“Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” And the Lord said, “Do you do well to be angry?” (Jonah 4:3-4, ESV)

 
What distress could cause a man to ask God to strike him dead?: The pain of watching the wicked turn from evil and violence and be passed over for judgment by God. It seems easy to judge Jonah’s unrighteous anger, but how often do we feel the same way. When we are wronged, it is not the case that we desire more that the perpetrator of the wrong be punished than we desire the offender to repent and be restored?

 We do not do well to be angry with God for withholding retribution in favor of grace and mercy. Such anger declares us unworthy of the same holy wrath being directed toward us. In other words, I am saying by my demand that God do something to punish the wicked that I am not in “that” group. Most of us do not want to be counted in the congregation of the wicked, but if we peel away the layers of our overly optimistic self-concept, we may find that we are not quite as pure as we may like to think.

 
We know this to be true of Jonah. Jonah possessed a task list given to him by God. Jonah refused to obey. As Jonah begged for mercy whilst he was in the belly of the great fish, he admitted to God that he had failed to keep the vows he made to the Lord (Jonah 2.9). Afterward, when Jonah was literally placed by God where he needed to be, Jonah did as little as possible to fulfill his commission and then hoped against hope that he would be unsuccessful. God didn’t destroy Jonah for his disobedience and recalcitrance, however, and allowed Jonah to instead to see his character, a God of great compassion even toward those who are wicked (Jonah 4.2, 10).

It is a fact in evidence that Jonah was not nearly as wicked as those God chose to save. I may not be as wicked as someone I want God to “take care of” because they have caused me pain or other harm. It is true of both Jonah and of me that we need God’s compassion worked through mercy and grace: the withholding of judgment and the offer of unmerited gifts.

 The Bible comforts us to with the promise that God will righteously judge (Psalm 7) at just the right time and that those who plant wickedness will receive a harvest of the same (Galatians 6.7). For my part I am glad that God tempers these promises with the same compassion he extended to incredibly wicked Nineveh so long ago.

Marvelous grace of our loving Lord, grace that exceeds our sin and guilt! Yonder on Calvary’s mount outpoured—there where the blood of the Lamb was spilt…Grace, grace, God’s grace, grace that will pardon and cleanse within; grace, grace, God’s grace, grace that is greater than all our sin!—Julia H. Johnston “Grace Greater Than Our Sin”