The dark truth about Jonah (part three)

 

Jonah Chapter 3 & 4

3:1 Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time: 2 “Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.”

 

3 Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh. Now Nineveh was a very large city; it took three days to go through it. 4 Jonah began by going a day’s journey into the city, proclaiming, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.” 5 The Ninevites believed God. A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.

 

6 When Jonah’s warning reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust. 7 This is the proclamation he issued in Nineveh:

 

“By the decree of the king and his nobles:

 

Do not let people or animals, herds or flocks, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink. 8 But let people and animals be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence. 9 Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.”

 

10 When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened.

4:1 But to Jonah this seemed very wrong, and he became angry. 2 He prayed to the Lord, “Isn’t this what I said, Lord, when I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. 3 Now, Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.”

 

4 But the Lord replied, “Is it right for you to be angry?”

 

5 Jonah had gone out and sat down at a place east of the city. There he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city. 6 Then the Lord God provided a leafy plant[a] and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the plant. 7 But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the plant so that it withered. 8 When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die, and said, “It would be better for me to die than to live.”

 

9 But God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?”

 

“It is,” he said. “And I’m so angry I wish I were dead.”

 

10 But the Lord said, “You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. 11 And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?”

 

 

 

Picture this for a moment if you will:

You’ve been asked by God, to go to a foreign land and preach a message of repentance to them. You decline this and literally run the other direction, or thrown overboard during a storm swallowed by fish, survive for three days and then are literally vomited on the shore. I don’t know about you, but I know that this would humble me. And make me realize that maybe I should listen to what God is telling me to do. For our antihero Jonah here. That’s exactly what happens.

Basically, after all this, God essentially says to Jonah: “All right. Let’s try this again.  God to Ninevah.” And, to Jonah’s credit, he does! He embarks on a three day journey to Nineveh, and when he arrives there, he preaches a simple message: “Yet 40 days, and then Nineveh shall be overthrown! “That’s chapter 3 verse four.

Well, get this: Nineveh repents of their evil ways! And because of this, the Lord SPARES them! Jonah is overjoyed!

Oh wait.

He’s not.

In fact, He is angry at God. Now before you get upset with Jonah, and calling him a jerk  (which, he was), ask yourself how many times you have wanted to see your enemies fail. We see this in the political discussions, we see this in sports conversations, we see this in the business world, we even see this in our personal lives when people of wronged us. We want them to suffer for hurting us. Or for causing us pain, but that’s not the way of the Lord! The Lord wants us to have mercy! He wants us to rejoice when people come to a place of repentance.

More than this, we learned from Jonah in chapter four  verse two that Jonah did not want to go to Nineveh because he knew that the Lord was merciful and he was worried that they might repent! How backwards is that? This does not seem with the right attitude for a prophet of God. This does not seem like great attitude for a person who follows God.

There are people in this world that I vehemently dislike. People that have harmed me, or who arm harming others. People that I want to see punished for the way they have treated me or others. This is not the attitude the Lord wants me to have. He wants me to pray for my enemies and to bless those who persecute me. This was a central tenet of the teachings of Jesus in the New Testament.

Jonah, still believes that Nineveh will be punished though. In fact, he even goes up on the hill overlooking the city and camps out and watches waiting to see their punishment. Do you want to take joy watching the destruction of your enemies? Watching someone get destroyed is a horrible thing, yet, Jonah is waiting with relish. . Again. Think about yourself and how you react to your enemies.

 

God, Merciful God,  even sent a plant to keep Jonah  cool during the day. The following day, God sent a worm to destroy the plant. So Jonah spent the entire next day, still waiting for the destruction of Nineveh, in the blistering heat where he literally asked to die from his misery. Jonah even wept over this plant when it died.

 

The book ends with God and asking Jonah how he could grieve over a plant that he had nothing to do with cultivating, yet become upset that the Lord is sparing a city of 120,000 people that he created.

Let’s not judge Jonah. Let’s reflect on Jonah and how his reactions likely reflect ours in many ways. Remember to love your enemies, do good to those that curse you, and bless those that persecute you.