Running Against God- Thoughts on Jonah 4
Thank-you for following along this month in our study of the Old Testament book of Jonah. In this final
chapter, we learn that Jonah, even after the success of his trip to Nineveh, does not agree with what
God does… and this leads to a very interesting conversation. Have you ever disagreed with what God has
done? The problem we read about in chapter 4 is that Jonah is offended by God’s grace. “I knew this
was going to happen”, he says. “That’s why I was running away in the first place—because I knew you
would forgive them”. Isn’t this incredible? Jonah has been saved from the storm; he’s been rescued
from the belly of that whale. He’s gone on to preach that little 8-word message and the whole city
repents. But how could he be upset that God has forgiven the repentant people of Nineveh?
We all want God’s grace in our lives— but are we offended when we see God extend his grace to someone
else. We call it Amazing Grace, something we could never earn. But we are somehow unhappy when
we see certain people receive that grace also. In Jonah 4:3, Jonah states that he would rather die than
to see these people forgiven. Basically, he is saying “If you won’t kill them, then kill me”. God doesn’t
console his servant in his current state. The Lord replied, “Is it right for you to be angry?” That’s what
we call a transformational question… Don’t you just hate it when God does this to us? Jesus was so good
at doing this while he was here on earth also.
Jonah doesn’t choose to answer God, he is committed to his own comfort. Jonah goes out onto a
hillside away from the city and remember it’s HOT. It is the area of the world we now know as Iraq. It’s
like OVEN hot. God takes this chance to teach Jonah more about himself:
God causes a leafy plant to grow up around Jonah, and it gives him some good shade. Jonah was cooler
and happy. Finally! In what appears to be the first time in this entire drama— Jonah seems like he’s
happy. A little shade and he’s finally comfortable. But just as quickly as it grew up, the plant withers and
dies the next day. The sun comes up and Jonah grows faint in the scorching heat. He’s so angry about
the plant, about the city, He just wants to die. But here is another example of a wonderful truth we can
learn from Jonah’s story: Jonah is consumed with his comfort, so God consumes his comfort. We too
get so caught up with our own comfort— we lose sight of God’s plans. Here’s what it comes down to:
What concerns us is sometimes totally different than what concerns God.
God calls Jonah out on this: “Is it right for you to be angry about this plant?” he asks. “You have been so
upset about this plant, and you didn’t even plant it, tend it, or make it grow. Should I not be concerned
with the great city, 120 thousand people who need me?”
That’s how the whole story ends. That’s it. We don’t know if Jonah ever understood and agreed with
God. A last challenge that we should remember is that God wants us to be concerned with eternal
things, not earthly things. The people in our lives are eternal, and God wants us to love and cherish
them above everything else, just like He does.
