End of the Story
Unfortunately, for many, the significance of Jonah ends shortly after the fish spits him up. He rebelled against God and tried to run from responsibility but then God turned him around and set him back on the path. Then he delivers his message and the city repents! God relents of the judgement of which he warned, and it’s a happy ending, right?
However, if one continues to read the book, he actually still doesn’t see things God’s way. In fact, after he delivers God’s warning of judgement to Nineveh, he camps outside of the city to “see what will happen”. God delivers another object lesson to him at this point and this second lesson is very important to have a proper understanding of the story of Jonah.
Missing the Point
Because people fail to really understand Jonah, they miss the point. It’s a simple thing, from the shallow view. Jonah received a command and (for whatever reason) put a lot of effort into disobeying that command. Therefore, his disobedience was the problem and the happy ending occurred when he finally did obey.
From this view, Jonah can be easily applied to the lives of Christians all the time. Do you have a general mandate to do something (evangelism, charity, provide for your own household, etc…)? Can you think of time you spent doing anything else (even if it’s one of the other mandates)? Then you’re being a Jonah!
I would argue, however, that the reason for his disobedience is why God thought this record of the life of Jonah ought to be passed on to the faithful through the ages.
The Second Lesson
So, if that’s the case, what was the reason for Jonah not doing what he was told?
But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. And he prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster. Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.”
Jonah 4:1-3
This is after Nineveh’s repentance! He was mad because his mission was a success. Why?! Because he knew his mission was one of grace and mercy but he didn’t believe the Ninevites deserved it.
God response by first giving him a plant to sit under for shade while he waits to see if disaster may yet come to the city.
Jonah went out of the city and sat to the east of the city and made a booth for himself there. He sat under it in the shade, till he should see what would become of the city. Now the Lord God appointed a plant and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be a shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort. So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the plant.
Jonah 4:5-6
But then he sends a worm to kill the plant, removing Jonah’s comfort as he sat hoping for the destruction of a whole city. This is when the real problem is made explicitly clear.
But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant, so that it withered. When the sun rose, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint. And he asked that he might die and said, “It is better for me to die than to live.” But God said to Jonah, “Do you do well to be angry for the plant?” And he said, “Yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die.” And the Lord said, “You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?”
Jonah 4:7-11
Rare, Serious Sin
Rather than using this story as a cudgel to beat people into submission to whatever singular focus of Christian living is being pushed in a specific moment, the story of Jonah ought to be understood as a judgement against those who hate so severely that they do not wish to see repentance.
Is a Christian guilty of the same thing as Jonah? It’s possible. However, most are not. This story is an even more extreme case of the story of the vineyard laborers who were angry because those who came later received the same as them (Matthew 20).
When Nineveh repented, God received the glory. Should Nineveh have been destroyed for their sin, Jonah would have been far happier. It would have validated his view that they were terrible and his own country was superior.
Similarly, the day workers were paid the wages they agreed to when they started working. The vineyard owner defrauded nobody. Yet those workers believed themselves cheated because they believed they deserved more than their agreed wage, since others were given the same for less labor.
In each case, the person who was upset about the grace of God were mad, not because of any injustice, but because they believed themselves superior in contrast to others.
If you would be happy to see the wicked repent and begin to live lives that honor God, you by no means are guilty of the same sin as Jonah. However, you may have an inflated view of the significance of man. If you’d rather see judgement than repentance than you yourself ought to repent of this bitterness. If you are content to see repentance or judgement according to God’s wisdom and for his glory, you’re exactly where you should be.
