Jonah

Jonah 1:1-4:11

I love Veggie Tales, and I love the story of Jonah. I love this lesson and remind myself that I don't want to end up in the belly of the whale. Deciding I know better than God is not wise.

Jonah decides to go somewhere that God isn't. Yeah like that'll work. Even in running, Jonah is a witness. These mariners, who were just praying to run of the mill household gods, knew the God of heaven who made the dry land and the sea was more terrifying than all their little gods together. Even though they didn't want to harm Jonah, in the end they had no choice but to heave him overboard. They pray  "O Lord, let us not perish for this man's life, and lay not on us innocent blood, for you, O Lord, have done as it pleased you."

They seem to know better than Jonah at this point. A big fish was appointed to swallow Jonah for three days and three nights. Really? Smelly! Yuk. Hmmm, better than drowning. I think. What does Jonah think?

The waters closed over his head and the Lord brought him up out of the deep. When "my life was fainting away, I remembered the Lord." Why do we wait till our life is fading away to pray? Oh after all this, now Jonah goes to where the Lord asked him to go. No wonder it was reckoned to Abram as righteousness; he went where the Lord asked without even knowing where he was going. Perhaps it is a blessing not to know where we are going? Was Jonah afraid of Nineveh? (Were there fish slappers?-Veggie tale lovers know that answer.)

Now Nineveh hears the word of the Lord and repents. Good, right? Why is Jonah mad?

When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.

Didn't God just do this for Jonah? Why is Jonah mad?

Chapter 4
But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. And he prayed to the Lord and said, "O Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster. Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live." And the Lord said, "Do you do well to be angry?"

What is this? Does Jonah think his reputation is harmed because he preached doom and it didn't come? Are we angry because God is merciful? What the heck!

Jonah went out of the city and sat to the east of the city and made a booth for himself there. He sat under it in the shade, till he should see what would become of the city. Now the Lord God appointed a plant and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be a shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort. So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the plant. But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant, so that it withered. When the sun rose, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint. And he asked that he might die and said, "It is better for me to die than to live." But God said to Jonah, "Do you do well to be angry for the plant?" And he said, "Yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die." And the Lord said, "You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?"

Do we get angry over things we have no control? Are we less than gracious? Those who do not know their left hand from their right, are obviously young or child like, the Lord cares for them along with their beasts. The Lord does not kill indiscriminately and He hears the prayers of those who call upon  the name of the Lord . I love this lesson. I do not want to end up in the belly of the whale. I also pray that we are open to the Lord's work in the world around us. Do we worry over things we have not labored do we want ownership of things we haven't made? Or can we let God be God?

See you tomorrow.
-maggie