Prejudice does not “do well”.

But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry...

And the LORD said, “Do you do well to be angry?”

Jonah 4:1, 4

Jonah experienced the most dramatic conversion response ever of any prophet of the Old Testament, and he pouted over the results! We know the story from Sunday School flannelgraph days. Jonah was called to preach to Nineveh assuring them of impending destruction by God for their violence and evil. Jonah, a proud Jew, so hated the gentiles of Assyria who lived in Nineveh that he chose to disobey God, caught a ship sailing in the opposite direction of Nineveh, and thought he could outrun God’s call.

God brought a storm to the ship. God controlled the roll of the dice that led to the sailers tossing Jonah overboard. God brought a great fish to swallow Jonah. For three days in a submarine ride Jonah prayed for deliverance. And God made that fish swim right up the Tigris River and barf Jonah up on the riverbank toward Nineveh! Jonah then reluctantly obeyed and preached his message through a city so large that it took three days to walk through it entirely. And Nineveh heard the message and paid attention. From commoner to king, the Assyrians saw their evil, turned from it, and hoped that God might spare them. And God, in mercy, did so because they obeyed His Word (ahem... unlike Jonah!)

Jonah did not unlearn his prejudices despite his storm at sea. He did not unlearn them in the belly of the fish, and he did not unlearn them by preaching to his enemies who obeyed God better than he did. What we see happening in Jonah is a merciful God saving the nations of the world. And the same merciful God confronts, controls, and corners His people, pushing on the prejudices of His people, wanting them to love ALL the people of the world like God Himself does. Anger against a people group is ultimately anger against the God Who makes every person in His image. Such anger/prejudice does not “do well”. It is not the heart of our God. It is not he way His people should be. God will corner us so we are face to face with the stupidity and sinfulness of our own prejudices, in the hope that we will repent and then “do well”.