July 30, 2024 | Be God's Light
Jonah Obeys God and is Angry
Scripture: Jonah 3-4(NIV)
1 Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time: 2 “Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.”
3 Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh. Now Nineveh was a very large city; it took three days to go through it. 4 Jonah began by going a day’s journey into the city, proclaiming, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.” 5 The Ninevites believed God. A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.
6 When Jonah’s warning reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust. 7 This is the proclamation he issued in Nineveh:
“By the decree of the king and his nobles:
Do not let people or animals, herds or flocks, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink. 8 But let people and animals be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence. 9 Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.”
10 When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened.
1 But to Jonah this seemed very wrong, and he became angry. 2 He prayed to the Lord, “Isn’t this what I said, Lord, when I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. 3 Now, Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.”
4 But the Lord replied, “Is it right for you to be angry?”
5 Jonah had gone out and sat down at a place east of the city. There he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city. 6 Then the Lord God provided a leafy plant and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the plant. 7 But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the plant so that it withered. 8 When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die, and said, “It would be better for me to die than to live.”
9 But God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?”
“It is,” he said. “And I’m so angry I wish I were dead.”
10 But the Lord said, “You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. 11 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?”
Devotional
In yesterday’s reading, we saw how God called Jonah to head northeast and preach to the people of Ninevah. Instead, he ran from God, boarding a ship headed due west. After being thrown overboard, a huge fish vomited him up right back where he started in the seaport town of Joppa. God repeated his command, and this time Jonah obeyed.
Every preacher dreams about giving a message and watching as people flock to the altar and change their lives. But when this happened in Ninevah, Jonah got ticked off. The people of Ninevah were the enemy of the Israelites. They had been threatening to wipe Israel off the map. Now they were turning their hearts to the God of Israel? Jonah was so mad at God that he wanted to die.
This story is more about the character of God than of Jonah. The Lord knew that Ninevah, the capital of Assyria, had ruled with an iron fist. They had been filled with idolatry and violence. They were far from God. The final verse of this book gives us an insight into the nature of God when He says, “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?”
In Mattew 12:41, Jesus said, “The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now something greater than Jonah is here.” That something greater was Jesus Himself, who died for our sins.
Romans 5:6-8 puts it like this: “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
You and I are quite like the people of Ninevah. All humans are. But God has always been concerned for people, and that includes you. In fact, the Bible says that God is patient, “not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). Will you turn to Him today? Is there someone you know who seems too far from God to be redeemable? How does God see that person? How is God calling you to be a “Jonah” to that person? Will you run away, or will you humbly obey?
Poem
Beware!
Beware when a root of bitterness grows deep in your heart.
Beware when you curse your enemy.
Beware when you believe God is shading your prejudice.
Beware, for Death’s worms will eat your flesh.
