READ: Jon. 4:1–3: … it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he became angry … for I know that You are a gracious and merciful God … therefore now, O LORD, please take my life from me …
Jonah 3 concluded with the announcement that God withheld His judgment from Nineveh because of the people’s faith and repentance in response to Jonah’s preaching. How does Jonah himself react to this? Is he filled with great joy that so many hundreds of thousands of people have now acknowledged God, humbled themselves before Him, and turned to Him through the preaching he was privileged to bring? Surely there is joy in heaven over such repentance (Luke 15:7).
But the opposite happens. Jonah becomes deeply embittered. It is almost beyond comprehension. He watches with grief that the LORD does not punish Nineveh. Indeed, he becomes angry about it. His anger is directed not against the Ninevites but against God Himself.
Jonah had evidently hoped that after delivering his message he might personally witness the well-deserved destruction of this wicked city. Now he prays to God (v. 2), but his prayer contains no petition that he may understand God’s dealings, as Daniel does in Daniel 9. Instead, it consists of a bitter reproach directed against the LORD, although Jonah uses words that describe God’s glorious attributes.
He even attempts to justify his earlier flight. Now the very thing he had feared has come to pass. Jonah wanted these cruel and godless people to perish. But now that God has shown mercy to these heathen by sparing them, Jonah considers his own task at an end and wishes to die.
It is deeply humiliating. How can a prophet who has witnessed such an extraordinary blessing upon his preaching respond in this manner?
Perhaps he realizes with sorrow that his own people have shown themselves inferior to Nineveh. Israel has not repented, though surely they possessed the first rights of the covenant.
Yet the chief issue is that Jonah still has not truly learned the meaning of God’s mercy. He can quote at length concerning God’s patience and compassion, but these truths have not penetrated his heart. He remains imprisoned in a way of thinking based upon merit rather than upon grace alone.
Indeed, his present reaction is even worse than his earlier flight, precisely because God Himself has already shown him such undeserved mercy.
How do we regard unbelieving people?
Sing: Ps. 77:3.