Lent 14 - Not Easily Angered II

Patience by Gareth Tristan Evens
Credit Arkleyfineart.co.uk

 But God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?”  “It is,” he said. “And I’m so angry I wish I were dead.”

But the Lord said, “You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?” Jonah 4: 9-11

What does the Lord mean?  A hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left?  Well we will have to conjecture, because verse 11 is the end of the story.

The Creator puts up with a lot, but what choice does the Creator have?  I remember my uncle and his exasperation when his daughter went £2000 into debt (this was some time ago.)  What does he do?  He pays her debts and gets her out of a spiral of trouble.  What does our Creator do for us?  Our Creator is patience, slow to anger, but that does not mean without pain and upset.

PRAYER: May I bring you peace and joy.