The disparity between God’s and Jonah’s responses in chapter 4 is extreme. The divergence is a great canyon that begins in their hearts long before it reaches their respective lips. Jonah is a hate-filled bigot who refuses to accept that God could offer grace to the people of Nineveh. We’ve indicated int he past that Jonah’s hatred of them has some roots in their wicked actions towards Israel, but beyond this Jonah is simply an ethnically prejudice prophet (two things that do not make sense together). The final chapter of the book is a set as a cautionary tale for the reader. Can you rejoice at God’s mercy being given to anyone…even your enemies?
The text reads as a rather depressing end to the book. It says:
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?”
It’s important to consider carefully what is going on here so that we can fight against it in our own hearts, for that is ultimately what the book of Jonah is meant to encourage.
Jonah’s hatred is all-consuming. He so passionate against the Ninevites that it leads him down paths that I never want to tread. First, Jonah’s hatred is so powerful that it drives him to resent the very nature of God. The Lord, throughout Scripture, is said to be merciful (Gen. 19:6; Ex. 34:6; Deut. 4:31; 2 Chron. 30:9; Neh. 9:17; Ps. 86:15; Luke 6:36). It is part of who He is, and it is the part that Jonah most hates now as he waits for Nineveh’s destruction. He even prayed against God’s very character, he tells us. Verse 2 read:
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.
Jonah is so consumed with his prejudice that he actually prayed against God’s showing mercy to the people of Nineveh. He prayed that God would not act out of his very nature. He was bitter towards the mercy of God. Can you imagine any more audacious activity for a follower of God? Can you imagine being so imbittered towards the mercy of God that you actually pray that God not be Himself. This is a hatred that has so blinded the prophet that he can not even see the absurdity of what he is doing. It is a hatred that has so consumed him that he would rather see God not be God, then to see Him pardon sinners. I fear that all too often Christians are like this.
How easy it was for people to become angry with terrorists, muslims, etc. after the events of 9/11. They were our “enemies” so it seemed. But it was blind hatred, much of which has continued, that led pastors and congregations to pray for vengeance and swift judgment. It is the promotion of this blind hatred which continues today, and though many Christians contend that it is a type of evangelism it is a lack of mercy which acts as though they would rather see judgment than mercy offered to Muslims. Think on those whom you hate, those who you judge, those whom you never want to see again (names and faces can quickly come to my mind). Perhaps I wouldn’t use the word “hate.” It seems so strong. But if we are honest all of us can say there are some people who we don’t want to see changed at some level. We would rather see them suffer the consequences of their sin. Maybe their Christians already, maybe they aren’t, but here is Jonah standing in our faces as a warning: the judgment you so desperately want poured out should be poured out on you! God is just but he is also merciful. If you cannot pray for transformation then you may just be praying against the very nature and character of God almighty. A terrifying thought.
In addition to the already atrocious behavior of Jonah we have the matter of his desire to die. Jonah is so obsessed with a particular vision of the world that when God changes the “desired-outcome” then Jonah is ready to end his life. Douglas Stuart writes:
[Jonah’s] request to die was the despondent plea of one who has seen things important to him go in just the opposite direction from what he hoped. He had lost his purpose for living, which was so wrapped up in the expectation of the defeat of his nation’s enemies.
Hatred is a poison to the soul that devours the whole person. When our burning hatred goes unrealized we must wrestle with the meaning of our lives. Think of Captain Ahab and his quest for the White Whale, think of Salieri and his hatred of Mozart. If our hatred is like theirs, like Jonah’s, then we are on a path to destruction. I fear that this is the path of so many so-called ministries.
Like the political talk-head shows of the day so many ministries exist because their “enemies” exist. These groups purport to be warning us all of the danger, but they are little more than fear-mongers whose whole existence is based upon their hatred for others. What is going on in the heart when your purpose in life is to illicit fear and hatred against others? How can you say God has called you to such a “ministry”? Jonah warns us of the emptiness of such a pursuit, and to the dangers of it.
Finally, I think Jonah points to the imbalance in our affections when we are encompassed by bigotry. We will depreciate the value of human life and find greater worth in the less valuable things of the world. Jonah’s anger over of a plant is called into question by God.
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?”
God calls Jonah’s hypocrisy. You value this plant, which you have zero connection to, over and against the lives of a whole city of people. The sailors and the Ninevites themselves have greater respect for human life than does this prophet of God. It’s a popular mentality today in our culture of “save the forest, kill the fetus.” We value the less valuable because we don’t see our absorption into selfish desires. Jonah warns us over and over of such insanity.
We will examine other important themes from the book later, but for now I hope that you see the warning Jonah gives us. I hope you will wrestle, as I know I must, with the hatred in your heart. God’s question to Jonah is a question to us: Do you do well to be angry? Ask yourself today and reflect carefully on the answer.
Sparrow & Heart Soul Care 