Jonah 4:1-3

Jonah's angry prayer to God -- Jonah 4:1-3: The Lord's compassion toward Nineveh displeased Jonah greatly. He was really upset and angry with God because Nineveh had not been destroyed. A person can be angry and yet not sin. "Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath." (Ephesians 4:26) It was not the case with Jonah that he was angry and did not sin. He allowed his feelings of anger to cause him to tragically despise God's mercy. It may have been that both his prejudice and all that he had been through because of the Ninevites had caused him to want them punished.

Jonah "prayed to the Lord and said, I pray You, O Lord, is not this just what I said when I was still in my country? That is why I fled to Tarshish, for I knew that You are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness, and when sinners turn to You and meet Your conditions You revoke the sentence of evil against them." (Jonah 4:2) Jonah wanted Nineveh punished severely, but he recognized that God was full of mercy. Jonah was not at all a man that would consider suicide but he was in such misery that he asked God to take his life. (Jonah 4:3) When a man in his right mind takes his own life it is murder just as if he had deliberately killed another person. Jonah felt disgraced and he was looking for a way out. A man is not a fit prophet or preacher if he cannot accept God's justice, mercy and truth.