The end of the story.....

Sometimes I feel like that girl on Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory..."is anybody there?"  (it only works if you give her a cockney accent! 

This morning my devotional led me to Jonah and I then remembered Pastor Arte making reference to Jonah in his sermon on Sunday, (yes....I WAS listening! I can't help it that Ryan kept talking to me...did you notice John giving us dirty looks? hahahaha!)  ANY-WAY.....

When people tell the story of Jonah they always talk about the whale and that whole thing, I mean, why wouldn't you?  A guy being swallowed by a whale and spit out onto the beach after living inside of it for 3 days?  Holy cow, thats sci fi stuff.  But you know what?  The part of the story I love the most is the part that takes place AFTER Jonah preaches to the city of Ninevah!  Okay, so it goes something like this...we all know God told Jonah to go tell Ninevah to straighten up and fly right or he would obliterate the city right?  Jonah runs away to a ship, gets thrown overboard only by begging and pleading with the other seamen to get him off the boat, and fast, and then a big ol whale comes along and gulps him up and then, after three days of contemplation (man oh man am I glad that the Lord doesn't do THIS anymore) he gets expelled by the whale onto the beach.  Jonah travelled 3 days to the city to give the bad news to the people and once he gets there and begins shouting that they better repent or the city would be overthrown guess what they did?  THEY REPENTED!!!!! They fasted and prayed and the king covered himself in sackcloth and ashes and called for the entire city to repent to God!  God saw that they turned from their evil ways and did not destroy the city. 

Okay, now here is the part that I just love.....Jonah gets MAD that God didn't destroy the city!!! I think that is hilariously funny!  How many times have we done that???? Gotten angry when God showed mercy to an enemy or to someone we were merely angry at?  If we are honest, its plenty of times.  He goes to the Lord and says, "this is WHY I didn't want to come to this city. You are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in loving kindness, One who relents from doing harm. So Lord, if it pleases You, take my life!!!!!"  The Lord asks Jonah, "Is it right for you to be angry?"  (yikes...I think that is a scary question to be asked by Lord) and Jonah leaves the city to go up on a hill and watch for what God might do on the 40th day.  The Lord brings a plant to cover Jonahs shelter for him to have shade so he isn't miserable with the sun. Jonah was grateful.  That morning He sends a worm to kill the plant and makes it wither and a hot wind to blow upon Jonah and again Jonah says, "Its better to die than live"  but the Lord answers him again and says, "is it right for you to be angry about the plant?" and Jonah says, "yep, its sure is, its right for me to be angry, even unto death!" (ahem...WHAT???) but the Lord says to Jonah, "you have had pity on that plant that you neither worked for or made grow and it came up in a night and died in a night.  Why shouldn't I pity Nineveh, which has more than 120,000 people living in it and don't know the difference between the left or right hand?" (not to mention their livestock?)  

Wow, you know what?  When God asks Jonah that, its the end of the story, the end of the book of Jonah...
Amazing stuff huh?  I mean, only the Lord, with such tender devotion, would take the time to continue to turn around the heart of a wayward prophet who just can't seem to let go of his anger and upset.  He knew God would be merciful to his enemies and he didn't want to witness it.  I have felt like Jonah many times and so many times the Lord has used this little story to remind me that He wants to see them restored and why shouldn't He, He is after all their creator too!  Oh how I love the Lord but I don't have a corner on the market of His mercy and grace and I don't have the right, any more than Jonah did, to decide who is worthy of it or not or how it gets doled out.  I think I want to be able to make that decision but lucky for me, there aren't any huge whales around here and I am not going on an oceanliner any time soon, or I just might find myself swallowed up in the belly of a whale!  Oh, wait...isn't that the stench of self pity I smell!  hmmmm....