One wonders at the attitude of Jonah as he preached to the Ninevites.
Sometimes we see people holding up signs at gay rallies or parades and shouting, “You’re going to hell!”
I wonder if that was the kind of attitude Jonah had as he preached in Nineveh.
As he was preaching, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned,” was he thinking to himself, “Go to hell you…?”
Some people have noted that there is no place in the Bible where it specifically says Jonah told the Ninevites to repent. They suggest that he only told them that judgment was coming.
I don’t know if that’s true or not, but it would fit in with his attitude in chapter 4.
Another interesting thing to note is that Jonah’s father’s name was “Amittai,” which means “truth” in Hebrew.
Jonah may have been a son of truth, but he most certainly wasn’t a son of mercy in this story.
And much to Jonah’s chagrin, the Ninevites repented. Even so, it seems that he held out hope that God would judge them anyway.
So he sat outside the city, just waiting for God to blast the people out of existence like he did with Sodom and Gomorrah.
As each hour passed, he grew more and more bitter when it became clear that God would show mercy because of their repentance.
And so God gave him a little object lesson.
God provided a vine that gave him shade, but then sent a worm to eat at it, causing it to wither away. And in the midst of the scorching heat, Jonah got even more bitter, screaming out, “Just kill me already!”
And God said, “Do you have a right to be angry about the vine?”
Jonah answered, “Yes, I’m angry enough to die.”
God then said something that really made Jonah think.
He said, “You’re concerned about this vine, this plant, even though you didn’t plant it, tend to it, or do anything to make it grow. Yet I created the Ninevites. They are my precious creation, and I love them.
“There are 120,000 people in there who didn’t know anything about me or my will, and they were about to die for their evil.
“How can you not understand that I would care for them when you care for this mere plant that you did nothing to create.”
Assuming that Jonah was the one that wrote this book, it’s safe to assume that he got the message.
But how about us? Are we like Jonah, delighting in the fact that people are going to hell?
Or are we like God, weeping for them and doing everything we can to save them?
Are we angry when people escape God’s judgment because they repent?
Or are we rejoicing over it?
So many times, people are like Jonah and they delight only in the truth. They love shouting out, “You’re going to hell.” And they take great joy in imagining it happening.
But that’s not the way God is. He delights in mercy.
We should delight in it as well.
Do you?
Moment to Moment (Bible blog) 