Prophet Jonah who does not have the heart of God

 Prophet Jonah who does not have 

the heart of God

 

 

 “But it greatly displeased Jonah and he became angry.  He prayed to the LORD and said, "Please LORD, was not this what I said while I was still in my own country? Therefore in order to forestall this I fled to Tarshish, for I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, and one who relents concerning calamity.  Therefore now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for death is better to me than life” (Jonah 4:1-3).

 

 

                The postmodern era emphasizes emotion over reason.  So people pursue emotional and sensual things in all areas, speak and act as they go through their emotions.  In a word, one of the characteristics of the postmodern era is emotionalism (Kim).  I think there are two big problems with this emotionalism.  One of the problems is that our emotions are not drawn by our rational logic, and another problem is that our emotions aren’t flowing out of solid character.  These two problems are interrelated.  For example, if we, Christians, aren’t drawn by faith in the fact of the Word of God, but are drawn only drawn by feeling, our faith cannot be solid.  Not only our faith, but also our character cannot stand firmly.  If we don’t stand firmly in the sound doctrine and rely on unsound emotion, our hearts are cannot be renewed and cannot imitate Jesus.  Instead, our hearts may wonder around and be changed in bad way.  How can our hearts be changed in bad way?  We will not be able to walk straight in faith but will fall into relativism, pluralism and syncretism.  Aren’t we now so degraded?

 

                When I think about the servant of God, Prophet Jonah in Jonah 4:1-3, I think he was a servant of God who didn’t have the heart of God.  For example, even though Jonah knew that God is slow to anger (v. 2), he himself was very angry (v. 1).   Although Jonah knew that God relents concerning calamity (v. 2), he didn’t relent his heart toward the people of Nineveh.  He wanted God to bring calamity on them (3:10).  It was because he didn’t love the Ninevites.  So after he prayed to God in his anger (vv. 1-3), he left the city of Nineveh, and built a shelter on the east side of the city, and sat down in the shade to see what would happen to Nineveh (v. 5).  Not only that Jonah didn’t relent his heart toward the Ninevites, he also didn’t imitate the heart of God who turned His will toward the Ninevites.  Instead of praying to God “Yet not as I will, but as You will” (Mt. 26:39), in a sense Jonah prayed to God ‘Yet not as You will, but as I will’.  That was why after Jonah prayed to God in anger (Jonah 4:2), he went out of the city, built the shelter and waited and expected God to relent His will again and to bring calamity on the city of Nineveh.  Like God, Jonah wasn’t gracious and compassionate toward the people of Nineveh.  The reason was because Jonah's heart wasn’t driven by reason but by his emotion of anger.  Jonah's heart wasn’t controlled by his knowledge of God which he knew by reason (v. 2), but his heart was controlled by his emotions that hated the people of Nineveh by dying or living, and anger toward God (v. 1).  And this feeling of hatred and anger, which had dominated Jonah's heart, made him unable to forgive the people of Nineveh.  Isn’t it surprising that Jonah didn’t change his heart about bringing calamity on Nineveh and didn’t forgive the Ninevites even though he himself experienced God’s forgiveness when he repented his sins in the stomach of the great fish (Ch. 2)?  Who was Jonah that he refused to forgive the Ninevites whom God already forgave when they repented their sins and turned from their evil ways?  In short, the servant of God, Prophet Jonah, did not have the heart of God that even loves his enemies.  Jonah had no heart to love the dying soul of more than 120,000 people in Nineveh (4:11).  Although God had compassion on those more than 120,000 dying souls in Nineveh, Jonah didn’t have compassion on them but on himself.  So Jonah prayed to God in anger without giving up on his will (vv. 1-3).  Did his anger have good reason?

 

Jonah, who was dominated by the feelings of hatred and anger, wasn’t gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness toward the people of Nineveh.  Although Jonah knew in his head that God “a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, and one who relents concerning calamity” (v. 2), but he didn’t receive the guidance of his reason, but was driven by his anger and hatred toward the people of Nineveh (vv. 2-3) in his prayer (v. 2) and in actions (v. 5).  In a word, Jonah was not a God’s servant who had the heart of God.  Nevertheless, God was gracious and compassionate on Jonah.  God was slow to anger and quick to love Jonah (v. 2) who firmly believed that he had good reason to be angry (v. 9).  It seems to me that God was compassionate on Jonah who didn’t have God’s heart more than those 120,000 Ninevites who didn’t know the difference between their right and left hand (v. 11).  Do we feel the heart of Heavenly Father who loves us and embraces us with His great love?

 

               ‘Father, I want my heart to be where Your heart is.

               Father, I want my tears to be where Your tears are.

    Father, I want my eyes to turn to the soul whom You see

    Father, I want my two feet to turn to the dark ground where You cry    

    My heart wants to know the heart of the Father

    My will wants to be the will of the Father

    My whole body wants to know the heart of my Father,

    My whole life wants to be Your life.

 

    (Gospel song: ‘The Heart of Heavenly Father’)