A few weeks ago, I had an off day. My fiancé noticed I was irritable, so he attempted to help by pointing out what I was doing that was counterproductive. In my agitated state, rather than heeding his advice, I fought back. This turned into three separate instances during the day in which I dropped, spilled and even threw some things around. I thought I could do what I wanted to do without any repercussion, but that backfired very quickly.
We often study Jonah in children’s Bible classes. It’s pretty easy to teach children amazing things like a man being swallowed by a large sea creature because their minds go wild with that possibility. However, I’m afraid that may mean that we as adults believe we have heard the story enough that we no longer need to study it. Any time we believe we “know that story well enough” is probably a good time to pick it up and study again.
Jonah’s story is only four chapters long so it is a quick read. Rather than summarizing, let’s look at the impact Jonah’s attitude had on himself.
Jonah believed he knew better than God about who deserved salvation and who didn’t. Because of his attitude, Jonah spent money on a voyage he wouldn’t get to complete, wound up in a fish’s stomach and then threw a temper-tantrum over a plant. From the outside, Jonah simply looks foolish because of his attitude.
Second, God gave Jonah everything both he and the Ninevites needed. Jonah didn’t willingly accept his commission or deliver God’s message, but his spiteful delivery of that message was used for God’s glory anyway. Jonah sabotaged himself with his own attitude; he stole away the blessings God tried to give him. He neither thanked God for his blessings of safety, wellness and protection, nor did he recognize the blessing of saving an entire nation of people from their sins.
This legacy of poor attitude and thoughtless reaction to people offering their help and advice is still evident today.
In Galatians 6:1-10, God commands us to bear one another’s burdens. While bearing the burdens of our brethren is helpful to them, we must share our burdens with others as well. Far too often, we let our attitudes of pride and fear get in the way, and we steal our own peace as well as the peace of those around us.
God commands us to “put to death the deeds of the body” that we might live in Spirit rather than in flesh (Romans 8:13). Colossians 3:8 gives us a more specific list of what we are to put to death: anger, wrath, malice, slander and obscene talk. Verses twelve through fourteen of the same chapter in Colossians go on to give us a list of those things we ought to have instead: compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, weakness, patience, forbearance, forgiveness and love. Often, we say things like, “I want to be compassionate to her situation, but I’m just so frustrated she did that!” Or, “I’m not the one making the decision, but she shouldn’t have done it that way.” We don’t even acknowledge how childish we sound by not letting things go and how we ruin the joy we ought to have in unity by tearing ourselves apart from the inside. This hurts the people who receive our actions, but it also hurts us as it rots our spirits.
Jonah’s legacy of poor attitude and distrust in God brought him to crazy circumstances that continued to further prove his poor attitude. When we are not careful to obey God today, we continue in this legacy.
Kathryn Heib