All of us have been angry before. But at times, anger is not just an emotion we feel, but something that rules us and blinds us. When you’re that angry, how does someone telling you to calm down feel? Probably just another source of anger. When you’re that angry, it’s because you think you have a reason to be.

The book of Jonah is the story of a very angry man. It takes some time to see that he is, but his anger is under the surface the entire time, driving his actions. Jonah was a prophet of God, but when God told him to go to Nineveh and preach a message of repentance, he tried to flee to Tarshish, the other side of the known world.

That doesn’t go very well for him, you all know the story about the storm and the great fish and God’s deliverance. After that, Jonah goes to Nineveh and follows God’s will, but he holds contempt for his orders. Nineveh is a corrupt and decadent place, a great power that threatens Israel and all the other nations with their violence. Jonah feels much the same we might if asked to walk into a country that persecutes Christians and preach.

But preach he does. “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” And amazingly, the people listen. They fast and mourn and the news even reaches the King and his nobles, and he joins in, proclaiming that all men and beasts should do so and change their ways so that God might spare them.

God listens to them and does not destroy Nineveh. A mighty miracle has been worked, the course of one of the great nations of the world has been turned around. And Jonah cannot stand this. 

“But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he became angry. So he prayed to the Lord, and said, ‘Ah, Lord, was not this what I said when I was still in my country? Therefore I fled previously to Tarshish; for I know that You are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, One who relents from doing harm.’”

I knew you would do this, God! This is why I tried to run away to Tarshish, the other side of the world! I knew you’d forgive them, I knew you’d have mercy on them! 

His anger at the evil of Nineveh has overcome him, his sense of moral superiority and pride prevents him from accepting what God has done. He refuses to live in a world where the people of Nineveh are forgiven.

“Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live!” Then the Lord said, “Is it right for you to be angry?” 

God does not say ‘Calm down’ or ‘You’re being irrational’. But ‘Is it right?’ Not a harsh reproach, but a question that cuts to the heart. Instead of condemning him, God invites Jonah to judge and condemn himself. If Jonah has pity on a plant that provides shade, why should God not have pity on the great city, lost and astray? 

The story of Jonah ends there. But Jonah’s story did not. Someone had to write all this down, after all, not sparing any sympathy for Jonah’s moral faults. Only Jonah and God would know what happened in that conversation outside Nineveh. Only one man could tell this story, as a lesson to all who follow God’s will. 

Art: Jim Padgett via Sweet Publishing / FreeBibleimages.org