Project 119: Jonah 4

 |  Project 119  |  Joel Burks

“Resentment is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die.”

This statement, often attributed to St. Augustine, relates to so many situations I’ve had in my life. I would need more than two hands to count the number of times that I’ve been wronged, and then wished for some sort of retribution. The problem with this kind of thinking is that at the end of the day, we are only harming ourselves. Don’t get me wrong, it feels good to be angry. It feels even better to see the person who has wronged you put into their place...but I do not think that those feelings are what believers are supposed to put stock in. What kind of people would we be to accept God’s grace, but then to turn around and examine a person or group of people and determine that the same grace we accepted does not extend to them?

In the chapter we read today, I think this is the problem that Jonah finds himself in. He has traveled all the way to a group of people, who, by all perceived intents and purposes, are destined to be destroyed by God. Jonah, however, knows that God will have mercy on them and that He will relent if they turn from their sin to worship Him. This is why Jonah runs from God. Is that not the silliest reason? Because Jonah knew that God would forgive Nineveh, he fled. However, God has a very important lesson still for Jonah about how He cares for His children.

Jonah exits the city to await what he hopes will be Nineveh’s demise. He sits atop a hill in the sun, and the Lord springs forth from the ground a plant to provide shade for Jonah. The plant dies overnight and the next day Jonah wallows around in his own self-pity because the plant no longer provides him with very needed shade. What the Lord says to Jonah at the end of this chapter is highlighted in my Bible because it speaks to me on so many levels. He says “You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?” (Jonah 4:10-11, NIV).

To me, God is saying to all of us that He is going to bring into our lives certain situations or people who are there specifically to tend to us in our hour of need. Sometimes we don’t even know that we are in need. I am sure that the people of Nineveh were totally unaware that they needed a “Jonah.” But God was concerned about Nineveh, so He sent Jonah. I also think on the other side of the coin that we could be the Jonah that someone else needs. Who are we walking past every day that we have felt God pulling us towards? Are we paying attention to God’s calling, desiring to tend to His creation? Or are we running and hoping that God doesn’t send us to that person who wronged us in some way?

The message of Jonah is not one of discouragement but one of hope. God does not want the harm and retribution that we deserve because of our sin to befall us. Take a second to thank God today for the grace He has shown us.  

Lord I pray that You will open our eyes, that we will be attentive to Your spirit, and that we will not let Your directives be ignored. Thank You for Your son and His grace that surpasses our understanding.

Jonah 4 (ESV):

Jonah’s Anger and the LORD’s Compassion

1 But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. 2 And he prayed to the LORD and said, “O LORD, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster. 3 Therefore now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” 4 And the LORD said, “Do you do well to be angry?”

5 Jonah went out of the city and sat to the east of the city and made a booth for himself there. He sat under it in the shade, till he should see what would become of the city. 6 Now the LORD God appointed a plant and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be a shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort. So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the plant. 7 But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant, so that it withered. 8 When the sun rose, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint. And he asked that he might die and said, “It is better for me to die than to live.” 9 But God said to Jonah, “Do you do well to be angry for the plant?” And he said, “Yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die.”10 And the LORD said, “You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. 11 And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?”