Jonah. He is one of those people in the Bible, you know? He’s not a David who, despite his failings, still manages to be called a man after God’s own heart. Nor is Jonah like Peter, who, again, had his shortcomings but was zealous for Jesus in just about everything he did. (Well, except for that incident with the crowing rooster… .) But Jonah is just Jonah. The man who was thrown overboard, swallowed by a whale, vomited up onto shore, who then went to the city he was running away from, preached a sermon urging them to repent and got mad when the people repented.
He’s kind of a pain. Sometimes I think God included the story of this man in the Bible just so we could know that we don’t have to be anything special for God to use us. He can use anyone—even if they are unwilling—God has His ways! Sitting in church the other week, I thought about Jonah and realized that it is not always about others.
Jonah really didn’t want to go to this land of horrible people to preach to them (you wouldn’t want to either) so he ran away. He got caught and God called out Jonah’s disobedience in a spectacular way (the big fish swallowing Jonah!) and so Jonah went, but he really didn’t want to. These people were the Israelites’ biggest enemies so Jonah was more than a little upset when these people did a complete and quick 180 turn and corrected their ways. Jonah knew God was kind and compassionate and while Jonah wanted to see these people destroyed, he knew that if they repented God would spare them.
I always pictured this as Jonah being upset because God spared these people who kind of had it coming. But digging a little deeper, I wonder if it’s because Jonah saw that these people, who he considered to be beneath him, were quicker to turn from evil and listen to God than Jonah was in some ways. Did he feel that they were given more grace than he was? Is the story of Jonah less of a story of disobedience and more of a story about jealousy as to whom God sheds His mercy upon?
Jonah was a prophet, who had been doing God’s work for, presumably, much of his life. He’s then given the task to convict these people of their sin. They repent and God shows them grace—without them having to spend three days and nights in the belly of a very, very, large fish! To Jonah, it probably seemed like these people had it pretty easy! Why should they get to repent and be forgiven just like that, when Jonah makes one very disobedient decision and ends up thrown overboard, thinking he’s going to die, in the middle of a storm. I think Jonah was mad because they were shown a different measure of grace than he felt he was. Have you ever been upset about God’s grace too?
Have you ever been in the middle of a really tough season and looked around and seen everything going right for someone who seemingly hasn’t worked as hard as you have? Have you been mad that your life, despite you doing everything you know to be right, has had what seems like more than its fair share of ups and downs, while your non-believer neighbor seems to have one good thing after another fall into place for them?
Our lives are not equal. Some people have a harder time of it than others and only the Good Lord knows why that is. It’s easy to look at Jonah and think that he was really messed up—but most likely, we have all been a Jonah at some point in our life.
The next time you are looking around at someone who seems to have life falling into place for them, I challenge you to remember that it’s not about us; it is about how God can use us and our stories for His Glory.