Jonah 4:1-11--Jonah's Anger and the LORD's Compassion

Jonah 4
English Standard Version

Jonah's Anger and the LORD's Compassion
4 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?”

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Jonah is really upset with the LORD that the LORD showed mercy to the Ninevites that repented (mercy for me, but wrath for thee seemed to be Jonah's philosophy here when it came to Jews and Gentiles).  In fact, Jonah admits that this was the very reason why he tried to run in the first place--he was concerned that the LORD might use him to bring about revival and repentance, and he did not want the people of Nineveh to receive grace and mercy.  Jonah says he would rather die to live and watch this revival happen.  The LORD asks a simple probing question, "Do you do well to be angry?" (He asks Jonah if he believes he has just cause for his anger).

Jonah does not answer, which in itself is an answer, and he builds a shelter for himself much like what the people would make during the festival of booths.  The booth gave him shelter and shade from the sun, but the LORD decided that He would help reinforce the lesson He was trying to teach Jonah with an object-lesson.  He caused a plant to grow supernaturally fast and to provide shade for Jonah's head to make him more comfortable.  Jonah's mood quickly changed and now he was exceedingly happy because of the plant (notice how volatile Jonah's mood is--he will quickly swing from one extreme to the other).

At that time, the LORD cause a worm to come and eat the plant so that it would wither and die, and Jonah is right back into his mood of asking the LORD to kill him.  He is also angry at the LORD for allowing the plant that was providing him with shade and comfort to die.  The LORD asked a similar diagnostic question to Jonah, "Do you do good to be angry about the plant?"  Jonah does answer this time and feels his anger is justified and he adds that he is angry enough to die.

The LORD then shows Jonah that he cares more about the plant than about the people and animals of the city that he wants to see destroyed.  Jonah did no work to cultivate or plant or water the plant that gave him shade,  It was literally there one day and gone the next by no work of Jonah's hand, and yet, Jonah valued that plant more than the thousands or millions of people of people--there are more than 120, 000 innocent, young children that do not know "right from left" (right from wrong).  That doesn't count any of the older children or adults who understood morality and chose to sin.  There are also lots of innocent animals there--though they don't have a soul, they would suffer in the judgment that they LORD was planning on sending.  Should Jonah not consider the suffering of the innocent?  The LORD certainly did and realized there was still a chance for this innocents to come to a place of being God-fearing.

This passage really gets to the heart of the matter (literally).  This whole scenario is the LORD dealing with Jonah's heart.  The one that is called His prophet is the one who is most in need of repentance.  Are we ever angry at God for being exactly who He said He is and doing exactly what He said He loves to do? Do we get angry over things with no cause? Are we every so self-centered that we get more angry about our own comfort than the lives and souls of the lost people of the world?  I think we unfortunately have to admit that we can sometimes have a lot in common with Jonah and that we too need to let this book speak to us and let the Spirit do His work to convict us of sin when it comes to selfishness and hatred or apathy towards those who are far away and unlike us.

This is the end of this book.  It doesn't feel like there is a nice resolution to it.  We leave Jonah there sulking and don't ever know if he stops being bitter and angry at God over His grace and mercy towards the people of Nineveh.  We don't know if he realizes he's just as much in need of the LORD's grace and mercy and is just as wicked (and so are his people Israel and Judah).  We don't see if the people had a conversion experience that was long-lasting or lasted a generation or less (this will be answered in another of the Minor Prophets, so hang on), but we are left with many unanswered questions.  Though many skeptics point to this book as being too fantastical (being swallowed by a great fish and vomited up on land) to believe, I think this kind of ending points to the fact that this was not written by the Hebrew scribes.  The only Jew in this story is the "bad guy" and the Ninevites are the "good guys."  Salvation is brought to the Gentiles, and there is this lack of resolution at the end that leaves this one called a prophet of the LORD sulking and depressed and ready to die because of the good that the LORD had done.  It is because of this that the Bible seems even more real to me because we don't see perfect heroes nor do we see the kinds of heroes that the Greeks and Romans had who committed egregious amounts of sin to make man feel okay about theirs.  We see the LORD correcting Jonah here because he was in sin, and Jonah is still struggling with having victory over that sin when we leave him.  That is a very normal thing in our lives and points to the reality that God uses imperfect people to convey His perfect message to accomplish His perfect plans and purposes--the bring about salvation for the Jew first, but also for the Gentile.