Anger

“And he said, ‘Yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die.’” Jonah 4.9 ESV

Once we’re fully invested in the false worldview, there is but one thing left for us: death.

Jonah was so stubborn about his unequivocal hatred for outsiders that he ended up becoming one.

Nineveh was the last place he wanted to be, and mercy for the Ninevites was the last thing he wanted; indeed, it was his motive in running from God, and he confessed to it. We have learned in our study of Jonah that running from God is ridiculous and impossible, and surely Jonah would have known as much intellectually if he were really a worshipper of Yahweh. Yet his heart would not allow him to feel concern for Nineveh. In his heart was concern for only himself.

God has a way of working through circumstance that makes our motives obvious. Usually my motive becomes obvious to me only after it becomes obvious to others. There is something about proximity to sin that is blinding; I’m usually the last to know. It’s the same for you. This is why there is such a thing as intervention, but that’s a little beside the point.

God led Jonah on a withering journey through his own recalcitrance, and at the end of it all we’re not sure if Jonah really understood what God was getting at. The story ends with the prophet of God lying in abject misery overlooking a city he hates, expecting a thing to happen that God will not do, and the disconnect is immense. God wants to be merciful. That’s why he called Jonah to do what he did.

Jonah thinks God wants to be savage and brutal, especially with His enemies, and who knows? Perhaps we like Jonah don’t know what we think we know about God and vengeance and judgment and wrath. I personally have decided to leave all that to God, and I won’t, like Jonah, decide for Him who His enemies are and aren’t. That way leads to death.