Often man turns out more vengeful than God. That’s what is described in the book of Jonah. He has already forgotten that he himself was not at all an ideal servant of God, that God had to take him to the place of the sermon not without scandal, moreover in a somehow extraordinary way...
Often man turns out more vengeful than God. That’s what is described in the book of Jonah. He has already forgotten that he himself was not at all an ideal servant of God, that God had to take him to the place of the sermon not without scandal, moreover in a somehow extraordinary way. And here is now, when he all the same accomplished God's order, it remained to him only one desire: that the task entrusted to him turned out … a failure.
How else could one evaluate the situation, when in the city after Jonah's sermon there wouldn’t have been even one convert, such that it would only remain to destroy Nineveh, to erase it from the surface of the earth altogether with all its inhabitants, having shown a complete lack of readiness in correction? Fortunately, everything occurred not at all like that, Nineveh repented and was converted, besides according to the narrative of Jonah's Book, were converted most of its inhabitants. A resounding success! The city is saved! But it delights not at all Jonas. But why? What prevents the prophet from being delighted with God for a well executed order? Probably, these preconceived opinions and prejudices, which were peculiar to his fellow countrymen.
Jonah's book was written, approximately, in the middle or at the beginning of VIII s before J.C., when Nineveh was considered the worse place in the world and the center of the world evil: indeed, it was the capital of the Assyrian empire, which everybody, including the Jews hated. Such city, from the point of view of Jonah, could deserve only one thing: destruction. And he does not want to go there particularly for that: Jonah knows that, if a prophet appears in a city, this city receives the chance, even small, to salvation. Jonah does not want Nineveh to be saved, even if it turned to God, he wants that it perish, because in his opinion, it deserves nothing else.
Jonah is a Jew, an inhabitant of Judea; he has, as several of his fellow countrymen, personal accounts with the Assyria. Even if the inhabitants of Nineveh repented, Jonah is not ready to see in them brothers, even if they now turned to his God. He does not need such brothers; he does not want that such admirers appear to his God. He says it directly to God: I know Your mercy and was afraid from the beginning that You will be merciful to those, with whom I would not want to share Your mercy. But God is not a man. Unlike Jonah, He is ready to accept anyone who repented and turned to Him. Even an inhabitant of Nineveh.
4 Jonah repines at God's mercy, Jon 4:1-3.
Is reproved, Jon 4:4.
His discontent at the withering of the gourd, Jon 4:5-9.
God improves it for his conviction, Jon 4:10-11.
4:1 It - The divine forbearance sparing Nineveh.
4:2 Was not this - Did I not think of this? That thy pardon would contradict my preaching.
4:3 Than to live - Disgraced and upbraided by hardened sinners, who will brand me for a liar.
4:5 A booth - Some small and mean shed, probably of green boughs. 'Till he might see - It seems the forty days were not fully expired.