Keeping the Right Perspective

Jonah 4:1-4

Once he got his act together inside the fish, Jonah gives his best at communicating the message of impending doom to the city of Jonah. With his readily apparent anger issues, Jonah was likely a very good prophet of gloom, delivering the message of imminent destruction very passionately with raw emotion. Indeed, his effectiveness as the messenger is confirmed by the fact the people heard and applied his message, repenting of the sins he was pointing out to them.

But, it is clear in these verses that Jonah really didn’t care about the people, or their fate without reconciliation to God. Instead, Jonah is angry that God didn’t destroy the people as he had proclaimed. He is angry that they took the message to heart, and turned their lives around, back to God. He is angry that God's grace prevailed. How could he show grace and favour to such vile, evil people? They deserved to be punished! God, that's what You said You would do - how can You go back on Your word?

Yet, Jonah experienced God's grace himself. The whole fish episode is the most recent example. He had seen God's grace in action before, recounting that to God as his reason for running away in the first place. How could he not want that same grace extended to the Assyrians?  Could it be because of their history of war against the people of Israel?


Two aspects of relevance for me to apply today:

• There are a lot of vile people in our world. Do I seek God's punishment for their evilness, or His grace to restore them to relationship with Him? Do I want God to "get even" with them for me, or transform them?
• Jonah got so lost in and focused on the task. That can easily happen to us as well, even if we are in the "grace" business! We can often focus on the task aspects of what we’re doing, and miss the people side. The pressure of budgets, deadlines, agendas can easily take our eyes off the people who we work with, and for.

God, please remind me daily of your grace for me. Give me your eyes and heart of compassion so that I can see those around me the way you see them, and keep my priorities straight.