Monday, February 6, 2017

Jonah 4:4

Jonah 4:4 says, Then said the LORD, Doest thou well to be angry? Jonah was angry that a whole city had accepted God as their God, and God wanted to know why Jonah felt that was the right attitude to have.  When people today come to Christ as their Savior, we should never be upset or angry about it.  Jonah was angry at least in part because the people of Nineveh were Gentiles, and God was accepting them.  We cannot feel that there are people who shouldn't be saved, much less whole nations of people.  Verse five adds, So Jonah went out of the city, and sat on the east side of the city, and there made him a booth, and sat under it in the shadow, till he might see what would become of the city.  Jonah wanted to view the city to see if God would yet destroy it.  We today do not need to be sitting back waiting for God to destroy evil people.  Had He done that, we would have been among them.  Jonah was attempting to be comfortable while he waited.  We need to be careful that we are not guilty of the same thing today.  We are not called to sit back in comfort while waiting for the destruction of those we do not like and who do not like us. We are to be witnesses for God, not judges of the world.  Jonah definitely did not want to go to Nineveh, and he was angry when they repented. There may be places we don't want to go today to share the gospel, not because we are afraid that people won't listen, but because we are afraid they will.  We want God to forgive us, but we want Him to punish others.  This is not what we are called to do.  We are called to share the message of Christ with all those we come in contact with. We cannot spend our time trying to make ourselves comfortable while waiting for God to destroy those that we don't like.  As followers of Christ we are called to a higher standard.  Until we truly begin to reach out to all the world with the message of salvation through Christ, wanting all to be saved, God may be asking us if we do well to be angry.

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