NOTES for Jon 4:1-11
“Why did You make me travel so far? Could You not have done everything Yourself? Why did You send me there? You made me do completely pointless work...” This is the human reaction to one possible turn of events. If everything turns out differently, one leaves the city, watches it perish, and, wagging a finger, says, “I warned them! They should have listened,” or one keeps grumbling: “Why did You send me so far? Even that did not help them; they still did not stop...” But this merely means that we should not take ourselves too seriously. In a number of cases we are simply postmen. The postman who brings a message cannot and should not have his own opinion about the meaning of the letter, because his task is to deliver it, while someone else must read it and take note of it. Nor is it the postman's place to rebuke the Sender. For under postal law it is the Sender who pays for the postman's livelihood.