Jonah Was a Jerk!

[n david]

Sometimes you believe you know the story and then when you're reading it again, something new gets your attention.

"""The word of the LORD came to Jonah the son of Amittai saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh the great city and cry against it, for their wickedness has come up before Me.” But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. So he went down to Joppa, found a ship which was going to Tarshish, paid the fare and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD."""

I've always heard it preached that Ninevah was a wicked city and Jonah fled to Tarshish because he was afraid to go to Ninevah due to the cruelty and violence against the prophets.

Until I read today:

"""Then 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.”""

"""Then the people of Nineveh believed in God; and they called a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least of them"""

"""When 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."""

Jonah finally went to Ninevah and preached judgment. Incredibly the whole city turned to God! Awesome!

So how does Jonah respond?

"""But it greatly displeased Jonah and he became angry."""

I've known this part. Jonah preached, Ninevah repented and turned to God and then Jonah got angry because God didn't destroy Ninevah anyway. Jonah must be the only prophet, minister, evangelist, pastor, etc who became angry over people getting saved, much less 120,000 people!

Here's what I've probably read a hundred times and just passed over without much thought until today:

"""He 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."""

Jonah was a jerk! He didn't flee to Tarshish because he was afraid of how evil and cruel the Ninevites were. He fled because he knew God would forgive and have mercy on Ninevah and he wanted it destroyed!