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Jonah – The Reluctant but Penitent Prophet (4 of 4)

Focus Text: Jonah 3-4

At long last Jonah was finally on task. “So the people of Nineveh believed God, proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them. Then word came to the king of Nineveh; and he arose from his throne and laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth and sat in ashes. And he caused it to be proclaimed and published throughout Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, ‘Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything; do not let them eat, or drink water. But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily to God; yes, let every one turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. Who can tell if God will turn and relent, and turn away from His fierce anger, so that we may not perish?’ Then God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God relented from the disaster that He had said He would bring upon them, and He did not do it. But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he became angry.” (Jonah 3.5-4.1).

“So the people of Nineveh believed God…” and “…it displeased Jonah exceedingly.” This dichotomy is the crux of the book of Jonah! Herein is the thrust of the book and the lesson about Jonah that every responsible human being needs to learn. It was the same lesson that Jesus later taught his disciples when He repeatedly stressed forgiveness and warned against hypocritical judgments. The attitude that any human being is, for some reason, better than another is absolutely foreign to God’s way of thinking! Jonah sinned, repented, and lived. Nineveh sinned, repented, and lived. When God relented of the harm that was to befall Jonah, it as an answered prayer; when God relented of the harm that was to befall Nineveh, Jonah saw it as a personal affront to his integrity.

Forgiveness is a Sovereign right of God! He draws the boundaries between right and wrong – not man! Jonah needed to learn that lesson. The disciples of Jesus needed to learn that lesson. The Jewish nation needed to learn that lesson. All of humanity needs to learn that lesson. This was THE lesson at hand when Jesus told the parable of the unprofitable servant in Luke 17.7-10. He concluded the parable with this truth: “So likewise you, when you have done all those things which you are commanded, say, ‘We are unprofitable servants. We have done what was our duty to do.’” (Luke 17.10). God was determined to teach Jonah this valuable and timeless lesson.

God had the last word in the book of Jonah. “You [Jonah] have had pity on the plant for which you have not labored, nor made it grow, which came up in a night and perished in a night. And should I not pity Nineveh, that great city, in which are more than one hundred and twenty thousand persons who cannot discern between their right hand and their left—and much livestock?” (Jonah 4.10-11). Like it or not, God has the final word in the affairs of all men!

Who are we to question God’s goodness, we who are prone to slothfulness and self-righteousness? To accept God’s grace for one’s self is to accept it for all mankind – no exceptions! Jonah was reluctant but penitent; what about you? What about me?

Questions:

1. Something made God rejoice but it made Jonah exceedingly angry? What was it?

2. According to Jonah’s own words, why did he not go to Nineveh when first asked (see Jonah 4.2)?

3. From your knowledge of God’s character, why didn’t the story of Jonah end in the belly of the fish? Would God have been justified in allowing it to end there? Who would have been the worse off if the story had ended there (think carefully and completely)?

4. When we weep over the things that make God rejoice, what does it demonstrate?

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