Jonah 4:10 Then said the LORD, Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not laboured, neither madest it grow; which came up in a night, and perished in a night
If I asked you, “What is important to you?” I think most of us would give some noble answers. We might say that it is family, health, our relationship to God, or some other important thing. If I were to ask you, “What does it take to make you angry, sad, or genuinely happy?” Can the answer to what is important to you and what affects your emotions be the same thing? Have you ever surprised yourself by how you responded emotionally to something in your life? You thought, “Wow, where did that come from? Why am I so angry?” It is amazing the relatively small things that can make us very happy, very sad, or very angry.
Jonah was a man whose priorities were revealed by his emotions. He was a prophet sent by God to the wicked city of Nineveh to proclaim God’s judgment on it. When he did, they changed their minds and ways and turned to God, and God gave them mercy. In the very last chapter of Jonah’s story it says, “It displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry.” He wasn’t just angry; he was very angry. He was angry because God had given mercy to these wicked people. These were the same people who would be part of the Assyrian Empire. They were cruel, savage, barbaric, and they seriously mistreated God’s people. Jonah wanted nothing to do with them and quite frankly did not want God’s mercy on them. So, when God gave them mercy, Jonah wasn’t just angry, he was very angry.
Later on, Jonah goes out to the edge of town to sit and see if God will judge the city nonetheless. The sun beat on his head and he became weary of that. The Bible says, “And the LORD God prepared a gourd, and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be a shadow over his head.” God, as He often did in this story, prepared something. In this case it was a gourd that blocked the sun over Jonah’s head and gave him some shade to deliver him from his grief. Then it says, “So Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd.” He was very glad because of shade, such a simple thing.
Then, in verse 10 we have God’s feelings about all this, “Then said the LORD, Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not laboured, neither madest it grow; which came up in a night, and perished in a night.” God is saying to Jonah, “You have pity and compassion and feelings for this gourd which you had nothing to do with its coming or going.” God continues, “And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city.” He is comparing what was important to Jonah, shade, with what was important to God, souls. It continues, “Wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?”
God had more concern about the cattle in Nineveh than Jonah had over the people, and Jonah had more concern about the gourd over his head than the people under God’s judgment. I don’t know what Jonah would have said had he been asked what was important to him, but I do know what peaked his emotions, what made him angry and what made him glad. Sometimes your emotions reveal your priorities. I realize there is a limit to this, but sometimes it is your dreams and not your conscious answers that give the real answer to what is important. Sometimes it is your feelings and not your words that reveal what is truly important to you. I’m eating an ice cream cone, the top scoop falls off, and I get angry. Someone says a snide word or ignores me and it angers me. Something small happens that makes me incredibly happy. What is going on there? It is that our emotions can reveal what is important to us.
In Jonah 4:2, Jonah is angry because God gave Nineveh mercy, and Jonah says, “I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful.” How did Jonah know that? It was because God had given Jonah mercy. The King of Nineveh had sat in sackcloth and ashes and prayed to the God of Heaven. Jonah had done the same thing in the fish’s belly. He had asked for God’s mercy. What else could he do?
It is worthy of note that Jonah may have well penned this story. We know that Jonah was an actual historical figure because of other references to him in the Bible. So, this would have been slander if it were not true. It is amazing how perspectives can change. Here is Jonah begrudging God’s mercy when the fact is that God had given mercy to Jonah. Sometimes we feel strongly about something that in the scheme of things is not that important, and sometimes we are totally oblivious to things that are truly important; they don’t peak our emotions at all.
It is almost impossible to change the way you feel, to tell yourself to stop being angry, sad, or whatever. Sometimes we feel as if our emotions are beyond our control. There is an extent that that may be true because they are a caboose, not an engine. But what you can choose to do is decide what is important to you and allow your feelings to follow suite, to allow what is right and true to lead you even if it is not pleasant for you.
How do you feel today? What is important to you today? Sometimes your emotions reveal your priorities, and having God’s perspective on life can change the way you feel.