Jonah’s Actions Reveal The Nature Of God
Jonah’s Actions Reveal The Nature Of God
God is gracious. He offers love and forgiveness.
God is merciful. He forgives when people repent.
God is patient. He gives time and a chance to repent.
God is faithful to His Word.
God withholds punishment when people repent.
God Cares About Mankind
God desires than man be delivered from himself and the consequences of his sin.
Jonah 4:2 He prayed to the LORD: “Please, LORD, isn’t this what I said while I was still in my own country? That’s why I fled toward Tarshish in the first place. I knew that You are a merciful and compassionate God, slow to become angry, rich in faithful love, and One who relents from sending disaster.
2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
God Is More Merciful Than Man
We are just like Jonah. Our actions reveal that we care more about our comforts than we do about what God wants to do in others lives.
Jonah 4:2b I knew that You are a merciful and compassionate God, slow to become angry, rich in faithful love, and One who relents from sending disaster.
Matthew 5:38 Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth:
God Wants Us To Be Honest
We can be honest with God about our feelings, but we cannot complain if He has to discipline us.
Jonah 4:3 And now, LORD, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” 4:4. The LORD asked, “Is it right for you to be angry?”
Jonah 4:8 As the sun was rising, God appointed a scorching east wind. The sun beat down so much on Jonah’s head that he almost fainted, and he wanted to die. He said, “It’s better for me to die than to live.”
We Are All Prone To Anger If We Don’t Get Our Way
Jonah 4:9 Then God asked Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?” “Yes,” he replied. “It is right. I’m angry enough to die!”
This response reveals just how selfish we can be. We must be careful not to measure God’s judgments by our own wisdom. Here we see what extremes men are carried to when once they give loose reins to inconsiderate zeal.
How furious and unreasonable are the passions of our flesh, when we feed our vices. An obstinacy and hardness almost always follow.
Jonah reveals his sin of self-righteousness and self-centeredness.
Jonah 4:10 So the LORD said, “You cared about the plant, which you did not labor over and did not grow. It appeared in a night and perished in a night.”
God’s Message Of Forgiveness Is Given Through The Word Of An Angry Servant
Jonah 4:11 Should I not care about the great city of Nineveh, which has more than 120,000 people who cannot distinguish between their right and their left, as well as many animals?”
The Ninevites were the artistry of God’s creative genius. One hundred and twenty thousand had not yet reached an age of moral accountability. And God, Who knows when a sparrow falls, is even concerned for the cattle. Jonah’s perspective was not what it should be because his perspective was not the same as God’s.
Let’s ask God to help us have His perspective and to care more like He does—& to trust Him, always.