When You and God Disagree - Jonah 4

Have you ever prayed about something, but you already knew the Lord’s will? You were hoping that things might be different, but deep down you knew the answer already. You didn’t like the answer, in fact strongly disagreed, but that was the answer and you had known it for a while.

You can deal with a financial, or even a health challenge generally, but the ones that hit the heart are the relational challenges. For example, you may have a fair bit to do with a work colleague. There is a work order or something you need from this person to comply with and they are not playing ball. They either don’t understand, have poor communication or you actually have a bit of a personality clash.

I don’t think there is anyone who doesn’t feel that way at some point or another. You pray, ‘God, either change them or move them. They are causing me grief, and maybe a heap of other people; they need to go.’ God says no, they’re staying. You know that’s the case, but you strongly disagree with that answer and worse still, you’re the Christian, you need to be like Jesus. You know you have to communicate in a way that reflects your faith and everything in your being says, I’ll take it from here, thanks God!

Jonah’s dilemma – Jonah was a Jew, living around 770BC. The Assyrians were heathens by any standard of measurement. They were the superpower. They had suppressed nations and were brutal in their suppression. Their armies covered the ground like locusts, they were well trained and brutal. Nineveh was the capital city of Assyria. Israel was a vassal state of Assyria at the time of writing. They were oppressed by these godless heathens. Surely the only answer for them was judgement. God disagreed!

Jonah was asked to go and preach the message of repentance to Nineveh - “Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me." Nineveh was 800kms from where Jonah was. Not far enough, Jonah didn’t have to even think about that – he took off. In the opposite direction – he headed to the coast, to Joppa.  We know the story – swallowed by a fish, in its belly for 3 days. Found his own repentance before the Lord, was then vomited back up on Joppa’s beach – then went to Nineveh.

The question that needs to be asked is: why didn’t Jonah just do as the Lord asked in the first place? Surely Jonah agreed with the Lord – they were a wicked people. They needed the Lord. We would say the same about the people we struggle with or even despise: “they are wicked people,” they don’t have a moral compass, they are set on themselves – narcissistic, they don’t care to understand or help others. We would say they need Jesus. That is not the difficult bit, is it? The issue surrounded the character of God, in contrast to the character of this poor prophet Jonah.

Jonah preached the message that he was told to. The message was not the challenge. (Jonah 3:4) “"Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!" Telling a message of judgment for us can be a challenge but not for Jonah – why? Because he hated the Assyrians. He wanted them to be judged. The issue for Jonah was what he knew about the character of God; and wonder of wonders, they repented, even covering the animals in sackcloth, and God spared them the judgement.

You see, it is God who converts the soul. The king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever he will.  (Proverbs 21:1). The Apostle Paul said, “for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:13) That is especially true for salvation.

Jonah knew this to be true and that was the problem. He said, "O LORD, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster.” (Jonah 4:2) He knew that there was a reason the Lord was sending him to preach to these Assyrians. The reason was that they would repent and be spared because God would change their hearts. That’s what happened. He went outside the city and waited for a Sodom and Gomorrah situation; far enough away to be safe, but close enough to witness the fire and brimstone fall on the city. But it didn’t happen.

He got so angry – he wanted to die. He knew this would happen, it was a wasted journey, as he knew it would be, and he wanted to die.

God gave him an object lesson by growing a vine overnight. It shaded Jonah while he was waiting for the city to be judged, but a worm ate the vine; the sun was now baking his body. Jonah got angry. God said I gave you shade when you didn’t deserve it; how much more should I give mercy to these 120, 000 souls?

Look at Jonah’s honesty. God asked, “"Do you do well to be angry for the plant?" And he said, "Yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die." (verse 9) Something I love about Jonah here is that it reminds me of someone…me.

Deep down Jonah knew this would happen, why? Because Jonah knew in his heart of hearts that he had done plenty of things wrong in his body, mind and heart and God didn’t smite him. He knew what God was like. He had a strong suspicion that this was what the Lord was going to do with the Assyrians.

Let’s come back to you now, and the person or people that you can’t stand, or at the very least you are struggling with big-time. They deserve some smiting, don’t they? Of course they do, the way they have behaved towards you. Like these Assyrians: surely, they knew what they are doing, saying; acting the way they do is a disgrace. They don’t need to be told! They know! They are not mentally incapacitated, even though they are morally bankrupt. God, send the fire!

Reflect a little. Jonah needed to be a little sun baked to get his senses back. Maybe that needs to happen with us, especially as we head back to work or study, back to that relationship which is strained. Pray the Lord gives us mercy and grace, a reality check. Sometimes God pours the heat on us.

Practical steps. When you are feeling this way towards a person, take some time out for a heart check. That’s what happened with Jonah with some ‘fish belly’ time; that’s part of it. Second is – expect God to be merciful, rather than sit back and wait for their downfall, waiting for revenge.

Watch and see God’s mercy unfold. Jonah’s preaching stopped the invasion of Israel by the Assyrians for many decades to come because they had faith in the God of Israel, even when Israel was in rebellion. Imagine if your character and your words were the very things that were used to change the heart of the person or people you are presently struggling with. Rather, you should expect it.

God has shown exceeding and abundant mercy to us. May we see it being displayed even to our enemies. Jesus says to love our enemies and pray for them. (Matthew 5:44) They may even be the very ones who become your closest allies.