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Ironic. I guess that is what you might call it if God were to send a prophet with a message of warning and impending destruction . . . and then the people repent and change their ways . . . and then God, in response to their response, rejoices that the city and its inhabitants can be spared . . . only to discover that Jonah is really, really angry about the way things turned out. You'd think he'd be jumping for joy that the message was heard and people were willing to change! Instead, Jonah is hopping mad! So what's that all about?
Anger can be a pretty powerful force. Not that there are not times when it is appropriate, but then, those are not usually the times that it is a problem. In this case, Jonah's anger was perhaps the most corrosive of all - anger over the extension of grace to those Jonah felt were less "deserving" than he was. Even though, more than anything else, God wants to reach out in reconciliation to all of His children, and to all of creation, and invite them home . . . Jonah was so focused on himself that he could not see it. Perhaps, one of the reasons God sent Jonah to Nineveh was not only so the people of Nineveh could be reached, but perhaps so Jonah could as well? With Nineveh, God was successful. As for Jonah, the story is left unfinished.
This is the story that Pastor Jon explores with us this week as he takes us through the final chapter in the Book of Jonah. If you would like to listen to the sermon again,or perhaps for the first time, you can access our sermon library by clicking here.
There are a number of odd /intriguing / ironic / unfortunate / etc. ideas that are expressed in Jonah. Take a few moments to consider each of these. What descriptive word would you attach to each of these:
Anger triumphs over compassion (Chapter 4)
Death is better than grace (Chapter 1 & 4)
Even though we know God is gracious, we try to put it out of our minds when it gets in the way of our agenda (Chapter 1 & 4)
Greater concern over personal comfort and convenience than the lives of people you don't like (Chapter 4)
When questioned by God, we insist that we have a right to be spiritually immature (Chapter 4)
Being right is more important than being compassionate (Chapters 3 & 4)
Implications
As you reflect on the experience of Jonah, what are some of the implications:
on a personal level - between me and God
on a relational level - within my home and with my friends
on a community level - in my church family and in my community
on a national level - within my country
on a political / structural level - the causes and policies I give my support to
on a global level - as I relate to the rest of the world
Notice which one of those places of implication make you the most mad. That could be an important clue as to where the story of Jonah - and the God of Jonah - is calling you to wake up and grow!
Anger may be a poor guide, but it can be an excellent reporter!
Parallel Story
For further study, read the parable in Luke 15:11-32 and notice the parallels with the Book of Jonah. What additional insights do you gain as you read these two stories together?
Jonah 4 (TNIV)
1 But Jonah was greatly displeased and became angry. 2 He prayed to the LORD, "O LORD, is this not what I said when I was still at home? That is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. 3 Now, O LORD, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live."
4 But the LORD replied, "Have you any right to be angry?"
5 Jonah went out and sat down at a place east of the city. There he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city. 6 Then the LORD God provided a vine and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the vine. 7 But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the vine so that it withered. 8 When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah's head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die, and said, "It would be better for me to die than to live."
9 But God said to Jonah, "Do you have a right to be angry about the vine?"
"I do," he said. "I am angry enough to die."
10 But the LORD said, "You have been concerned about this vine, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. 11 But Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about that great city?"
So what makes you mad? What we learn from our anger and its source . . .
An interesting quote:
We all feel hurt or irritated when someone or something obstructs our needs or desires. Anger, though, in its technical sense refers to the desire to “get even with”—that is, to take revenge on—the cause of the hurt. For example, when another car suddenly cuts in front of your car on the road, adrenaline pumps into your bloodstream. Your heart rate jumps. Your blood pressure surges. These things, however, are just immediate fight-or-flight physiological responses to a perceived threat.
But then, as a psychological reaction to these immediate physical responses, indignation and animosity toward the other driver overrun your mind. You honk your horn. You give a dirty look. You scream a curse. And there you have it: anger. Anger, therefore, is the wish for harm or bad or evil to come upon someone or something that—in your eyes—has injured or obstructed you.
So the psychological process is clear and simple. If a person hurts you, then, in your anger, you want to hurt him back, just as you have been hurt.
Anger can also be expressed indirectly. If something like a traffic jam, for example, leaves you feeling tense and frustrated, then what do you do? Maybe you go home and find some petty thing out of order and then blow up, just to take out your frustration on your family. Or maybe you go to a bar, maneuver someone into offending you, and get into a fight. Either way you vent your frustrations at the traffic jam by hurting innocent persons—after first manipulating circumstances so that you can believe in your own mind that these persons have somehow hurt you and deserve to suffer for it.
Still, there is more to the story than this, because there is more to anger than meets the eye.
The truth is, anger may be a “natural”—that is, a commonly occurring—social reaction to hurt and insult, but being natural doesn’t make it good for us. Sure, “natural” foods are commonly advertised as being healthy and good for us. But poisons, for example, are also natural, and poisons, by definition, are deadly.
And so there are far better ways to cope with hurt and insult than with anger, because anger itself acts like a poison in your own heart that ultimately degrades the quality of your own life as much as it hurts the life of another person. http://www.guidetopsychology.com/anger.htm
All of this of course is short circuited when we have an appreciation of grace. Perhaps that is where the healing begins?
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