When Anger Takes Over


Jonah 3:10-4:4
10 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. 4:1But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. 2 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. 3 Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” 4And the Lord said, “Do you do well to be angry?”

One of the things I have struggled with in life is my savant ability to use words as weapons when I’m angry. It is a shameful admission, but a reality, nonetheless. My anger has been epic and mostly in the past. God has graciously allowed that to be tempered as I age and while I’m grateful for that, I’m sure my family is even happier.

After delivering his prophetic message to Nineveh, Jonah goes to a hill top east of Nineveh to watch and see what happens. What he sees stirs up an almost uncontrollable rage in his heart. He watches as God spares Nineveh destruction and instead offers them mercy and forgiveness. The only emotion Jonah feels over that is rage. One thing we can say about Jonah – he’s honest with God. He knew that God would act with grace and mercy if Nineveh repented and that is the last thing this bigot wanted to see. He wanted to see Nineveh burn and the opposite happens. He is in fact so angry, he claims that he wants to die! Even as someone with anger issues, I’m happy to say I’ve never been that angry. In this unrighteous anger, we find the true Jonah.

Jonah is self-centered, self-righteous, and self-willed. He assumes that he can choose his own mission and message. Nevertheless, the sailors were changed and converted to saving faith (1:16) by Jonah’s confession of faith (1:9), and Nineveh has been converted to saving faith (3:5–9) through Jonah’s prophecy (3:4). Even Yahweh has changed his verdict from judgment to salvation (3:9–10). The only figure in the book who remains unchanged is Jonah.
Lessing, R. R. (2007). Jonah (p. 375). St. Louis, MO: CPH.

As we face a world filled with racial strife, we must admire the fact that God dealt with these feeling in His children way back in the Old Testament. The entire book of Jonah is designed to cure in us readers any Jonah-like anger at the salvation of those unlike ourselves.

God has only one response to Jonah’s rage. “Do you do well to be angry?” God encourages Jonah to think that through. Is his anger a good response? Of course the answer to that is “no”. But Jonah will need some further instruction and God is a Master Teacher.

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