Jonah 4.1-4 1 But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he
was angry. 2 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. 3 Therefore now,
O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to
live.” 4 And the Lord said, “Do you do well to be angry?”
The prophecy of Jonah is meant to be read in one sitting.
The issue of Jonah is God’s love for and salvation extended to the city of
Nineveh. The result of Jonah is a man with a calloused heart who gripes to God
for even including him in the first place. The lesson of Jonah is when God
calls: go quickly and with a happy heart.
Apparently Jonah, the prophet, had had former
conversations with the Lord about a missions trip to Nineveh. Nineveh, by the
way, was a great city of the Assyrian Empire and the Jews had much trouble from
the Assyrians and the enmity between Jew and Assyrian was palpable.
Jonah had probably witnessed raids by the Assyrians into
his homeland and had seen the brutality of these raids. The Assyrians, I
believe, were the ones who came up with crucifixion. Jonah apparently had no
use for these people. And apparently Jonah had told the Lord as much (see verse
2 above).
Jonah’s problem was God reaching out to other peoples who
weren’t Jews and who weren’t very nice to the Jews. Jonah may have been
insulted that God would even do such a thing. Jonah’s attitude was basically: “God, do what You have to do but leave me
out of this!”
I find myself having those same kinds of thoughts as I
watch certain people live like hell and then expect the church to be their
meal-ticket; patch them up, and send them back into the fray with no intention
of changing their loser-lifestyle at all. I see the selfishness of the prophet
in my own life and experience: God do
what You’re going to do, just don’t expect a whole lot of cooperation from me…
I’ve got family, I’ve got the weekend, I’ve got a bike to ride…
Jonah suffered from a cynicism that wouldn’t allow him to
see how vast and wonderful the love of God is for others who were different
from him. Jonah’s cynicism kept him from telling others about God. And when he
finally broke down and obeyed it wasn’t gladly, it was grudgingly.
It is easy to write others off when we see them persist
in destructive life choices. It’s hard to love them when they’ve (apparently
intentionally) used our goodness and love as a club against us. It’s easy to
turn our backs on the unrepentant and just let them go on their merry
destructive way.
It is godly to keep reaching out to them with the
tireless loving passion of God as He kept reaching out to us. How else are they
ever going to change and how else are we going to demonstrate the unfailing
love of God if we so easily or eventually quit? I think that is why God is so
big on forgiveness. I think that’s why to persist in pursuit of the unlovely
and the undeserving is so important because it shows God’s grace at work in my
heart… And grace is what we all need…
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