October 10, Jonah 4
But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. And he prayed to the LORD and said, "O LORD, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love; and relenting from disaster." - Jonah 4:1-2
People before the time of Jesus regarded Jonah as the author of the little book that bears his name. Who else could know the details of his experience and his inner thoughts as they are revealed in this book? For all the unflattering things that are revealed about Jonah, we should admire his transparency in relating some of the less than attractive details about himself in this book. That’s especially true in Chapter 4.
Preachers do get frustrated and discouraged from time to time, just as you have probably experienced frustrations about something in your line of work. We expect preachers to have a negative emotional reaction when people do not respond to impassioned preaching. They care about the subject and they care about the people they're addressing. Or at least they should. But Jonah's anger came after his preaching was wildly successful. The great Assyrian city of Nineveh responded en masse to Jonah's preaching with fasting and repentance. God knew the hearts of the people, saw how they responded and changed his mind about destroying them.
But God knew Jonah's heart, too, and that is the real point of the book. Jonah had a heart problem. He was angry with God for showing mercy to the Assyrians. He was angry at the generous grace of God.
Jonah admitted in his prayer that knowing God's inclination to mercy made him run away from the assignment to begin with. He knew if he went and preached, and they repented, that God would graciously change his mind. So even when the preacher's heart was not right as he presented the message, the people of Nineveh received and responded to the message with faith and repentance.
Jonah was so mad that he said he wanted God to kill him. That was somewhat like Elijahs prayer under the juniper tree when he was a fugitive from Jezebel's wrath. It was not like Paul, who said he would prefer to depart and be with the Lord, but acknowledged that he would also stay and finish the work God gave him to do. God's heart-penetrating question to his angry prophet was, "Do you do well to be angry?" It's one of those questions that implies the answer in the asking. But Jonah insisted that his anger was good and justifiable.
Let's remember that it's dangerous to be angry. Even when we're sure we're right, it's never good to be angry with God or to defend our anger to God. James said that human anger did not work the righteousness of God. Paul said that retained anger gives the devil a foothold in our lives. How much of what we've said and done in anger do we later regret?
Jonah was mad at grace. He didn't want God to forgive these mortal enemies of Israel. He didn't want his prophecy of doom to fail. God convicted Jonah of caring more about a plant that grew up and withered in a day that he did about hundreds of thousands of people who were spared from their announced destruction.
God asked Jonah some soul-searching questions at the end of this book. We need to do some soul-searching ourselves about the same matters. Are we guilty of being angry at grace when God extends his grace to people we're not ready to forgive? Do we begrudge God's graciousness to others from some scarcity mentality, and think there's not enough grace to go around? If we can see how ugly that was in Jonah, the Pharisee critics of Jesus and the prodigal son's elder brother, we should be able to see it in ourselves. Let's humble ourselves before God asks us, "Do you do well to be angry?"
Copyright © 2024 by Michael B. McElroy. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Today in God's Word—October 2024
East Tallassee Church of Christ
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