We’re thrilled to hear devotional thoughts from Jennifer Epperson this week. You can learn more about her on the contributors page.
Jonah’s story is a familiar one. We know that God told him to go to Nineveh and warn the Ninevites of God’s coming judgment for their wickedness. Instead of obeying, Jonah decided to flee to Tarshish, was swallowed by a fish, got vomited out on dry land, and eventually obeyed God. He entered Nineveh and cried, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown (3:4).”
Surprisingly, the Ninevites (known for their wickedness and violence) repent—even the king. “He caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh. . .Let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands. Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not? (3:7-9)”
God chose to extend His mercy to the Ninevites. Jonah 3: 10 says, “And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.” Now, most evangelists, preachers, missionaries, etc. are thrilled when people repent and receive God’s mercy. Not Jonah. Jonah 4:1-2 reveals his true feelings: “But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry.
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.” He is so angry, that he even tells God that he would be better off dying than living because of what God has done in sparing the Ninevites.
Not only is Jonah angry that God has shown the Ninevites mercy, but we also find out in 4:2 that the whole reason he fled to Tarshish in the first place is because he knew that God would be gracious to the Ninevites. It wasn’t just that he hated the Ninevites. He also fled because he knew what kind of God he served, and that God would not punish them if they repented. Jonah didn’t want that. He wanted Nineveh’s destruction.
He was angry with God for being kind, loving, gracious, merciful, and longsuffering. He failed to comprehend that it was because of those same qualities God possesses, that Jonah was still alive to complain about God’s goodness. God could have let him die in that fish’s belly and sent a different person to preach to the Ninevites. But He didn’t do that. God still had something to teach Jonah.
In 4:4, God asks Jonah if he is right to be angry, and Jonah doesn’t answer. He sits outside Nineveh to watch and see what would happen to it. (Maybe he thought his hissy fit would change God’s mind??) God prepares a gourd to quickly grow and be a shadow over Jonah’s head “to deliver him from his grief,” and Jonah is “exceeding glad of the gourd (4:6).” But, the next morning, God uses a worm to destroy the gourd and sends a strong wind and hot sun to beat down upon Jonah. He faints and again states that he would be better off dead than alive.
In Jonah 4: 9-11, God helps Jonah understand why He has shown mercy to the Ninevites: “And God said to Jonah, Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd? And he said, I do well to be angry, even unto death. Then said the LORD, Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not laboured, neither madest it grow; which came up in a night, and perished in a night: And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?”
Jonah cared so much for this gourd that he hadn’t even planted, and that had only been around for a day, and was just a gourd. And yet, he couldn’t understand why God had such compassion for the Ninevites—people of His own creation—that He loved.
I have noticed, and maybe you have, too, that sometimes Christians are like Jonah—spending so much time being indignant or angry with lost people acting like, well, lost people, and not enough time having compassion for their souls. God called Jonah out for being distraught over a silly gourd and having no compassion for the Ninevites and zero understanding of God’s love for them.
Yes. It is upsetting to see a world full of people with no regard and outright disdain for Christianity, morality, and at times even reality. But are you only seeing the wickedness of people? Or are you also seeing their souls—that they are lost people loved by God, who need salvation?
Don’t stop with anger and let it fester into hatred. Let it propel you to action. Take the time to pray for and share the gospel with those who are lost. Pray for the believers who have strayed or turned their back on God. Your disdain and anger won’t accomplish much, but your prayers, love, and sharing of the gospel will.
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