Jon 4:1 | KingComments | STEP | If the book of Jonah would have been nothing more than a narrative of a man, then the story would have ended with Jonah 3. Could there be a more beautiful ending with the climax of the conversion and salvation of Nineveh? What a victory for God and for Jonah! But the great (anti)climax is yet to come and it comes in this chapter. That climax is the lesson about the narrow mindedness of man – even if that man is a servant of God – and about the immense greatness of God’s heart, both for Nineveh and Jonah and … for me and you. Only if we don’t know ourselves well, we can’t imagine that Jonah’s attitude here is possible. He has forgotten his stay in the fish. Here we see in practice what we possibly have already discovered ourselves, that no experience of God’s goodness will ever improve the flesh. The flesh is so hopelessly depraved that only the death and resurrection of Christ can bring about a change. This change is not an improvement of the flesh, but the provision of a new nature to live through it. Jonah begrudges Nineveh the forgiveness of God which he himself experienced so particularly after his own disobedience (cf. ). If there is “joy in heaven over one sinner who repents” ( ), how the joy there must have been exuberant over the conversion of a whole city. But Jonah does not share in that joy. On the contrary. He would have preferred to see hundreds of thousands of people die rather than his reputation be damaged. He has no control over his own mind. It is the spirit of the Pharisees who also could not bear that the Lord Jesus ate and drank with tax collectors and sinners either ( ).

‏ Jonah 4:1

Introduction

If the book of Jonah would have been nothing more than a narrative of a man, then the story would have ended with Jonah 3. Could there be a more beautiful ending with the climax of the conversion and salvation of Nineveh? What a victory for God and for Jonah! But the great (anti)climax is yet to come and it comes in this chapter. That climax is the lesson about the narrow mindedness of man – even if that man is a servant of God – and about the immense greatness of God’s heart, both for Nineveh and Jonah and … for me and you.

Jonah’s Reaction to God’s Goodness

Only if we don’t know ourselves well, we can’t imagine that Jonah’s attitude here is possible. He has forgotten his stay in the fish. Here we see in practice what we possibly have already discovered ourselves, that no experience of God’s goodness will ever improve the flesh. The flesh is so hopelessly depraved that only the death and resurrection of Christ can bring about a change. This change is not an improvement of the flesh, but the provision of a new nature to live through it.

Jonah begrudges Nineveh the forgiveness of God which he himself experienced so particularly after his own disobedience (cf. Mt 18:23-35). If there is “joy in heaven over one sinner who repents” (Lk 15:7), how the joy there must have been exuberant over the conversion of a whole city. But Jonah does not share in that joy. On the contrary. He would have preferred to see hundreds of thousands of people die rather than his reputation be damaged. He has no control over his own mind. It is the spirit of the Pharisees who also could not bear that the Lord Jesus ate and drank with tax collectors and sinners either (Lk 15:2).