Reflections on Jonah 4

Jonah 04 (Contemporary English Version)


1. Jonah was really upset and angry.
   
2. So he prayed: Our LORD, I knew from the very beginning that you wouldn't destroy Nineveh. That's why I left my own country and headed for Spain. You are a kind and merciful God, and you are very patient. You always show love, and you don't like to punish anyone, not even foreigners.
   
3. Now let me die! I'd be better off dead.
   
4. The LORD replied, "What right do you have to be angry?"
   
5. Jonah then left through the east gate of the city and made a shelter to protect himself from the sun. He sat under the shelter, waiting to see what would happen to Nineveh.
   
6. The LORD made a vine grow up to shade Jonah's head and protect him from the sun. Jonah was very happy to have the vine,
   
7. but early the next morning the LORD sent a worm to chew on the vine, and the vine dried up.
   
8. During the day the LORD sent a scorching wind, and the sun beat down on Jonah's head, making him feel faint. Jonah was ready to die, and he shouted, "I wish I were dead!"
   
9. But the LORD asked, "Jonah, do you have the right to be angry about the vine?" "Yes, I do," he answered, "and I'm angry enough to die."
   
10. But the LORD said: You are concerned about a vine that you did not plant or take care of, a vine that grew up in one night and died the next.
    
11. In that city of Nineveh there are more than a hundred twenty thousand people who cannot tell right from wrong, and many cattle are also there. Don't you think I should be concerned about that big city?
    

---

As chapter 4 opens, Jonah's attitude that led him to run away from God's assignment for him, has returned. Why did he run away from God's assignment? Because he, "knew that You are a merciful and compassionate God, slow to become angry, rich in faithful love, and One who relents from sending disaster," and he didn't want God to relent from sending disaster upon his arch enemy, the Assryians.

We return to the question we have asked of this book all along, "What is the message in this for Israel?" Jonah's attitude was a mirror to Israel of her own misguided attitude. Due to her special relationship with God and the prosperity she had known because of God's blessings, Israel had developed such a pride that she came to believe herself to be invulnerable to God's wrath and all other nations worthy of His wrath. All of us tend to see clearly the faults of others while being blind to our own, and so it was with Israel, and Jonah was demonstrating this attitude very well. Even though Jonah rebelled against God's instructions to him, he was glad to receive His deliverance and be given a second chance. He was not so gracious in his thoughts concerning the Ninevites. He carried out his assignment to deliver God's message of pending doom to Nineveh very convincingly. So much so, that the Ninevites believed his message and repented of their evil ways and violence. But delivering God's message of doom for the Ninevites was not the part of which Jonah disapproved. He could deliver that message convincingly because that is how he felt. The Ninevites were deserving of God's wrath as far as he was concerned.

But what Jonah feared came to pass. Considering the reputation of the Assyrians and Jonah's attitude toward them, he may have thought it a slim chance they would repent. But they did repent and now he knew what would happen. He knew God to be merciful and compassionate and that He would relent from sending disaster once the Ninevites repented. Another aspect of this repentance by the Ninevites and relenting of disaster by God is that it placed Israel in a bad light. It now highlighted their own evil ways and violence and unwillingness to repent. They had been hearing of their evil ways from the prophets who were Jonah's contemporaries but could pass it off as an exaggeration as compared to the ways of the Assryians. But now the Assryians had repented and changed their ways sufficiently to convince God they were genuine.

The book concludes with another of God's demonstrations. Jonah went out away from the city, built himself a shelter, and sat down to sulk over God's relenting of the disaster from Nineveh. God caused a plant to shoot up overnight and provide shade greater than that of Jonah's shelter. Jonah was very pleased with this and became attached to it. Then, also overnight, God sent a worm followed by a scorching east wind that destroyed the plant. Then Jonah was so upset he wanted to die. Again, Jonah played his part very well, demonstrating the attitude of Israel. He was very glad to receive God's blessing, not even questioning whether or not he deserved His blessing. But he felt it rather unfair of God to take this blessing away. Jonah and Israel are not the only one's who have this attitude problem. Most of us are prone to ask, "Why me, Lord?" when trouble comes our way. But we never ask, "Why me, Lord?" when blessing comes to us. This attitude was the first lesson of God's demonstration. The second lesson was about Jonah's concern for this plant. If he could be so concerned about a plant he did not cause to grow and that he had enjoyed for only a short time, why should God not have concern for a people to whom He had given life and who included those who were innocent of evil as well as animals?

Had Israel come to the point she was more concerned with her own comfort than with God's interests and concern for other people?