Thursday: Jonah’s Lament
Jonah 4:1-11 confirms that the greatest obstacle for God to get His prophet involved in world mission was not distance, wind, sailors, fish, or Ninevites. It was the prophet himself. Ninevite faith contrasted with Jonah’s unbelief and vindictive spirit.
Image © Kim Justinen from GoodSalt.com
Jonah is the only person in the Scriptures who accuses God of being gracious, compassionate, and slow to anger, abounding in love and who relents from sending calamity. One would think most people would view these aspects of God with thankfulness.
When Jonah learned of God’s purpose to spare the city that, notwithstanding its wickedness, had been led to repent in sackcloth and ashes, he should have been the first to rejoice because of God’s amazing grace; but instead he allowed his mind to dwell upon the possibility of his being regarded as a false prophet. Jealous of his reputation, he lost sight of the infinitely greater value of the souls in that wretched city. The compassion shown by God toward the repentant Ninevites
—Ellen G. White, Prophets and Kings, p. 271.displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry.
Read Jonah 4:10-11. What do these texts teach us about the character of God in contrast to sinful human nature? Why should we be glad God, not fellow human beings, is our ultimate judge?
Jonah showed his anger twice in Jonah 4. He was angry because God changed His mind and saved Nineveh’s more than one hundred twenty thousand inhabitants. He was also angry because the vine withered. In his selfishness, the prophet needed to get his priorities right.
God instructed Jonah to recognize human brotherhood based on the fatherhood of God. The prophet should accept his common humanity with these foreigners,
although they were wayward. Were not 120,000 people more important than a vine?
Read again the Lord’s rebuke to Jonah. In what ways might the Lord be able to say something similar to us? That is, how often do we find ourselves more concerned over our own personal issues, many of which at times can really be trivial, than over the lost souls whom Christ shed His blood to save?
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Jonah was more concerned with his reputation than God's. He wished that the Ninevites were destroyed so that he could gain the fame of "the prophet who prophesied their doom" He forgot that the God of Israel is the God of every human beung
I feel that maybe we are too hard on Jonah for being angry with God for forgiving the people of Nineveh, if we read Deut 18:20-22 we see God's instruction that if what a prophet predicted didn't come true then the people should not listen to him. So this would mean that Jonah would no longer be able to do his work as a prophet, now his entire body of work would be doubted, just think what would happen if EGW predicted something that didn't happen - we would have to ignore all her writings.
Is it possible that Jonah didn't fully understand the message God gave him to tell the people of Nineveh? Was the message "in 40 days you will be destroyed" or was the message "Unless you repent - you will be destroyed in 40 days"? If there wasn't an option of repenting why bother to send them the message? So in effect the message was "you have a choice repent or die" and in fact Jonah did a wonderful job because the whole city repented, what evangelist wouldn't be happy with that result.
Maybe Jonah was upset because these people were the enemies of Israel and he thought God should destroy them and not give them an option. Many times we have the same feelings but Jesus tells us - Love your enemies, bless those that curse you, do good to those who hate you, pray for those that persecute you.
God wants to save all men, women, boys and girls. Jesus died for all. We all should want all to be saved. Humanity is God's greatest mission and He gave us His command for the same mission, God to everyone you meet and tell him or her God is love and Jesus died to save us all.
I am aware of all the negativity of Jonah, however, it shows how distressed and hurt he is with God's Mercy for it overrides His Justice demands of retributions. I am sure Yahweh has a purpose for Jonah's experience in Nineveh in the Holy Scriptures. He is fair and just to question Yahweh's decision to override Justice with His Mercy. We in this 21st century cannot fathom the pain, shame, tragedy, utter inhumane treatment of the slaves by these Assyrians. It is easy for us to point out Jonah's ingratitude and insensitivity but most importantly a heart of forgiving and mercy towards their enemy especially the innocent women and children.
I believe that Yahweh understands Jonah and accepts his reaction of disbelief of Yahweh's towards the remorseful and repentant Ninevites. I am of in agreement with my Lecturer at Seminary Dr. Ross Cole that Jonah is an anti type of the Prodigal Son's Elder Brother and both stories end abruptly or leaves in hanging for both stories do not tell us how it ended with Jonah and prodigal son's elder brother of rebukes from Yahweh and the Father.
Just like last week as one of my best colleague Pastor Mike Ferrell that last week was about the Little Slave Girl but it concentrated more on Naaman, so to me this week is concentrated too much on Jonah's weakness which I agree, but should have highlighted also the reasons for his predicament and how we as missionaries should learn from him and avoid such attitude however, I am of the view that we should leave the judgment of Jonah to Yahweh and the Judge Jesus Christ (John 5:21-29). We fall into this trap of being judgmental to Jesus so we do not stain Christ's robe of righteousness put on us daily by the Holy Ghost when we die daily. I have compassion and acceptance of Jonah, I am expecting to see Jonah in Heaven, and spend time with him for this experience, for Paul said that I rejoice in Christ despite some preach Christ "because they are jealous and quarrelsome, but others from genuine good will. They do it out of love,... Others do not proclaim Christ sincerely, but from a spirit of selfish ambition; ... It does not matter! I am happy about it-as long as Christ is preached in every possible way possible whether from right or wrong motives.."(Philippians 1:15-18).
Jonah is still my hero for he does show some of our ulterior motives in doing missionary work for the Lord Jesus Christ.
If you are to know the severity of evil done towards the Israelite during the siege and conquer but most importantly the inhumane treatment that cannot be describe here, it is when we realized these factors then we understand Jonah and definitely Yahweh for if not for Jonah the Ninevites would never repent remorsefully.
Christiana today are just llike Jonah, self centered , jeaaloous and compete with God . Jonah was pushed by satan spirit to not listen nor take God's iNstruction We must listen and do God's will not ours anyone else
Like Jonah , most of us are like that . We want God to forgive and have mercy upon us but wished that others are punished for their sins . May the Lord have mercy on us all .
Apparently few are conscious of the blinding and/or poisonous effect of anger. Anger, even of the justifiable righteous form is not to be indulged for long (Ephesians 4:26, 27); for the human being was not designed to handle it. It is a result of sin. This is an emotion only God may rightly manage for any extended period (Romans 12:19).
The saints do well to cultivate a spirit of acceptance when things do not turn out the way they hoped, and trust the All-wise God to regulate the affairs beyond their control.
When the brethren do not like the result of a vote, the outcome of a process or the apparent prosperity of those supposedly in error or wicked, they still work with the Father who knows best. Ultimately it is the God who is in control that allows or orchestrates the events of this world and works to produce good (Romans 8:28). Especially times of uncertainty call for trust in the Ever Living and Loving One.
Unless the saints know better, when God has spoken let the church say amen!
Hugh. I disagree that anger is bad in and of itself. God gave us emotions for a reason (after all, we are made in His image). As such, we should not condemn or criticize any emotion. God similarly tells us "do not be afraid" over 100 times in the Bible. Yet, without the ability to experience fear, we would walk right in front of a train or fail to run from danger.
Our God-given emotions, like our tongues, are capable of good or evil and thus are not inherently "good" or "bad." Similarly, as with our tongues, we need God’s help so that our emotions bring Him glory and do not cause us to sin.
The way I look at it Jonah would not have fallen to the temptation of doubt of God and let the evil one put in his mind that God is not a God of long suffering, accepting forgiveness, if he would have stayed in the city he was sent to be an instrument in God's hand to save. Jonah needed to following up with a message of a forgiving, long suffering, and faithful God. Yes He was faithful to those who turned to Him. Jesus saves, those who turn to Him. I used to have a t-shirt that said, "Jesus saves" I am silk screening a t-shirt that says Jesus Saves, those who turn to Him. Hebrews 7:25. Seems to me Jonah lost the meaning of the shedding of blood of the lamb Jehovah set before him and his countryman, as an example of the plan of salvation. We now don't need to sacrifice a lamb on the alter because He has now once died for our sins. What we need is to forgive even as He has forgiven us. 1John 1:9. Thus avoiding the Jonah Syndrome which Christ alluded to hundreds of years later as he ministered on this earth. Matthew 12:40,41. We need to stay to convey the message to our people the need not only to repent but to be born again, follow through with a new life in Christ, abide in Christ, the importance of prayer, die to self daily. SS Lessions August 2-8, 2014. I met a missionary this last week at work. He had lost his wife to cancer. I asked him what he was going to do. He replyed, "I am going to go back to Africa and follow through with the mission work my wife and I had started. Praise the Lord.
This story again shows God desperate desire to save his human creation. The lengths He will go to teach us valuable lessons about his character and his love for us.
Reading the out come of Jonah's feeling I know that we are all guilty of feeling the way he has when the outcome is different from what we expect. The word of God said that when we confess our sins he is faithful to forgive and cleans us from all sins. Jonah heart was bent on the lord destroying the people and when we hold those who have wrong us or hurt us to not forgive there is a sore that grows within our owe heart to cause us to hate when God give his saving grace to those we feel that are undeserving of it. How dare we not extent the same forgiveness that the Father has given us. I have learn that the person who have wrong me is in deed need forgiveness for the Lord will not hear my prayer if I hold iniquity in my heart. Jonah preaching should have given him ears to hear his own words to know that God would not destroy the people once they repented.
I honestly can relate to Jonah reluctance , but somewhat of a different way or motive as you might want to say. For Jonah it was cause he disliked the people of Nineveh. Personally for me i used to run cause i was afraid and i would be embarrassed if i messed up , or people wouldn't understand me . I allowed that thought to settle in my mind, I'm learning thanks God to submit to Him James 4:7, No matter what God calls us cause we are more than worthy for the job.
That is why we should desist from praying for aMagedon to quickly come so that the Beast and all those that follow him are destroyed. We should pray to God to allow for more time so as to save more people that are hungry for spiritual food but have not been reached. We should pray for the spirit to lead us to these kind of people and preach to them. We should pray for the numbers who honor the Sabbath to increase. We should be happy for more branches and Seventh Day Churches being opened even in East Timor where there is none. Let us not be selfish and wish the destruction of unbelievers. We need more on Gods side rather than let the devil rejoice for his swelling numbers compared to God.
Jonah had forgotten that he was the descendant of Abraham who was told and promised by God that "..... all nations on Earth will be blessed through you" Genesis 12:1-3, though God meant Jesus Christ. But I think Jonah had a duty also as a descent of Abraham. And so as to us as children of Abraham in faith.