We are almost to Christmas, and we were this close to having a White Christmas! Oh well. I hope this finds you warm, safe, and digging out from the snow. This week, we will be finishing our advent series in Jonah, tackling all of chapter 4. Hopefully, Jonah’s reaction to Nineveh’s salvation and God’s teaching of him through a plant will teach us to live according to the God’s priorities.

In Jonah 4, we’re treated to one of the more head-scratching tantrums in the Bible. Jonah should have been rejoicing in the unlikely and supernatural success his preaching had brought. But instead, he was beyond angry with God. And this anger reveals to us that his repentance in the whale likely didn’t reach the root issue in his heart. He certainly repented of his ejection of the Lord’s call on his life, but it doesn’t seem like he had repented of his hatred for the Assyrians. But thankfully, there was grace for that. God didn’t just give grace to the Assyrians, but to Jonah as well, that hard-hearted celebrity pastor of the day. God not only gave Jonah grace, but He also instructed him in what God’s priorities were. And so I encourage you to meditate upon Jonah 4 in the coming days. We are often convinced of our own rightness, but do our priorities line up with the Lord’s priorities? Are we living lives marked primarily by compassion and grace? Come Sunday to see how Jonah 4 not only reveals God’s plan to grow His people in grace, but points to how He has already begun to fulfill that plan.