Burning Anger

Too long, please open your Bible Jonah 3:10 - 4:11

Jonah & Cain

Too long, please open your Bible Jonah 4: 1-4

More literally, from the Hebrew, we can translate verse 1 like this: "It was exceedingly evil to Jonah, and he burned with anger". Jonah saw God’s grace expressed to the Ninevites and called it evil. This isn’t the first time we see someone with an upside down view of God’s grace and goodness, resulting in the person’s anger and then a rebuke from God.

Too long, please open your Bible Genesis 4: 3-7

The book of Jonah draws subtle but significant parallels between Jonah and Cain, both of whom resist God’s will and display a heart of resentment toward divine mercy. Here are some key connections:

They are both angry at God's favor toward others, rather than rejoicing in His mercy.
In both cases, God challenges them to reflect on their misguided emotions.
Both men try to distance themselves from God rather than submitting to Him.
In both cases, hatred (jealousy for Cain, anger for Jonah)blinds them to God’s justice and mercy.

Hypocrisy

Jonah’s anger was merely a symptom of his hypocrisy with respect to how he understood God’s mercy.

Those who cling to worthless idols turn away from God’s love for them. But I, with shouts of grateful praise, will sacrifice to you. What I have vowed I will make good. I will say, ‘Salvation comes from the LORD.’ Jonah 2: 8-9 (NIV)

Jonah contrasts himself with those who reject God’s love, and he is fine when God is merciful to him. However, he is unwilling for God to show favor to other people.

Too long, please open your Bible Jonah 4:2

Too long, please open your Bible Exodus 32: 6-7

Israel as a people group only existed because God was merciful after the golden calf incident, and Jonah doesn’t seem to even recognize that. How many times are we like Jonah?

Death wish

Jonah’s hatred for Nineveh was so great that he would rather die than see them repent. This sheds some light his actions in the ship scene. He probably didn’t really care for the sailors. His request to be thrown into the sea was so that he could die and not have to go on his God-appointed mission.

Hate watch

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. Jonah 4:5

Even after their repentance, Jonah still anticipated their destruction. He probably was expecting a Sodom and Gomorrah type destruction (Genesis 19) as he would have expected to see from his sermon in chapter 3.

Growth

One can view the Book of Jonah as a sneak peek into Jonah’s journey of growth. The Book of Jonah is more than a story about a prophet running from God—it’s the story of God pursuing a prophet’s heart.

Long before Jonah was sent to Nineveh, he had already been given a difficult assignment: to speak a word of hope to Jeroboam II, one of Israel’s wicked kings (2 Kings 14:25). That mission required Jonah to proclaim God’s mercy to someone who didn’t deserve it. And when God later sent him to Nineveh, the capital of Israel’s brutal enemy, the lesson was the same: Jonah was being called to reflect the heart of a God who is “gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.”

We can identify with Jonah’s struggle with God, in the various areas where God is calling us to growth but we resist Him.