Show Notes
Jonah obeyed God and went to Nineveh. He delivered God’s message, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” (Jonah 3:4 ESV).
The king commanded all people and animals to call on God fervently and turn from their evil ways. He hoped that God might relent, turn from His anger, and not destroy Nineveh. Chapter three ends with this beautiful verse:
When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that He had said He would do to them, and He did not do it.
Jonah 3:10 ESV
However, Jonah was displeased with God’s response and grew very angry with God. Jonah prayed to God and acknowledged His character — a gracious God, merciful, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster (Jonah 4:2 ESV). Jonah even goes so far as to tell God that he doesn’t want to live anymore!
The Lord replied, “Is it right for you to be angry about this?”
Jonah 4:4 NLT
Head to Heart
Jonah wanted God to act according to “Jonah’s judgment.” Like Jonah, we can fall into the same pattern of thinking and acting. Lord, why would You be gracious, merciful, and kind to those people? We think we know better than the God of the universe. We quickly appoint ourselves as the righteous judge, when truly only God is qualified as the righteous judge.
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.”
Isaiah 55:8-9 ESV
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