Of all the prophets in the Old Testament, the one with the most famous story is also the one with the most selfish story.

Jonah’s mission from the Lord was to go to the great city of Nineveh. That may sound like a nice tourist trip, except that Nineveh was the leading city of Assyria, and the Assyrians were big bullies to the Israelites. Jonah had no interest in bringing God’s word to his enemies. So Jonah boarded a ship for Tarshish instead. He wanted to get as far away from Nineveh, and as far away from the Lord, as possible.

But that’s a silly thing to do. If God is everywhere and can show up anywhere, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to run away from him. While Jonah was asleep on the ship, the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea. It was a big storm, and the sailors knew they were in big trouble. They cast lots to see who was responsible for the storm, and sure enough, it was Jonah.

“What are we going to do?” they asked. “Throw me overboard,” Jonah replied, “and the sea will calm down. It’s my fault this is happening. I’ve run away from the Lord and disobeyed his word.” After trying to get the ship to shore, they finally picked up Jonah and tossed him into the sea.

The storm ceased, the sailors sacrificed to the Lord, and Jonah was swallowed up by a great fish.

Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish: “You cast me into the deep, O Lord. My life was fainting away, but I remembered you. I will keep your word. Salvation belongs to the Lord.” It was a good prayer. And it led to the best spit-up in the history of the world. The Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah on dry land.

The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time telling him to go to Nineveh, and this time Jonah obeyed. He journeyed through the great city and declared God’s message: “In forty days, Nineveh will be overthrown.”

You might think that the nasty Ninevites didn’t care about God’s message, that they ignored Jonah’s warning. But amazingly, surprisingly, they listened. They put away their food, put on sad clothes, and put their sins behind them. And because they turned from their evil ways, God turned away from the disaster he had announced.

What a happy ending!

Except that wasn’t the end of the story. After God had mercy on Nineveh, Jonah was exceedingly angry. He didn’t like the Ninevites. He wished they had been destroyed. So Jonah did what God’s prophets should never do. He pouted.

Then God made a plant to grow up and give Jonah shade from the sun. But the next day, God sent a worm and a wind to kill the plant. Jonah was even more angry. “You care about the plant,” the Lord said, “but you do not care about the great city of Nineveh.” Jonah still didn’t know what God was really like. Sometimes we forget that if God didn’t show grace to his enemies, we wouldn’t know his grace either.