Jonah's dilemma

Jonah's dilemma was not being swallowed by a "great fish", although that was traumatic enough. His real problem is revealed in the "forgotten" chapter of Jonah's story, chapter 4. Here Jonah, having delivered the message to Nineveh that they were going to be destroyed, and then, seeing God postpone judgment because of their repentant hearts. faces a crisis. It is such a catastrophe for him that he says, "I would rather die than live..."

What brought Jonah to such a state? Rescued from a fish's belly, utlimately obedient to a task that resulted in the salvation of a "great city" (even though they were Israel's enemies), Jonah now sulked, and literally, despaired--at which point God asked--not once, but twice, "What right do you have to be angry?" or, "What good reason do you have for your anger?"

Though Jonah ignored the question the first time, and moved outside the city to wait and see what God would do, God provided an object lesson via a vine that He grew grew and destroyed in front of Jonah's eyes. Jonah becomes angry...again...when the shade-providing vine was destroyed and he was subjected to a hot east wind that nearly caused him to have a sunstroke. When God asked a second time "Do you have a good reason for your anger?", Jonah answered, "yes".

What we discover here is that the God Jonah wanted to believe in--the God he acknowledged was merciful, compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in love--has had compassion on his mortal enemies, and has relented in the judgment He promised to Nineveh. Jonah confessed that this was the reason He did not want to go to Nineveh in the first place. When there is a gap between the God we want to to define, and the God that actually is, a crisis can emerge, and it did for Jonah. Jonah wanted God to exercise judgment on Nineveh--they surely deserved it--and when He acted in mercy instead, Jonah was irate. He would rather have died than live with a God like this.

God answered Jonah in the creation and destruction of the vine, acknowledging Jonah's concern for a vine he neither grew or tended, and then reminded him that He, as Creator, had 120,000 ignorant Ninevites who He cared for that He had chosen to spare. "Should I not have pity on Nineveh?", He asked.

What was God saying to Jonah? (1) I am sovereign. (2)I am righteous and just. (3) I am compassionate and forgiving. (4) I will give mercy to whom I choose to give mercy. (5)I have chosen to forgive Nineveh...just as I forgave you when you attempted to turn your back on me and flee to Tarshish.

It is interesting to me that Jonah was willing for God to disburse grace to him--but not to Nineveh--and when God acted in a way inconsistent with Jonah's expectation, all of a sudden his confidence in God was shattered.

God is bigger than the box we put Him in. God's ways are always consistent with His character. He sometimes move swiftly in the execution of judgment and other times, He waits patiently and lovingly, "not willing that any should perish." Can we accept God's mercy and and grace, and at the same time, remember He is a God who is holy and just. He alone has the divine prerogative to act as He does in addressing man's sin. Jonah's dilemma can be ours, and short-circuit our ability to trust God. Or, we can say, "I have no good reason to be angry with a God who is faithful to His character in all that He does". That is my choice today.