Jonah: The Petulant, Pouting Prophet
“…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 my life, for it is better for me to die than to live” (Jonah 4:2-3).
Read Jonah 4:1-11
Jonah: The Petulant, Pouting Prophet
Years ago, a version of the Bible was produced called “Good News for Modern Man.” The Gospel message – God’s offer of forgiveness, salvation, and eternal life through Jesus Christ – is truly good news. The best news ever. But when we read the Scriptures, particularly the books of prophets like Isaiah and Jeremiah, it’s not always good news. It’s often about how a holy, righteous God hates sin and promises divine justice for all who won’t repent.
Jeremiah earned the title of “the weeping prophet.” He grieved about the wickedness of the people of Judah and the severe judgment they faced if they didn’t repent. He told them, “If you do not listen, I will weep in secret because of your pride; my eyes will weep bitterly, overflowing with tears” (Jeremah 13:17).
In closing the study of the book of Jonah, we find him – the headstrong prophet – grieving in a different way. After first fleeing to avoid God’s call to preach in the pagan city of Nineveh and then experiencing what three days and three nights inside a great fish was like, Jonah grudgingly agreed to go to Nineveh and preach. Unlike Isaiah and Jeremiah, however, he found a very receptive audience for the Lord’s message.
However, rather than rejoicing that the people of Nineveh – including the king – repented of their very wicked ways, Jonah got mad. We’re told, “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’” (Jonah 4:2).
Jonah became a petulant, pouting prophet, greatly dismayed that the citizens of the evil city had repented of their sins and turned to God, seeking His forgiveness. ‘How could He ever accept such vile people?’ he huffed.
Have you ever felt that way? Maybe it was someone who did great harm to you personally, or to your family. We know the Scriptures say the Lord is “not willing that any should perish, but for all to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9), but that certainly doesn’t include people who do terrible, ungodly things, right? We want to see them punished, not forgiven.
Or perhaps it’s someone in history who’s committed acts of unthinkable evil, like Adolph Hitler or Idi Amin or some infamous serial killer. Would you feel anger if you knew God had forgiven and saved someone like that, accepting their repentance?
As his story concludes, Jonah goes outside the city, finding a vantage point where he could see what God would do next. Maybe he expected – even hoped – that fire and brimstone to pour down, as the Lord had done to punish the evil cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.
It was a hot day, so God provided a large vine that gave Jonah shade from the sun. We can imagine the smile on his face as he waited to observe the Lord’s vengeance on Nineveh. But then a worm chewed the vine, destroying his protection from the searing sunrays. ‘How could God permit such a cruel thing?’ he wondered in anger.
Then came the punch line for Jonah’s story, a gut punch: “The Lord said, ‘You have been concerned about this vine, though you did not tend it or make it grow…. But Nineveh has more than 120,000 people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about that great city?” (Jonah 4:10-11).
Where is our burden for the lost, no matter how depraved they act? Do we even care about them? Every day, thousands of men, women, and children die without knowing Jesus Christ, destined to suffer apart from Him for eternity. Does that matter to us?
Think about people at work. Your neighbor across the street. Some of the friends you hang out with on the golf course, the tennis or pickleball court, or go fishing or hunting with. Do they know the Lord? Is God calling you to talk with them about Jesus? Or are you like Jonah, uncaring about where people will spend eternity, no matter how good or bad they are?
Jonah was more concerned about the vine, and the pesky worm, than he was about the eternal destiny of many thousands of Ninevites. I strongly suspect the Lord is saying to each of us, “Don’t be like Jonah!”