Jonah was in dire consequences because he ran from God. In his desperation he cried out and God heard his prayer and gave him a second chance. Although Jonah messed up badly God wanted Jonah to complete the mission that he assigned him.
Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time: “Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.” The Ninevites believed God. They declared a fast, and all of them, from the greatest to the least put on sackcloth. Jonah 3:1,5
The message from Jonah was believed from the commoner to the King. It was a full blown revival. It’s too bad the book of Jonah ended here with this good news in chapter three, but God reveals our broken human condition in this story.
When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways He had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction he had threatened. But Jonah was greatly displeased and became angry. He prayed to the LORD,”O LORD, is this not what I said when I was still at home? That is why I was so quick to flee 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. Now, O LORD, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.” Jonah 3:10-4:3
Why was he angry? What’s going on here? Jonah wanted judgment and not grace for the Ninevites. Jonah wanted what they deserved. Come on God, bring your wrath to these deplorables, these are not your kind of people.
Like Jonah, most of us have biases and preferences that we learned from our parents, friends, the media and our culture. Perhaps unknowingly were like this bus driver.
The bus driver was pointing out the sites of the Civil War Battle of Nashville. He said, “Right over here a small group of Confederate soldiers held off a whole Yankee brigade.” A little farther along, he said, “Over there, a young Confederate boy, all by himself held off a Yankee platoon.” This went on and on until finally a member of tour group asked, “Didn’t the Yankees win anything in the Battle of Nashville?” The bus driver replied, “Not while I’m the driver of this bus they didn’t!”
What God said to Jonah was that, I’m a God of compassion, this why I sent you to Nineveh in the first place? If anybody should get it you should, you’re a recipient of my grace too? Why not rejoice with me over their repentance? Your pride and prejudice is causing you to only think of yourself. Don’t you get it Jonah, it’s not about you.
Don’t you see Jonah if they knew me they wouldn’t do the evil things that they do. Jonah, you’re more concerned about the things you think they deserve. You’re not concerned about what I’m concerned about. I care about the ones you despise and think are not worth redeeming.
Pride and prejudice has always been with us from the early hatred of the Jews in Esther’s day to the Nazi Jewish ghettos, to American Indians, slavery, Japanese internment camps, to apartheid. As Mark Twain said, “History tells us that prejudice is the ink of which all history is written.”
Is it possible that there is some of Jonah in us?Could it be we’re more concerned about our own comfort and preferences than those around us and those who don’t know Christ? In the everyday stuff of life what gets in the way from us being concerned about the people God is concerned about?
When our concerns sync up with God’s imagine what could happen in the lives of those we come in contact with? Aren’t you glad that God thought you were worth His time and concern? God deeply concerned about our generation, our families, our neighbors and our friends.
God is the finder of lost coins and lost sheep. He embraces prodigals. His favorite department is lost and found. His love has no limits. His grace has no measures. His power has no boundaries. He redeems and is present now. When you and I align our concerns with God’s we’ll experience a truly satisfied life.
