###

Jonah looked at the Assyrians with disgust and hatred, believing Israel was the home of God’s chosen people and everyone else was secondary. Jonah’s rebellion to God’s ask wasn’t simply pride for one’s country. Nineveh represented the worst of the Assyrians and their army. They were viciously violent and oppressively unjust. They would starve their enemies, flay the surrounding nation’s leaders alive, behead their victims and force the families to parade their loved ones around the city. This nation did horrific things to Israel, and it’s extremely likely Jonah had loved ones who were massacred by this nation. For God to show mercy and compassion to Nineveh would make Jonah feel like there was a breach in God’s covenantal fidelity and promise with Israel. This “word of the Lord” would have felt like God was sleeping with the enemy and untrustworthy. For Jonah to preach this five-word sermon probably felt like he was party to God’s betrayal, abandonment, treason against Israel.

But God wouldn’t send mercy to these people, right? They had to be outside of God’s love because they weren’t part of the nation of Israel. There was deep nationalism and religious superiority in Jonah’s heart. The justified prejudice and racism swimming through Chapter Four reminds me a lot of our own American exceptionalism, and being blessed by God as a “Godly nation.” The America-first mentality has dictated and influenced the American Church and has seemed to cause many Christians to forget that our allegiance isn’t to a country, but to the way of Jesus Christ. This doesn’t mean you can’t be proud of your country or thankful to be an American, but God is global. He loves the whole world and we must live likewise.

The message God gave to Jonah was true. Jonah said it rightly, but didn’t understand it rightly. “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.”

The word, “overthrown” is used in different ways and has several different meanings — just like we can use the word “hot” to mean different things: “the pan is hot” or “that person is hot.” (Both can burn you, but not in the same way.)

The word for “overthrown” is “hapak,” which has three different meanings seen in three different passages of Scripture.

The first is from the book of Hosea, where God talks about Israel being like baked bread that hasn’t been “hapak,” or turned over. One side is raw and the other is burnt.

The second is from Lamentations 4:6, where God says “The sin of my people is greater than Sodom, which was ‘hapak’ in a moment without a hand to help”. This means “overthrown” or “destroyed,” which is probably the sense of the term Jonah intended.

The third is from Psalm 30:11, where God has “hapak” my grief into dancing. This means to change or transform.

When the word of the Lord came to Jonah to bring to Nineveh, Jonah expected destruction when the Lord expected transformation.

So Jonah leaves Nineveh, travels east outside the city and sets up a shelter to camp in so he can watch with glee while the city gets destroyed, since that’s the word he got from the Lord. And I wonder if, while he was sitting there, he became more and more irritable as the days passed him by. As he’s waiting to watch the city burn, did he grow more frustrated and angry day by day, festering in the heat?

But to Jonah this seemed very wrong, and he became angry. Jonah 4:1

In Hebrew, this is translated as: Jonah began to break apart from burning anger.

His heat grew as the heat of the day grew, and it was breaking him apart. He was obsessed and fully focused on his ideal for the city. His nationalism grew stronger while his theology weakened.

The sun blazed on his head. The text tells of a plant growing up and providing him with shade, but a worm came and killed the plant at the root, leaving Jonah in his discomfort and anger once again. Anger is often a facade for control and power. Holding onto anger makes us believe we have some control, and I wonder if Jonah believed he could sway God with his anger and rage – he was so angry he wanted to die. It was all he could see and it consumed him like the worm consumed the plant.

There are types of anger that tell us something is wrong, moving us to help stand against injustice. We even see God angry at sin because of the pain it brings people and this world. The Psalmist wrote that “When you are angry, do not sin,” meaning, don’t let your anger rule over you or cause you to harm others. Don’t make an idol out of your anger.

Anger and self-pity are closely related companions, feeding off each other, justifying behavior and perpetuating blame. When everything is someone else’s fault, I never have to take responsibility. And when God is to blame, for the hot sun and the worm in the plant and whatever else, then I’m off the hook. When Jonah yelled about his anger at God’s compassion, he spoke about himself egocentrically by saying “I” or “my” nine times, because he knew what his enemies deserved and God, obviously, had it wrong.

So he sets up a shelter outside the city to prove God wrong.

There’s a real temptation to set up a shelter outside our enemy’s metaphorical house, to watch what they have coming – your ex’s house, or the house those who purposefully ignored you throughout high school. You’re just waiting with glee for that hard season — a failing career, a loss in resources. Or we set up shelters on social media, waiting for news to come out about someone’s tax returns or some scandal, that’s just enough cause to justify your anger or hatred?

I am so angry I wish I were dead, Jonah said.

Jonah preached destruction over Nineveh when God desired transformation. Hapak. God always desires mercy and love when we often desire retaliation and resentment.

The book of Jonah ends with a question and without an answer. And as annoying as this is, it feels invitational and open-ended. Within this ancient wisdom, I’m invited to see my own propensity for self-pity, idolatrous belief in America First, and misguided hope in a political party.

I’m invited to combat any deep disappointment or justified anger with gratitude, and joy where my hope isn’t in a president or my enemies getting what I believe they deserve. My hope is in a God who is present even when I’m being a selfish turd, and who gently asks me the same question asked to Jonah: “Shouldn’t I have compassion on those you seem to hate?”