14.
Jonah had a prayer or a conversation with the Lord. In it, he voiced his objection to the whole trip to Nineveh and his reason for his reluctance to go. I told you so. Jonah 4:2 While yet in my home country I told you exactly what you would do and that is what has happened. He is making the very nature and character of the Lord to be his excuse for fleeing to Tarshish. Any way we look at his words, he is faulting the Lord for being gracious, the very God of grace. Merciful, the essence of compassion. Slow to anger, longsuffering, not quickly angered. One who possess and is manifesting great kindness to all. In this instance, the Lord reversed His decision to destroy the city, because of the cry of the people for mercy and compassion.
Jonah knew very well the mercy of the Lord which had frequently been manifest toward Israel. Even though they had tried to flatter the Lord with their lying words. The meantime their hearts were far from Him and they did not keep covenant with Him. Being the fullness of compassion, He did not destroy them but forgave them and minimized His anger against them. They were fully deserving of sever punishment but He remembered that they were but dust. Ps. 78:36-39.
How angry, how frustrated can one become, especially with the Lord. Jonah had reached his limits and requested that the Lord take his life. His extreme disappointment at the words of his prophecy not being fulfilled had caused him to come to a point of utter aggravation. His success at being a true prophet and as one whose prophecies were right on, he was being challenged, and he could not take it. Jonah 4:3.
The Lord responded to Jonah’s anger with a question, Do you have a right to be angry? Jonah 4:4 Wraith is one of the manifestations of the carnal man, the natural, fleshly man. Gal. 5:20 While the anger of the Lord may be tempered or even set aside. His anger is a righteous or a just anger. His anger is something which is provoked by sin and disobedience. The anger of man may be motivated by almost anything, for instance, something as simple as a difference of opinion. The anger of man may well lead to undesired circumstances. The anger of the Lord is displayed only after a season of His patience and call for repentance. He is longsuffering, goodness, truth and mercy. Ex. 34:6 Were He not so, mankind would long ago been annihilated from the earth. Anger in the human heart is an extremely destructive force. It destroys both the one who is angry and the individual against whom the anger is directed. Jonah had forgotten that he was just the vessel bearing the message of the Lord. The judgment of Nineveh was not in his hands. He was only the mouth piece of the Lord making known the feelings of the Lord toward the city.