Theological Commentary: Click Here
The last two
chapters of Jonah are classic. They are
also often portrayed wrongly. We teach
our children that Jonah happily goes off to Nineveh, preaches, and saves. He does go.
The people do listen. God
relents. But Jonah is not happy at all
about doing it. He is obedient, but he’s
angry.
What does
this tell us? Again, prophets are
human. Prophets feel anger. They aren’t robots who obey without emotion,
they feel for what they are asked to do.
In the case where they are asked to do something pleasant, they have joy. In the case where they are asked to do
something unpleasant, they can feel anger.
We also
learn that a prophet’s humanity can make them wrong. Jonah feels anger over the fact that the people
of Nineveh are saved. He tells God that
he tried to go to Tarshish in the first place because he knew that God would
relent and the Assyrians would be spared.
Jonah is angered because God is showing mercy. We shouldn’t ever be angered by god’s grace
and mercy, but as human beings we are.
We want people to get what they deserve, forgetting that we ourselves
are only saved because of the mercy God first showed us.
Finally, we
do learn that prophets are obedient. While
Jonah is not in the right frame of mind, the job gets done. The conflict between Jonah and God is left
unresolved, but the people of Nineveh are saved. God is willing to work with us, flaws and
all. While I am sure that God would
rather have willing obedience, He can work with any kind of obedience. Prophets get the job done.
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