Jonah 4:1 – 4
1 But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry.
2 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.
3 Therefore now, O LORD, take, I beseech thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live.
4 Then said the LORD, Doest thou well to be angry?
By the time we get to chapter 4 of the Book of Jonah, the prophet had already gone through a lot. He heard the call of God to declare a message in Nineveh and had rebelled against it. He went in the opposite direction from where God wanted him to go and wound up in a ship headed for Tarshish in a terrible storm. He was thrown overboard by the crew and was swallowed by a “prepared…great fish.” (Jonah 1:17) He remained in the great fish for three days and nights and was then “vomited” out onto “dry land.” (Jonah 2:10) He goes to Nineveh, reluctantly preaches a very short message, and God granted unto the people of the city repentance. Jonah had a deep prejudice against these people and was angry that God would forgive them. It is at this point that we arrive at chapter 4.
Jonah was angry that God would be gracious, merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness.
The reason he felt that way was because he did not believe the Ninevites deserved God’s forgiveness, and that is a true statement because they did not deserve it, but no one does. Jonah proved he thought more of himself than he did the Ninevites by what happened with the prepared gourd, prepared worm, and the prepared vehement wind in the end of chapter 4. Jonah thought he deserved God’s blessings and mercy but the Ninevites did not. His anger was foolish anger. It was not pointed in the right direction and made no sense.
We should be angry with sin, the devil, and against what sin has caused in this world but it
could not be farther from what is right to be angry with God because he has chosen to show grace and mercy to the guilty. God’s grace and mercy is our only hope. We should rejoice that God would show compassion to the undeserving, for that is the state of us all. Instead, Jonah was angry with God and we find as the Book of Jonah ends that he still was angry. There is no resolution given in this book.
Let us learn from this story that we should be humbled by the fact the God would show mercy
to anyone and rejoice in the fact that grace has been presented to mankind by the finished work of Calvary through Jesus Christ. Even though we do not deserve mercy, be thankful that God is gracious, merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness. He is our hope.
In Christ’s Service,
Bro. Adrian Moore
2 Cor. 4:5
Amen!