Jonah 4:5-11

This is about Jonah - most everyone knows about the fish part, and Jonah being bad, and not doing what God wanted, etc. But not many people know about the end, where Jonah is angry over God's compassion. The chapter tells about Jonah being mad about God saving Nineveh: the city he was supposed to go preach to in the first place and didn't, and when he finally did and they repented, God had mercy on them and didn't destroy them. Then it goes on to say about Jonah sitting down outside the city, and the Lord "provided a vine and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head and ease his discomfort," (vs 6) Jonah was happy with this - it's hot and dry, and now he has a plant for shade. But the next morning, God made a worm to eat the vine, and by the time the heat of the day came, Jonah had no shade to take away the heat and scorching wind. So he was angry with God - after all, God took away his comfort. God asked him if he had a right to be angry about the vine. God replied, "You have been concerned about this vine, though you did not tend it or make it grow... Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left... should I not be concerned about that great city?" And that is the end of the book. That last line.

I think the point here is that Jonah was angry at the injustice. He thought that Nineveh should have suffered - they were an evil people and Jonah thought they deserved punishment for what they had done. Although God brings justice, he is a God of mercy, and he had compassion on them, and when they begged his forgiveness, he thought nothing more of wiping the slate. After all, he created them nurtured them, and helped them grow. The same, if the lady next door has this great big fruit tree right on the fence, and every now and then you grab a piece that's on your side or has dropped on your side of the fence, it's great. What difference does it make to her? But what if she then chops it down. Does it make you angry? She's taken something you thought should stay - why would she do that? She knew it benefited you as well. But what right do you have to be angry at her? What if she decided to keep the tree, and you thought it blocked her view - not yours, hers - what right do you have to be angry that she isn't doing what you want? It isn't your tree. You didn't grow it, tend it, love it into tree-hood. But if it were your tree, and you chopped it down - that's different. She doesn't have a right to be angry at you.

So take into consideration that things in life aren't yours - they're God's. He created 'your' tree, he nurtured this world into life - he is also the one who made your children, your family. You aren't angry at God when he has mercy on your child, when he has done something stupid, dangerous, criminal. When he forgives your child, you don't hate God. So why do you hate him when he passes judgement? When he disciplines his children? Is it not still love?