"Everything comes to pass of necessity." John Wycliffe.
"Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing." Martin Luther, hymn: A Mighty Fortress
"Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit," says the LORD of hosts..." (Zech. 4:6).
"... who works all things according to the counsel of his will." (Eph. 1:11).
Jonah was never grace-oriented because he never experienced it himself dramatically enough to change his attitude. He was full of "them" and "they" but not enough "I" statements. He was pointing the finger and playing the blame game and he had the gall to play the "Let's compare!" game! Like when you say, compared to Hitler, I am a saint! When you judge someone it says more about you than them. In the case of the Ninevites, he thought they deserved to be punished and was waiting around after he preached to them just to see what would happen hoping that God would not spare them because he may be out of some technicality like they didn't repent sincere enough or something. Don't we all rejoice or even gloat when our enemy falls, stumbles, or has calamities or judgments?
We must realize that the story of Jonah is about how God deals with us as sinners and we all can put ourselves in Jonah's shoes and realize that we are no better than him. The point is that if you don't experience grace, you don't know how wonderful it is and you will want you will not want other people to experience it. It's like once you've experienced love, you want to pass it around. Grace changes you! God does not have to save even Jonah though otherwise it would be justice. God's mercy is undeserved towards us none of us is good enough to make it to have in fact we're bad enough always that we need to be saved. But in order to be saved, we must realize how bad we are and we don't realize how bad we are until we've tried to be good--what a catch-22!
Nothing just happens without a cause according to the law of cause and effect. There is no such thing as chance or luck in God's eye or vantage point. He is completely in control even over the toss of the die. But Jonah seemed to think all these events were just coincidences and not a way of God giving him an object lesson. He should have heeded God's impending warning signs and even his mercy on him.
Several times in the story it says God "appointed" this or that God appointed a storm, appointed a whale, appointed a plant, appointed the worm, appointed a wind--this shows and stresses God's sovereignty. We must realize that God is always in control this is called Providence when he directs it towards us his children and leads our lives toward his purposes. He orchestrates all history to his glory. He has divine favor on us whether it is good or bad God has our best in mind. If we must thank God for the good times, we should also realize that he may send bad times as well and accept them.
It is really problematic that Jonah found himself in a depressed funk that Nineveh did not get its comeuppance maybe they should have deserved just a little bit of punishment but they didn't get any they got off scot-free and it pushed his buttons, so he said he'd rather die. He didn't realize that he was a successful prophet and got the people to listen to his thankless message to repent. The point is we're all undeserving people in need of God's grace and mercy that God grants us repentance and opens our hearts to make us repent. If any of us deserved to be saved, it would be justice, not mercy!
God always warns us when he's going to judge us. That's another point to the story let's realize that God also has patience and his patience can run out he will have limits where he must judge. Jonah doesn't seem to get that God means business even with him the story goes on that Jonah was not on board with God who didn't teach him the basic lesson that his mercies never come to an end. Even with Jonah who was so self-righteous, he thought he was a cut above the rest and he actually challenged God and confronted God with his so-called injustice to spare Nineveh in his eyes. To his dismay, Nineveh was spared. But the reader probably doesn't even want Jonah spared. A major takeaway from this story is that God is compassionate to all people who repent and doesn't desire to judge but to have mercy and no one is too far gone for his mercy.
Salvation is a matter of realizing we cannot save our selves! "Apart from Me, you can do nothing," John 15:5. The story ends with Jonah's religiosity or setting up his own religion to save himself. He relied upon the energy of the flesh! God is not against doing good or helping ourselves but in doing it on our own without his spirit or help. This is religion in essence: a do-it-yourself proposition, a self-help system, lifting yourself up by your own bootstraps, and self-reliance and rugged individualism. Sounds very American! Being a self-made man! Didn't he realize he needed God? Religion is antithetical to grace which relies and depends upon God, not us or the works of the flesh. In other words, he believes God helps those who help themselves and builds himself a hut to relieve himself without calling upon the LORD. Soli Deo Gloria!
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