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Aug 31, 2022 08:00am

Do We Do Well to be Angry?

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So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. And he called out, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them. The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it. But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. Jonah 3:3a, 4–6, 10, 4:1

After unsuccessfully running from God, then being thrown overboard a ship, swallowed by a giant fish, and vomited up on the shore, Jonah finally decided to obey God’s order to go to the city of Nineveh and preach a warning of destruction.

After the entire city, including the king, repented of their evil ways, Jonah was angry. Even though he eventually obeyed God and had personally been shown miraculous amounts of mercy, he was still upset at the result of his obedience—that the Ninevites were spared.

Jonah obeyed, but he wasn’t happy about it.

In fact, a literal translation of “it displeased Jonah exceedingly” reads “it was exceedingly evil to Jonah.”

Sometimes our hearts are just the same when it comes to obeying God. God may want us to go somewhere, do something, or stop a particular sin. Outwardly we obey, but our hearts are far from being glad about it. Inside we grumble against God, get angry about conforming to his will, or feel sorry for ourselves. Our flesh even finds what he is asking us to do downright evil because it goes against our own desires. There is no joy in our obedience, only a begrudging spirit.

When this happens, it is usually because we think we know better than God what is good for us. We find his ways restrictive. We feel he is withholding happiness from us. We think our plans and our ways should be higher than his, and if he would just bend his will to ours, then things would be picture perfect. We cannot, like the psalmist, say, “I find my delight in your commandments,
which I love” (Psalms 119:47).

But do we do well to be angry? In other words, are we justified in being mad at God for how he chooses to act and how he commands his people to act?

God always acts in accordance with his character, and his commandments are perfect (Psalm 19:7); there is no error in him. “The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he” (Deuteronomy 32:4).

So when obedience causes us to grumble, we are actually angry with God for being God.

We don’t want him to be in charge; we want to be our own god. Even though we may publicly testify that God’s law should be followed, deep down we don’t believe his commandments are right and good. Like the rich young man in Matthew 19, we walk away sorrowful at the price of obedience.

But like God asks Jonah, is it right for us to feel this way?

Are we right to be angry at God for not having xyz thing in our lives because we gave it up in obedience to his commands? Are we justified to find his commandments burdensome when his Word says they are not (1 John 5:3)? Does it benefit us to feel embittered, “pricked in heart,” or that our obedience is in vain when we see people who don’t follow God getting the things we want or think we deserve (Psalm 73)?

The answer, of course, is a resounding no.

But how do we take our obedience from disgruntled to desirous?

The remedy for our lackluster, lukewarm obedience is to meditate on the mercies of God.

Jonah didn’t like the results his obedience brought about. Jonah’s actions displayed he wasn’t grateful for the mercy God had given him, or at least not grateful enough. God mercifully chased down Jonah by sovereignly ordaining a violent storm and a casting of lots so that Jonah would be thrown into the sea. That might not sound merciful to us, but God did so because his relentless love pursues his errant children rather than letting them persist in their sin. God gave Jonah a wake-up call because he loved Jonah, knowing all along he had a plan to rescue him and give him a second chance. If Jonah had truly let the marvelous amounts of undeserved mercy and kindness he had been shown sink in, his thankfulness would have overflowed into joyful obedience instead of angst (Jonah 4:3, 9).

The apostle Paul says that after all God has done for us, this kind of obedience just makes sense: “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your [rational service]” (Romans 12:1).

Meditating on all the times God has given us mercy when we deserved anything but should cause us to erupt in thankful praise. That gratefulness should also create in us a cheerful and humble willingness to do all that he commands.

Like Jonah, we can choose to be sorrowful or angry about what obedience costs us (in Jonah’s case, the city of evil people he despised was spared). Or we can choose to be grateful for God’s mercy and the blessings that obedience to him will bring (even if they are not the “blessings” we think we want at the time).

We can find the results of our obedience “exceedingly evil,” or we can humbly acknowledge that the best results always come by following the will of the Lord.