How difficult is a mission in which God

[Mary Naeem]

Pope Shenouda III

How difficult is a mission in which God requests one of His children to cry out against a city that it will be overthrown. Abraham the Patriarch interceded for Sodom, pleading that it might not be destroyed, although he was not commissioned to cry out against it, but he could not bear the news of its destruction even though from afar.
Jonah did not flee from carrying out the errand due to his commiseration over Nineveh's destruction. On the contrary, he fled for fear that the city should subsist and not perish. He did not say any compassionate word nor did he intercede for it as Abraham did for Sodom, but he was sad, vexed and was exceedingly displeased, and saw that death was better for him than life. All this was because God did not fulfill his warning to destroy the city. Was that a sort of obduracy or hard heartedness on Jonah's part? Or did his esteem to his word supersede all else, even love and compassion? I do not know.
As for all the other creatures in the Book of Jonah, they carried out all the Lord's orders, whether they be seemingly joyful or troublesome. It was enough for them that these orders proceeded from the mouth of God.