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I’m sure we all know the story of Jonah. God told him to go preach to the wicked people of Nineveh. Jonah disobeyed and went in the opposite direction. A giant fish swallowed Jonah, Jonah repented, and the fish tossed up Jonah so that he could go preach to the people of Nineveh. The people ended up repenting, changing their actions, and the Lord relented from punishing them as He had planned.
I had always thought I knew this story well. However, in my mind I thought Jonah went the opposite way because he was too scared of the wicked people to obey God. In Jonah 4, after the Lord restores the people of Nineveh, we find a furious Jonah praying to the Lord. His prayer reveals the reason he never wanted to preach about God’s love for them:
“Didn’t I say before I left home that you would do this, Lord? That is why I ran away to Tarshish! I knew that you are a merciful and compassionate God, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. You are eager to turn back from destroying people.”
Jonah wasn’t scared at all. He just didn’t like the idea of this wicked group of people receiving compassion from God. He thought: This isn’t right! They have done this evil thing, and that evil thing, and this evil thing again – they deserve to get what’s coming to them!
The Lord asked Jonah a powerful question: “Is it right for you to be angry?” Jonah did not answer the Lord because he knew within himself that it was not right. I think sometimes the Lord asks us if it is right for us to be angry. People do some pretty hurtful things in our life, and our mind tells us that they do not deserve mercy. We are frustrated that God would allow someone who has caused hurt to be restored and live a blessed life. Sometimes we feel bitter at the thought of a particular person being used by God because we know who they really were before. We know we are not right in our anger, so we choose to not answer to God in that area of our life.
God caused a beautiful plant to grow large and protect Jonah from the heat. Jonah loved this plant because of the comfort it brought him. The plant was there for a short time and then God sent a worm to attack it and a scorching wind to blow against Jonah. Jonah was greatly distressed that he had lost the beautiful plant that helped him against the elements. God asked him the same question he refused to answer before:
Then God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry because the plant died?”
Jonah was quick to answer the Lord this time! He retorted, “Yes!” The Lord then questioned him:
Then the Lord said, “You feel sorry about the plant, though you did nothing to put it there. It came quickly and died quickly. But Nineveh has more than 120,000 people living in spiritual darkness, not to mention all the animals. Shouldn’t I care for such a great city?”
Oh we want the Lord’s compassion when it pertains to us. Let us sin greatly, and we very much appreciate the Lord’s graciousness and mercy. But, let someone else sin against us and all of a sudden we would like nothing more than for the Lord to hold off on that same mercy. We may even care more about our own comfortable living than the soul of someone else.
Seeing others who have done wrong be restored to the Lord is not just about us letting go of anger. It is about seeing them with the eyes of the Lord - realizing they are His creation and He cares about their eternal soul just like He cares about mine. How could I feel angry about the same compassion that saved me? How could I feel resentful about someone else receiving the same love that completely changed my life? How could I be bitter about someone else receiving mercy when it was that same mercy that kept me from getting what I really deserved?
Father God, no matter what someone else has done, please help me resist anger toward Your compassion for their soul. Others may not always get what they deserve and that’s okay because You have not punished me as I deserved time and time again. You care about restoring people to You, and I am not above You to say who should receive Your mercy or not. Please help me care more about the souls of those around me more than my own comfort or feelings.