“Jonah’s story reminds us that few believers follow an unbroken ascent from unbelief upward into gloriously victorious faith. Instead, we tend to progress with steps and halts, advances and slips. Jonah shows us that when it comes to growing in God’s grace, none of us is set up for life; we all have need for continual and perpetual growth in the grace of God.” —Richard Phillips
1. Jonah was angry.
“Jonah is upset because he thinks God is soft on sin.” —Richard Phillips
“Grace means that God may bless people who have wronged you, people from whose sins you have suffered. When that happens, you may find yourself asking, ‘Why doesn’t God give them what they deserve?’” —Colin Smith
“God steps into the lives of particular individuals with the purpose and effect of saving them. Without this intervention in your life and mine, neither of us would have any hope of being saved.” —Colin Smith
2. God questions Jonah’s anger.
“Has Jonah, as the representative of a people chosen by God for no merit on their part, a people favored by God even when they go astray, as a prophet who in his disobedience has personally know the saving hand of God in his life, any valid ground for objection if God out of his mercy shows compassion to others also? The answer is obviously that man has no right to challenge God on the way he extends his mercy.” —John MacKay