anger

Peterson has got me nailed this afternoon. Yes, Jonah eventually obeyed, did what he was meant to do. But he became angry when his expectations weren't met. Me too.

He is petulant because things didn't turn out the way he expected. His program was not fulfilled. No matter that in his preaching God was heard and believed; Jonah was ignored. And so Jonah was feeling sorry for himself, quarelling with God under the unpredictable plant. So easily had he confused the biblical vocation by which he was called into God's work for a religious job in which he used God as an adjunct to his work (and when God didn't do the job he was supposed to do, dressed him down good).