A Lesson From Jonah

During my study through the minor prophets I just finished going through the book of Jonah. Many within our Western world know about the story of Jonah and how he was swallowed by the "Big fish" after he disobeyed God's order to go to the Assyrian capital city of Nineveh and preach a message of reconciliation to the people there. For the longest time I thought the reason why Jonah disobeyed God's command was that he was afraid and with good reason. Historically during this period in Israel's history, Assyria was Israel's most gravest of threats time before the rise of Babylon to dominance of the region, and was known for deploying brutal tactics in crushing their enemies. Some accounts in the Bible say that the Assyrians would decapitate the defeated and pile the heads in heaps on the battlefield. Therefore, if I were Jonah, I might too be extremely afraid to go to Nineveh. However, much of my surprise, fear was not the motivating factor for Jonah's disobedience; the cause was two fold, unforgiveness and his utter lack of compassion for the people of Nineveh.
After Jonah was vomited by the big fish he went to Nineveh, preached, and the people (for however brief of a time) turned to God. This is exactly what God wanted but it was not what Jonah wanted. Jonah got angry with God because He gave the Assyrians, Israel's enemy, a chance to repent instead of wiping them out. In Jonah 4:2-3, Jonah says,
"He prayed to the LORD, "O LORD, is this not what I said when I was still at home? That is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. Now, O LORD, take away my life, for it is better for me to due than to live."
Unfortunately we have no record of Jonah's statements before he tried to make it to Tarshish; the Bible only says that after God commanded Him to go to Nineveh, Jonah fled. So, what this Jonah real attitude or was he, as I had assumed for so long, just simply afraid to go? I believe the evidence from the story reveals that Jonah's attitude of unforgiveness and lack of compassion were his reasons. While fear may have played a role in his decision to flee from God, I believe these previously cited reasons played a major role in his disobedience.
After Jonah's first complaint, he went to a hill that overlooked Nineveh, built a "shelter" and waited to see what would happen to the city, i.e., would God destroy it and let it remain. Later on in the day God caused a vine to grow over Jonah providing him with shade to "...ease his discomfort" (Jonah 4:6), and this makes sense given that Nineveh was located in the middle of a desert and as we all know deserts get hot, especially around midday. However, the next morning, God "provided" a worm which came and,

...chewed the vine so that it withered. When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah's head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die, and said, "It would be better for me to die than to love."
But God said to Jonah, "Do you have a right to be angry about the vine?"
"I do," he said. "I am angry enough to die." (Jonah 4:7-8).

So for Jonah, I think he wanted Nineveh to fall because he believed (and perhaps even with warrant) that Nineveh deserved to fall given all of the evil things it had brought about upon Israel. God, however, had other plans; He wanted to give Nineveh a second chance, perhaps something they did not deserve. However, if God gave everyone what they deserved then none of us would be alive because our sins warrant death.
The lesson from Jonah I think is that whenever God does something which runs contrary to what we think needs to be done, live with it. Who can search the mind of God? Our vision is so shortsighted where God's is not. If God tells us to do something that we run contrary to our own attitudes, live with it.