Prevailing Purpose

For the last few weeks of the summer my husband has led our Sunday School class through a study of the book of Jonah. Due to it’s slightly comical account of Jonah being swallowed by a giant fish, it is a popular children’s lesson and one that we are almost over familiar with. But when we retell the story we often leave out the second half. There seems to be something about Jonah’s blatant disobedience, self-righteousness, and anger that makes us uncomfortable.

After attempting to run from God’s call to preach to the wicked Ninevites, Jonah accepts his fate and goes to the city.  To his frustration, the Ninevites are repentant and God mercifully does not destroy them. In chapter four, we find a furious Jonah who goes to the Lord and begins to make concerning demands. In verses two and three he throws God’s own character at him saying, “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. Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.”

As a parent to two small children, I recognize the signs of a proper tantrum.

When we discussed this passage, my husband and I were both reminded of one of boys. When he is upset, he wants us to know how he is feeling and declares, “I’m angry!” This is promptly followed by him folding his arms and turning away to demonstrate that he is open to neither further discussion or correction. In our imperfect attempts at consistency and emotional processing, we ask him to turn around, open his arms, and tell us why he is angry.

With Jonah, God has a similar response. As if addressing a small child still learning how to regulate his big emotions, he asks Jonah, “Do you do well to be angry?” And rather than respond, likely because he knows that the answer is a decisive “no,” Jonah metaphorically crosses his arms and turns away. He camps outside the city and sulks, hoping that he will have a front row seat to God changing his mind and destroying the people that Jonah has deemed unworthy of mercy. In his kindness, God still pursues Jonah and provides him with an object lesson. God causes a plant to grow up over Jonah to provide shade and then allows it to be eaten by a worm the next day. When Jonah grows angry again, God repeats his question, “do you do well to be angry?” Still stubborn, Jonah answers, “Yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die.”

Rather than conclude the book with a definitive ending and a repentant Jonah, the author ends the story with a question from the Lord. He says “You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?”

As I read these words, God turned my attention away from Jonah and my son, and back to my own heart. We are not always better at controlling our anger as we become adults, but we are often better at concealing it. We don’t necessarily declare our anger to the room, but we silently make note of every slight and feed our anger until it festers into bitterness. When convicted, we don’t necessarily blatantly tell God how we feel like Jonah did or my son does, but we preface our prayers with, “I know I shouldn’t feel this way but…” and “they hurt me so…”

Just as a parent wants to help their child, God wants to hear from us. We don’t have to preface our anger with excuses, but can be honest and open before the Lord. However, we also have to be ready to receive correction and conviction. James 1:19 tells us, “be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry, for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.” When the Lord corrects us, it is always for our good. He doesn’t do so as an imperfect parent frustrated or embarrassed by their child’s behavior. But he does so in his sovereignty, with steadfast love, and with perfect wisdom.

My conviction from Jonah and my encouragement to you is to lean into correction from the Lord. The words from Exodus 34 that Jonah self-righteously threw back at God are words that should bring us comfort and confidence in our Father:

The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.” And Moses quickly bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped. 

May we be like children before our perfect Father, communicating with honesty, accepting correction, and rejoicing in him.

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