And he prayed unto the LORD, and said, I pray thee, O LORD, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil. Jonah 4:2 

  
Have you ever wondered why Jonah fled from God? I have often wondered that and I am not sure how I have missed it before but this verse clearly explains why. It was not because Jonah was afraid of the dangerous journey. It was not because he thought the people would kill him. It is not because he thought the people would not listen to him. It was because he thought the people would listen to him and repent.  Jonah fled from God because he knew how good God was. He knew that if the people repented God would spare the city and Jonah wanted them destroyed. So, Jonah decided that if no one told them then they would not repent and God would destroy them. That is why he ran away from God.  God is moved by their repentance and does not bring judgement like he said he would. Jonah gets mad because God gave grace to some wicked people that repented. Jonah misses something huge! He was just saved from a storm by God. He was given grace but now he is mad at God.

This story reminds me of myself. I want God to give me unlimitless grace but many, many times I do not want to give that to others.  I should not be a Jonah but a Paul who wanted everyone to hear about this message of grace.