Jonah: Salvation and Vengeance Belong to the Lord
June 26, 2022Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Speaker: Jerry Cisar
If we’re “good” Christians and somebody wrongs us, what do we do? We entrust ourselves to the One who judges justly (1 Pet. 2:23) not retaliating, right? But what do we expect? That God will give them their comeuppance, which simply means they will get what’s coming to them. What happens if, instead of getting their comeuppance, they prosper?
Recently in my own life, due to circumstances like the above, I realized that deep down I was angry (“Bothered!”). If pressed, “At whom am I angry?” there is only one possible answer: God! Why? For not doing His job—at least the job I thought was His. That’s the kind of anger Jonah is experiencing in our text. This is how I came to see that I am Jonah (which is not very flattering). And, I suspect if we are all honest, we may discover that we are all Jonah!
“Is it good for you to be angry?” That’s a question we should ask ourselves when angry and certainly one God asks. There are a variety of ways it might be answered for there is more than one reason to be angry. Sometimes it is justified. Other times, not so much. But “Is it good for us to be angry?” In this week’s text we discover that even when anger is justifiable, it may still not be good!