The interesting thing about the book of Jonah is that one might think it would end in chapter three, when Jonah preached to the people of Nineveh, they repented and God relented of the disaster he was going to pour out on them. That would be a nice, happy ending with a pretty bow, right? But that is, in fact, not how Jonah’s story ends. The entire last chapter of Jonah is about how Jonah continues to question and be angry at God. He does not rejoice in the fact that he learned to obey God, or that the people of Nineveh had repented and were spared, like he should have. Jonah 4:2 says, “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.”
Did Jonah forget the attribute of God that he is also all knowing and wise? Jonah is angry at God and the whole situation, while God continues to be “slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.” And God, in his mercy, teaches Jonah yet another lesson when he causes a plant to grow and give shade to Jonah in the extreme heat. As Jonah was sitting in his anger, enjoying the plant, God appointed a worm to eat the plant and a scorching heat to come upon Jonah, to the point where Jonah wanted to die. Here God says, in verses 10-11, “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 I not pity Nineveh, that great city, to which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?” While Jonah is concerned with his own comfort that he got from a plant, God is concerned for humankind. It is so easy to compare ourselves on an earthly level to each other, and think somehow that God loves us more or that we are more deserving of his grace than the next person. However, the fact that God loves us is purely his mercy. It has nothing to do with us deserving it or contributing to it.
Jesus speaks to this very issue when he says in Matthew 5:43-45, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust.’” Who are we to question the ways of God? As it says in Romans 11:34, “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?” God is a just God, but he is not always “fair” in the way that we think of the word. If God were truly “fair,” he would not have sent Jesus to die for us. Jesus was the last person that should have been hung on a cross for the sins of the whole world. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says, “He became sin who knew no sin so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” And yet he did hang on a cross to take the punishment for the sins of the world, when he had done no wrong.
Jonah was, of all things, a prophet, hearing directly from the mouth of God. And not only that, he was also miraculously saved from drowning by being swallowed by a fish and spit out three days later. If anybody should have learned to trust God and believe in his wisdom, it should have been Jonah! And yet, here we are at the end of the story of Jonah, where he continues to question the ways of God. How much more do we constantly question God, or think that we know better than him, when at the end of it all we are poor, miserable sinners in need of God’s mercy and saving grace? And God, “who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ — by grace you have been saved” (Ephesians 2:4). Let us thank the Lord for what has done for us and praise him when he shows mercy to those who do not deserve it!
Written by NBB Alumna: Victoria Hoverson
