Jonah is both a warning and an encouragement to us.
He encourages us by showing us that our disobedience can’t stop God’s plans and that God is merciful and gives us second chances. He encourages us by showing us that there is hope even in the most hellish of situations (and beyond these immediate illustrations, this story is used in the New Testament to point to the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, so we see that God can do great things from our individual stories, even when they may not seem particularly impressive to us!)
But he is a warning to us that just because we claim to be followers of Jesus, that doesn’t automatically make our attitudes and behaviour right. It’s always a little bit scary to realise that religious people, people who should know better, are often those who are the most unkind, the least forgiving and the least merciful. Jesus frequently had words of admonition and warning to give to the scribes and Pharisees, people who knew the law, because they missed the point altogether. They criticised Him for healing on the Sabbath. They criticised the company He took. They were full of complaints. He told them, ‘go and learn what this means: “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.’ (Matt 9:13)
Jonah was something of a racist: he wanted God’s mercy for Israel but didn’t care about other nations. Are we like that too? If we’re alright, do we even care that others are going to hell because they have not experienced the love and mercy and forgiveness of God for themselves? God’s mercy was wide enough to extend to Nineveh. It’s wide enough to encompass the whole world. His plan, right from the start, was that all the nations of the earth would be blessed through Abraham and his offspring (Gen 12:3), and our mission is to go into all the world and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. (Matt 28:19) How seriously are we taking that commission? Are we running in the opposite direction, like Jonah did?
Jonah is grudging even in his obedience: in Jonah 4, he is still portrayed as being selfish, caring more about his own comfort and protection than the fate of a city with 120,000 people in it. Are we like that too? Do we care more about our own ease and comfort, about our own selfish ambitions and desires, than we do about the community we are called to serve?
God wants our attitudes and thinking to be transformed. (Rom 12:1-2) He wants us to do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but to put the interests of other people before our own, walking in humility and compassion. (Phil 2:3-4) We are called to serve God faithfully where we are and to go wherever He sends us. Paul says to the Corinthians, ‘Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labour in the Lord is not in vain.’ (1 Cor 15:58)