IS YOUR ANGER TOV?
Kendra Intihar
Today's Scripture: “The Lord replied, ‘Is it right for you to be angry about this?’ Then Jonah went out to the east side of the city and made a shelter to sit under as he waited to see what would happen to the city.” Jonah 4:4-5, NLT
Theme: When God asks me (as he did Jonah): “Is it right for you to be angry?’ I must consider carefully what my next step should be.
AMAZING GRACE
Before John Newton wrote the timeless, beloved hymn “Amazing Grace” in 1779, he had been involved in the Atlantic Slave Trade and was notoriously foul-mouthed and scurrilous. He was, by all accounts (including his own) a wretch, just like his famous hymn intones. After encountering the Gospel, Newton experienced genuine redemption and repented for his atrocious behavior. He didn’t merely quit the slave trade; he showed us what it looks like to live as a citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven here on earth by becoming an outspoken abolitionist. “Amazing Grace” is as moving today as it was when Newton penned it. It reminds us that God’s mercy is for all of us and that redemption is possible, no matter how lost we are.
I cannot help but think, when I read John Newton’s story, that there were people to whom he was intentionally cruel who may have been utterly flabbergasted, even offended, that God would extend compassion to someone as wretched as he had been.
WHAT IS ANGER PRODUCING IN YOU?
In Jonah chapter 4, this is exactly how Jonah feels about the Ninevites after Nineveh repents and the Lord forgives. Jonah is livid with what he feels is a righteous anger toward God, and he locks himself into a struggle with God about the nature of His justice. In fact, he even says he would rather die than live in a world where these horrible people were forgiven and set free.
“Is it right for you to be angry?” God asks in response to Jonah’s rage. In Hebrew, that question ends with a form of the word “tov.” Tov (pronounced like “cove”) is the Hebrew word for “good” or “goodness.”
“Is your anger tov?” God is asking Jonah. I recently read a post* from Edward Feinstein, a rabbi, who paraphrased the original Hebrew as "Has hate displaced the good in you?" I appreciate this interpretation because it shows us that God is inviting Jonah to examine the anger he is harboring. He invites Jonah to ask himself, "what is this anger producing inside of me?"
HOW WILL WE RESPOND?
If the repentance of the Ninevites was real, then Jonah would have to acknowledge their shared humanity. If their repentance was real, then he couldn’t consider himself set apart from them, the way he always had in the past. If their repentance was real, he couldn’t continue to wallow in anger about God’s mercy. If their repentance was real, then Jonah would have to look inside himself and see his own sinfulness and need for God’s redemption…and it turns out, he’d rather die. Jonah would rather die, Scripture tells us, than live in a world governed by a loving, redemptive, restorative, and compassionate God.
The story of Jonah does not have a conclusion; we never learn whether or not Jonah finally aligns himself with the Lord’s perspective. Jonah could only see Nineveh’s evil, but God invited Jonah—and us—to lay down our indignation and see their potential the way He does.
Make it Personal: The Lord asks us whether our anger is good. Is your anger tov? Has hatred displaced the good in you? Jonah never answers God’s question, but you and I can respond to His invitation—to see the potential for His redemption, forgiveness, and restoration in places where they might seem unwarranted or impossible.
Pray: Lord, search the deepest corners of my heart and show me the places where I am holding on to resentment, hatred, or anger toward people You love. Help me to see the potential in even the most hopeless cases, God, just as You see the potential in me. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
Read: Matthew 5:43-38; James 1:19-20; Psalm 103:8-10
*For Reference: Article quoted above.
Weekly Memory Verse: “Just kill me now, Lord! I’d rather be dead than alive if what I predicted will not happen.” Jonah 4:3, NLT