Woven together in Love
The Greatest Gift Is Love
Jonah 3:10-4:11 The Message (MSG)10 God saw what they had done, that they had turned away from their evil lives. He did change his mind about them. What he said he would do to them he didn’t do.
4 God said, “What do you have to be angry about?”
5 But Jonah just left. He went out of the city to the east and sat down in a sulk. He put together a makeshift shelter of leafy branches and sat there in the shade to see what would happen to the city.
6 God arranged for a broad-leafed tree to spring up. It grew over Jonah to cool him off and get him out of his angry sulk. Jonah was pleased and enjoyed the shade. Life was looking up.
7-8 But then God sent a worm. By dawn of the next day, the worm had bored into the shade tree and it withered away. The sun came up and God sent a hot, blistering wind from the east. The sun beat down on Jonah’s head and he started to faint. He prayed to die: “I’m better off dead!”
9 Then God said to Jonah, “What right do you have to get angry about this shade tree?”
Jonah said, “Plenty of right. It’s made me angry enough to die!”
10-11 God said, “What’s this? How is it that you can change your feelings from pleasure to anger overnight about a mere shade tree that you did nothing to get? You neither planted nor watered it. It grew up one night and died the next night. So, why can’t I likewise change what I feel about Nineveh from anger to pleasure, this big city of more than 120,000 childlike people who don’t yet know right from wrong, to say nothing of all the innocent animals?”
4 1-2 Jonah was furious. He lost his temper. He yelled at God, “God!
I knew it—when I was back home, I knew this was going to happen! That’s
why I ran off to Tarshish! I knew you were sheer grace and mercy, not
easily angered, rich in love, and ready at the drop of a hat to turn
your plans of punishment into a program of forgiveness!
3 “So, God, if you won’t kill them, kill me! I’m better off dead!”4 God said, “What do you have to be angry about?”
5 But Jonah just left. He went out of the city to the east and sat down in a sulk. He put together a makeshift shelter of leafy branches and sat there in the shade to see what would happen to the city.
6 God arranged for a broad-leafed tree to spring up. It grew over Jonah to cool him off and get him out of his angry sulk. Jonah was pleased and enjoyed the shade. Life was looking up.
7-8 But then God sent a worm. By dawn of the next day, the worm had bored into the shade tree and it withered away. The sun came up and God sent a hot, blistering wind from the east. The sun beat down on Jonah’s head and he started to faint. He prayed to die: “I’m better off dead!”
9 Then God said to Jonah, “What right do you have to get angry about this shade tree?”
Jonah said, “Plenty of right. It’s made me angry enough to die!”
10-11 God said, “What’s this? How is it that you can change your feelings from pleasure to anger overnight about a mere shade tree that you did nothing to get? You neither planted nor watered it. It grew up one night and died the next night. So, why can’t I likewise change what I feel about Nineveh from anger to pleasure, this big city of more than 120,000 childlike people who don’t yet know right from wrong, to say nothing of all the innocent animals?”
For Reflection
How
many times have you wanted retribution for a wrong? During tragic
times like the seemingly unjustified shooting of a young black man by a
police officer or the horror of a senseless terrorist attack many will cry
for justice. What they really want is retribution. An eye for an
eye. Some want it so badly that it clouds their judgment and they take
matters violently into their own hands and feel perfectly justified in
doing so.
But, is that what God wants? Jonah and God struggle with the difference between retribution and justice. God turns the common need for vengeance upside down. Vengeance and retribution seem to be born of anger. Forgiveness and reconciliation are born of love, a deep desire for rehabilitation and a return to God.
Pray
But, is that what God wants? Jonah and God struggle with the difference between retribution and justice. God turns the common need for vengeance upside down. Vengeance and retribution seem to be born of anger. Forgiveness and reconciliation are born of love, a deep desire for rehabilitation and a return to God.
Pray
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