Scripture Text (NRSV)

Jonah 3:10-4:11
 

3:10 When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them; and he did not do it.

4:1 But this was very displeasing to Jonah, and he became angry.

4:2 He prayed to the LORD and said, "O LORD! Is not this what I said while I was still in my own country? That is why I fled to Tarshish at the beginning; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing.

4:3 And now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live."

4:4 And the LORD said, "Is it right for you to be angry?"

4:5 Then Jonah went out of the city and sat down east of the city, and made a booth for himself there. He sat under it in the shade, waiting to see what would become of the city.

4:6 The LORD God appointed a bush, and made it come up over Jonah, to give shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort; so Jonah was very happy about the bush.

4:7 But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the bush, so that it withered.

4:8 When the sun rose, God prepared a sultry east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint and asked that he might die. He said, "It is better for me to die than to live."

4:9 But God said to Jonah, "Is it right for you to be angry about the bush?" And he said, "Yes, angry enough to die." 4:10 Then the LORD said, "You are concerned about the bush, for which you did not labor and which you did not grow; it came into being in a night and perished in a night.

4:11 And should I not be concerned about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also many animals?"

 

Comments:

A thought I stress when teaching those most wonderful book on outreach--God's style-- is making the point that God was asking Jonah to tell them God loved them...what Jonah thought or felt about them was entirely immaterial. "Jonah, I asked you to tell them I loved them--not that you love them. See the difference?" Do we confuse our feelings and opinions about certain groups who we may like/dislike, agree/disagree with and God's own view of them--"Should I not be concerned about (fill in your favorite hated Group)...?" Jonah did everything to sabatoge this mission, and still God was able to work through his obtuse orneriness to save a group of people he loved. Imagine what God can do through our efforts.

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Like a spoiled child Jonah throws a temper tantrum because the punishment of the divine parent didn't fit with his expecations. He wanted the mother hen to peck his enemy on thier thick skulls as punishment. He wanted the father in heaven to pour down punishment upon the entire city of Ninevah because they symbolized everything that the people of Israel despised and worked to avoid. And so he ran when he knew that the punishment was going to replaced with forgiveness, mercy and a distinct lack of the proper amount of shaming and slaying of the enemy. So here we see Jonah's little fit, his "I hate you" lashing out like a two year old who has just been told they have to share thier sweet candy with thier sisters and brothers. Human nature shines through in this text so clearly that I do not think we can avoid speaking it and calling ourselves on it.

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Sometimes, when asked, "How did you know that God was calling you to be a pastor?" I answer, "There came a time when I couldn't say, 'no,' any longer, for fear of being swallowed by a fish!"

Michelle

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I wonder sometimes if the Jew's claim on God was a limited understanding of who really were God's people. I have two children. I am the father of both. They each could claim me as their father. Both are right until they look at each other and say, "He's not your father, he's mine!" God, the Father of all who repent.

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I noticed as I read through the book that not once does Jonah repent of his disobedience. Infact of all the human characters he is the only one who does not repent. The mariners repent, turn from thier gods and Worship Yahweh, the Ninevites repent, turn from their wickness and call out to Yahweh, but Jonah is the unrepentant prophet. It seems that he only goes, because distruction was at hand when he did not. When he does go, he wastes a whole day walking around. Then when he does preach and the people repent, he gets mad at God, telling God that it was becouse of God's mercy and grace that Jonah did not want to come to Ninevah in the first place. He gets upset about the destruction of a plant, but greives when thousands of people are saved from distruction. Not only is he a brat at the end, but he is truly an anti-hero. If you want to be a faithful servant of God this is what not to be. It is just interesting, how throughly out of whack the character of Jonah is. This is a whole book dedicated to telling us the story of a horrible man, who is a unintentional missionary, a reluctant prophet, and a self named judge, not to mention whinny. Not the man who was presented to us in our Sunday School classes as children. He is the man who never learns the lesson.

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We all have a little bit of Jonah in us I believe. Jonah – His enjoyment of Nineveh’s demise. His ability to watch destruction from the sidelines. Fundamentalists tack is that this life is of no importance and can therefore afford to observe from a distance. We are not like that but we are like Jonah if we too sit on the sidelines. Jonah seeks to be a passive observer, but God calls us to be involved in his loving of the world. God chides Jonah for his caring only about the things that concern him and his own immediate comfort and not about the rest of God’s creation. Jonah so wants God to destroy, but unlike so many other bible stories God refuses to do so. This is a happy ending story and we often don’t like that. How else can we account for the success of so many catastrophe movies. The Poseidon adventure, Titanic, The meteor movies. So many and all with one common thread. Destruction. The point is that God does not desire destruction. God desires repentance and the taking of a new way. Rev Gordo Australia

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