Bad Partner: He didn't care about them
| But the LORD said, "You have been concerned about this vine, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. But Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about that great city?" (Jonah4:10-11) |
As we page through the prophetic books of the Old Testament, we become accustomed that God calls a prophet to go and speak to His people. Normally their oracles are filled with symbolic actions and words, as they offer both warnings and hope. Paging to Jonah, we find a prophet called to go and speak to Israel's number one enemy - the Assyrians. Jonah is called to go to their capital city, Nineveh, with the message: "Repent."
Jonah wasn't happy about this call, because he knew God is merciful and loving. He knew that if the Assyrians repented, God would forgive.
Jonah tries to flee, but ends up going into the city after all, and states 'Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned.' As Jonah feared, the people repented, and God showed mercy.
The prophet leaves the city, angry and disappointed. He sits down east of the city where God makes a vine grow to offer Jonah some shade. But then the vine dries up, making Jonah even more angry and disappointed in God. He feels God is a bad partner, who doesn't seem to care. A partner who seems to care more for the enemy. Jonah tells God he is angry enough to die.
The Lord tells Jonah, 'you are upset about this vine, yet you did not tend it, or make it grow. It came up overnight and died overnight.' In a similar way, Jonah also does not know the thousands of people who lived in Nineveh. He did not tend to them or care for them. They were not perfect people - they often did not know right from wrong. Yet God asks Jonah, 'Should I not be concerned about that great city?' With these words, the prophetic book ends.
This abrupt ending reveals Jonah as the bad partner whose heart God is lovingly trying to soften and maybe the fact that Jonah eventually tells his story in this self-deprecating way tells us that his heart eventually softened.
As believers, we encounter many imperfect people. People who are hurting, who need love, and who need to be shown the mercy of God, whether we believe they deserve it or not. The mission field is everywhere, and we have a role to play, as followers of God.
Our role is to show that God cares. He cares about the unlikely and those who are hurt. He cares about those who are struggling. He cares about the person sitting next to us in the taxi; or the co-worker who at times frustrates us. But, we must also remember, that God cares about us. Go today, and show God's care to those you meet, knowing God loves you too.
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Rev Christel Erasmus is a Minister of Word and Sacrament of the UPCSA who has served in the Port Alfred Congregation, of the Presbytery of the Central Cape, for the last 10 years.
