Jonah - Pure in Heart

So far in the story, it's obvious that God doesn't need Jonah to change the Ninevites. This story is about God trying to change Jonah's heart.

After God forgives the people, he talks with Jonah...

But the Lord replied, “Is it right for you to be angry?”

Jonah had gone out and sat down at a place east of the city. There he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city. Then the Lord God provided a leafy plant, and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the plant. But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the plant so that it withered. When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die, and said, “It would be better for me to die than to live.”

He doesn't answer God's question. He is unwilling to take that first step toward changing his heart - it's easier to die. So God simplifies things to get the conversation moving forward, by focusing on a plant.

But God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?”

“It is,” he said. “And I’m so angry I wish I were dead.”

But the Lord said, “You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?”

Jonah is not going to give in, and the story abruptly ends here. In the past I have thought that maybe a final chapter was lost over the years. I can see know that this is a fitting ending - since Jonah won't engage with God, so there is nothing more to say.

My conclusion so far: God will manipulate my circumstances to get me to change, but he won't force a change in my heart. That's up to me. I think this is where my "free will" comes in to play.

• Everything can be taken from a man or a woman but one thing: the last of human freedoms to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way. - Viktor Frankl 

Rather than my own prayer to God, I'll quote one from King David: Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.

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Saturdays | Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

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