Where He Leads I Will Follow: It’s Not Just What You Do, It’s HOW You Do It That Counts
This displeased Jonah terribly and he became very angry. He prayed to the LORD and said, “Oh, LORD, this is just what I thought would happen when I was in my own country. This is what I tried to prevent by attempting to escape to Tarshish! – because I knew that you are gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in mercy, and one who relents concerning threatened judgement. Jonah 4:1-2
There are so many lessons we can learn from the book of Jonah, but today I believe our study’s authors are pointing us to the heart of the matter, Jonah’s heart that is. You see, Jonah was a prophet, someone tasked with bringing the Word of the LORD to the people. He did it all the time. One day, though, he received a Word that he didn’t want to bring. It was a message of destruction he was instructed to bring to the enemies of his people. You’d think this would be right up his alley! Fire and brimstone! Curse the heathens! But no, Jonah knew God better than that. As it says in today’s verses, “I knew that you are gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in mercy, and one who relents concerning threatened judgement.” Jonah was afraid that if he warned the Ninevites, the people God was sending him to, they might repent and God might not punish them after all. Jonah was so afraid of this possibility that He disobeyed God and ran as far in the opposite direction as possible, heading to Tarshish by boat. Despite working for God for a long time, he somehow still thought that he could thwart God’s plans, but he learned the hard way that no one is bigger than God!
As I’m sure you’re
likely aware, God got Jonah’s attention by having him be swallowed by a whale
and living in its belly for three days. Jonah begged God for a second chance
and swore to obey Him, so the whale literally vomited Jonah up on the shore and
he went about what he was tasked with, warning Nineveh of its impending doom.
And, just as Jonah had feared, the people took his warning seriously, even the
king came down off his throne, took off his royal robes, and sat in sackcloth
and ashes, proclaiming for himself and the entire city a fast of repentance
before God. So God relented and did not enact His judgment on Nineveh. This
upset Jonah so much that it led to what I refer to as the biggest temper
tantrum in the Bible. I love how VeggieTales portrayed it in their retelling of
the Jonah story:
Yep, he threw a holy
terror fit, collapsed on the ground and said he wished he were dead. Remind you
of a three-year-old that didn’t get their way? Yeah, me too. But this is a
full-grown man! So, where did he go wrong? What led to this ultimate tantrum?
First off, Jonah
harbored hatred in his heart for the Ninevites. He wanted them dead, destroyed,
wiped off the face of the earth. He didn’t want to see mercy or justice, he
wanted revenge. Second, he saw himself as better than them. He felt like he
should get a second chance, he asked for one in the belly of the whale, but he
didn’t think that they should. Third and finally, he thought he knew better
than God. He felt like he could change the course of history by not
going to Nineveh when he was told. He thought that he should be in charge of
who heard what from God when. He put himself in the absolutely wrong place in
comparison to God.
One of the most
important aspects of obedience is confessing and believing that God knows best
and His way is the right way. As long as we think our way is better than God’s
in our heart, we’re never going to be able to fully obey God with our heart,
soul, mind and strength (Mark 12:30). The
first and most important step in this whole process is acknowledging that God
is bigger, stronger, wiser, all the things. He knows best. Period. Once we
accept that completely, obedience gets a lot easier!
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