This story is one of the most famous from the Bible. Jonah would have lived around the same time as Obadiah and is sent to Israel’s northern neighbor Assyria, whose capitol in Nineveh. Jonah doesn’t want to preach to Nineveh; he would rather see them keep offending God and be destroyed. That’s one less invader Israel would need to worry about. Jonah runs away, but God uses a big fish to show Jonah who is in charge. In the remainder of the book, Jonah goes to Nineveh and gets them to turn to God so they are not destroyed. Although Jonah did what he was told, he was still sorry God did not destroy the city.
Jonah has an interesting problem; he has enemies he would rather have God destroy than see them change. Whether or not it is said sincerely, it is common to hear people tell someone where to go or curse something to damnation. Do we reach a point where we would rather see God judge someone than save them - a terrorist, someone who took advantage of us or an ex-spouse? God used some pretty strong methods to turn Jonah around. Hopefully we will be less stubborn.