Jonah’s Anger                                                Jonah 4:1-4

Jonah is a short book. In my Bible it’s only one page. It’s a story we all remember as kids, Jonah gets swallowed by a whale. But if you bring it to a group of adults, the majority of them will probably say, “No one can live inside a fish.” We know it is much more than a story of a man and a fish. And whether one believes a great fish swallowed Jonah or not, there is a lot to see in this short book.

To recap, God wants Jonah to go to Nineveh to tell the people to change from their evil ways, and like a man of God, Jonah goes in the complete opposite direction. God used a storm and a fish to get him to Nineveh where Jonah did what God told him to. And now in chapter four, Jonah is angry with God because God saves the Ninevites.

Verse 1, “But to Jonah, this seemed very wrong, and he became angry.” Not only is Jonah angry, but he’s also about to tell God how he’s wrong. Is this where you want to be, shaking your fist and yelling at God? I imagine a roar from heaven, a lightning bolt, and a pile of ash where I was standing. But we’ve seen this before in scripture. This shows us God understands us, that God is bigger than our anger, and we can express our anger toward God without fearing retribution. And this is because God wants a relationship with us, a true two-way relationship. God doesn’t want us to be just blind followers. Verses 1&2 show us God is available, he listens even when we are grumbling against him. God listens when we tell him we think he is wrong, or when we want a different outcome.

Verse 3, “I knew you were a compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love…take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.”

Jonah is so upset he doesn’t want anything to do with what God is saying. How would this be said in 2025? “God, you can’t forgive them, they’re LGBTQ. God, you want me to give aid to the Palestinians. God, you want me to accept them? They’re Muslim, they’re from Mexico, she had an abortion. I’m not doing it; I’m turning around and ignoring them.”             God accepts anyone who accepts him, it doesn’t matter what they did before that moment; 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come. The old is gone, the new is here.” Ephesians 4:2, “With all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love.” We don’t have to accept what someone does, but we must accept them and not turn away out of indignation. Jesus didn’t turn away from the prostitute, the adulterer, the Roman Centurian, the leper; this is our example.

We see in the way God deals with the Ninevites that he is gracious. God is kind in his attitude and actions toward those who do things against him. He gives his grace and mercy to sinners.

God is compassionate, loving us as a parent loves their children.

God is longsuffering. He is slow to anger, giving us every opportunity, even as we rebel and sin, to see our errors and turn to him. His patience with us never fails; Isaiah 45:9, “For the sake of my name, I delay my wraith, and for my sake, I restrain it for you, in order not to cut you off.”

God at Nineveh shows us God is loving. He loves us even in our disobedience. Will those who reject God be punished? Yes, but it is not done out of hate, it is done out of God’s holiness. Habakkuk 1:13, “Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrongdoing.”

And it is this same holiness of God that is our salvation because God’s judgment on sinners is our invitation to repentance and reconciliation with him; 2 Peter 3:9, “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise…Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish…” God shows his love and holiness by accepting us no matter when we come to him. God will never tell someone it’s too late, you did too much for me to forgive, you exhausted all your chances.

These verses ask each of us a question, whose heart do you have? Do you live as God’s heart, or as Jonah’s heart?

God has a missionary heart, a heart based on an all-embodying purpose of love. There is no group that can claim God is only theirs.  Unfortunately, the theme of I’m right and you’re wrong is prevalent in many churches and denominations.

And no group is beyond the mercy and grace God offers through Jesus Christ. And unfortunately, this idea of people being beyond God’s willingness to forgive is also becoming common in some circles. Do I think my neighbor who had an abortion is beyond God? Are my LGBTQ friends beyond God? Do I get angry because they don’t live as I think they should? God shows us through the Ninevites that no, no one is beyond God’s reach and love.

Through Jonah, God shows us our hearts are small compared to his. God gives everyone unlimited chances to turn to him. As his followers we should adopt this viewpoint and not condemn others in our hearts.

Verse 4, “Is it right for you to be angry?” God is trying to get Jonah to re-evaluate, to see he should have empathy and compassion for all people, even those he disagrees with, even those he may not like nor care for. And God tries to get us to get us to re-evaluate our prejudices.

The overlying theme in these verses is, never forget why we are here. We are saved because of the love and grace of God. Part of our response to that is to demonstrate that love and grace to others. We have not been saved so we might condemn others.

We should see what a great thing it is that God accepted us with all our sins, how he accepts us even as we continue to sin. And we should be telling others that God will do the same for them.

Now, is it easy to talk of God lovingly to others when we disagree with their life choices? No, but Jonah shows us our comfort is secondary, their salvation and life with Christ is paramount. God doesn’t always send us to a five-star hotel, or a convention of like-minded people to give testimony. He sends us to the lost, the hopeless, the dusty mangers of someone’s life. Abraham and Moses weren’t always comfortable, neither were Ruth, Isaiah, Daniel, or the disciples. But God was always the guide in their lives, let him be the guide in yours.

This story shows us Jonah’s value system was turned upside down. He’s been sent to those he’s always been told to dislike. His story shows us we need to have God’s perspective. We need to turn our value system upside down and approach those we’ve been told have no place with God, and to show them that they do.

We must not turn away from people because of what they do in this life, if God did that none of us would be saved. We must see others as God does, from the understanding that their soul’s place in eternity matters more than what they do now.

God sent the disciples out to share his Word with others. He sends us out too, to show him to the world through our words and actions, through our love and acceptance, through our grace and our mercy. Don’t turn your back on others, their eternity is at stake.

God bless,

Amen.