It’s been just over two months since my last post.
I had all these plans about what my next post would be about but apparently the Lord had other plans. For the record that post is coming, it is on the life of Peter, but in the mean time the Lord had me take a detour into Jonah.
Recently my daughter's RUF (Reformed University Fellowship) minister preached at our church during our Pastors vacation and he chose a passage from the book of Jonah, chapter 4 to be exact, which says:
"But it greatly displeased Jonah and he became angry. He prayed to the LORD and said, “Please LORD, was not this what I said while I was still in my own country? Therefore in order to forestall this I fled to Tarshish, for I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in loving kindness, and one who relents concerning calamity. Therefore now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for death is better to me than life.” The LORD said, “Do you have good reason to be angry?” Then Jonah went out from the city and sat east of it. There he made a shelter for himself and sat under it in the shade until he could see what would happen in the city. So the LORD God appointed a plant and it grew up over Jonah to be a shade over his head to deliver him from his discomfort. And Jonah was extremely happy about the plant. But God appointed a worm when dawn came the next day and it attacked the plant and it withered. When the sun came up God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on Jonah’s head so that he became faint and begged with all his soul to die, saying, “Death is better to me than life.” Then God said to Jonah, “Do you have good reason to be angry about the plant?” And he said, “I have good reason to be angry, even to death.” Then the LORD said, “You had compassion on the plant for which you did not work and which you did not cause to grow, which came up overnight and perished overnight. Should I not have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know the difference between their right and left hand, as well as many animals?”
Just eleven short verses, but it sums up Jonah’s mood.
Those of you who are not so familiar with the story, Jonah, a prophet of God, was told to go and preach to the people of Nineveh, so that they could hear the good news and repent. Jonah didn’t want to do it. So he ran away from God’s marching orders, hopped a ship headed in the other direction and thought that was the end of the matter. But God wasn’t finished with Jonah just yet. The Lord caused a storm to whip up the sea into a frenzy and the sailors in fear of losing their lives agreed with Jonah and tossed his sorry butt overboard. Take note though, before one toe of Jonah’s foot touched the water of that raging sea the Lord had already prepared a great fish (some say whale) to swallow Jonah, and there he stayed for three days. After three days the Scriptures say the fish vomited him out on to dry land, THEN the Lord told him again to go and preach to Nineveh. This time Jonah did not hesitate, and if we assume correctly he didn’t even bother to shower…he just made his way to Nineveh (a three day journey) and briefly gave the message he was told to deliver. In fact he gave the condenced version. Very simply, and very quickly the people believed and repented.
Rather than rejoicing though, Jonah became very angry.
Like a petulant child Jonah shakes his fist at God and says, “SEE, I KNEW you would grant them repentance, so why did you make me come here? Kill me now!” (I paraphrased that just a little) Then Jonah goes up on the hill side to watch the fireworks. Perhaps he was hoping their repentance wasn’t real. He sat there and as he did the Lord “appointed a plant” and it grew up over Jonah and provided him with shade. The next morning, however, the Lord “appointed” a worm to destroy the plant, and not only that he “appointed” a scorching east wind that blew on Jonah and made him miserable enough to beg for death.
It is important to note that all of the things that were appointed were both “good” and bad” according to how men view them, but Jonah learned what we already learned from Romans 8:28 that ALL things work together for GOOD. The GOOD (Romans 8:29) is that we are being made more and more like him daily.
Then the Lord asks Jonah a question.
“Do you have good reason to be angry about the plant?”
Jonah’s reply is like our own when we find ourselves in similar circumstances (not that we’ve been thrown in the sea, swallowed by a fish and vomited onto a beach but I think you know what I mean) He replies, as each of us probably have at some point in our walk if we are honest:
“I have good reason to be angry, even to death.”
Most Christians will say real Christians should never be angry with God but I think Jonah tells a different story. I think real Christians DO get angry.
John Calvin says, “We here see how obstinately the holy Prophet repelled the admonition of God, by which he ought to have been restored to a right mind. He was not ignorant that God spoke. Why then was he not smitten with shame? Why was he not moved by the authority of the speaker, so as immediately to repress the fierceness of his mind? But thus it commonly happens, when the minds of men are once blinded by some wrong feeling; though the Lord may thunder and fulminate from heaven, they will not hear, at least they will not cease violently to resist, as Jonah does here. Since then we find such an example of perverseness in this holy man, how much more ought every one of us to fear?... Who could have thought that the holy Prophet could have been brought into this state of mind? But let us be reminded, as I have already said, by this remarkable example, how furious and unreasonable are the passions of our flesh. There is, therefore, nothing better than to restrain them, before they gather more strength than they ought; for when any one feeds his vices, this obstinacy and hardness always follow…”
I personally love how the Lord deals with Jonah. He doesn’t thunder and roar at him and remind him what a sinner he, Jonah is. He doesn’t strike him down for daring to admit that he is angry with the way things are turning out even though OBVIOUSLY they are God’s will for his life. God reminds Jonah as He did Job before him that God is the Creator, and the giver of mercy and grace.
Again, John Calvin:
"Who art thou? Doubtless a mortal man is not so inclined to mercy as I am. But thou takest to thyself this right -- to desire to spare the gourd, even thou who art made of clay. Now this gourd is not thy work, thou hast not labored for it, it has not proceeded from thy culture or toil; and further, thou hast not raised it up, and further still, it was the daughter of a night, and in one night it perished; it was an evanescent shrub or herb. If then thou regardest the nature of the gourd, if thou regardest thyself, and joinest together all the other circumstances, thou wilt find no reason for thy hot displeasure. But should not I, who am God, in whose hand are all things, whose prerogative and whose constant practice it is mercifully to bear with men -- should not I spare them, though they were worthy of destruction? and should not I spare a great city? The matter here is not concerning a little plant, but a large number of people. And, in the last place, it is a city, in which there are a hundred and twenty thousand men who know not how to distinguish between their right hand and the left."
I can understand how Jonah felt. There are things going on in my family that demand me to stand boldly for the truth in a way I never have before. The more I stand and speak in obedience the harder it seems we are hit with all manner of trials.
I’ve been absent from the blogosphere due to an emergency appendectomy, and while they were in there removing that they found out that I had a hernia, which they repaired. Since the surgery I have suffered from dizzy spells that have at times almost caused me to black out, low blood pressure (I’ve been diagnosed with high) and I have had to have a root canal. Oh, did I mention I have not been able to work for this past month? And my husband’s business is not going so well? And the hospital bills are beginning to arrive?
Yeah…good times.
I would say that’s the equivalent to my plant being eaten by a worm, and a scorching wind blowing on me all day. The difference this time though, is I am not angry. I think I was beginning to get angry, I was. I could feel myself slipping on those familiar slippers, wrapping myself up in the familiar robe of self pity and my thumb was making its way towards my mouth.
But the Lord…
Don’t you love those three little words?
It is He that is faithful…not me…and His promises I can trust.
Two of my favorites?
“This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day.” John 6:39
“But the Lord is faithful, and He will strengthen and protect you from the evil one.” II Thessalonians 3:3
So tuck those away in your treasure box and remember…Jonah, Elijah, Job, Moses, David…they were all men, just like you and me (and by men I do not mean male, I mean mankind)…and they were far from perfect. Yet they were ALL His precious children. Each one hand crafted by the master with a specific purpose, and so are you.
Don’t ever lose sight of that.
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