Heart Matters

“Then God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?” And he said, “It is right for me to be angry, even to death!” But the LORD said, “You have pity on the plant for which you have not labored, nor made it grow, which came up in a night and perished in a night.  And should I not pity Nineveh, that great city, in which are more than one hundred and twenty thousand persons who cannot discern between their right hand and their left-and much livestock?”  Jonah 4:9-11

Talk about someone with anger issues!  I can’t get over how bad Jonah was!  This dude was so stubborn and so strong-willed but ultimately he surrendered to God.  What I think I love most about this book in the Bible is that although Jonah is running from and therefore rebelling against God, he always seemed to keep it real with God.  When we read this book it doesn’t take long to see that for Jonah-the struggle is real!  Simply put, he didn’t like what God had called him to, so much so, he chose to disobey his call and face the consequences instead. Jonah has to be one of the most stubborn saints recorded in scripture.  His displeasure and disgust regarding his assignment was so strong within him he seemed more willing to fall into a raging sea, than to fall in line with God’s will. For those of you who haven’t read it yet (what are you waiting for?!), I’ll summarize for you.

God called Jonah to go to the people of Nineveh and cry out against them.  He was to give them the message that if they didn’t repent God was going to destroy them.  It seems like an easy enough assignment.  After all isn’t that what the prophets were called to do?  Welllll….most of the Old Testament prophets were called to speak God’s Word to their own people.  But now here’s Jonah, being sent to a nation which was an enemy of his people. Jonah didn’t want to go.  The city of Nineveh was a “great city” which had quite the reputation for violence and cruelty.  As soon as The LORD gave Jonah the charge to go there, Jonah immediately hopped on a ship going in the other direction instead.  (We later find out the reason he didn’t want to go is that he didn’t want the people to be given a chance to repent.  In other words he wanted God to destroy them).  While in route to Tarshish which is the opposite direction from Nineveh, The LORD sent a terrible storm that threatened to destroy the ship. Jonah knew why.  When he saw all the distress it caused the other passengers, he told them to through him into the water-in the middle of the sea. Jonah didn’t seem to mind dying.  Perhaps that’s because he didn’t know that being thrown into the sea also meant he’d be swallowed by a whale.  Well that’s exactly what happened.  God sent a whale to swallow Jonah whole.  So although he might not have feared death when he told the men to throw him into the sea, it seems he had a change of heart when he started getting all clammy with those “weeds wrapped around his head” inside that whale’s belly.  Soooo eventually, after being in the fish’s belly three days and three nights, Jonah cried out to God and agreed to pay the vowed he owed to the LORD. So The LORD had the whale spew Jonah out not too far from the city of Nineveh and God spoke to Jonah a second time, commanding him to go speak to the people of Nineveh. This time Jonah obeyed and warned the Ninevehites of their impending doom.  The people listened and responded with repentance and fasting. To Jonah’s dismay, God “relented from the disaster He said He would bring upon them, and He did not do it.” (Jonah 3:10).  God showing mercy to the people of Nineveh ticked Jonah off so much that he was once again ready to die!  Jonah was something else!  I mean he actually prayed to die! When that didn’t happen he went outside the city “till he might see what would become of the city.” (Jonah 4:5).  Are you kidding me?!  It seems to me he was still hoping deep down they would do something to make God change His mind and completely destroy them.  I’m thinking Jonah’s sentiment was “either take them away or You (God) can just take me away.”  There was Jonah sitting out there in that hot sun-miserable on the outside and miserable on the inside.  When The LORD lovingly produced a plant to shade him but allowed a worm to destroy it the very next day, it pushed Jonah over the edge.  He said “it is better for me to die than to live.” (verse 8). When God asked him if it was right for him to be angry about the plant,  Jonah replied “it is right for me to be angry, even unto death!”  Wow now that’s some serious anger and frustration! But we know The LORD wasn’t going to let Jonah get away with such ugliness.  So HE pointed out to Jonah how he was willing to have pity for the plant that shaded him which he had nothing to do with creating but yet he didn’t want God to show mercy to the people of Nineveh whom HE created.  The nerve! lol  In just four chapters, the book of Jonah ends just like that.  The ending seems a bit unfinished and unresolved.  We’re left wondering well did Jonah repent of his ways, did he die, or did he live a life of bitterness?  I always thought Jonah must have never repented of his rebellious heart.  It wasn’t until someone called this to my attention- Jonah who wrote it all down for us. Lesson learned!

Now that we have a clear understanding of Jonah’s heart attitude I believe you can comprehend what I mean when I use the term “a Jonah spirit.”  Of course I’m not talking about the complete extreme of where Jonah went with his anger and rebellion-wanting to die and all.  I’m speaking of that spirit of wrestling with being obedient to God.  I’m talking about that area of a Christian’s life in which he/she just refuses to surrender and obey. That area of our lives where we have real valid reasons not to want to obey what God is calling us to do for Him. Like Jonah it might be for a reason we puny little humans might find justifiable.  After all who wants to help save their enemies?  How quickly we forget that The LORD says we are to “love our enemies and bless those who hate us.” (Luke 6:27) spitefully use us.  How quickly we forget that we were enemies of The Lord when He died on the cross for us (“while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8)  How quickly forget there’s nothing which can justify us disobeying our God.  When The LORD speaks to His children He expects them to both listen and obey-the first time.

In Jonah’s case his wrong spirit towards God’s command had to do with a specific assignment God gave to him. I believe that although sometimes that’s case for us as well, there are other times when we can develop this same type of spirit in regards to various areas that are to be a normal part of our Christian walk.  Such was the case for me.  I was relatively a new believer when I developed what I call my “Jonah spirit.”  When I came to faith in Christ and I realized how much the Lord loved me and what HE did for me, I was on fire for HIM!  I was sharing the Gospel with everyone I knew, met, and loved! I didn’t care if they didn’t want to hear it either.  I didn’t care if they would want nothing to do with me afterwards.  I didn’t care if they ganged up against me and talked about me behind my back.  Yeah, I can have that tough love like that. The kind of love that’s willing to take the blow for the sake of those I love.  All I knew is I wanted everyone I met, everyone I knew, and everyone I loved to know how much God loved them and how He Himself made a way to save them. I wanted them to know that it wasn’t hard because Jesus already paid the price in full for us already.  I wanted them to know Jesus took on our wretchedness on that cross so that He could offer us His righteousness.  I was so excited (still am) that I wanted to proclaim to everyone the Gospel truth that because of His grace, salvation is a free gift, to all who will believe. (See I’m sharing it -The Gospel-with you right now!  Do you believe?) Back then I shared indiscriminately or rather I should say without discernment.  Back then I wasn’t allowing the Holy Spirit to lead and guide me, instead, I was operating out of pure zeal.  And boy was I doing some damage!  Instead of winning others to Christ, I was pushing many further away.  I’m sure I was quickly earning a reputation as a Bible thumper as I began to experience criticism, nastiness, rejection and sometimes I even felt persecuted.  Yet still by God’s grace I was able to handle it.  What I couldn’t handle though was how the people I shared the Gospel with were so quick to reject it-to reject HIM. It was in response to this sentiment that I became angry, even cynical, as I judged the loss and temporarily decided not to waste any more of my time on them.

My “Jonah spirit” caused me to feel like “well if they want to stay in their sin and ignore what the loving GOD of the universe did for them, then just let them go to hell.”  I had forgotten all the times the Lord sent believers to share with me and I had quickly decided to listen without hearing.  I had forgotten that I too once had those same blinders on before God caused the scales to fall from my eyes. The Lord had to remind me of all the times He had someone plant and water the seeds He sowed in me before I actually believed.  The Lord had to remind me I was once those very people I now wanted to turn in the opposite direction from.  I was once those people I had now wanted to just leave alone so they wouldn’t hear the truth, never repent, and face God’s judgement. Sounds familiar? Yes this was my “Jonah spirit.”  In my so-called defense of God, I was deserting my call and disobeying God.  Thankfully God didn’t allow me to be thrown into a sea or swallowed by a whale, but you can rest assured that I’ve since learned my lesson.  But what about you? Are you harboring a “Jonah spirit” somewhere in your life?  Are you…..

• refusing to obey God regarding a specific assignment He’s given to you?
• running in the opposite direction of where The Lord’s calling you  to go?
• justifying a sinful attitude instead of repenting of it?
• refusing to extend love and compassion towards a lost enemy?
• only willing to live in your Christian bubble surrounding yourself only with other Christians so you wont be challenged, grieved, rejected or persecuted?
• giving in to weariness and resigning yourself to living an unfruitful, mediocre, Christian life?
• giving up on others altogether?
• no longer sharing the Gospel?

The Book of Jonah allow us to take an incredible adventure alongside a man called by God to an assignment he didn’t want to receive.  We get to witness his rebellion and how his faithful God dealt with him and still delivered many. All because Jonah wrote it down!

HEART TO HEART: GOD DOESN’T WANT US TO HAVE “A JONAH SPIRIT,” HE WANTS US TO HAVE A JESUS SPIRIT.