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| Sperm whale (Physeter microcephalus) illustration by Uko Gorter |
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?
Do
you recall Jonah volunteering to be thrown overboard to save the crew, and the Great
Sea returned to calmer waters (Jon 1:12)? We have been going at this for a
while; it seems like ancient history! Jonah wanted all the inhabitants of
Nineveh to die, but he was willing to give his life for these pagan Phoenician
sailors! This was very surprising to me for it provided a deeper and different
insight into Jonah’s character. He was complex, but his rebellion is simply
explained; he was running from the will of God.
Jonah
anger (Jon 4:1) is tied into Jon 3:10,
Then
God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God relented
from the disaster that He had said He would bring upon them, and He did not do
it.
There
is no doubt, Yahweh is One who relents from doing harm (Jon 4:2); Nineveh is proof of that!
With that, we finally reached Jonah’s conclusion in all of this Nineveh business
after the end of the fortieth day; his prayer continues,
Therefore now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for it is
better for me to die than to live (Jon 4:3, emphasis mine)!
Let me ask you; what right does any believer have to ask
for that kind of conclusion to make that kind of self-destructive assessment?
On what set of circumstances is it permissible to ask Yahweh to take a life?
If things do not go the way we think they should go, is it okay to ask Yahweh
to end our life?
The last time I read Heb 9:27, that decision is appointed by God;
we have no input on the calendar. We do not decide the date and time to terminate
our lives, and there is no biblical basis for getting Yahweh to change the schedule!
As long as we have breath, we have a purpose; it may not be realized on this
side of eternity, but on the other side, we will see it much differently. Until
then, we need to stop praying to die.
Jonah
was obviously under a great deal of emotional stress all brought upon himself.
I spoke many articles ago about observing in Jonah a plethora of emotional energies being needlessly expended due to willful disobedience. This
is what running away from the will of God is like – draining, in every way imaginable!
The takeaway for us is that it does not pay to disobey; I cannot stress that
enough. It is a sound investment in the theological economy of the kingdom of
God in the here and now. It is simple enough without further need for testing
the waters, yes?
Jonah
did an incredible job in disseminating Yahweh’s message to the Ninevites; God blessed Jonah in traversing and heralding His message throughout Nineveh to be
effective and that all could hear. He completed his vow, but his thinking was
still stinking! This is highly unfortunate because it takes away from the
incredible miracle taking place in Nineveh. Now, we have to dwell on anger
issues; talk about throwing a wet towel on our excitement of people coming to
Yahweh. Jonah has to own any self-enabled work.
Ever
since Jonah got wind of the content of his commission in Jerusalem; from the very first step in disobedience in running from God’s will, things went
downhill fast, literally a drop in elevation to Joppa and spiritually speaking.
Bear in mind, Jonah’s hatred for the Assyrians formulated long before receiving
his commission to go to foreign soil to preach repentance; we just don’t know
the why of it. If we harbor sinful thoughts, we should not be surprised if it
jumps out (Num 32:23)!
From Jonah's harrowing ordeal of the ship being
tossed to and fro and in peril of going under, being
thrown overboard into a tumultuous sea, swallowed by a great sea creature, skin possibly damaged permanently from the digestive acids of the sperm whale, wound up as whale-puke on hated
Assyrian soil, delivered God's message of repentance to a godless people who he had a personal animus
towards the Jews, and now his greatest fear, which was why he fled to Tarshish in the
first place was materializing before his very eyes – the people believed God (Jon 3:5); in other
words, they received his word as the word from the God of Jonah Himself. This was amazingly cool, but not for Jonah, of course.
What
was Jonah’s reaction? He was displeased exceedingly, and he became angry (Jon 4:1). He
was so angry that he begged in his prayer to Yahweh,
Please take my life
from me, for it is better for me to die than to live!
What
is so terrible that Jonah no longer wanted to live because Yahweh saved some people
he thought deserved to die? The Scripture is silent. He is so distraught that it
appears from chapter four that he had become emotionally unstable, irrational,
and unreasonable. We will see more evidence of this in chapter four concerning
his emotional state. I am thankful Yahweh never revealed the real reason why he
disliked the Assyrians so much. This was between Yahweh and Jonah.
This
racial hatred of the Assyrians was not the root of his problem only a sprig,
but consider just how powerfully persuasive whatever his besetting sin must
have been; it was strong enough to make a godly prophet disobey His God, who he
worked for, and undermined his integrity as a prophet of God.
Praise
God that He
that is in you [us] is greater than he who is in the world (1 Jn 4:4). If we are
believers, victory is a choice. Faith needs to operate in a heart environment where every door and window is open to Yahweh. To bar God from full access to what He already knows
only invites trouble into our lives, and it will manifest itself publicly
sooner or later; it is not a matter of “if” but “when.”
And
now, we see him so angry that he is praying for God to kill him! What some
would interpret as an ultimate high in being a part of winning over so many
souls for Yahweh, for Jonah, he was at his lowest point; yep, it gets kind of
weird. We must never underestimate the power of sin though we are born again.
Sin can undermine and ruin our life for God by failing to guard our hearts with
all diligence. When someone mentions Jonah the first thing that probably comes
to your mind is the whale, and the other is Jonah running from the will of God.
It is not a good testimony.
I
cannot alter what comes into your mind when you hear the name of Jonah, but I
highly recommend that we add to “whale” this truism; in regards to God’s will
for our lives – it does not pay to disobey. Jonah did stay on message for
Yahweh to the Ninevites, nonetheless! Really, he was very capable as a prophet,
but something plagued this boy, and we are left with a big fat question mark at
the end of his book. Ironically, he was a part of one of the greatest, if not
the greatest evangelistic efforts on earth! It was nothing short of amazing,
given all the negative factors coming into play.
Population
estimates in Nineveh during that time ran up to 300,000+ due to the swelling burbs (cf. Jon 4:11, referring to children). There are lower estimates, naturally. Only God would choose
such a man to show forth His grace, kindness, mercy, love, and glory by His prophet
to a people His orator despised! This seems so counterintuitive to effective
outreach; send a racist evangelist to the people he hates; yeah, that’ll work. But
this is so God to do the opposite for His glory! But for the grace of God, we
should all perish.
Then
the LORD said, Is it right for you to be angry (Jon 4:4)?
Yahweh
breaks His silence since giving Jonah a second chance (Jon 3:1-2). We know the
answer to that question, yes? No, it is not right for Jonah to be angry! He was
emotionally misdirected; such suicidal thoughts are immoral and the epitome of egocentricity.
Notice
that Jonah does not give a response to that question just yet (cf. Jon 4:9). It
is disrespectful. Nor was it intended to be rhetorical. I am not suggesting
Jonah was right in ignoring Yahweh’s question, but it does fit the profile when
someone is very angry and cannot offer a rebuttal or retaliate in some way. It
would not be a good idea with Yahweh, eh?
Jonah
gets it; it is his pride that zipped his lips, but he is heading down a
self-destructive path. I had a friend who got on that track many years ago, and
he never got off of it until he died at his own hands. Jonah’s anger is
characterized as selfish, morally bad, destructive, and unreasonable. For
something so miraculous as a very wicked people, like ISIS, turning from their
wickedness to Yahweh, it is ironic that a question such as this had to be posed
to Jonah by Yahweh,
Is
it right for you to be angry [that God’s will was accomplished]?
We
are going to hear shortly from Jonah giving a resounding, “Yes!” And that, my
friends, is Jonah once again running away from the will of God for his life. We’ve
never done that, right? Let’s cut to the chase; attitudes of ungodliness are sinful
and unacceptable before Yahweh. Yahweh loved His wayward prophet, but we would
be wrong to think that Yahweh was walking on eggshells around Jonah. <><
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