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Were there
any more unthankful people in the Bible, other than the nine lepers?
Other than the 10 lepers, were there any other people in the bible
who were unthankful?
Luke 17:12-19 says, "And as he entered into a
certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off: And they
lifted up their voices, and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. And when he saw them,
he said unto them, Go show yourselves unto the priests. And it came to pass, that, as
they went, they were cleansed. And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned
back, and with a loud voice glorified God, And fell down on his face at his feet,
giving him thanks: and he was a Samaritan. And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten
cleansed? but where are the nine? There are not found that returned to give glory
to God, save this stranger. And he said unto him, Arise, go thy way: thy faith hath made
thee whole."
Most
Christians would be thrilled and very thankful to be used of the Lord to see other people
saved, but Jonah was not thankful at all when God used him to see a mighty host saved.
Jonah 3,4 says, "And
the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the second time, saying, Arise, go unto Nineveh, that
great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee. So Jonah arose, and went
unto Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city
of three days' journey. And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey, and he
cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. SO THE PEOPLE OF NINEVEH
BELIEVED GOD, AND PROCLAIMED A FAST, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even
to the least of them. For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his
throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in
ashes. And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the
decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock,
taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water: But let man and beast be covered with
sackcloth, and CRY MIGHTILY UNTO GOD: YEA, LET THEM TURN EVERY ONE FROM HIS EVIL WAY, and
from the violence that is in their hands. Who can tell if God will turn and
repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not? And God saw their works,
that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that
he would do unto them; and he did it not. BUT IT DISPLEASED JONAH EXCEEDINGLY, AND
HE WAS VERY ANGRY. 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. Therefore now, O LORD, take, I beseech thee, my
life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live. THEN SAID THE LORD,
DOEST THOU WELL TO BE ANGRY? So Jonah went out of the city, and sat on the east side of
the city, and there made him a booth, and sat under it in the shadow, till he might see
what would become of the city. And the LORD God prepared a gourd, and made it to
come up over Jonah, that it might be a shadow over his head, to deliver him from his
grief. So Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd. But God prepared a worm when the morning
rose the next day, and it smote the gourd that it withered. And it came to pass, when the
sun did arise, that God prepared a vehement east wind; and the sun beat upon the head of
Jonah, that he fainted, and wished in himself to die, and said, It is better for me
to die than to live. And God said to Jonah, Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd? And
he said, I DO WELL TO BE ANGRY, EVEN UNTO DEATH. Then said the LORD, Thou hast had pity on
the gourd, for the which thou hast not laboured, neither madest it grow; which came up in
a night, and perished in a night: And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein
are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and
their left hand; and also much cattle?"
It is hard
to imagine that a believer would hate people so much, that he would actually be mad if
they got saved and judgment was avoided, but that was exactly the case with Jonah.
As to
other examples, every time a person sins, it is because he/she is unthankful for what God
has provided.
When David
sinned with Bathsheba, he was being unthankful for what God had already allowed him to
have. II Samuel 12:7-9 says, "And Nathan said to David, Thou art the man. Thus
saith the LORD God of Israel, I anointed thee king over Israel, and I delivered thee out
of the hand of Saul; And I gave thee thy master's house, and thy master's wives into thy
bosom, and gave thee the house of Israel and of Judah; and if that had been too
little, I would moreover have given unto thee such and such things. Wherefore hast thou
despised the commandment of the LORD, to do evil in his sight? thou hast killed Uriah the
Hittite with the sword, and hast taken his wife to be thy wife, and hast slain him
with the sword of the children of Ammon."
Achan was
not thankful for what God had provided, and he thus disobeyed. Joshua 7:20,21 says,
"And Achan answered Joshua, and said, Indeed I have sinned against the LORD God of
Israel, and thus and thus have I done: When I saw among the spoils a goodly Babylonish
garment, and two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold of fifty shekels weight,
then I coveted them, and took them; and, behold, they are hid in the earth in the
midst of my tent, and the silver under it."
When Eve
sinned and ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, it was an act of
unthankfulness. God had told them that they could eat of EVERY OTHER TREE in the garden.
But the bottom line was that Eve was not thankful for being allowed to eat of all the
trees but one, so she sinned. Genesis 3:1-6 says, "Now the serpent was more subtle
than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea,
hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the
serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree
which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither
shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely
die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and
ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good
for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one
wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with
her; and he did eat."
May the
Lord help us to remember that every time we sin, we also are showing forth an unthankful
spirit for all that He has provided for us, and for all that He has allowed us to do in
life.
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