Jonah

1 "But Jonah was greatly displeased and became angry."
Jonah 4

Vitals                

Focuses on: Book of Jonah

Job Description:  A Prophet

Significant events in worldly position: Spent 3 days and 3 nights in a giant fish and delivered a message to Nineveh 

Aftermath: Becomes angry about God's compassion to the people of Nineveh

Is this person one with desirable traits of a Christian?

          The book of Jonah definitely has some interesting events. Most notably of how a guy was able to spend three days and three nights inside a fish and come out alive. So unexpected.

          This book tells of the prophet named Jonah. He would deliver messages and let people know of God's word. However, the story begins with God telling Jonah to preach to Nineveh, which was described as "wicked". Jonah did not do as the lord said and instead headed to Tarshish, which was awaay from Nineveh. As he was traveling, his ship gets caught in a storm. The storm was so violent that Jonah knew that God was angry with him. His shipmates throw him off to calm the weather. Once Jonah is at sea, he gets swallowed up by a "giant fish". Whoe. Within the corners of the fish's stomach, Jonah prays to his lord. God than tells the fish to vomit out Jonah. Once Jonah was out, he was able to go to Nineveh and finally deliver the message. That message would save Nineveh and rid them of their evil ways. However, Jonah was not happy. Jonah was not happy that God did not punish Nineveh. He wanted Nineveh to fall but God elected to not destroy the city. Jonah throws a fit afterwards.

          Jonah is the featured "Servant of The Weak" because he lacked to show a trait that is extremely important and that is forgiveness. 

          Towards the end of the story, Jonah becomes angry at the Ninevites because he believes that they should just be forsaken for their past ways. Even though he delivered the message, he did not like Nineveh. 

          Jonah didn't care about how the Ninevites came to their senses and repented. He still had the perspective that Nineveh was just plain no-good. He didn't want to give them a second chance.

          But you have to remember, this whole story started with Jonah disobeying God. He refused to preach to Nineveh and he turned his back to the lord. That was the reason he got stuck inside the fish in the first place.

          But God decided to forgive Jonah and save him from being digested. God was showing mercy. God will once again show mercy when he tells Jonah that he isn't going to bring destruction upon the city of Nineveh. 

          Jonah responds by complaining and telling God that he "is angry enough to die". He must really like not Nineveh.

          But the problem that Jonah has is similar to what everybody has, hatred. It's probably safe to say that Jonah hated Nineveh as he wanted the city to be destroyed. Jonah's hatred was what led to his refusal to forgive the Nineveh people. Jonah had a grudge within him that prevented him to let it go. 

          We as Christians have to go by life striving to forgive others. There simply is no use, there simply is no time for anybody to waste their time pondering about how they can't forgive somebody.  That's only going to lead to unnecessary and complications. There really isn't nothing to be mad about once someone says their sorry and agree to change their ways. God made us so that we are all equal and that nobody as more chances nor does anybody has less chances.

          God doesn't play favorites, this is what makes him great. No matter how much power and authority he holds under his command, he will forgive you and offer you a second chance. The generosity that God showed in this story is why God is such a benevolent king and why the quantity of how much he loves us is to another degree.