The Christian Appeal (January 2001)

"Mad at God"
by N. E. Rhodes, Jr.  

 

"But God said to Jonah, "Do you do well to be angry for the plant?" And he said, "I do well to be angry, angry enough to die" (Jonah 4:9).

Jonah was mad at God and felt that his anger was justified. Why so? Consider the story.

Jonah was busy minding his own business and didn’t want to go to Nineveh in the first place. It might have been different if Jonah had been a volunteer. But Jonah was far from being a volunteer.

God told Jonah to go cry out against the wickedness of Nineveh, but Jonah knew God pretty well. In Jonah 4:2 he said, "I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love." This is exactly what Jonah was mad about. He knew God well enough to know that God simply couldn’t be trusted not to be merciful. So when God told him to go to Nineveh, Jonah decided to go to Tarshish instead.

Jonah was afraid that if he went to Nineveh and prophesied their destruction, the people of Nineveh might repent and God would forgive them. That would make Jonah look like a false prophet. So Jonah fled to go to Tarshish.

After all, Jonah wasn’t hurting anybody before God told him to go to Nineveh. He was just doing his own thing, and then God interfered and got him in a lot of trouble. In Jonah’s opinion, that wasn’t fair. Jonah bought passage to Tarshish and washed his hands of the whole silly business.

But God sent a storm. Jonah knew the storm was from God and knew why. So Jonah became heroic. He offered himself as a sacrifice to still the storm. He told the ship’s crew to throw him overboard. Wasn’t that noble?

It was indeed, but it still wasn’t obeying God. God did not want Jonah as a volunteer sacrifice to end a storm. He wanted him as a preacher to Nineveh.

The Fish Story

God sent a big fish and Jonah the hero had a very bad seventy-two hours in its belly. But after all, Jonah felt, he had proven how heroic he was. He felt he now had the right to call for deliverance. He prayed and was coughed up. At last Jonah, the hero, went to Nineveh and prophesied their destruction in forty days.

But just as Jonah had feared, God took pity on a penitent Nineveh and spared the city.

Then Jonah was angry. Why make him look bad in order to save Nineveh? He considered it unfair. Didn’t Jonah have any rights? Why should God be good to everybody but Jonah?

Jonah built a booth on a hilltop overlooking the city of Nineveh so he would have some shelter while he watched the city to see if God would yet destroy it. He evidently hoped God would still come through and back him up.

After all, it wasn’t Jonah’s idea to go to Nineveh to start with. It was God’s idea. Jonah had tried to avoid this Nineveh mess, but God had forced him. God had then turned around and made Jonah look bad by showing mercy to Nineveh. Mercy was fine but what about Jonah?

Why was God so sweet to wicked Nineveh and so hard on his own prophet? Why not do something nice to Jonah for a change?

God heard the wail of Jonah and caused a plant to grow up and shade him. Now that was better. That was distinctly better. God was finally doing something for Jonah. Well, wasn’t it about time?

Then God sent a worm to cut down the plant, and Jonah was again exposed to the sun and a blistering east wind.

That was the last straw. God had started to do something terrible to Nineveh and had thought better of it. Then he had started to do something nice to Jonah and had thought better of that. God couldn’t be trusted not to be merciful—to anybody but Jonah.

Jonah, the self-sacrificing hero who had volunteered to be cast into an angry sea for the safety of others, was getting a raw deal.

Jonah, the prophet of God, was being made to look like a fool.

Jonah, whose skin had been tenderized by the acids of a fish’s belly, was being cooked by merciless sun and wind.

Did Jonah do well to be angry? Jonah felt that he did.

What About Us?

Do we do well to be angry? Here we are living our decent, orderly lives and God interferes.

If we had volunteered for duty, maybe it would be different. Maybe we had thought about going into full-time preaching but decided against it. Or perhaps we had considered doubling our giving and making a real financial sacrifice but had decided we couldn’t afford it. We had felt the pull of God’s guidance but had not received proper encouragement. So we turned away and headed for Tarshish.

We didn’t get away with it, of course. God found us out there on a sea of doubt and indecision. We then decided to be very heroic. We would prove how good and brave we were in our own way. We went through a pretty rough time. So now we figure we have paid our way. We have obligated God to back us up and bless our plans.

But if God doesn’t, what then? Do we do well to be angry?

We do well to be angry if we have the right to plan our own lives and resent interference.

We do well to be angry if we are always right and everybody else is always wrong. God should always bless us and put down the unreasonable smart alecks who oppose us.

We should always have the money and they should have to come begging at our door. We should be praised and petted and they should be humiliated.

If God can’t understand this obvious fact and cooperate, then the least he can do is to let us alone. We are angry enough to die.

"O Lord, take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live" (Jonah 4:3). Since God won’t do things my way, why doesn’t he just kill me? I would rather die than not have my way. Then, after I’m dead, they’ll all be sorry. They will come and weep over my cold, still body and see how badly I have been abused.

But God won’t even do that when I want him to. Do I not do well to be angry? Why doesn’t God just kill me?

How can God kill someone who is already dead?