In a previous program we saw how the people of Nineveh repented of their wickedness and how God relented from destroying them. Jonah chapter four, verses one through four says: “But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. He prayed to Yahweh [that is, God], and said, “Please, Yahweh, wasn’t this what I said when I was still in my own country? Therefore I hurried to flee to Tarshish, for I knew that you are a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, and you relent of doing harm. Therefore now, Yahweh, take, I beg you, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live.” Yahweh said, “Is it right for you to be angry?””
Jonah is well acquainted with God’s character. He freely acknowledges that God is gracious, merciful, slow to anger, abounding in love and one who relents from sending calamity. It is interesting to note that while Jonah finally consents to go to Nineveh and deliver God’s message, he never tells the Ninevites to call on God and ask for mercy. Jonah obviously knows very well that God wants to forgive, but he (Jonah) doesn’t want the Ninevites to be forgiven. The only message he brings them is that they will be destroyed in forty days. (3:4)
While reciting God’s character qualities Jonah seems to quote from the Psalms. Psalm 103:8 says, “Yahweh is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness.” Psalm 145:8-9 says, “Yahweh is gracious, merciful, slow to anger, and of great loving kindness. Yahweh is good to all. His tender mercies are over all his works.” It is tragic that though Jonah knew the Scripture, he had not learned the lessons that Scripture teaches. The two Psalms that Jonah quotes are Psalms of thanksgiving. One reason we should give thanks is given in the next two verses that Jonah does not quote. Psalm 103:9-10 says, “He will not always accuse; neither will he stay angry forever. He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor repaid us for our iniquities.” It is true that God did not treat the Ninevites as their sins deserved. But Jonah should have realized that God had not treated him as he deserved either. This recognition of God’s great love and mercy should have moved Jonah to give thanks. Instead he became angry. Do we act the same way as Jonah? Do we fail to recognize that we need God’s mercy just as much as other people? Does God’s mercy move us to praise him? Can we rejoice when God shows mercy to others?
In becoming angry at God’s mercy, Jonah is essentially trying to usurp God’s authority. In Deuteronomy 32:35 God says, “Vengeance is mine, and recompense…” This principle is reinforced and extended in the New Testament. Romans 12:17-21 instructs: “Repay no one evil for evil. Respect what is honorable in the sight of all men. If it is possible, as much as it is up to you, be at peace with all men. Don’t seek revenge yourselves, beloved, but give place to God’s wrath. For it is written, “Vengeance belongs to me; I will repay, says the Lord.” Therefore “If your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in doing so, you will heap coals of fire on his head.” Don’t be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” Not only are we to let God take care of any retribution, but Christians are to actively promote the welfare of their enemies!
Is all anger wrong then? No! Anger is one of God’s character qualities as well as mercy. But, it seems that man doesn’t use anger for its intended purpose very often. Our anger more likely than not quickly leads to sin if it didn’t start there. Psalm 37:8 says: “Cease from anger, and forsake wrath. Don’t fret, it leads only to evildoing.” What a different perspective we would have of Jonah if he hadn’t gotten angry!
Then God gave Jonah an object lesson. Chapter 4:5-9 says, “Then Jonah went out of the city, and sat on the east side of the city, and there made himself a booth, and sat under it in the shade, until he might see what would become of the city. Yahweh God prepared a vine, and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shade over his head, to deliver him from his discomfort. So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the vine. But God prepared a worm at dawn the next day, and it chewed on the vine, so that it withered. It happened, when the sun arose, that God prepared a sultry east wind; and the sun beat on Jonah’s head, so that he fainted, and requested for himself that he might die, and said, “It is better for me to die than to live.” God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the vine?” He said, “I am right to be angry, even to death.””
By means of the vine, God is trying to teach two things to Jonah, and to us as well. The first is that all too often we get to thinking that we own the things in our possession. We forget that we are really only caretakers. There is nothing that we have that we haven’t received from God. 1 Corinthians 4:7 puts it this way: “For who makes you different? And what do you have that you didn’t receive? But if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?” God is reminding Jonah who owns Nineveh. Just as the vine was God’s, so the city and the people in it are His as well. Do we have the right to tell God what to do with His own possessions?
The second lesson is that, in the final analysis, everybody is a servant. Romans 14:4 says, “Who are you who judge another’s servant? To his own lord he stands or falls…” God alone is the master and judge. That being the case, we have no right to pass judgment on anyone unless the standard of judgment is a command of God. Jonah is acting like the Ninevites are answerable to him rather than to God.
“Yahweh said, “You have been concerned for the vine, for which you have not labored, neither made it grow; which came up in a night, and perished in a night. Shouldn’t I be concerned for Nineveh, that great city, in which are more than one hundred twenty thousand persons who can’t discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much livestock?”” (Jonah 4:10-11)
In his zeal to see the Assyrians punished, Jonah overlooks several principles involved in God’s justice.
1) In the Law of Moses it was written: “The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers: every man shall be put to death for his own sin.” (Deuteronomy 24:16) Even though the Assyrians were a violent and cruel nation, their infants and small children couldn’t be held responsible. God has to take all of the facts into account while administering justice. In our zeal for retribution do we, like Jonah, wish to condemn the innocent?
2) Even though God is a just God and will punish all wrongdoing, He does not take pleasure in anyone’s death. In Ezekiel 18:32 it says: “ For I have no pleasure in the death of him who dies, says the Lord Yahweh: therefore turn yourselves, and live.” If we loved as much as God does perhaps we wouldn’t be so anxious to see someone’s destruction.
3) One reason God gives for His mercy to Nineveh is that their destruction would mean the destruction of many animals too. God cares for all of His creation. He does not take its destruction lightly. As it is written in Isaiah 5:8: “Woe to those who join house to house, who lay field to field, until there is no room, and you are made to dwell alone in the midst of the land!” As Jesus pointed out, however, people are of far more value in God’s sight than animals: “Of how much more value then is a man than a sheep!…” (Matthew 12:12) If God wants to spare the animals, how much more the people?