Eternal Perspectives

A Pew(ny) Commentary

It was approximately 40 days ago that I began this commentary on the Book of Jonah, the same amount of time that likely has passed since our patriotic prophet first began preaching in the streets of Nineveh. The climax of the events in the book seems to have already been reached: Jonah was called to preach, refused, was called again and obeyed, and the people of the city repented and judgment was spared. Happy ending; end of story.

But it does not end with three chapters, instead spilling over into four and alerting us that there is more to the book than just a chronicling of a prophet’s adventures in ministry. In Chapter Four we are allowed to view the heart of the prophet and, far more significantly, the heart of God.

1 But it greatly displeased Jonah and he became angry.
2 He prayed to the LORD and said, ‘Please LORD, was not this what I said while I was still in my own country? Therefore in order to forestall this I fled to Tarshish, for I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, and one who relents concerning calamity.
3 ‘Therefore now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for death is better to me than life.’”

In order to appreciate Jonah’s attitude, it is necessary to re-read the last verse of Chapter Three:

10 When God saw their deeds, that they turned from their wicked way, then God relented concerning the calamity which He had declared He would bring upon them. And He did not do it.

There is a striking contrast between God’s mercy and compassion in His dealings with the Ninevites and Jonah’s unhappiness and anger. When God sees the repentance of the people, He responds by not destroying them; when Jonah observes that same repentance, he burns in anger.

What Jonah says next sheds light not only on his petulance but on the entire book: his flight from God suddenly makes sense given his unloving attitude. Jonah had a clear and proper understanding of God’s character; his Theology Proper was pristine. The problem was that the prophet did not have a corresponding heart of love and compassion. God is about to cure that in this chapter.

Jonah knew what God was like and what He was likely to do: he describes God as gracious, compassionate, longsuffering, full of lovingkindness, and forgiving. He not only knew God to be this way through his education but also through his experiences, for God had demonstrated these very virtues in His dealings with Jonah in the first three chapters of the book!

Why did Jonah not respond to God’s work in his life? We are not told directly, but at least part of his resistance was likely due to his patriotism and pride in being an Israelite. The Jews knew they were God’s chosen people but did not fully understand the enormous responsibility that comes with such a privilege. Rather than develop a missionary attitude toward the surrounding nations, they instead developed a strong sense of identity as a sovereign nation. They, much like the church today, became a fortress to protect themselves from the unholy influence of the world. Ironically - again, much like the church - in their zeal for holiness, i.e., to be set apart, they became unholy in their attitudes toward the lost.

[Excursis: At the time of this writing, I am engaged in a conversation with Andy at SmartChristian regarding the Emergent Church Movement. As Andy points out, much of the ECM is a reaction to the disparity between what the church believes and what the church does. The ECM calls for authentic living (hardly a novel concept) but jettisons some of the basic, fundamental beliefs of Christianity in the process.

I mention this here because of God’s dealings with the nation of Israel in general and Jonah in particular. As I just mentioned, there was an enormous discrepancy between what Jonah knew and experienced (passively), and what Jonah practiced (actively). But God did not respond to this tragic lack of orthopraxy by abandoning the promises made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God continued to work within the framework of His truth to establish His kingdom and accomplish His purposes. McLaren’s divergent movement stands in stark contrast to how God resolved the hypocrises recorded in the Bible. (Further evidence of God’s commitment to His eternal message and means can be found in the Lord Jesus Christ’s dealings with the seven churches in Rev 1-2.)]

Jonah, of course, is not the first prophet to wish to die: we hear a similar plea from the lips of Elijah. The reason, however, couldn’t be more different. Elijah had just finished a “ministry” [read: “conflagration”] with the prophets of Baal on Mt. Carmel but was now fearful that his ministry to the nation had failed; thus, he wants to die. Jonah, however, has just successfully preached a “revival” that results in the temporal salvation (at least) of perhaps 600,000 people. For this, Jonah wants to die! A striking contrast in the attitudes of two prophets, one who perceives himself to have failed God and another who feels that God has failed him.

4 The LORD said, “Do you have good reason to be angry?”
5 Then Jonah went out from the city and sat east of it. There he made a shelter for himself and sat under it in the shade until he could see what would happen in the city.
6 So the LORD God appointed a plant and it grew up over Jonah to be a shade over his head to deliver him from his discomfort. And Jonah was extremely happy about the plant.
7 But God appointed a worm when dawn came the next day and it attacked the plant and it withered.
8 When the sun came up God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on Jonah’s head so that he became faint and begged with all his soul to die, saying, “Death is better to me than life.”
9 Then God said to Jonah, “Do you have good reason to be angry about the plant?” And he said, “I have good reason to be angry, even to death.”

God’s question to Jonah appears to be both rhetorical and a rebuke: the obvious, sane answer is that Jonah has no right to be angry. By his behavior, Jonah demonstrates that he is, indeed, angry about the salvation of the Ninevites.

Perhaps believing that the repentance was not genuine or that God would Himself “repent” and destroy the city, the prophet heads out of town to the foothills just to the east. There he builds a hut where he can watch what he anticipates is about to transpire.

As an object lesson, God causes a plant to grow which provides additional shade and comfort for Jonah from the relentless, searing heat. Then, just as quickly, God causes the demise of the plant and stirs up a scorching, penetrating east wind to make the already-miserable prophet even more miserable!

Again, Jonah wants to die. First he wanted to die because 600,000 Ninevites did not die; now he wants to die because his favorite plant did! He is the forefather, it would seem, of many extreme environmentalists who bemoan the loss of a spotted owl or a fish but do not bat an eye when millions of lives are snuffed out through abortion.

This is not to say that environmentalism is not important; in fact, Christians should be leading the way since we understand that we are stewards of God’s creation. It is to say, however, that it is only a human - not a fish, fowl, fruit, or flower - that bears the image of God and can enter into a personal relationship with Him. The value of human life far exceeds that of other life forms, even though those other forms do have value as well.

God again asks a rhetorical question but this time Jonah, in his anger, responds with his justification for wanting to die. God quickly ends the debate:

10 Then the LORD said, “You had compassion on the plant for which you did not work and which you did not cause to grow, which came up overnight and perished overnight.
11 “Should I not have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know the difference between their right and left hand, as well as many animals?”

God’s point is simple: Jonah has had compassion on a plant that he did not plant, cause to grow, or tend to; should God not have compassion on people He created, sustained, and loved?

That Jonah learned the lesson is without question: he did, after all, write this book. In revealing his own cold, unloving heart - as well as God’s incredible grace, forgiveness, and love - Jonah demonstrates that he did learn a valuable lesson, one that is preserved for us in the Bible. In recording his own sins, he evidences a humility that we can at last admire and aspire to.