Useful Bible Studies > Jonah Commentary > chapter 4
Jonah repeated to God some of the words that God himself had spoken in Exodus 34:6-7. These are extremely important words that appear several times in the Bible (for example, see Psalm 103:8; Psalm 145:8). This is God’s own description of his perfect character. God is kind and he shows great love towards people. He is slow to become angry: in other words, he delays the punishment to give guilty people an opportunity to turn to him (2 Peter 3:9). He is eager to forgive people who truly turn to him. Exodus 34:7 explains that he can forgive all kinds of evil deeds. However, it also adds that he will punish guilty people. If they will not turn from their evil deeds, their punishment will be severe.
In his prayer, Jonah complained to God. Sometimes in the Bible, the prophets (holy people) did complain to God. Another prophet who complained to God was Habakkuk (see Habakkuk 1:1-4 and 1:12 to 2:1). Jonah and Habakkuk recorded these things because of the importance of God’s answers to them.
Jonah explained to God why he had originally refused to obey God (1:1-3). Jonah did not want God to forgive the wicked people in Nineveh without any punishment. When he tried to go to Tarshish, he was trying to go as far as possible from Nineveh. If he never went to Nineveh, he would be unable to declare God’s message there. So probably, nobody would warn the people in Nineveh about God’s judgment against their evil deeds. If nobody warned them, they would not turn from their evil deeds. So, God would not forgive them, and they would suffer their proper punishment (compare Romans 10:14-15).
That seemed right to Jonah. He did not see why God should forgive wicked people without a punishment. He approved of God’s judgments. Even if people turned to God, in Jonah’s opinion they should suffer a proper punishment first. Jonah did not want God to forgive people until after God had punished them for their evil deeds.
Next part: Jonah feels as if God does not care about right judgment (Jonah 4:3)
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