"But to Jonah, this seemed very wrong, and he became angry." Jonah 4:1
Many people get angry with God for various reasons. They get angry for what God does or or does not do. Why does God allow evil to flourish, where people were living similar to Sodom and Gomorrah. The capital city of Nineveh personified it as full of sins such as polytheism, brutality, exploitation, witchcraft, sorcery, alcohol abuse, prostitution, and illicit sex were in abundance.
Jonah is angry at God for what God does not do.
Jonah is angry that God did not change what was happening. Here is a circumstance where Jonah is angry with what God does not do. God does not bring judgment on these cruel, wicked people and Jonah is mad. We all have at times been angry at God for what God did not do what we wanted Him to do. The death of a dear one, a terminal illness, loss of job, or other personal and family problems that God could have prevented make us angry. People get angry at God for not preventing earthquakes or tsunamis that wiped out thousands of people from Earth and left millions in misery. There are many more reasons that we get angry at God for what He did not do.
On May 1, 1990, cable television giant Ted Turner, the American entrepreneur, television producer, media proprietor, and philanthropist who founded the Cable News Network (CNN) accepted an award given by the American Humanist Association for his work on behalf of the environment and world peace. At the banquet, Ted Turner told the captive audience that he had a strict Christian upbringing and at one time considered becoming a missionary. Ted Turner told the crowd that he had been "saved" seven or eight times as a child, but that he became disenchanted with Christianity after his sister died, despite his prayers. Turner said the more he strayed from his faith, "the better I felt." (Spokesman-Review, May 1, 1990).
We think that God owes us everything that we wish or ask for. A story is told about a vendor who sold bagels for 50 cents each at a street corner food stand. A jogger ran past and threw a couple of quarters into the bucket but didn’t take a bagel. He did the same thing every day for months. One day, as the jogger was passing by, the vendor stopped him. The jogger asked, “You probably want to know why I always put money in but never take a bagel, don’t you?” “No,” said the vendor. “I just wanted to tell you that the bagels have gone up to 60 cents.” Too often, as believers, we treat God with that same kind of attitude. Not only are we ungrateful for what He’s given us—but we want more. Somehow we feel that God owes us good health, a comfortable life, and material blessings. Of course, God doesn’t owe us anything, yet He gives us everything. “This is the day the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it” (Ps. 118:24).
Jonah is angry at God for what God does.
One way or another, Jonah is angry at God, either for not doing what he wanted or doing what he disliked. God showed mercy and grace to the people of Nineveh when they repented this displeased Jonah. Jonah thinks that the Lord has done wrong. Therefore, Jonah is angry with God. Rather than rejoicing in the repentance and salvation of an evil nation, Jonah was upset about it.
Jonah says, “I Was Right!” (Jonah 4:2). So in his anger, Jonah prays to the Lord how he was right about God all along. Jonah declares that he knew God would do this and he told God that when God came to him in the beginning. Jonah says that he ran to Tarshish because he knew that God was gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster. Jonah says that he knows God’s character and he does not like it. Jonah says that he knew God would do this and that is why he quit and ran. This is the very thing Jonah did not want to have happened. So Jonah uses God's character against God. Jonah uses God’s character to slander God. You are a terrible God because of how your grace and mercy impact us. Jonah is angry that God forgives when people repent!
Now here is what is truly ironic to think about. Jonah is angry about the very character of God which is the reason Jonah is still alive. It is only because God is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love that Jonah is alive. Jonah is a rebellious prophet who has run from God. We have seen the repeated grace that God has shown this prophet. It makes you wonder how Jonah has so quickly forgotten what he said in the belly of the fish in chapter 2 where Jonah proclaims that he will offer sacrifices of thanksgiving to the Lord. He says that the Lord brought up his life from the pit when his life was fading away. It seemed like Jonah was a new man with a new life. But he is undoing his repentance as he justifies his prior sinful actions. Jonah now proclaims that he had been right the whole time. He took joy in his own salvation but had no joy in the salvation of others.
Jonah has no room for the grace of God. He does not want to hear about grace. He does not want to teach about God’s grace. Jonah only wants the wrathful, angry God. But since God has been gracious, Jonah would rather die than continue. Jonah is so angry with God that he prays to God to take his life.
I would rather die than have this God run my life! It should be a terrifying thing to tell God that God is in the wrong and that he should kill us if life is going to be this way. Jonah’s anger has hit the maximum point. Jonah prays in verse 3. “Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” Jonah has returned to his old way of thinking. Jonah had been running from the presence of the Lord, which we noted to mean that he had quit on God and no longer wanted to be God’s prophet. We saw Jonah asleep in the ship while it was breaking apart from the storm, not caring if they perished. Jonah’s solution to the storm was not repentance. Rather, his solution was to drown in the sea because he would rather die than turn back to God. Jonah has come full circle and now says what we saw when Jonah was on the ship. Jonah would rather die.
God is still full of mercy and slow to anger, even to Jonah.
God asks: “Do you do well to be angry?” Is this a good reason to be angry? We have finally come to the heart of Jonah’s problem. Jonah is angry with God. But God wants him to think about this anger. Of course, the answer is no, though Jonah does not respond to God’s question. You might have had someone try to do this with you during a time you were angry. Your spouse or your friend asks you if this is worth being angry about. Of course, this will often cause us to be more angry and to try to justify ourselves all the more.
Jonah’s anger is selfish. He wanted a particular outcome in the world and does not care about what God is doing. Our anger at God is selfish because we are telling God that he is not running the world right or running our lives right. We certainly know better than him. Are we right to tell God that he is doing a bad job at running the world? Do we do well to be angry?
Jonah ran away to a desert to die. God shows mercy to Jonah by giving a plant to have shade from the heat of the sun. He was happy for a day because the plant died the next day. Then he got angry again.
The cycle goes on for Jonah to never be happy. We all have a part in the story of Jonah. When things go our way as we planned or wished, we are happy. But when things turn to not-so-good, we are angry. We think we deserve everything good.
Yonggi Cho from Korea is the pastor of the largest church in the world. Several years ago, as his ministry was becoming international, he told God, “I will go anywhere to preach the gospel except Japan.” He hated the Japanese because of what Japanese troops had done to the Korean people and to members of Yonggi Cho’s own family during World War II. The Japanese were his Ninevites. Cho got an invitation to go to preach in Japan. He went, but he went with bitterness. The first speaking engagement was at a pastor’s conference of 1,000 Japanese pastors. Cho stood up to speak, and what came out of his mouth was this: “I hate you. I hate you. I hate you.” And then he broke and wept. He was both brimming and desolate with hatred. At first one, then two, all 1,000 pastors stood up. One by one they walked up to Yonggi Cho, knelt at his feet, and asked forgiveness for what they and their people had done to him and his people. As this went on, God changed Yonggi Cho. The Lord put a single message in his heart and mouth: “I love you. I love you. I love you.”
Yom Kippur is an important festival for the Jews. We probably know it better as the Day of Atonement. That’s the day when the Jewish people remember how they have sinned over the past year and then they seek God’s forgiveness. But what you may not know is that every year during Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, the Jews read the story of Jonah. And whenever someone asks why they read the book of Jonah on this day, the rabbis give several different reasons. The first is that the story of Jonah reminds us of God’s infinite mercy. The second is that the story of Jonah is a story of repentance. Third, the book of Jonah serves as a reminder that the entire world, and all of its natural forces, are in God’s hands. Fourth, the story of Jonah reminds us that God answers prayers. I would suggest a fifth reason why the story of Jonah is so fitting for the Day of Atonement. It is because this story shows us that God is willing to do whatever it takes to bring his children back to Him.
"Where sin abounds, God's grace abounds even more." (Romans 3:21)
Blessings 
Comments
Post a Comment