SEPTEMBER 26, 2024
“And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not. But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry. And he prayed unto the LORD, and said, I pray thee, O LORD, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil. Therefore now, O LORD, take, I beseech thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live.” (Jonah 3:10-4:3)
At the beginning of the book, Jonah is tasked with going to the city of Nineveh to preach against the corruption therein. Jonah had heard tell of the wickedness of the Ninevites and thus fled, getting on a ship heading to Tarshish. After a strong storm hit the boat, he was voluntarily cast into the sea by his traveling companions, where a giant fish swallowed him. After a journey of three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, where he prayed to God sincerely, Jonah was vomited out on the coast near Nineveh.
He then ran through the city, telling the people how the city would be destroyed in forty days. Expecting the worst, Jonah was instead surprised when the Ninevites immediately began repenting of their past deeds. The city’s king then issued a proclamation telling the people to put on sackcloth and cry vehemently to God for pardon. All the city’s inhabitants were to turn from their evil and violent ways in hopes that God may relent and quell His burning anger so they may not perish.
The plan works! As we see in verse 10, God indeed sees the turn the city made and relents from punishment. However, things aren’t all sunshine and rainbows because God’s “change of heart” angered Jonah. He repines at God’s mercy to Nineveh. This was strange because usually, the preacher is pleased when the congregation repents, but Jonah isn’t. There was something about the whole matter that displeased Jonah. He became exceedingly angry. Not only was this strange but it was extraordinary because Jonah was distraught at the success of his preaching. We should not miss Jonah’s intensity here because the original Hebrew language is vital.
Jonah was bursting with anger because God granted repentance to the Ninevites, and the Assyrian Empire (of which Nineveh was the capital city) was the enemy of Judah and Israel. The city and empire were known for their brutal treatment of Christians, and therefore, Jonah wanted God to bring judgment upon the people he hated. Jonah knew that God was full of grace and mercy, so he was afraid to tell the people of Nineveh. This was at least part of why Jonah fled in the first place: he was worried that God would grant them repentance and then meet it with mercy, when he wanted the Assyrian capital to be judged.
Imagine that you had a younger sister who was raped and murdered. Years later, you were tasked with going to the prison and ministering to the man who had done it. Would you heed the call? Or would you, like Jonah, think the man is undeserving and reject the directive? It’s easy for us to label Jonah as a coward and a fool for attempting to flee from God but what he did was because of cowardice. If any of us were in a similar position, sadly, we might also prefer to ignore the call.
Jonah himself had called on God’s mercy and enjoyed it when it was extended to him, but now he resents it when it is extended to others. What if God treated Jonah the way Jonah wanted God to treat the people of Nineveh? We should rejoice that God doesn’t dole out blessings and punishments based on what we think people deserve.
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