“When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, He relented and did not bring on them the destruction He had threatened. But to Jonah this seemed very wrong, and he became angry.” Jonah 3:10 – 4:1
Let’s jump straight into a brief refresher on the book of Jonah. God had asked Jonah to go to Ninevah to preach His message in the very beginning of chapter one. Jonah responded by boarding a ship that was headed in the complete opposite direction of Ninevah and following a series of events Jonah was thrown overboard and swallowed by a whale. After three days and three nights spent in the stomach of the whale he was vomited onto dry land. Jonah was again met with a very familiar instruction. “Go to the great city of Ninevah and proclaim to it the message I give you” (3:2).
This time, Jonah obeyed the word of God. After hearing Jonah’s message the people of Ninevah repented and turned from their evil ways under the decree of the king. Upon seeing what the people of Ninevah did AND how they turned from their evil ways, God relented of the disaster that He had threatened.
And thus, we are exposed to an angry Jonah.
Jonah had received a clear call from the Lord.
Jonah had been rescued from the roaring waves of the sea by a whale.
Jonah was safely (and probably stink-ily) delivered from the stomach of a whale after three days and three nights.
Despite his running, Jonah was pursued by the Lord and given a second chance.
Jonah’s message received an amazing response for the kingdom of God.
How easy it is to sit here with the entire story before us and wonder how on earth Jonah could be angry! Many of us desire a clear calling. Some of us are actively hoping to be rescued from the roaring waves of the world. We have all been in need of a Deliverer in the darkness. And I’d bet that most preachers and pastors today would be thrilled to witness a response similar to that of the Assyrians in their churches.
But I want you to think back to a time when you have watched someone receive something that they didn’t earn or deserve. I think back to the sports world where I witnessed a few natural athletes rewarded for their accomplishments; accomplishments that came through skipping practices and making poor decisions off of the court or field. How frustrating that can be for the person who has attended every practice, put in extra time, and made good choices behind the scenes, yet has sat on the bench awaiting their opportunity behind the natural.
Perhaps you recall a time when a sibling was given something that you wanted or your coworker has gotten the promotion that you thought you deserved. Maybe it even comes back to someone hitting a milestone before you OR their child hitting a milestone before your child. I think about all of the friends that I have walked alongside in our season of singleness and then I have watched fall in love and get married to wonderful, godly men. Believe me, there are days when it would be so easy for me be a Jonah. It would be so easy for me to look on that with jealousy and anger and to convince myself that I deserve what they now have or that it is somehow my turn.
It is likely that in one way or another you have watched someone else reap the benefits of something that you worked so hard for… or even had the rights to. It is likely that at some point in life, you too, have responded like Jonah and have been caught in the same pit of anger.
I mean, after all, shouldn’t everyone get what they deserve?
I once heard a pastor preach a message in which he was talking about someone complaining about fairness. I can’t recall if it was in reference to one “small” sin being forgiven just the same as a “big” sin or if it was about someone receiving the same salvation after a life-time of following Christ versus the prisoner on the cross type of last minute acceptance of Christ. Regardless, I remember the pastor saying, “Oh, you think _____ isn’t fair?! Well, your salvation isn’t fair either!”
Wow. How true that is. We are a people deserving of hell and the just wrath of God, but we have been freed by the Savior of the world. We are deserving of death, but receive life and life everlasting. There is absolutely nothing that we can do to earn or deserve the love of God, but it is lavished upon us in abundance. We are covered in the grace, mercy, and compassion of God not because we deserve it, but simply because He loves us and as if that isn’t enough we are invited to operate in the joy of the Lord. Talk about unfair.
The more that I studied the book of Jonah and wrestled with this topic, there was something that I recognized first in Jonah and then in myself.
Where were Jonah’s eyes?
I am not asking about his two physical eyeballs nor where he is directing his angry glare, but the eyes of his heart. What was Jonah focused on?
Let’s look at this scripture again in a little more context. Jonah 4:1-2 says, “But to Jonah this seemed very wrong, and he became angry. He prayed to the Lord, ‘Isn’t this what I said, Lord, when I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing 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.’”
Though Jonah clearly knew some of the characteristics of God, his eyes were stuck between himself and the people of Ninevah. The people of Ninevah were undeserving. They were wicked, they were gentiles, and they certainly had no room to impede on the rights that Jonah had been extended as a child of God. To Jonah, it just wasn’t fair.
God was not in his line of vision.
What if Jonah had taken a moment to focus in on what God had done for Him? What if Jonah had relished in the beauty of the fact that God had called him to preach to one of the largest cities in the world? What if Jonah had taken time to be still with the reality that the Lord had rescued Him in the waves and delivered him out of the darkness? What if Jonah rejoiced in being given a second chance? What if Jonah allowed God’s response to the people of Ninevah to grow his own image of who God is? To expand his understanding of God’s compassion, mercy, grace and love? What if Jonah allowed God’s relent to the undeserving be a reminder of the time when God met him when he didn’t deserve it?
What if Jonah would have set the eyes of his heart on the Lord?
What if I set the eyes of my heart on the Lord? What if I take time to focus on what God has done for me? What if I relish in the path that He has paved for me? What if I take time to be still in the reality that God has both rescued and delivered me? What if I rejoiced in the opportunities that the Lord gives me? What if I remember that I am just as undeserving as the next person? What if my understanding of God was expanded by the way I witness Him in the lives of others?
It is through this lens that I can look at the beautiful lives of my once single girlfriends and I can join them in rejoicing rather than getting wrapped up and blinded by anger or jealousy. God allowed me to walk in singleness with these women. He has allowed me to watch them meet and marry godly men. He has allowed me to watch them build homes and start families. He has allowed me to be a witness of the valleys and mountains tops in their lives up to this point. I have seen God’s faithfulness, love, mercy, and grace in their stories. I have grown in understanding and awe in simply being a witness; a witness with eyes locked on the Lord. Are there days when my focus drifts and I start to waver in my debate of who deserves what and when? Yes. But it is in those time that it is the most important for me to draw my attention back to the Lord and to look forward with Him in my line of vision.
With God in my line of vision I can leave behind contemplating what I think I deserve from within the flesh and begin to embrace where I stand despite what I actually deserve because of my flesh. I can stand in trust that God has positioned me for my good and His glory and I can rejoice in His doings all around me.
What would have changed had Jonah kept God in his line of vision? Where do you need to invite God into your line of vision today?
Friend. Look around. What has He been trying to show you? How is He trying to expand your understanding of Him… your awe of Him? Is your anger in the way? Jealousy? Doubt? Disbelief? I want to encourage you to declutter your line of vision and to invite God into that space today.
None of us deserve it. Not Jonah, not Ninevah, not you or I, but God is reaching out to each and every one of us with His incomprehensible mercy, grace, love and compassion day after day. Let’s grab hold of it and run this race together.
