But to Jonah this seemed very wrong, and he became angry. He prayed
to the Lord, “Isn’t
this what I said, Lord, when I
was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I
knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding
in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. Now, Lord, take away my life, for it
is better for me to die than to live.” Jonah 4:1-3
Prejudice. Jonah preferred to see judgment reign down on
Nineveh which is why he left the city and took a seat outside to hopefully
watch a Sodom and Gomorrah like firestorm reign down on them.
Instead,
God spared them. Jonah felt he had a
right to be angry, which is a dangerous place to be in our prejudice. We’ve seen many deep seated hatreds towards
people turn into deadly acts of terrorism, from KKK to Muslim bombers. Jonah joined their ranks but God tried to
teach him to believe otherwise.