March 30, 2009
But Jonah just left. He went out of the city to the east and sat down in a sulk. He put together a makeshift shelter of leafy branches and sat there in the shade to see what would happen to the city. God arranged for a broad-leafed tree to spring up. It grew over Jonah to cool him off and get him out of his angry sulk. Jonah was pleased and enjoyed the shade. Life was looking up. But then God sent a worm. By dawn of the next day, the worm had bored into the shade tree and it withered away. The sun came up and God sent a hot, blistering wind from the east. The sun beat down on Jonah's head and he started to faint. He prayed to die: "I'm better off dead!" Then God said to Jonah, "What right do you have to get angry about this shade tree?" Jonah said, "Plenty of right. It's made me angry enough to die!" God said, "What's this? How is it that you can change your feelings from pleasure to anger overnight about a mere shade tree that you did nothing to get? You neither planted nor watered it. It grew up one night and died the next night. So, why can't I likewise change what I feel about Nineveh from anger to pleasure, this big city of more than 120,000 childlike people who don't yet know right from wrong, to say nothing of all the innocent animals?" –Jonah 4: 5-11
Jonah was angry. Here, he’d heard God’s command to go to Nineveh and preach, ignored it and went the other way, was thrown overboard and swallowed by a whale, spent three days in its belly before being thrown back up and ending up where he needed to be, only to have God decide to spare Nineveh from His destruction. And then the one thing that gave him comfort, God took away. Yea, Jonah was HOT! Jonah had gone through all of that and the people who should have been punished were getting off easily. Where was God’s justice in that? And instead of addressing the issue with God, Jonah started going off about a dead tree.
It’s the same with us. The ones who don’t study or come to class are getting the scholarships. The cheaters are the ones in relationships with lovers devoted to them. The schemers are getting the raises and the manipulators seem to be breezing through life. It’s just not fair. Funny thing is- Jonah wasn’t angry at that shade tree. He was upset with God, just as we sometimes are. We’re saying “God, I’m living right. I’m going to church. I’m praying. I’m paying my tithes. I’m repenting. I’m treating people the way I want to be treated and the way you want me to treat them. So why are the ones doing the total opposite seeing more of your mercy than me? Why did they get accepted? Why did they get the promotion? Why did they get that opportunity? Why did they get the house? Why did they get the car? Why?” And the beauty about God is that He showed Jonah and shows us just how crazy that thought process is. The same God whose shown us compassion was now the target of our frustration after showing it to others. Isn’t that sad?
God takes us through things to refine His will in our lives but, from the outside looking in, it seems that He doesn’t take others through half of the things He takes us. There’s no additional chapter of Jonah so we don’t really know how he responded after God “set him straight”. But I hope it was with an act of repentance. Sometimes, I have seen what I considered to be a “blessing” for “unjust people” that I “a righteous one” should enjoy. What a conceited thought! The sun and God’s love shines on us all. Just as He used Jonah’s presence in Nineveh to bring His children back to Him, God can use anything to get His children to recognize where their help comes from- even an “unmerited blessing”. I don’t know about you but the wiser I get (getting older doesn’t always equate with wisdom. I know I’m not the only one who knows a couple of old fools), I appreciate God’s compassion on me and others more. This is, sometimes, a hard life to live and who wouldn’t appreciate a break every now and then? Stop being angry at God for giving Himself to those you think don’t deserve it and start thanking Him for giving Himself for you when you didn’t deserve it…and never will. God is compassionate, loving, just and righteous to us all; and isn’t that why we love Him? I thought so.
©BirthRight, 2009
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