Jonah 4:1

The whole situation displeased Jonah and made him angry: the Ninevites’ repentance and God’s withholding judgment from them.

"Jonah finds that the time-fuse does not work on the prophetic bomb he planted in Nineveh." [Note: Allen, p. 227.]

This is the first clue, after Jonah’s initial repentance and trip to Nineveh, that his heart was still not completely right with God. One can do the will of God without doing it with the right attitude, and that is the focus of the remainder of the book. The repentance and good deeds of the Ninevites pleased God, but they displeased His representative. They made God happy, but they made Jonah unhappy. A literal translation might be, "It was evil to Jonah with great evil." Until now evil (Heb. ra’ah) described the Ninevites, but now it marks the prophet. Consequently Jonah now became evil in God’s eyes and in need of punishment as the Ninevites had (cf. Romans 2:1), but God showed Jonah the same compassion He had shown the Ninevites.

"The word but points up the contrast between God’s compassion (Jonah 3:10) and Jonah’s displeasure, and between God’s turning from His anger (Jonah 3:9-10) and Jonah’s turning to anger." [Note: Hannah, p. 1470.]

Contrast the Apostle Paul’s attitude in Romans 9:1-3. Why did Jonah become so angry? Who was he to complain? He had only recently been very happy that God had saved him from destruction (cf. Matthew 18:23-35). It was not primarily because his announced judgment failed to materialize and so raised questions about his authenticity as a true prophet (cf. Deuteronomy 18:21-22). Almost all prophecies of impending doom in the Bible assume that those being judged will remain unmoved. Divine punishment is avoidable provided people repent (cf. Jeremiah 3:22; Jeremiah 18:8; Jeremiah 26:2-6; Ezekiel 18:21-22; Ezekiel 18:30-32; Ezekiel 33:10-15). [Note: Pentecost, p. 180.] Jonah undoubtedly became angry because he wanted God to judge the Ninevites and thereby remove a military threat to the nation of Israel. If he was aware of Hosea and Amos’ prophecies, he would have known that Assyria would invade and defeat Israel (Hosea 11:5; Amos 5:27).

"Countless numbers of modern-day believers miss much of the joy of being involved in God’s wonderful work because of self-centeredness." [Note: Page, p. 276.]