God Confronts His Prophet
God Confronts His Prophet
“Then the Lord said, is it right for you to be angry?” Jonah 4:4 NKJV
Do you ever notice how God ask questions He already knows the answer to? Let’s look at some examples of what I mean: Adam and Eve, their eyes were open to nakedness, and they hid themselves from the presence of the Lord. And the Lord called to Adam asking a few questions. First, he asked, where are you. And then he followed up with a second question, who told you that you were naked. And finally, he asked Adam if he had eaten from the tree which he had commanded him not to. The prophet Isaiah was asked, whom shall I send. Jesus asked Peter, who do people say that the son of Man is?
To me, the story of Cain and Abel greatly resembles the Lord’s line of questioning to the prophet Jonah. Adam and Eve, they had two sons Cain and Abel. Cain was a farmer who offered God a portion of his crops as a sacrifice only to learn that God was more pleased with Abel, a herdsman, who presented God with the fattest portion of his flock. The Lord made it clear to Cain that he could have improved on his offering. Do you see the similarity of he and Jonah’s reaction to God’s right to choose?
Jonah wishes to die because the people of Nineveh were saved, and Cain’s premeditated the demise of his brother Abel, killing him in the field. God asked Cain the same question He asked Jonah, “why was he angry?” As we switch back to Jonah, we have heard all of his complaints as he continues to remain on the wrong side of the issue. God asked him a question concerning his overall behavior: “Is it right for you to be angry?” As I think about the question, didn’t God’s right to choose benefit for Jonah? Was it not God’s mercy that kept him alive inside the belly of the great fish? Was it not God who spoke to the fish who vomited Jonah onto dry land? Wasn’t mercy extended to him when he disobediently went somewhere else instead of where he was told to go? Was it not God’s mercy that gave him a second chance to do His bidding?
God was not finished teaching our wayward prophet yet as he prepared an objective lesson. Still upset, Jonah went out of the city and sat on the east side of it where he made himself a shelter. He was still hoping for a fire from the sky, world wind, earthquakes, just something to stop their celebration. The Lord prepared a plant and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be shade for his head to deliver him from misery. Jonah was grateful for the plant. It was relief from a compassionate God. But Jonah was unable to recognize it because he was too busy being mad at God’s right to choose. He was having a relapse in memory y’all, for crying outloud Jonah, could he not remember where he was? In the belly of a fish!
But look at God, as the morning dawned, He prepared a worm, and it damaged the plant and it withered. When the sun rose, God prepared an east wind and the sun beat upon Jonah’s head, and he grew faint. Then he wished death for himself, and he was ready to die. He was angry about EVERYTHING! The Hebrew word for angry is to be hot. So, Jonah was feeling God’s sizzle.
The scripture says: “But God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?” “It is,” he said. “And I’m so angry I wish I were dead.” Let me pause there to say that this would be Jonah’s last response, imagine it friends, this would be how Jonah would be remembered in biblical history. Still stubborn as a mule! Lord Help.
The Master Teacher, Lord of Lords, the Great I Am, would have the final words as He says to Jonah, “You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. And should I not have concern for the great city of Niveveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left- and also many animals?”
What’s the point? God answers to no one! But we will answer to Him. He rules with ultimate authority and power over EVERYTHING. He owes no explanation, we must trust in his vision, He indeed friends can see so much further than we can. I didn’t always feel I deserved his grace and Mercy, but he looked beyond my faults, and His love lifted me. Thank you, Jesus. Hallelujah. Salvation is the Lords. Amen
Remember Friends, we are each other’s keeper and the only time we should be looking down on someone is when we are helping them up.