“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 labored, 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 4: 9-11
Recently, I witnessed my two-year-old granddaughter exercise her skills at fit throwing. She was bored and began pestering her baby sister. Within minutes, the baby was upset, and the two-year-old was stomping away, protesting loudly that she did nothing wrong. An angry pout followed.
Children begin asserting their independence around this age, in conjunction with angry outbursts. Unfortunately, not all adults have matured beyond eruptions of anger when things don’t go according to expectations. A good example would be the prophet Jonah. He was a willful and angry man full of complaints and voiced those complaints to God. He was also the only Old Testament prophet to attempt to run from God.
The reason that Jonah was so reluctant to fulfill the mission that the Lord commanded comes down to rebellion and pride. He did not want to carry a message of mercy to the most wicked and cruel people of his time. Knowing that God would keep His promise not to destroy the city of Nineveh and its population of 120,000 people if they repented within forty days, Jonah rebelled. He ran in the opposite direction, arguing with the Lord the whole time. God dealt with Jonah gently, but firmly.
Finally, the Lord asked Jonah a penetrating question. Why did he have such concern over the death of a plant, but no desire to see the people of Nineveh receive mercy from God?
What if God moved among churches in a mighty way today? Would we rejoice or leave? Would we hear complaints about the increase in attendance or the type of people coming into the church? Would there be accusations claiming the lack of authenticity or concerns about how the changes could affect personal comfort levels? Would there be division between members?
No matter how strongly we protest, we are all guilty of becoming complacent in our relationship with the Lord and each other. Jonah’s lack of response to God’s question at the end of chapter 4 indicates that he got the point. God is not a respecter of persons. The only way we can fully understand ourselves is to compare our self-centeredness with the Lord’s sacrificial love.
Dear Lord,
Thank You for Your love and compassion. Help me set aside any prejudice I may have toward others.
