God's Not Fair! Part 3

Introduction
In Part 1 and 2 of this series we have looked at how our ideas of fairness can be moulded by our concepts of justice and our limited view of time. God of course doesn't deal with us according to justice but according to His grace and His understanding of time stretches into eternity.
In this blog we will attempt look at fairness through God's eyes of compassion. 

Jonah
The prophet Jonah felt that God was unfair. When God asked him to go and preach to the city of Nineveh
he ran the other way instead. However God can be very persuasive, and so after spending 3 days in the belly of a fish, Jonah did as he was told. Upon hearing the message the people of Nineveh all repented, even the King (Jonah Chapter 3). At this, the Lord relented and did not destroy them as Jonah had prophesied. Jonah 4:1-4 says this -
"1 This change of plans greatly upset Jonah, and he became very angry.2 So he complained to the Lord about it: “Didn’t I say before I left home that you would do this, Lord? That is why I ran away to Tarshish! I knew that you are a merciful and compassionate God, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. You are eager to turn back from destroying people.3 Just kill me now, Lord! I’d rather be dead than alive if what I predicted will not happen.”4 The Lord replied, “Is it right for you to be angry about this?”

Later in Chapter 4 we read that as Jonah sat outside the city feeling sorry for himself and his lost reputation, God provided a leafy plant to grow and shade him from the hot sun. This made Jonah very happy. However the next day God made a worm eat the plant and again Jonah became very angry with God. Verses 9-11 record Jonah's exchange with God about this -
 "9 Then God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry because the plant died?”
“Yes,” Jonah retorted, “even angry enough to die!”10 Then the Lord said, “You feel sorry about the plant, though you did nothing to put it there. It came quickly and died quickly.11 But Nineveh has more than 120,000 people living in spiritual darkness, not to mention all the animals. Shouldn’t I feel sorry for such a great city?” Jonah 4:9-11 (NLT)

God's compassion for people who were living in spiritual darkness meant shaking Jonah out of his safe comfortable world where he enjoyed a great reputation. This led him to declare that God's not fair!

Application
The story of Jonah is just a story until we put ourselves in his shoes. It is easy to judge Jonah as a reluctant prophet, but are we sometimes just like him?

1. Jonah ran from God's call. (Chapter 1)
We too have been called to go into all the world and make disciples (Matthew 28:19&20).
Many people believe that Jonah ran because of the Ninevites reputation for violence but Jonah 4:2&3 tells us otherwise. Jonah's real reason for fleeing is because he was afraid of losing his reputation.
Most of us probably do not face actual danger when it comes to sharing our faith, but it may well cost us our reputation or even our friendship with someone. Are we willing to be uncool or even rejected for sharing our faith? Are we willing to see the people around us as God sees them? Lost and desperately in need of a saviour?

2. Jonah needed to "die". (Chapter 2)
In order to fulfill Jonah's call he needed to die to himself. When he was inside the fish for 3 days his reputation didn't seem so important anymore. I am sure that he felt that God was not being fair to put him through all this, but God's intention was never to kill Jonah, He just wanted Jonah to obey.
Hopefully we will never end up where Jonah was, but God does have ways of pruning our lives so that we will produce more fruit (see John 15:2). He does this not because he is disciplining us but because of His compassion for the people around us. He paid a great price for their salvation and we are the ones that carry that message.

3. Jonah was more concerned with comfort than with people. (Chapter 4)
The episode with the plant growing up and dying simply points out Jonah's selfishness and lack of compassion for others. Although he thought that God was so unfair, God was more concerned with the eternal destiny of these 120,000 people.
We also can be guilty of this. Whether it is leaving behind some of life's comforts in order to share the gospel or simply adjusting our church services to suit unbelievers, we need to see people the way that God does in order to understand why we sometimes go through some things in life.

Conclusion
God sees things from an eternal perspective. He sees the ultimate eternal end of lost souls. This caused Him the greatest possible pain - the rejection and crucifixion of his own son, Jesus. At times he may call us to lay aside our comfort and reputation in order to reach others with His message. We can be like Jonah and run from God, only to be pruned back to nothing and then asked again, or we can say yes and be part of His amazing plan.

Study Guide
* Has sharing your faith ever cost you your reputation? What happened?
* Have you ever felt like you ran away from something God was asking you to do?
* Have you ever experienced God's "pruning" that resulted in more fruit in your life?
* In what ways do you find it "uncomfortable" serving God?
* As a church, how could we become more relevant and fruitful in reaching our city?
* How might this cost us some comfort?