November 17, 1999

GREAT QUESTIONS OF THE BIBLE:
"Have you any right to be angry?"
Jonah 4:4

___I lay in bed thinking about the disagreement my wife and I had just had. Several Scriptures passed through my mind. "Be angry and yet do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger." Enough of that one.
___Then, "Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself up for her." "No," I told myself. "I'm not giving in."

TIM OWENS Pastor, First Baptist Church, Bryan

___ I lay there angry. "She's just being stubborn. Why should I cater to her? I'm going to wait-even if it takes three hours."
___ "Blessed are the peacemakers."
___ My conscience and I battled back and forth for a good 10 minutes. Finally, I hauled myself out of the bedroom and ambled into the living room.
___ "I'm sorry, honey. Will you forgive me?" I asked. She nodded. Soon we were hugging one another. As I walked back to the bedroom, something inside me whispered, "Wasn't that a lot easier than not speaking for three hours?"
___ Isn't it incredible how hard obedience can be?
___ One of the grimmest examples of disobedience is Jonah. God called Jonah to go to Ninevah and preach a message of doom. "In 40 days, I will destroy this city."
___ Jonah heard the Lord's message, jumped up and ran in the opposite direction. If you can imagine God calling someone in Dallas to go to New York City and preach the gospel, and that person immediately catches a plane for Hawaii, you get a clear picture of what Jonah did.
___ Through a series of miraculous events, God stopped Jonah from running away. However, Jonah still had a severe problem--a hateful heart. Jonah was sorry he had run from God, but he wasn't sorry he hated Ninevah.
___ How did God change Jonah's attitude?
___ The first step for Jonah was actually going to Ninevah. Real change usually begins with behavioral change. It's like what my parents used to say when I would complain about some task I had to do. "But I don't feel like it right now," I'd say. My mother would reply: "You don't have to feel like it. Just do it."
___ By going to Ninevah, Jonah saw the people of the city. He looked into their faces. God said, "OK, Jonah, if you're going to hate these people, I'm going to make you look into their faces." What Jonah began to discover was that these people were a lot like his people in Israel, only they were lost. God was trying to get Jonah to "feel something" about the people God wanted him to preach to.
___ Jonah's heart remained hard. At the same time, the people repented. One of the greatest revivals in history occurred. Jonah told God exactly how he felt: "I'd rather die than be a witness to this."
___ This brings us to one of the great questions of the Bible: "Have you any right to be angry?" (Jonah 4:4). Yes, only in this sense--being honest about one's anger is a key to dealing with disobedience. God wants us to share everything with him, even our negative feelings about him and his will. God has to lead us to the place where we admit our sinful attitudes. Only when we stop hiding our sin can God break through to us.
___ Through giving Jonah a gourd plant, God enabled Jonah to identify with his outlook on Ninevah. God said: "You had compassion on that plant, which you did not work for. You did not nurture or cultivate it. It came up in one day and died in one day. Now shouldn't I have compassion on Ninevah, which has over 120,000 people?"
___ What was God doing? He was trying to renew Jonah's heart by revealing God's own heart.
___ He wants us to see how much he loves lost people. He wants us to see how much he cares about disobedient people like Jonah. Our heavenly Father says, "I love you and want your highest good with all my being."
___ May we come to the place where we think and feel the same way.



Previous Columns: 7/14, 7/21, 7/28, 8/4, 8/11, 8/18, 8/25, 9/1, 9/8, 9/15, 9/22, 9/29, 10/6, 10/13, 10/20 10/27.

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