Do you recall the story of Jonah? You know the story we tell to kids about the prophet of God being swallowed by a great fish because he refused to go to Nineveh. Jonah tried to run from God by jumping on a ship going the opposite way. Jonah refused to go because he had hatred and bitterness in his heart for the Ninevites (4:1-11). He knew the mercy and grace of God. He understood that God would forgive them if they repented at his preaching. The Assyrians were a hated enemy of Israel, so Jonah could not bear the thought of them being spared. So he refused to go.
In chapter two Jonah is living in the belly of the fish. He is despairing for his very life. He cries out for salvation and deliverance from God. He begs for God to deliver him and promises to give thanksgiving and sacrifices to God. God responds to his prayer and Jonah obeys by going to preach to Nineveh. But his heart is clearly not right. He goes outside the city and awaits their destruction. He becomes angry at God for not destroying them when they repent. Jonah is so angry he even wishes for death.
So what is the “Jonah in the Whale” syndrome that we can have today? We can fall to the same trap as Jonah. Notice two characteristics of this syndrome.
- We have the syndrome when we find ourselves in distress and cry out to God for deliverance, yet don’t truly address the problem that got us into the crisis. We often treat God like a spare tire. We want to pull him out when we need Him, but we don’t really want to address the reason we had the flat tire in the first place. Jonah didn’t really want to change his life, he just wanted out of the belly of the fish. His prayer was selfish. He didn’t really want to change. How many times are we like that? We must address the sinful actions that got us into the problem in the first place.
- We have the syndrome when we commit to doing the right action, but don’t have the right attitude. Jonah went to Nineveh, but he didn’t go with the right attitude. He went out of duty. He had no other choice. His actions were right, but his heart was far from right. Jesus condemns such hypocritical actions (Mat. 15:7-9).
Do you have the “Jonah in the Whale” syndrome? Let me suggest looking a little deeper into the causes of your problems than just focusing on changing your current predicament.
