Who Believes In The Fish Story About Jonah? For One King Jesus!

QUESTION RECEIVED:

In  Jonah chapter 4 why does Jonah have such a bad attitude about God's goodness?

MY ANSWER:

In chapter 1 Jonah did not like that God asked Jonah to go to Nineveh and preach salvation to the people to avoid their destruction. Jonah judged the people of Nineveh as being unworthy of salvation from God.  Jonah as we know fled to the city of Tarshish by boat when the Lord first told him to go preach at the city of Nineveh.  In chapter 2 Jonah ended up in the belly of a great fish due to his sin of disobedience.  Jonah was vomited out from the fish after three days inside the fish after Jonah declared “Salvation is of the Lord”.  The fish was really a tomb. In Chapter 3 Jonah does evangelize Tarshsish.  Yes in chapter in 4 Jonah was angry in that that God chose him to preach repentance and salvation through the Lord to the people of Nineveh.   The result was the city of Nineveh repented and was saved.

Yes we have a pouting evangelist in chapter 4, Jonah, who was angry that the Lord saved people the evangelist had contempt for.

The Lord questioned Jonah in “Jonah4:4 Then the Lord said, “Is it right for you to be angry?”

Why did Jonah have a problem with God’s act of salvation?

He did not like the way God did things when Jonah knew better.

It is the problem we all have when we do not submit to the will and Lordship of God.

This is the problem when we do not mean what we pray in the Lord’s prayer

 “your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven”.

The Lord is Sovereign if we like it or not.  His ultimate will will be done.

Jonah’s problem is the same problem for all who do not submit to the Lord Jesus Christ.  

“Revelation 19:16 (NKJV) 16 And He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written:

KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.”

People today might say that this “fish story” is just some kind of parable or fable.

I do not believe it is a story but fact.

Why?  Jesus believed the story of Jonah and preached it as fact.

“40 For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth”
-Jesus (Matthew 12:40)  

You believe it too.  Our King does.