The Life of Jonah Part 2 -Agitated and Angry Jonah

Jonah becomes angry when God forgives the people of Nineveh. The life of Jonah part 2 will discuss why Jonah was wrong in his thinking towards the people of Nineveh, and how God’s mercy leads to an agitated and angry Jonah. We begin this podcast by reading Jonah 4:1-2. In these two verses, we see that Jonah becomes mad after he had visited the people of Nineveh.

But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry.
And he prayed unto the LORD, and said, I pray thee, O LORD, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil. – Jonah 4:1-2

This great revival is taking place, and we learn the preacher hates the congregation. Jonah did not like his congregation. Jonah then states that he knew God was slow to anger when he did not do what he was supposed to. Jonah wanted to see destruction come to the people of Nineveh. The Syrians were very cruel people, and Jonah knew this.

Agitated and Angry Jonah

Today as Christians we are a lot like Jonah. We are very quick to want God to pour out a whipping on our enemies. God, however, conforms us to the image of his son. Jesus was not one who quickly became angry, even though it did happen from time to time. Jesus lived and died, to set men free, never to get revenge on them. Jesus wanted repentance, Jonah did not.

If they had repented, God is true to forgive them. This leads to Jonah becoming not only angry, but also very agitated. Jonah makes this clear in chapter four. This is much different from the Jonah that we discuss in the first podcast on Jonah that we covered in this series (click here to listen now!). So how does this apply to our Christian walk?

Jonah and Today’s Christian Walk

If we are going to be comformed to Christ, we are like metal. Mental is not bent when it is cold, or lukewarm, but hot. We as Christians need to understand that when we try to walk in the image of Christ, the heat is going to get turned on. The more the heat, the easier it is to become like Christ. Metal will be conformed the hotter it gets. We as Christians should rejoice in the trials and troubles of life, because we have to be changed.

No matter how long you are on the faith journey there are still things we have to work on. We know that there is warfare taking place. You prove the flesh by stating there are things you don’t have to work on. Be sure to listen to the full podcast about the life of Jonah series to hear the full conversation that takes place.