I guess Jonah at least deserves credit for doing what God said, even if he didn’t like the result.
Jonah gets remembered for the fish. That’s the part everybody knows. Swallowed, three days, spit out on a beach.
But the fish isn’t really the story. It’s barely the warm-up.
God tells Jonah to go preach to Nineveh, a city full of Israel’s enemies, and tell them to repent or be destroyed. Jonah immediately heads the opposite direction. Books a ship going the other way across the sea.
Not because he doubted God would do it. Because he knew God actually would forgive them if they listened. And these were his enemies, so he didn’t want that.
Most of the time we picture the reluctant prophet as scared of failing, scared of being laughed at, scared the mission won’t work. Jonah ran because he knew it would work exactly as advertised.
Storm, sailors throw him overboard, fish, three days, thrown back up on shore. He goes to Nineveh. Preaches the one line God gave him. The city repents immediately and completely, all the way up to the king.
God relents. Doesn’t destroy the city.
Jonah is furious.
Sits down outside town and tells God flat out he’d rather die than watch this. Says he knew this would happen, that’s exactly why he ran in the first place. God is gracious and compassionate, and Jonah resents Him for it.
God grows a plant to give Jonah some shade. Jonah likes the plant. Next day a worm kills it, the shade is gone, and Jonah is back to wanting to die, this time over a plant.
God asks him a simple question. You’re upset about a plant you didn’t plant and didn’t grow. Shouldn’t I care about a city of more than a hundred thousand people?
The book ends there. No resolution. No Jonah repenting and learning his lesson. Just God’s question hanging in the air.
We understand Jonah better than we’d like to admit. We’re perfectly fine with mercy for ourselves. Less fine with it landing on the specific people we think don’t deserve it.
You can want the right outcome and still be furious when you get it, if it benefits someone you’d rather see lose.
Jonah did his job. Eventually. Preached the message. People who deserved judgment got mercy instead.
He couldn’t stand it.
What is your Nineveh?
P.S.
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