My thoughts on a Bible Chapter that Calvinist supposed would never be written!
Jonah 4 (NASB)
Jonah's Displeasure Rebuked
Jonah 4
1But it greatly displeased Jonah and he became angry.
2He prayed to the LORD and said, "Please LORD, was not this what I said while I was still in my own country? Therefore in order to forestall this I fled to Tarshish, for I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, and one who relents concerning calamity.
3"Therefore now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for death is better to me than life."
In this case the “it” that displeased Jonah in chapter 4 is the fact that God is NOT going to destroy the city. Jonah does not express his full displeasure with the decision of God until he sees that God has decided NOT to destroy the city.
Notice the ending of Jonah 3 as the wicked king of Nineveh seeks mercy where no mercy was announced?
The destruction was predicted to occur “in 40 days”. Notice that in chapter 3 the end result is “God did not do it”.
Jonah 3
9"Who knows, God may turn and relent and withdraw His burning anger so that we will not perish."
10When God saw their deeds, that they turned from their wicked way, then God relented concerning the calamity which He had declared He would bring upon them. And He did not do it.
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Jonah’s message to the city was not
“REPENT and believe or else you will be destroyed”. His message was only
“40 days and YOU WILL be destroyed”. Jonah was working for a specific “end” in mind.
Jonah 3
4Then Jonah began to go through the city one day's walk; and he cried out and said, "Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown."
But as chapter 3 points out
“God did not do it”
So now – there is the confrontation in chapter 4 between God AND HIS prophet! A confrontation where the REASONS for God “not doing it” are the focus of the chapter (As much as Calvinists can not allow themselves to admit this obvious fact).
Jonah 4
4The LORD said, "Do you have good reason to be angry?"
5Then Jonah went out from the city and sat east of it. There he made a shelter for himself and sat under it in the shade until he could see what would happen in the city.
6So the LORD God appointed a plant and it grew up over Jonah to be a shade over his head to deliver him from his discomfort. And Jonah was extremely happy about the plant.
7But God appointed a worm when dawn came the next day and it attacked the plant and it withered.
8When the sun came up God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on Jonah's head so that he became faint and begged with all his soul to die, saying, "Death is better to me than life."
Jonah is clearly displeased and angry. God’s challenge has been “do you have
good reason to be angry” and this will extend to “the reasons” God has for showing mercy in the next phase of their discussion.
Jonah 4
9Then God said to Jonah, "Do you have good reason to be angry about the plant?" And he said, "I have good reason to be angry, even to death."
10Then the LORD said, "You had compassion on the plant for which you did not work and which you did not cause to grow, which came up overnight and perished overnight.
11"Should I not have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know the difference between their right and left hand, as well as many animals?"
