1 But it displeased Jonah exceedingly,[a] 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. (Jonah 4:1-2 ESV)
We well remember the tale of Jonah and the whale. But we tend to forget the rest of Jonah’s story. Jonah was a man of passion. Not only in that he disobeyed God and was swallowed up by the whale, but afterward when he was dealing with Nineveh.
You see, he prophesied in Nineveh and the people repented. But Jonah did not really want this. He wanted God to wipe the Ninevites out completely so that they would not attack the Jews. He became angry with God and God had to teach him another lesson is obedience.
Arn’t we the same? We get taught a lesson by God and then we end up going right back to either the same sin or something greater. We rebel against God over and over again in either subtle or not so subtle ways. We think that we know better and we want God to respond in our way and not His. Even after the whale has swallowed us, we find ourselves forgetting and becoming angry or frustrated with God. We forget our right relationship.
Consider, today, how you are arguing with God either openly or in subtle ways and not simply obeying His commands.
