There is a line from God that may fit our present climate in the U.S.

It is tucked away in the midst of the book of Jonah and has been tugging at me as of late.

See if it might speak to you as well.

The prophet had been sent to give a dire message to a people that he did not care for. And by didn’t care for I mean that he absolutely despised them. There had been bad blood between them for years, and Jonah was not about to say anything to them, let alone share the message God had for them.

I believe in principle and Jonah believed the message, for it required that the people of Nineveh repent of their wrong doing. He agreed that they were wrong, and he would have easily described them as evil. The problem was that he thought God might just use his message to change their hearts and cause them to be saved from disaster, and it was disaster that Jonah wanted for them.

So, his solution was to disobey the God he claimed to believe in, in order to avoid the outcome he was afraid God would bring about. When Jonah finally does what he is told, God does what Jonah didn’t want Him to do; he spared the enemy.

It’s at this point that we come to Jonah’s problem. His anger and disappointment in God’s decision not to destroy them. In Jonah’s conversation with God he is asked the great question that’s on my mind: “Do you do well to be angry?”

(Jonah 4:4, ESV) Our culture is full of anger.

We are constantly biting and devouring one another over a myriad of conflicts, whether political, social or even how we feel about the attention Taylor Swift is getting from the NFL.

If mentioning her name made you pull back, you might be experiencing this kind of anger.

The point is that we have become a nation that can pick a fight over anything and get angry to the point of forgetting that the people we are angry at are also Americans and bearers of God’s image.

So, I ask, do you do well to be angry?

Maybe we need to cool off just a bit. Maybe there are opportunities to come together.

And just maybe it is not God’s will to bring destruction to our enemies, but to save them.

If destruction of another is on your heart you may not do well to continue in your anger.

And, remember that Jesus said it is the peacemakers who are called the sons of God.

Pastor Rich Cummings was called to Emmanuel Baptist Church in August 2022 and he has been a pastor since 2006. He has an MDiv from Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He may be reached at rich@ebccassville.com