How can a pastor, who is a servant of the Lord, make such excuses

for his disobedience to the Word of God?

Jonah was very angry and resentful of God’s change of heart and prayed to God:

“Lord, did I not say this when I was still in my country that you would do this?

So I quickly fled back to my own country.  I know that you are a gracious and merciful God,

slow to anger and abounding in love, who relents and does not send calamity.

Now, Lord, take my life away; for it is better for me to die than to live”(Jonah 4:2-3).

When I meditate on this passage, several thoughts come to mind:

(1) How could Jonah be so displeased and angry about God changing His mind

while still praying to Him?  Could it be that Jonah was trying to impose

his own will on God rather than submitting to God's will?

If this is the case, it seems that Jonah had a heart very far from

that of Jesus, who prayed: '... yet not my will, but yours be done' (Luke 22:42).

(2) How could Jonah, after fleeing to Tarshish instead of going to Nineveh

as God commanded (Jonah 1:2), pray to God, saying that he knew God

would change His mind and not bring disaster upon the people of Nineveh

when he was at home (4:2)?  How could a servant of the Lord, a prophet,

justify his disobedience to God's command in this way?

Is his excuse really reasonable?

 (3) God prepared a great fish to rescue Jonah, who had been thrown into the sea (1:17).

After Jonah cried out to God from the belly of the fish for three days (chapter 2),

God spoke to him a second time, giving him the opportunity to obey His word.

As a result, the people of Nineveh received God’s message through Jonah,

believed in God (3:4), repented of their wrongdoings,

and turned from their evil ways (vv. 8, 10).

Because God relented from bringing the disaster He had planned for them,

how could Jonah be so angry that he wished to die? Is that why God asked Jonah,

'Do you have any right to be angry?' (4:4)

(4) If Jonah truly knew that God is gracious, compassionate, slow to anger,

and abounding in love, and that He relents from sending calamity (2:2),

how could he be ungracious and unmerciful toward the repentant people

of Nineveh, harboring such anger and showing no love for them?