“Is it right for you to be angry?” (Jonah 4:4)
After seeing the amazing results of his preaching, Jonah offered a strange prayer: “O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live” (Jonah 4:3). He was asking for death because God had not brought death to the city he had preached to! Jonah was angry because God was not angry. He was upset because God is merciful, forgetting that God had been merciful to him as well.
I expected God to be angry with Jonah, to remind him of his disobedience, and to rebuke him for his selfishness. But instead, the Lord gently asked: “Is it right for you to be angry?”
It was definitely not right. Jonah’s understanding of God was not right—God is merciful and forgiving. His view of the Ninevites was not right—they had repented sincerely, and so God forgave them.
Jonah expressed the same wrong desire again when the plant withered. Yet again, the Lord did not get angry but gently asked: “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?” (Jonah 4:9). Jonah, acting like a spoiled child, replied: “It is right for me to be angry, even to death!”
God’s patience and mercy amaze me.
From my diary,
December 19, 2024
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