Jonah 4:1-3 - “But Jonah was greatly displeased and became angry.  He prayed to the Lord, “O Lord, is this not what I said when I was still at home? That is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish.  I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. Now, O Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.”

The prophet understood the nature of prophecy – that normally God predicts judgment in an effort to turn people to repentance. Jonah did not want God to have the opportunity to show mercy to Israel’s enemies. He was being nationalistic, putting his naitonalism before God’s purposes.

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Jonah 1:6 – “…The captain went to him and said, “How can you sleep? Get up and call on your god!  Maybe he will take notice of us, and we will not perish.“

Jonah was a prophet of the Lord in ancient Israel.  The Lord assigned him an unpleasant task: to go preach judgment on the great city of Nineveh, capital of the Assyria Empire.  At this time, the Assyrians (based in Nineveh) posed the single greatest threat to Israel’s national security and survival as a nation.  They were Israel’s enemies, and the people of Israel feared them.  Indeed, some years after this, the Assyrians invaded and destroyed the Northern Kingdom of Israel, carrying the people into exile, and leaving only the Southern Kingdom of Judah in the Promised Land.  Before this attack, however, God sent Jonah to preach to them.  Jonah was afraid and resisted this assignment – not only because Israelites naturally felt intimidated by Nineveh, but also because he did not want the people to have a chance to repent. (see Jonah 4:2).  He wanted God to judge them, and giving them a chance to repent could leave the opportunity for them to receive grace and forgiveness, at least for a season (this is, of course, exactly what happens at the end of the book of Jonah).

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