Reading 89 | The Bible in 100 Passages

Friday, December 12, 2025  

Today's Scripture
Jonah 4:1–11

But this was very displeasing to Jonah, and he became angry. He prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord! Is not this what I said while I was still in my own country? That is why I fled to Tarshish at the beginning; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing. And now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” And the Lord said, “Is it right for you to be angry?”

Then Jonah went out of the city and sat down east of the city, and made a booth for himself there. He sat under it in the shade, waiting to see what would become of the city. The Lord God appointed a bush, and made it come up over Jonah, to give shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort; so Jonah was very happy about the bush. But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the bush, so that it withered. When the sun rose, God prepared a sultry east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint and asked that he might die. He said, “It is better for me to die than to live.” But God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the bush?” And he said, “Yes, angry enough to die.” Then the Lord said, “You are concerned about the bush, for which you did not labor and which you did not grow; it came into being in a night and perished in a night. And should I not be concerned about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also many animals?” (NRSV)

Reflection

It takes a certain boldness to go up against the word of God, especially when one is as effective a prophet as Jonah was. Commanded by God to warn Nineveh of its destruction, Jonah instead fled in the opposite direction. He didn’t get very far. After incidentally converting a ship’s crew into believers once they had thrown him overboard, he landed inside a fish (or whale). Who doesn’t know the story of Jonah faithfully praying to God from that dark place? “I called to the Lord, out of my distress, and he answered me. … I will sacrifice to thee with the voice of thanksgiving.”

His prayer was heard. The fish (or God) delivered him, safely, to the shores of, yes, Nineveh.

Pause for a moment. If you were delivered to the geographic coordinates God had intended for you, especially after a harrowing journey that must have felt like the underworld (or worse), how would you respond?

Jonah went to work. “Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown,” he cried as he coursed through the city. His words were all the Ninevites needed to respond, repent, and receive God’s favor. Nineveh was saved, God was pleased, but Jonah sulked on the sidelines. He resented being used as a vessel of redemption for the city he despised. He idolized his own prejudices: if God allowed the Ninevites to live, then Jonah would rather die.

That’s quite an example of zero-sum thinking, isn’t it? Clinging to one’s hatred of “the other”? Believing that another’s gain is your loss? Deciding that some people just need to be kept down? As the chapter concludes, we witness God attempting to rationalize with Jonah, who’s feeling pretty sorry for himself about saving Nineveh and losing a shade plant. “See how small-minded you’re being,” God’s larger message seems to be, to Jonah and anyone with ears to hear: “What qualifies you to exclude people from my kingdom? Who are you to distinguish the redeemed from the damned?”  

Prayer

In thy house are many mansions, Lord. Open our hearts and minds to live a faith so deep, so broad, and so high that it welcomes all people, all creation, to share joyfully in the gift of your redeeming grace. Amen.

Written by Sarah Forbes Orwig, Member of Fourth Presbyterian Church

Reflection and Prayer © Fourth Presbyterian Church

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