“Now the LORD God appointed…” Jonah 4.6,7,8
God appointed a fish for Jonah earlier in the story. Now He appoints a plant to comfort his prophet, then a worm to eat the plant, then a scorching desert wind that made him faint. Like a good father, God is always ready to teach His children valuable lessons such as these. God is God, Jonah is not.
We absolutely must come to grips with the fact that God is sovereign over our lives. We absolutely must step down off the throne we illegally seized in Eden. And coming to grips with the sovereignty of God is a little like Jacob wrestling the angel. On the other side of his perseverance, he received a new name, one that meant his whole identity had been made new. To be sure, he walked differently, even in the natural.
We don’t know if Jonah ever made peace with the fact of the sovereignty of God. Every one of us must walk out our own choices as we encounter the rock in the wilderness. God doesn’t change; He won’t move. This is a good thing for those submitted to Him and a bad thing for those bent on building their own foundation. He moves with wisdom far beyond and above us. He makes decisions with information we don’t have, and His decisions are not only perfect in conception but execution because He declares the end from the beginning. And not only that but also this: He is both the beginning and the end.
For those who have made peace with His plan, the judgment of God is a mercy. The judgment of God is a relief for those who defer wrath and judgment to God, who wait and suffer wrong and violence, much of it done against them even in the name of justice. For those who wait and persevere to the end, who trust even when the love of many grows cold and the faith of some veers into error, the judgment of God settles everything, and we look forward to it. It is a mercy to us that God would come to our aid and defense, that He would forever shut the mouth of the liar. His word is the last word.
Jonah didn’t even kind of get this. His expectation was that judgment would be fire and destruction and vengeance on his terms against those whom he chose because hatred was his passion, not love.
For those who cling for life to the Rock, who leave the judgment and fire and destruction and vengeance to God—who moves in perfect communion with both justice and mercy—justice is a mercy. For those who hate the light, there is never any satisfaction, never any justice, never any mercy, and never any peace. If you’re like Jonah, you’re at war with the Prince of Peace, opposed to the sovereign God of all.
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