Such Love

I was reading Jonah this morning. Yeah, I have heard the story many times but as I was reading about Jonah being in the belly of the fish and seaweed was around his head.....yuck, it even made my stomach have butterflies, can you imagine how it must have been in the belly of a fish!!?? Well God delivers him from that situation and Jonah heads on to Nineveh, probably thankful to not be in the belly of the fish anymore but still probably not in a good mood, he doesn't want to go to Nineveh anyway and then after being in the belly of a fish and spit out he probably feels gross. Well he tells the people of Nineveh that God is going to destroy them in fourty days and the people actually listen and repent of their wicked ways, even the king steps down and tells all the people,that they must fast (even the animals), wear garments of mourning, pray earnestly to God, turn from their evil ways, and stop their violence (wouldn't it be great to see our president step down and tell the people of America to do this?). Well because the people have repented God changes his mind and does not destroy the country. You would think that this would please Jonah, but NO, he becomes very angry and tells God, "didn't I say before I left home that you would do this, Lord? That is why I ran away to Tarshish! I knew that you are MERCIFUL AND COMPASSIONATE GOD, SLOW TO GET ANGRY AND FILLED WITH UNFAILING LOVE. YOU ARE EAGER TO TURN BACK FROM DESTROYING PEOPLE." I love this, we serve a God who does NOT want to destroy people, He loves us so much, I am so glad he does not get angry quickly and He is merciful. Jonah should have been very glad for this too, just think God just showed him mercy by allowing a fish to swallow him and giving Jonah a second chance but was Jonah grateful, no, he was very angry. He wanted to die, Jonah 4:3 says Jonah said "just kill me now, Lord! I would rather be dead than alive if what I predicted will not happen." God asks Jonah if he has a right to be angry. Jonah doesn't answer but then God sends a plant to shade Jonah from the hot sun, God also sends a worm to destroy the plant the next day, again Jonah is angry and God ask Jonah if he has the right to be angry over a plant? This time Jonah does answer and he says, YES, I am so angry I want to die! And the Lord replies, "You feel sorry about the plant, though you did nothing to put it there. It came quickly and died quickly. But Nineveh has more than 120,000 people living in spiritual darkness, not to mention all the animals. Shouldn't I feel sorry for such a great city?" Don't you love it God even mentioned the animals living in Nineveh?

Are we not so much like Jonah? We get so angry and caught up in things that do not really matter. I know I am guilty of this. I get angry over things that are not nearly as important as the souls of people. That person driving too slow in front of me, that person taking too long to check out at the grocery store, having to wait too long to get our food at McDonalds, the dog whining and driving me crazy......such small irritations and inconveniences and yet they drive us to get angry or at the least very frustrated. Then I read Jonah and see our God so slow to become angry, so merciful, so loving with an unfailing love. I, like Jonah, have a long way to go. It is good to see that Jonah though is such a normal person, just like us, he got angry, he got depressed, he as so normal and God used him, it gives us hope that God can use us and He will use us if we trust him and allow him to.