At the very beginning of our study of Jonah, we encountered two questions about Jonah’s strange behavior in the book. When asked by God to go preach judgment against the evil city of Nineveh, Jonah instead got on a boat and headed to Tarshish.
The first question, then, was, “Why would Jonah go to Tarshish instead of obey God and preach judgment against his enemies, the Ninevites?”
And then Jonah’s behavior got even stranger. It seemed that Jonah had a death wish. Through his words and actions in Jonah 1–2, Jonah made it quite clear that he wanted to die. He had a death wish.
So the second question was “Why does Jonah want to die?”
In this study of Jonah 4:3, we finally discover the answer to both questions. And the answer is shocking. So shocking, in fact, most fail to see it. But I will point it out to you in this study.
The Text of Jonah 4:3
Now Yahweh, please take my life from me, for death is better to me than life.”
In this discussion of Jonah 4:3 we look at:
- Why did Jonah flee to Tarshish?
- Why did Jonah want to die?
- The main views about these two questions
- The actual answer from the text to these questions
- What the answer teaches us about God
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Have you ever been angry at God? Of course you have. Life has a way of crushing us all, and when that happens, we often get angry at God about it.
After Nineveh experiences a city-wide revival in response to his preaching, Jonah becomes angry at God in Jonah 4:1.
What is repentance? How do we repent? Does God ever need to repent?