Man’s Reluctance; God’s Responsiveness

"But Jonah ran away from the Lord..."
Jonah 1:3a

The account of Jonah is a fascinating narrative. Within this biblical account we are humbly made aware of man’s flaws. But through this account we are equally, and powerfully, made aware of God’s forbearance. Jonah, the central human figure of the story, highlights the worst of man. He is defiant, rebellious, inpatient, prejudiced, and uncompassionate. But the book of Jonah presents another dominant figure, a divine figure: God. And God’s character qualities, as recorded in Jonah, evoke confirmations of God’s holiness. The Lord is revealed to be dedicated, trustworthy, patient, equitable, and merciful. Hence, the book of Jonah succinctly accentuates how vastly wide the chasm is which separates the innate dispositions of humanity and God. Man and God are nothing alike disposition-wise, and Jonah’s tale validates this in dramatic fashion. Therefore, this Scriptural event should not be reduced merely to some children’s bedtime anecdote because this biblical passage has rich meaning and application for believers of all generations. To that end, let us briefly explore three contrasting, and illuminating, elements in Jonah that merit our attention.

Contrasting element number one, mankind exercises hate, but God exercises love. When supernaturally told to go and preach to the people of Nineveh, the capital city of the Assyrian kingdom, Jonah, a prophet of God, willfully disobeyed the Lord. He attempted to flee God’s command by securing passage on a ship bound for Tarshish (Jonah 1:3). And why was God’s messenger so opposed to sharing the Lord’s word? Because Jonah had a genuine disdain for Assyrians. The Assyrians were enemies of Israel and were renowned for their ruthlessness and violence. It was the fact that God sought to reach out to the Assyrians that unnerved Jonah. He refused to accept the notion that the Lord could extend mercy to a people so cruel and wicked. After all, why should God-deniers or mockers be granted clemency? The concept seemed ludicrous to Jonah. In his angst he assumed that the Assyrians were destined for annihilation. But God’s loving temperament opted to offer the people one more opportunity to repent before inflicting immediate punishment upon them. In this we find that Jonah was zealous to hate the Assyrians while God was eager to love them.      

Contrasting element number two, mankind seeks to exclude, but God seeks to include. Through a circuitous route Jonah did eventually speak to the people of Nineveh. Afterwards, the Assyrian community genuinely recognized their iniquity and began to turn away from their evil ways. As Jonah witnessed this he became indignant. So-much-so that he prayed in frustration to God, claiming that his averseness to witnessing to the Assyrians was justified because God is gracious and relents from sending calamity to repentant people (Jonah 4:2-3). In Jonah’s startling confession we discover that mankind has a tendency to enforce extraneous parameters on peoples’ worthiness to be a part of God’s fellowship. In this mindset God’s followers often attempt to restrict those who can find a seat at the Lord’s table of salvation. How sad that we would inject our own measures of merit and stifle an opportunity for others to find spiritual liberation through God. In this we find that Jonah was zealous to exclude the Assyrians while God was eager to include them.          

Contrasting element number three, mankind judges unfairly, but God judges correctly. The book of Jonah ends in a bittersweet manner. As the Assyrians committed themselves to abandoning their former self-centered life in order to embrace the God-focused life Jonah located a spot outside Nineveh, and waited. He presumably longed to see God obliterate Nineveh and all its residents. While Jonah waited the Lord caused a vine to grow over the prophet and offer him shade from the scorching sun. This evidently provided Jonah some contentment and comfort. But the next day God commissioned a worm to chew the vine and make it wither, which removed Jonah’s protection from the blazing heat. The prophet became upset and soon asked God to let him die. But God responded in a remarkable way. The Lord informed Jonah that he had no right to be angry for he did not tend the vine or make it grow. And in that same vein of thought, Jonah had no right to be angry at God for sparing Nineveh because Jonah was not the judge or jury for the Assyrians. In the closing verse of this biblical book God tenderly asked a rhetorical question, “Should I not be concerned about that great city?” (Jonah 4:11b). Jonah had already wrongly evaluated the Assyrians and determined them to be unredeemable. In this we find that Jonah was zealous to judge the Assyrians unfairly while God was eager to judge them correctly.       

In the final analysis, although this chronicle says so much negatively about the heart of Jonah, and therefore the heart of man, this story also says so much positively about the character of God. The Lord overflows with love, inclusiveness, and correct judgment. In other words, man’s reluctance was overshadowed by God’s responsiveness. If Jonah’s desires would have been carried out the people of Nineveh would have been quickly, and utterly, destroyed. But God intervened and aided a people who were desperately in need of atonement and grace, which the Lord was more than ready to supply. May the tale of Jonah both inspire and instruct us. And may it compel us to embrace the nature of God and abandon the nature of man. In short, let God’s role increase in our lives and make us responsive to a world that is desperately in need of a relationship with the mighty, and merciful, God.