Jonah the Un Prophet

Jonah was Un willing

The very beginning of the story shows us the unwillingness of Jonah to even do what God had called him to do. I am left asking why Jonah was not wanting to help

Jonah 1:3

But Jonah set out to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord

The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. (1989). (Jon 1:3). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.

Look at the term flee from the presence of the Lord. Jonah was adamant that he was not going to do what God called him.

As you can see on this map, Jonah left home went to a port city and bought passage to go as far away as he could from where God was calling. Jonah had no intention to follow God’s direction.

Do we often have that same unwillingness? Is God calling us to something, but we don’t want to do what God is calling us to? Do we get so adamant that we run in the opposite direction?

Jonah was Un able

Jonah was unable to run away from God

When we run from God’s calling we run into storms

Jump forward some conversations about other god’s and trying to solve the problems

Jonah knew there was only one answer, he had to be thrown overboard

When we are in the storms we need to deal with the storms instead of trying to run from them

The Fish

Jonah was Un merciful

We see Jonah repent and was saved

He was called to go to Nineveh again, and this time he did what God asked him

He gave the message, but them Got mad when God had mercy

Jonah 4:2 NRSV

He prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord! Is not this what I said while I was still in my own country? That is why I fled to Tarshish at the beginning; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing.

Now we get to the reasons for Jonah’s unwillingness

Jonah did not like the ninevites and did not want to be saved

He disliked them so much he wanted to die because God was not going to destroy them

Jonah had a pity party

We see he went to wait and see what was going to happen

Then we have the vine and the worm

Jonah gets mad again and yells are God

Look at God’s response

Jonah 4:10–11 NRSV

Then the Lord said, “You are concerned about the bush, for which you did not labor and which you did not grow; it came into being in a night and perished in a night. And should I not be concerned about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also many animals?”

The Life Application

Have you ever been like Jonah?

Mad because God did not do what you thought He should do. That is the real issue. Jonah was at first to even go, then when he went he wanted God to destroy them. When God didn’t he got mad. so mad to the point he wanted to die.

but notice the response from God, Jonah was so worried about things that he had no real investment in, and that God was not going to destroy and God asked why He should not be concerned about the people and creatures. Such a question for us today.

In this day we hear so often that people want to destroy this or get rid of that. We complain about people that we do not like, and like Jonah we want God to just destroy it all, or come back so that we will not have all these problems. Maybe we instead should see that people are God’s special creation. God has invested himself in the creation, and instead of asking for God’s destruction we pray for God’s intervention!