The Book Of Jonah begins with God commanding Jonah to preach to Nineveh and Jonah running away from this command, why Jonah does this is not revealed but that's how we open, kinda right in the middle of the story. I wanna pause and discuss this for a minute, how often have we felt a pull from God to do something that we ultimately ignored? Maybe not to go to a particular place but how often have we felt a pull from God to pray or read His word and instead we picked up our cell phones and scrolled or grabbed a controller to play a video game? Some random mindless task that didn't require us to pay attention? Jonah ran away from God, which is hilarious because God's not local, He's everywhere so maybe Jonah was running to prove a point but it ultimately didn't work and by the end of the 1st Chapter, Jonah is swallowed by a huge fish. We start the story in the middle of the action, God tells Jonah to go to Nineveh, Jonah flees and we're not yet told why to a boat, a violent storm kicks up and Jonah is tossed overboard and swallowed whole by a fish. We're not even in the middle of the book.
So Jonah, while inside the fish prays. While the prayer is filled with Jonah praising God at no point in the prayer does Jonah apologize for disobeying Him. Furthermore, Jonah prays to God for saving his life and while he's grateful to be alive he doesn't reflect on the circumstances that brought him there in the first place. Isn't this typical of us? We get ourselves into a situation and beg God to get us out of it, without acknowledging that had we listened to Him in the first place we wouldn't have been there to begin with. But like Jonah, we "remember" God.
“I called out of my distress to the Lord,
And He answered me.
I called for help from the depth of Sheol;
You heard my voice.
3 For You threw me into the deep,
Into the heart of the seas,
And the current flowed around me.
All Your breakers and waves passed over me.
4 So I said, ‘I have been cast out of Your sight.
Nevertheless I will look again toward Your holy temple.’
5 Water encompassed me to the point of death.
The deep flowed around me,
Seaweed was wrapped around my head.
6 I descended to the base of the mountains.
The earth with its bars was around me forever,
But You have brought up my life from the pit, Lord my God.
7 While I was fainting away,
I remembered the Lord,
And my prayer came to You,
Into Your holy temple.
8 Those who are followers of worthless idols
Abandon their faithfulness,
9 But I will sacrifice to You
With a voice of thanksgiving.
That which I have vowed I will pay.
Salvation is from the Lord.”
This is the full prayer prayed by Jonah and you don't see any reflecting on his disobedience, you see a great deal of gratitude and that's all well and good but there isn't any reflecting on his own heart, his motives, nothing, and this is important for later. But God, being merciful hears Jonah's prayer and has the fish spit him out on dry land. From there, God gives Jonah the command again to go to Nineveh and this time Jonah obeys. So Jonah goes to Nineveh and The Bible isn't clear if he continuously shouted this or said it once but Jonah doesn't preach an extensive and comprehensive warning to Nineveh, he doesn't seek any of their leaders or go to their temples, he almost lazily says;
4 Then Jonah began to go through the city one day’s walk; and he cried out and said, “Forty more days, and Nineveh will be overthrown.”
But somehow this works and the word spreads all the way to The King of Nineveh who decrees for Nineveh to turn away immediately from their wickedness, and Nineveh's culture turns on a dime. We're only 3 chapters in and we still don't understand Jonah's motives for fleeing from God, seems like the mission was successful, right? I know tons of evangelicals would love to have this kind of success. Jonah says 8 words and the entire nation changes. That's mission accomplished and then some, right? Here's where the story takes a dark turn and where the motives and heart of Jonah are revealed.
"But it greatly displeased Jonah, and he became angry. 2 Then he prayed to the Lord and said, “Please Lord, was this not what I said when I was still in my own country? Therefore in anticipation of this I fled to Tarshish, since I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in mercy, and One who relents of disaster. 3 So now, Lord, please take my life from me, for death is better to me than life.”
Now we know why the story began in the middle instead of earlier, Jonah disobeyed God not because he was scared he'd fail but because he was scared he would succeed and that Nineveh would repent. Isn't it right for God's people to want other nations to repent? Yes, but I'll ask you how often have we wished harm upon our enemies? How often have we chosen to be petty when kindness was an option? Weren't there moments when we should have prayed for a person rather than cursed them? Jonah is holding up a mirror to ourselves and showing us exactly how we are as people when we spite people, kick people when they're down rather than offer them a hand up. Jonah wanted Nineveh destroyed and now that's not going to happen because as Jonah says "You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in mercy, and One who relents of disaster." now Jonah is so angry that he doesn't wanna live anymore.
We often cite The Book Of Job as the go-to book for suffering but I think Jonah is a better contender for this because while Job deals with personal suffering, Jonah deals with everyday injustices that we see that we find frustrating. Not all of us are going to be in a Job situation but we've all been Jonah more often than we can count. Nineveh is described as a large and great city and large and great means they have money. For many of you who don't know my dream is to be a writer/director of movies, I waffle on this dream constantly because Hollywood is full of Satanists and LGBTQ+ nonsense and all in all just stacked with people whose hearts are against God, not to mention they're wealthy and immoral, it's a place I'm terrified to go and yet it's a place I need to go because it'd help me accomplish my dream. I'm saying all of this because I'd love to see God bring His judgment against those in Hollywood who mock Him BUT wouldn't it be better for me if I prayed for their repentance?
When the rich CEO is ousted from their position or The Hollywood star is exposed for something we laugh and point and say "That's what you get!", "You get what you deserve!", "You reap what you sow!" and my personal favorite "You play stupid games you win stupid prizes." there is a time and a place for that, don't get me wrong, but God determines that place and time, not us! And here's Jonah voicing his frustration about that very fact. But how does God respond?
4 But the Lord said, “Do you have a good reason to be angry?”
I genuinely think God is the universe's greatest comedian, and the reason is because God has a way of cutting directly to the heart of the matter without beating around the bush, and He directly combats Jonah's frustration by asking if He even has a reason to be angry. And as I mentioned before Jonah really doesn't have a reason to be angry because the mission was a massive success with little to no effort from Jonah's part. This book doesn't discuss the state of Nineveh at the time nor what was going on in the hearts of The Ninevehite King or the people, God may have been working on them for a while and they just needed to hear someone say they're gonna come to ruin to make them fully commit, The Bible doesn't tell us that because the focus isn't on Nineveh but rather Jonah's heart, our heart when it comes to God's heart.
Jonah believed that Nineveh should face destruction because of their disobedience, but the entire book begins with Jonah disobeying God! Furthermore, Jonah doesn't repent from his disobedience, Nineveh does. Imagine the double standard of thanking God for saving your life and then immediately cursing God out for not taking your enemy's life. So God, in the most direct way possible cuts through the nonsense and asks Jonah if he has a "good reason" to be angry. The Bible shows that Jonah had no reply to this. So after this temper tantrum that Jonah throws he takes a seat somewhere outside of Nineveh and just watches the city and God (once again being merciful) provides a leafy plant to shelter Jonah and The Bible says Jonah was happy about the shade.
"5 Then Jonah left the city and sat down east of it. There he made a shelter for himself and sat under it in the shade, until he could see what would happen in the city. 6 So the Lord God designated a plant, and it grew up over Jonah to be a shade over his head, to relieve him of his discomfort. And Jonah was overjoyed about the plant."
As I write this we're in the middle of summer and my wife and I despise the Summer heat, for me anything above 45 is death to me, so Jonah is a man after my own heart with his happiness of being provided shade. This passage speaks to my very soul of being a hater of The Summer Heat, I'm kinda joking here...But God, to prove a point had a worm consume the plant and then sent a scorching wind that Jonah became faint and once again Jonah says he's so angry he could die. And God once again being a comedian asks Jonah if he has any good reason to be angry. This time Jonah doesn't bite his tongue and says he does in fact have a reason to be angry. But God, being God says to Jonah;
10 Then the Lord said, “You had compassion on the plant, for which you did not work and which you did not cause to grow, which came up overnight and perished overnight. 11 Should I not also have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 120,000 people, who do not know the difference between their right hand and their left, as well as many animals?”
He points out to Jonah that he put forth no effort to produce the plant that gave him shade in contrast to God actually putting forth an effort in making the Ninevehite people. God leaves Jonah with that question and the book just ends. Jonah's frustration about his perceived injustice of mercy on Nineveh is in stark contrast to God's mercy on Jonah throughout the book. Jonah wants God to be angry, God is not, Jonah wants God to be vengeful, God is not, Jonah is experiencing the emotions He wants God to have. God doesn't directly chastize Jonah for his emotions but questions their validity by asking Jonah questions rather than stating the obvious. Notice that God doesn't disregard or ignore Jonah's emotions, either, and perhaps they're valid as Nineveh did have to repent so that means they did commit some transgression against God that He'd be angry enough to smite them. God recognizes this so Jonah isn't wrong to want justice but he wanted it with the wrong motive.
Jonah wanted to withhold God's mercy but disobeyed Him because he wanted to see Nineveh destroyed not because they went against God but because it'd appease his own self-righteousness. Instead of letting God be God Jonah decided He was going to choose for God and he chose violence rather than mercy. Doesn't God say;
Vengeance is Mine, and retribution; In due time their foot will slip. For the day of their disaster is near,
And the impending things are hurrying to them.’
The keywords in that passage are "in due time", God's timetable, not ours. As I told my nephews while they were in jail "Because you're still breathing God is not done with you and because He's not, I can't be.". Jonah wanted to write Nineveh off as a lost cause but time and time again Jonah proved he is the lost cause. How often do we whine to God about other people hoping God will put them in their place when we're the ones who need to be told to sit down? How often do we write people off as opposed to praying for them? How often do we want God to do what we would do? Too often. My reflection today is to check our motives and pray for God's mercy, because He is slow to anger we should be as well. And while we should be angered when God is disobeyed we shouldn't let our anger cause us to disobey God as well. Don't give in to our inner Jonah and be petty to our enemies, instead follow the words of Romans 12:18-21;
"18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all people. 19 Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written: “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. 20 “But if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
Peace in Christ.
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