Jonah Taught Me Something Today

 I am 54 years old and I have never read through the Book of Jonah.  That says an awful lot about me, right there.  It is a short book of only 4 chapters, yet I had the audacity to think that I'd learned all I needed to know on a felt board in Sunday School class. 

Yes, Jonah didn't want to do what God wanted him to do.  Yes, he was silly enough to think he could run from God.  Yes, God made a storm on the water and Jonah was thrown over the side of the boat and ended up in the belly of a giant fish...BUT, there is MUCH more to the story.  In the short four chapters, God taught me a HUGE lesson about myself.  One I'd better not let myself forget.  

After he was "vomited onto the land", Jonah did go back to Nineveh and do what the LORD told him to do.  He preached about the coming destruction if they didn't repent.  Nineveh repented.  They even dressed their animals in sackcloth!  The king dressed in sackcloth and SAT in ashes.  Boy did they repent.  

And Jonah got MAD!

In Chapter 4 it says, "Jonah was greatly displeased and became furious.  This word furious means to blaze up, of anger, zeal, jealousy; to be agitated, be (become) angry, burn (with anger) diligently, to become enraged. These are strong words for how angry Jonah actually was.  Why was he angry?  Because God saw Nineveh's repentance and gave them time.  He tells God "Please LORD, isn't this what I thought while I was still in my own country?  That's why I fled toward Tarshish in the first place.  I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger, abounding in faithful love, and one who relents from sending disaster." 

And now..."take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live."  Jonah was so mad that he actually wanted to die!  

Then the LORD asked, "Is it right for you to be angry?"

Jonah left...it doesn't say anything about him answering the Lord.  So, I'm thinking he stomped out of Nineveh and the Bible says he found a place east of it.  He made himself a shelter and sat down in the shade to wait and watch the city...waiting for it to blow up.  (This kind of makes me laugh.  Because he's told off God, TWICE...once when he ran and now again.  He's stomped out of the city, told God to just let him DIE, he found a place east of the city, built a shade and sat and waited.  As if to say, Lord.  I'm waiting.)

Look what the Lord does next...

"Then the LORD God appointed a plant, and it grew over Jonah to provide shade for his head to rescue him from his trouble." YES!  He treated him with gentle loving care...even after the way Jonah had acted.  He was showing Jonah the same gracious compassion that He was showing Nineveh.  

The Bible tells us that Jonah "was greatly pleased with the plant."  STRONG's says that Jonah made the plant that God had given to him into an idol.  

Then, as the sun was rising, God sent an worm that killed the plant.  He sent a scorching east wind.  The sun beat down on Jonah's head so much that he almost fainted, and, yes...he wanted to die AGAIN.

Then God asked him one question, "Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?"

Jonah answers, "YES, it's right!  I'm angry enough to die!"

And this is how the LORD God answered him:

"You cared about a plant, which you did not labor over and did not grow.  It appeared in a night and perished in a night.  But may I not care about the great city of Nineveh, which has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot distinguish between their right and their left, as well as many animals?"

This is how the Book of Jonah ends.  This isn't really what taught me something about myself, though when I look back over it after reading the commentary, WOW!  How I must really test God's patience!  Here's what the commentary said:

God is immutable (He never changes).  However, God interacts with men, and men do change.  In this instance, God's ultimate intention toward Nineveh did not change--the city was later destroyed.  Nevertheless, God saw that their actions were a response to Jonah's message of the city's impending destruction.  This verse is one of great hope for God's people today.  If God is able to make provision for these people of Nineveh by suspending His judgment on them for over one hundred years, God is surely able to grant mercy to a believer today.  The phrase translated "relented from the disaster" implies that God "temporarily removed the calamity" that He had promised to the city of Nineveh.

Stay with me...the next commentary is where it hit me...cause I was being pretty judgmental of ol' Jonah.

Jonah had made the gourd that God had given to him into an idol.  THE FACT THAT HE WAS ANGERED BY IT'S BEING DESTROYED REVEALED THAT HE WAS JUST CONCERNED FOR HIMSELF.

Yep...that's what Jonah taught me today.  And this is where I put my face in my hands out of shear embarrassment.  How many times...let's just count the RECENT times...have I become so angry at God for my life circumstances?  When I look at them, I realize that when I become angry at Him, I have turned my eyes only toward myself...and they've been looking at only me for quite a few months now.  

Dear Loving LORD,

Turn my eyes away from me and toward others and their needs.  Help me to focus on those around me, not on ME.  Help me to help those who need help and bring happiness to those who need happiness.  Please let people look at me and see YOU...NOT me!