Jonah -- Preacher of Repentance (7) -- Angry With God, Again . . .
Jonah — Preacher of Repentance (7) — Angry With God, Again . . .
Jonah Is Angry With God, Again . . .
What pleased God (the repentance of Nineveh), only made Jonah mad[1] – a rather ironic sentiment from someone called to be YHWH’s prophet. Why was Jonah so upset that YHWH brought salvation to pagan Ninevites? Jonah, you’ll recall sought to flee YHWH’s call to preach in Nineveh, but YHWH took him on an unexpected detour–a great storm arises, Jonah is thrown overboard and then spends three days and nights in the belly of a great fish. But Jonah eventually fulfilled his prophetic calling, and preached repentance to the Ninevites. The result of his preaching? Many Ninevites believed Jonah’s message. Even their king believed Jonah’s warning. He ordered a time of mourning and fasting, even exhorting his people to call upon God and cease their violent behavior.
As we learn in chapter 4 of his prophecy, Jonah is angry with God. The prophet is perplexed by the fact that the Ninevites were spared from YHWH’s judgment even as his own beloved people, Israel, are about to come under God’s covenant curse. In the closing chapter of Jonah, we find the prophet right back where he was when first called to preach. His disdain for the Ninevites surfaces again. “Why was Nineveh spared when Israel will not be?” As his prophecy concludes, Jonah is given yet another lesson in God’s mercy.
As we consider the final chapter, once again we discover that in the Book of Jonah, irony seems to jump off every page. You would think that YHWH’s chosen prophet would be thrilled to witness huge numbers of people believe in YHWH and spared from judgment through his own preaching. Yes, pride is a sin, but there is a certain allowable sense of satisfaction about witnessing people come to faith, repent of their sin, and then amend their ways. Jonah should have been thrilled to witness what God has done in Nineveh–extend salvation to countless Gentiles beyond the confines of his covenant with Israel. But as we have come to expect in the Book of Jonah, the ironic becomes the norm.
The closing scene in Jonah chapter four takes place after Jonah has completed his mission of passing through the city of Nineveh and proclaiming YHWH’s call to repent with remarkable success. Instead of being thrilled to be YHWH’s agent in bringing the Ninevites to repentance, the opening verse of chapter 4 reveals that Jonah is angry. Why? What has happened? Why is he back where he started, angry that the people of Nineveh repented? Irony appears again–God relented in his anger toward Nineveh while Jonah renews his anger towards the Ninevites.
Why would the same evil that YHWH attributed to the Ninevites (the Hebrew text of Jonah 1:2) now be attributed to Jonah (4:1). The Hebrew text literally reads “it [the repentance of Ninveveh] was evil to Jonah with great evil.”[2] The ESV translates the passage as “but it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry,” trying to capture the raw emotion Jonah felt at what the prophet perceived as a divine injustice. Jonah hated what YHWH had done. It is hard to imagine a great evangelist preaching to a huge crowd, seeing many of them respond in faith, and then getting mad at God because people actually responded–but this is the scene in Jonah 4.
Why Did God Spare Nineveh, But Not Israel?
Why would Jonah react like this? There are several reasons for Jonah’s anger which we have already mentioned. The first is that Jonah is a loyal Israelite. He is a Jew, a prophet of YHWH, and loyal to the northern kingdom, long at war with both Syria and Assyria to the north. We know from the Books of the Kings that YHWH used Assyrian aggression to weaken Syria to the point that in the days of Jeroboam II, Israel actually defeated Syria and was enjoying a period of relative peace. But just to the north of Syria, Assyria was growing stronger by the day. The empire was but one generation away from the time when the armies of king Tiglath Pilesar III will sweep down from the north and virtually wipe Israel off the map. Nineveh was in the very heart of the Assyrian empire. The first reason why Jonah reacted as he did is racial and cultural. The Assyrians are not my people. They are my enemies. How could God call them to repentance? Doesn’t he know how bad they are? Doesn’t he know that they are outside the covenant?
As a loyal Israelite, Jonah also very likely worried that without YHWH’s help, Assyria’s technologically advanced army could easily defeat Israel. If that were the case it would mean–at least to Jonah’s way of thinking–that Assyria would be God’s agent of judgment upon the disobedient, idolatrous, and faithless Israelites. Why would YHWH save Assyrians in Nineveh, yet bring judgment upon Israel, Jonah’s people? Even worse, YHWH called him (Jonah) to be the preacher through whom he secures Nineveh’s repentance. Jonah thinks this is grossly unfair. Because of this he does not see the bigger redemptive history purpose behind his own call to Nineveh–God’s purpose is to save his elect, this includes both Jews and Gentiles, even Ninevites.
Jonah Has Missed the Bigger Picture
Surely both of these things are in Jonah’s mind and are the root of his anger. Sadly, in Jonah’s reaction we may see our own sinful prejudices. God may chose to save people whom we do not think he ought to save. His grace may extend to places where we do not think he ought to extend it. Jonah obviously knows the Psalter–since he quoted from it or alluded to it many times in his “song” from chapter 2. Perhaps he (and we) ought reflect upon the words of Psalm 145:9: “The Lord is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made.” Jonah turns what ought to be a time of joy and reflection upon YHWH’s mercy, into a snit arising from his Jewish nationalism. His politics win out. Jonah is flat out mad that God saved a whole bunch of Ninevites with whom Israel will go to war.
So angry is Jonah we read in verse 2 that 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.’” Jonah gives us an explanation as to why he sought to flee YHWH’s call in the first place. We also learn the motive behind his comments in the preceding verse about the repentance of the Ninevites being such a terrible thing–at least in his estimation.
Although Jonah is angry, he does the right thing and complains to God in prayer. He does not complain about God to his readers–a huge lesson for all of us.[3] It is not as though we can hide our thoughts from God. He is big enough to take it when we complain to him, and merciful enough not to cast us away when we act like spoiled children. Yet, we must be careful not to allow our anger or frustration with the Lord or his purposes to become an occasion to cross the line into sin–cursing him or blaspheming his name. Jonah complains to YHWH but does not curse God in his anger, nor take YHWH’s name in vain. He pours out his heart to God.
We saw from Jonah’s “song” that he knows the Psalter–his speech resonates with the Psalms. He also knows the Torah (the five books of Moses). When Jonah asserts that YHWH is a merciful and gracious God, his words echo the words of Moses from Exodus 34:6–7: “The Lord passed before [Moses] and proclaimed, `The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.” Jonah knows that YHWH is merciful–he himself is the proof, having survived being cast from a ship during a raging storm. He survived three
days in the belly of a great fish. But Jonah laments that God’s grace and mercy have been directed toward those who in his estimation were the wrong people. It is not stated, but we can but wonder if when reciting YHWH’s attributes Jonah wishes that YHWH’s love and mercy would continue to be extended to Israel, despite his own people’s continual descent into idolatry and abandoning YHWH’s ways.
Jonah feels so strongly about this that he prays (v. 3), “therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” Now Jonah’s complaint crosses the line from asking that God grant him understanding and a change of heart into a plea to die. To paraphrase, “just kill me and get all this over with.” Knowing that the pagan Gentiles of Nineveh who commit great evil will likely soon invade his own beloved homeland, Jonah laments he would rather die than see that terrible thing happen. Jonah is not alone in this. Moses pled to die in Numbers 11:15. The prophet Elijah did the same thing as recounted in 1 Kings 19:4. How much easier to seek to escape life’s difficulties than face the fact that God transforms and sanctify us by taking us through the trials and tribulations of life.
In Jonah’s case, his plea to die is an indication that he is unwilling to accept the fact that God’s mercy would extend beyond his own people (the Jews of the northern kingdom) to pagan Gentiles. Again, there is a great and powerful irony in this. When Jonah mentions that God is gracious, merciful, loving, slow to anger, and will relent in bringing judgment, Jonah, no doubt, knows this first hand especially considering the miraculous way in which YHWH has rescued him from certain death. Why should YHWH reflect the same attributes when dealing with the Assyrians whom Jonah regards as his own personal enemies? In Jonah’s mind, these same attributes of God are now viewed negatively. “I know that you are gracious, merciful, patient, so you’ll probably just save the Ninevites!” This is the great paradox in the Prophecy of Jonah. What Jonah accepts from YHWH he wants withheld from others.
Jonah’s Self-Pity Comes to an End
But YHWH does not let Jonah continue to wallow in his self-pity. We read in verse 4, “and the Lord said, `Do you do well to be angry?’” YHWH does not rebuke Jonah, he ignores Jonah’s plea to die, and instead asks Jonah a question–a question which forces the prophet to take his eyes off his own navel and gain much needed biblical perspective. In questioning Jonah in this way, YHWH demonstrates his grace, mercy, love, patience, and willingness to relent–the very attributes just mentioned by Jonah. In effect, YHWH asks, “Jonah, it is good for you to burn with anger, to kindle the fire already within you?” “Look within yourself and examine your own heart to see if your anger is justified.”[4]
Jonah cared deeply for his people, Israel–YHWH understands this. It is not sin for Jonah to be patriotic. But it borders on sin to do what Jonah is doing–to understand his own national/racial identity as an Israelite to be more fundamental to who he is than his calling as YHWH’s prophet. Burning with anger, Jonah cannot see God’s greater redemptive purposes. Yet, Jonah has no right to be angry with YHWH merely because YHWH’s greater purpose includes extending his saving grace beyond the boundaries of his covenant with Israel. Neither should we be angry when God extends his grace to those in different socio-economic groups, cultures, ethnicities, or political parties.
To read the first in this series, click here: Jonah the Preacher of Repentance: Who Was Jonah?
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[1] Smith and Page, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, on Jonah 4:1.
[2] Smith and Page, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, on Jonah 4:1. Wiseman, Alexander, and Waltke, Obadiah, Jonah and Micah, Jonah 4:1.
[3] Smith and Page, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, on Jonah 4:2.
[4] Estelle, Salvation Through Judgment and Mercy, 127-128.