Angry Christians Seeking to Serve God

Jonah 4:1-11

Jim Davis

A little boy was sitting sadly on the curb beside his lawn mower, when along came a minister riding a bicycle. The minister noticed that the boy appeared discouraged, so he thought he would try to help.

"Hello there!" said the minister. "How would you like to trade your lawn mower for this bicycle?"

"Sure, mister," the little boy responded, and went on his merry way.

A few days later, the boy and the minister crossed paths again. The minister said, "I think you took me on our trade. I keep crankin' that old lawn mower, but it won't start."

"You gotta cuss it," said the little boy.

"Well I can't do that," said the minister. "I'm a preacher. I forgot about cussin' a long time ago."

The little boy answered, "Just keep on crankin', preacher; it'll come back to ya."

I think many Christians may be like the little boy with the lawnmower. He went out to mow yards and ended up cussin' the lawnmower and trading it for a bicycle. Many begin the Christian walk end up cussin’ God. They end up going in another direction. Jonah was a prophet of God that went back to cussin’ God when things didn’t go his way.

Jonah 2:1-2
2:1 From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the LORD his God. 2 He said: 

"In my distress I called to the LORD, 
and he answered me. 
From the depths of the grave I called for help, 
and you listened to my cry. (NIV)

Jonah expresses confidence in God’s salvation before his deliverance from the whale’s belly.

Jonah 2:5-6
5 The engulfing waters threatened me,
the deep surrounded me; 
seaweed was wrapped around my head. 
6 To the roots of the mountains I sank down; 
the earth beneath barred me in forever. 
But you brought my life up from the pit, 
O LORD my God. (NIV)

Jonah’s dilemma reminded him of his vow of obedience. His dilemma was the result of his flight from God as he refused to live up to his solemn vow of obedience to God’s command to preach to Nineveh. 

Jonah 2:7-10
7 "When my life was ebbing away, 
I remembered you, LORD, 
and my prayer rose to you, 
to your holy temple. 

8 "Those who cling to worthless idols 
forfeit the grace that could be theirs. 
9 But I, with a song of thanksgiving, 
will sacrifice to you. 
What I have vowed I will make good. 
Salvation comes from the LORD." 

10 And the LORD commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land. NIV

Jonah finally says, “What I have vowed I will make good. Salvation comes from the Lord.” This was his promise to go and preach to the city of Nineveh. It was then that the Lord commanded the fish to vomit Jonah onto dry land. 

Sadly Jonah's attitude as he went wasn't conducive to repentance. Jonah went and the city of Nineveh repented, “But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry” (4:1). The amazing thing about Jonah’s vow was that he promised, but he went angry with God because he couldn’t agree with God’s way of doing things. “He prayed to the LORD, "O LORD, is this not what I said when I was still at home? That is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. Now, O LORD, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live." 

I believe the story of Jonah because only God would dare paint such an ugly picture of one of his children without blushing. If it was your child having a fit of temper, you would probably hide it from others. But God reveals the character flaws of his children to help the rest of us overcome our character flaws. God has nothing to hide from me. This is why I don’t have to hide from God.

I believe the story of Jonah because it expresses the nature of the human experience so realistically that it has to be true. There are multitudes of angry people in our world today that are doing what they don’ really want to do. I believe that the story of Jonah’s anger with God is the way many Christian’s may be serving God in anger today.

I can only wonder if there are many angry Christians seeking to serve God today. I am not talking about those who have a righteous indignation against sin. I am talking about Christians who are angry at God and the church. This sounds like a contradiction. How can a Christian claim to be a Christian in anger? How can he or she justify Christ’s claims for their lives?

Sometimes we need to be reminded that, we too, have an ugly side that often is only revealed when we are angry.

Anger Is a Natural Response to Our World

We live in an angry world. People say that mankind is good. The Bible teaches us that it’s not so. It is so because the world itself is sinful. The most basic result of sin is anger. The conflict between God’s way and the world’s way produces anger. 

It is so easy to see what is wrong with the world, but it is difficult to see what is wrong with me. It is easy for us to understand what the church ought to be, but it is often difficult for me to see how I must fit into what the church ought to be.

Jonah became angry with God and decided to go on strike. The Bible says, “Jonah went 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.” Jonah went on strike. He did what God ask him to do, but Jonah still wanted God to do what Jonah wanted him to do—he even expected it to be so. He sat down outside the city and waited for God’s judgment on Nineveh. He was hoping for Nineveh’s demise. When it didn’t happen he became even angrier.

Jonah 4
4:1 But Jonah was greatly displeased and became angry. 2 He prayed to the LORD, "O LORD, is this not what I said when I was still at home? That is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. 3 Now, O LORD, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live." 

Jonah was uncomfortable with God’s way of doing things. Many are looking for churches to make them comfortable. Many just want to belong to a church that has vision. They want a church that has a vision and a mission but have no intention of becoming part of the vision or mission. The church can develop no vision without you; if it does it won’t benefit you. 

The greatest vision for the church is what God can do for you personally. He can empower you to fulfill his dreams for your life.

I went to a lectureship in Phoenix, Arizona with a preacher friend of mine. We visited a congregation and he got up and walked out of the service after a couple of songs. I had to follow him out because I was riding with him. He was angry because things weren’t done the way he thought they ought to be done. He was harboring a general anger toward the church because of his own bad experiences. I think there may be many Christians that harbor suppressed anger toward the church in similar ways.

I was reading an ad for a church lectureship the other day. One session was titled, “How to fight the ‘Music Wars’ and survive.” That says something in and of itself about angry Christians doesn’t it? The conflict is not over whether we should worship but what sort of hymns should be used in worship. The old fight was over instrumental music, today it is over the type of songs to be sung. 

In all the fights for change there has been very little meaningful change taking place. But there is a lot of bottled up anger over the trivial change. 

Religion has sought to change everything except what really needs to be changed. Do you know that the most religious people in the world are probably Buddhists, but it is ritual, it doesn’t change the world for better. It was Jonah that needed to change. I don’t know if he did or not? 

God gave us the picture of Jonah to enable us to see ourselves. Anger may be the natural response to a natural world, but it is seems as though it ought to be different with Christians. 

Do We Have A Right to Be Angry?

Jonah was an angry prophet of God. He was very displeased with God’s desire for him to preach to Nineveh. He grew very angry over God’s acceptance of their penitent attitudes. 

Angry people feel justified in their anger. They blame others for their anger. Jonah blamed a gracious God for his anger. He thought God was too gracious to those who he felt didn’t deserve it. 

Jonah felt that he had a right to be angry. 

Jonah 4
4:1 But Jonah was greatly displeased and became angry. 2 He prayed to the LORD, "O LORD, is this not what I said when I was still at home? That is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. 3 Now, O LORD, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live." 

4 But the LORD replied, "Have you any right to be angry?" 

5 Jonah went 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. 6 Then the LORD God provided a vine and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the vine. 7 But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the vine so that it withered. 8 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." 

9 But God said to Jonah, "Do you have a right to be angry about the vine?" 

"I do," he said. "I am angry enough to die." 

10 But the LORD said, "You have been concerned about this vine, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. 11 But Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about that great city?" NIV

God seeks to bring Jonah face to face with himself. God asks Jonah “Have you any right to be angry?” God asks Jonah this question twice. Jonah was so angry with God that he rather be dead than be a part of God’s plan to save Nineveh. He felt this way when he told the sailors to cast him overboard. He has preached to Nineveh—but there is no change of heart. In his fit of anger he rather perish than to do it God’s way. 

Anger always brings us to the end of our rope. When we reach the end of our rope, anger forces us to face ourselves. We have a choice, we can deal with our anger with God’s help or we can deal with our anger refusing God’s help. God’s help will enable us to overcome our anger and its consequences; without God’s help we will be left to reap the raging consequences of our own anger. 

There are many that are angry, but they flatly refuse to admit they are angry. Jonah was honest in that he admitted his anger. He sought to justify it rather than deny it. 

Many seek to deny their anger by trying to stuff it way down inside, but it will eventually erupt. You may say, “Well I am hurt, but I am not angry.” Hurt is always the result of anger. It is your anger over what ought to be that is telling you that you have a right to be hurt. Hurt only means that you are suppressing your anger. Suppressed anger only deepens your anger. You are refusing to allow it to surface, which results in your need to push it further down inside you. It will eventually become the driving force in your life. 

Suppressing our anger only makes our lives more chaotic. We have seen postal workers going postal. We have witnessed high school students venting their anger as they kill teachers and their fellow students. We have seen murder scenes where one person takes the lives of family members and then takes his own life. We have observed planes crashing into the World Trade towers. 

Some show their anger by lashing out in all sorts of ways at people around them. This tends to drive people away from us. 

Others seek physical or mental retaliation. Jonah was seeking retaliation against the wicked city of Nineveh. 

You may have every right to be angry. Christians really ought to be angry. There is a place for anger in the kingdom of God. We should be angry over:

Condoms are being distributed to our children in school.
Over 30 billion babies have been ripped out of their mother’s womb.
Half the patients that enter an abortion clinic don’t come out alive.
Sexual perversion is being taught as an alternate life style.
 
There is a need for a righteous anger in the kingdom of God, but Jonah was boiling mad with God because he hated what God loved—the people of Nineveh. Jonah is angry because God is a gracious God. Anger was also Nineveh’s problem. She hated God’s people—Jonah was no different from those to whom he preached. Anger drives our world making it a contriving place to live. It convinces us to live in self-pity because we can’t get our way. It leaves a world pouting to get its way.

Anger has a way of shifting the priorities of our lives from focusing on what God wants as it convinces us to focus on what we want. Throughout the book of Jonah we find Jonah holding out on God. When he does decide to preach to Nineveh he does so half-heartedly. He was going through the motions but his heart wasn’t into it.

God’s graciousness used Jonah’s words to Nineveh to bring the city to repentance regardless of Jonah’s half-heartedness. The beautiful thing about this is that God has a mission for my life even if the church has lost sight of her mission. 

God’s anger against sin is genuine, but he channels his anger with his graciousness in an effort to salvage the world from its anger. God chose to bear the anger of a sinful world. It nailed him to a cross. Somehow, God’s infinite wisdom has devised a means to harness his natural anger toward sin with his graciousness, which has resulted in our salvation. But more importantly he has shown us how to channel our anger to salvage our lives—and the lives of those we love.

God used his anger against sin to reshape and recreate the world anew through Jesus Christ. God refused to allow his anger for sin to turn into hurt and hate. He refused to allow a wall of vengeance to remain erected. God did everything in his power to persuade Jonah to tear down the wall of anger Jonah had erected between himself and God. 

We may have a right to be angry, but we must allow God to direct our anger so that the world may have an opportunity to experience the redemptive power of God. 

The Purpose of Our Frustration

God’s mission for Jonah was God’s way of forcing Jonah to face himself. I can only wonder how long Jonah’s anger had been brewing. How long had he been thinking that God was too gracious? 

God created this world to be a frustrated place for frustration brings about growth and liberation. Frustration creates the tension needed for growth. 

Romans 8:18-25
18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. 19 The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. 20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. 

22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? 25 But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. NIV

Jonah was experiencing the frustrating pains of child birth. It was Jonah’s frustration that made him flee to Tarshish. It was Jonah’s frustration that drove him to seek sleep while others perished. It was Jonah’s frustration that made him cry to God for salvation from the belly of the whale. It was Jonah’s frustration that caused him to mourn Nineveh’s repentance. It was Jonah’s frustration that brought him face to face with himself. 

The book doesn’t tell me Jonah’s final response to God. The book of Jonah is a frustrating book because it leaves Jonah sitting there pouting in self-pity while God forces him to face the ugliness of his own life. Did he die sulking, or did he die liberated through his difficulties. My knowledge of human nature doesn’t leave me very optimistic about his fate. My knowledge of God’s grace makes me hopeful. 

I wonder how many Christians are like Jonah today. They are serving God, but they are harboring a kind of anger in their heart that is robbing them of the joy and peace salvation offers. 

Jonah was the only person suffering from his anger. Nineveh enjoyed the fruits of repentance despite his anger. God accomplished his will in spite of Jonah. When God opened the door for his continued ministry in the city of Nineveh Jonah went out on the hillside and pouted. I can only wonder how many are missing the joys of service that God has provided because of their resentment today. It is God’s place to take vengeance. 

Romans 12:17-21
17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. 18 If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. 19 Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," says the Lord. 20 On the contrary: 

"If your enemy is hungry, feed him; 
if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. 
In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head."  

21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. (NIV)

When anger replaces love we begin to feel isolated and alone. Jonah was left outside of the city only thinking of himself. It left him isolated from those who could build him up. It is no wonder that he cried, “Now, O Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.”

Jonah lost a sense of God’s guidance. He was too wrapped up in himself. He refused God’s guidance and abandoned the place of God’s blessing. Now the only word he receives from the Lord is rebuke.

When we lose a sense of God’s guidance we lose a sense of values. It is no wonder that our world is becoming more and more frustrated as it searches for answers. Jonah was able to mourn over the vine God provided for shade, but he didn’t have the capacity to mourn over the sins of that wicked city. He found it much easier to mourn the loss of his own comfort. His inability to mourn over the city left him bitter without anything to rejoice over—because ultimately he had never fully experienced salvation for himself.

How many are like Jonah, their service to the Lord is motivated out of anger and fear? They have become defensive and argumentative. They are like Jonah thinking they have good reason to be angry. They seek to rid themselves of anger and malice by praying for God’s vengeance upon their enemies as they serve half-heartedly. 

Conclusion:

Everything in the book of Jonah obeys God except Jonah. The winds obey God as the storm rages. The heathen heed the result of the lots cast—that was no doubt the voice of God.  The whale followed God’s instruction to the letter. The city of Nineveh repented at Jonah’s command. But Jonah remained as obstinate as ever. 

Honesty and humility are two attitudes we must develop to be enabled to handle our anger. We must admit in our anger that we are really angry with God. We must be humble enough to do something about it when it is admitted. 

God wants to use your frustrations to get you to take a good look at yourself. A better life awaits you, but it is up to you. 

Jesus Christ came to show us how to handle our anger. He showed us how God’s grace deals with anger.

When I allow God to use me to channel his love to a lost world I begin to experience the love of God for myself.