He prayed to the Lord and said, “Please Lord, was not this what I said while I was still in my own country? Therefore in order to forestall this I fled to Tarshish, for I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, and one who relents concerning calamity.”

                                                                                                                     Jonah 4:2 

If we were to take time to study this historical account of Jonah yet skip over the profound truths in this passage, I believe that we would miss the theme of the entire book. In this passage we find two very important facts about Jonah and his mission.

First, Jonah certainly knew God and understood His character and nature. These characteristics include being gracious, compassionate, and patient. In addition, God’s nature is demonstrated in an abundance of love and kindness. Some people have a misunderstanding about God leading to misguided beliefs about Him. But that wasn’t Jonah’s problem. He knew God and understood the kind of response that He would have toward the repentant people of Nineveh. Jonah’s problem wasn’t that he didn’t know God rather it was his attitude toward the people of Nineveh, which leads us to the second important fact.

Jonah tells us his motivation for running from God and the calling on his life. There is no better evidence in learning how someone thinks or feels than that of his own admission. In his own words, Jonah tells us why he ran. Consider his words:

Therefore in order to forestall this I fled…

It wasn’t that he was unsure whether God would forgive the people of Nineveh it was that he knew He would. He didn’t run out of uncertainty about the call nor did he run out of fear or doubt. Jonah ran because he did not want to see God’s grace displayed toward those people. He had delivered the message, God had relented, and it made Jonah angry. By adopting this attitude, Jonah effectively placed himself above the people of Nineveh.

We see a compatible attitude in Jesus’ parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15). The prodigal leaves and squanders his inheritance in loose living (wine, women, and song). He then comes to his senses and makes the journey home. Not knowing what kind of reception he will face upon his arrival, the prodigal son is pleasantly surprised that his father, seeing him some distance away, runs to greet him. He throws his arms around him, kisses him, and orders that there be a great celebration over the homecoming.

But the prodigal had an older brother and he was less than enthusiastic with the father’s attitude toward his wayward sibling. In a similar display to that of Jonah’s attitude, we see this brother angry and upset that his father has greeted the obviously undeserving brother with such grace and kindness. The older brother estimates that he is much more deserving than this prodigal. After all, he didn’t run off and show such lack of wisdom by behaving in such a foolish way. He stayed, honoring the father, being a loyal son. As Jonah was angry at the outcome in Nineveh, so the older brother refused to celebrate as well.

I recently had a conversation with a pastor friend of mine. We both admitted that we had been both prodigal and the older brother in our lives. But out of the two, we both agreed that having the attitude of the older brother was far more disappointing than any of the “prodigal” behavior. We have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Some of us have done so in ways that are quite different than others. But remembering that we have all sinned, that we not deserving of God’s grace, and that we are all equally in need of a Savior is profitable in guarding ourselves against adopting the attitude found in Jonah and the older brother to the prodigal.

If we are accepting of God’s grace in our own lives, we must be ready and willing to recognize and celebrate the same in the lives of those around us. Jonah didn’t respond in a godly way toward the people of Nineveh. We do not have to make the same mistake.