God's Will on My Terms

Scripture: "Please kill me, Lord; I’d rather be dead than alive when nothing that I told them happens." Then the Lord said, "Is it right to be angry about this?" Jonah 4:3-4

Observation: After Jonah has pronounced judgement on Nineveh and the people of the city repent, the Lord relents from punishment ... and Jonah is angry. He says this is why he didn't want to take on this mission, because he knew God, in his love and kindness, would forgive, and he wanted to see Nineveh punished and destroyed. So Jonah broods, declaring he would rather die than see his obedience result in the forgiveness of a huge city (cited as 120,000 people).

Jonah has a strange history as a prophet. He appears twice in the bible. In his own narrative, he refuses to do what the Lord tells him to, then gets angry with the Lord over the resulting success of bringing an enemy to belief in Yahweh. In 2 Kings, Jonah is said to have declared a restoration of the land of Israel, which did happen but was later undone as the nation was defeated by the Assyrians. And of course the largest Assyrian city was ... Nineveh.

In this, we see a pattern of Jonah's relationship with the Lord, Israel, and Assyria. Jonah lived at a time when the future of Israel was precarious due to their evil ways. Jonah had an interest in the survival of Israel, giving prophesy that the nation would actually thrive, and actively wishing that their enemies would be destroyed. However, Jonah may have had a challenge with aligning his wishes with the Lord's plans, as he ran away from the mission to deliver a message of warning to the Assyrians, then was outright angry when they turned to the Lord and were forgiven.

Application: Like Jonah, I often wish that God's will would align to my terms. I wish his vision of right, wrong, judgment, and blessing would coincide with my thoughts about who is right, who is wrong, who deserves judgment, and who deserves blessing.

While serving an evil king, Jonah desired the expansion - not destruction - of Israel. He meanwhile viewed other lands as evil and desired their failure as a nation above their repentance and salvation as God's created people. That is a normal human thought, to wish for the success of "your" people, tribe, and nation, above or even to the detriment of others. When it comes down to it, while I lament the current political, cultural, and moral state in the U.S., I greatly desire the success of 'my' country over all others.

Certainly, my desire for which tribes, people, communities, and nations deserve wrath, and which deserve mercy, do not align to God's perfect vision of mankind. Where I see evil, he sees hope and the potential for love. And just as likely, where I see the hope for revival, he sees the prime example of evil.

In the way that I seek to do God's work but within my priorities, and the way I see people groups, and the way I grow weary of outcomes not aligned to my personal expectations ... I am probably far more like the negative traits of Jonah than I wish I was.

Prayer: Lord, I clearly do not see, know, or understand your plan beyond this simple fact, that you desire all to repent and love you, and to find faith in Jesus Christ. May I better accept both the implicit and explicit ramifications of that plan. Amen.