“The Lord responded, ‘Is your anger a good thing?’…God said to Jonah, ‘Is your anger about the shrub a good thing?’ Jonah said, ‘Yes, my anger is good—even to the point of death!’” Jonah 4:4; 4:9 CEB
The story of Jonah, in Jonah 1-4 (CEB) is a familiar one to most of us: prophet of God receives a call, prophet runs from call, prophet gets swallowed by a big fish, prophet gives fish indigestion and is vomited onto the beach, prophet answers call (still begrudgingly), city turns from sin to God, prophet mopes….end of story, or, is it?
At the end of the story, however, we see an interesting interaction between Jonah and God (4:4, 4:9 CEB). Jonah lashes out, “See, I told you so!” to which God replies with, “Is your anger a good thing?” Jonah continues to rant, and again in verse 9, God is more specific with the question, “Is your anger about the shrub a good thing?” Finally, in verse 11, we have an unanswered question. The ending seems abrupt; we like to have conclusions. Perhaps the story of Jonah ends this way so we can somehow see ourselves in the greater context of God’s story. That maybe, the story is still being written or at least is left open for us to consider how we will respond when we are asked to do difficult things (deal with difficult administrators or faculty; have heartbreaking conversations with staff around budget cuts; have a difficult conversation with a student around the misuse of AI in an assignment).
Jonah is often criticized for not listening to God or being concerned with the needs (salvation) of those around him (after all, he was a prophet of God). Yet, how often do we struggle with something God has called us to do (Really, God? You want me to do what?)? Maybe it’s having a difficult conversation with an administrator, faculty member, library employee, or student. Maybe it’s presenting an unpopular, yet necessary perspective in a committee or faculty meeting. Our hesitation to respond may be that we don’t think it’s the right time, or we’re too scared about what might happen. These are all seen in the context of Jonah’s struggles: “You want me to go where and do what?”; “I know you, YHWH, you won’t really destroy the city.” “See, I told you! I knew you’d forgive them! Why do I even bother?” Yet, God still provides (the fish – alternative, drowning) and loves (listens to Jonah’s whining) and protects (the plant – alternative, sun stroke and heat exhaustion). And God confronts. “Is your anger a good thing? (v.4). He asks the question not once, but twice.
We ask these same questions as Jonah, though. And there are times when God asks us that same, very pointed question: “Is your anger a good thing?” – Is how you responded to that faculty member, administrator, or student a reflection of grace and love? Is how you handled the 3% cut to the library budget a demonstration of “your anger” or God’s grace? Was my response to the denial of a research grant (i.e., shrub) a demonstration of God’s grace and peace or my “anger”? My question, perhaps challenge, to you is this: in your day-to-day life – in your work with faculty, administrators, and students, how often do you concern yourself with the mundane (the plant, or creating rubrics, assignments, meeting minutes, etc.) rather than the divine (“on earth as it is in heaven”)? How often do we overlook what’s going on in the lives of our colleagues, our students, our family, and our friends to merely accomplish a task? What if we paid more attention to the voice of God and left the mundane behind, and did not rely on the temporary comfort of the “plant”? How might our response be different from that of Jonah? How might our obedience, our demonstration of grace and love, be used to change the lives around us, perhaps even our own lives? The ending of Jonah’s narrative tells us that God’s story, our faith story, is still being written.
Rodney Birch
Rodney is the Research Services Librarian at Northwest Nazarene University in Nampa, ID. He has been an ACL member since 1997 and currently serves as the ACL Board Treasurer.