calling us, sinners, to His side and rescuing us. He will not allow us to remain unchanged and content with our sin. He does, indeed, exhort us to repentance. But it almost seems too wonderful to be true that the Almighty God, who lords over heaven and earth, would stop what He's doing and allow us in so we might experience His grace. The same God expects us to be merciful to others.