God Prepared a Worm
Sunday, September 7, 2014
By Rev. James May
Jonah 3:1 – 4:11
Nearly all of us have heard about Jonah and God’s call upon his life. Most of the time when we hear of Jonah, the first thing that pops into our mind is the story of how he was swallowed by a whale, spent three days on the belly of the whale, and then was thrown up on the beach at the closest point to Nineveh where he was supposed to go in the first place.
In my mind I’ve always pictured this huge whale, kind of like a blue whale, but no one really knows. It’s like the old saying, “there’s always a bigger fish”. Since God had prepared this fish just to teach Jonah a lesson, it could have been any kind of fish. It’s just that whales don’t normally swallow people and any other type of predator fish in the ocean would have bitten him first. This had to be a special fish.
Whatever kind of fish it was, he was just minding his own business, swimming along at the right place and at the right time to fulfill his destiny. When he opened his mouth to gather food from the sea, one of the things he swallowed was a prophet who was on the run from God.
God knows how to get your attention if you refuse to do what he has called you to do. In Jonah’s case, he was swallowed by a fish and spent three days in the belly of the whale.
Have you ever been in the position of Jonah? NO, I’m sure you haven’t been swallowed by a whale. But have you ever failed to be where God wanted you to be, and instead chose to go where you wanted, and suddenly things begin to happen that are overwhelming? Maybe it’s a sickness, or an accident, or something else, but the thought comes to you that perhaps this wouldn’t have happened if I had been where I knew I should be. That might be your “whale” that God is using to turn you around!
You see, we all have a call on our lives and a job to do for the Lord. The question is, are we in our place and doing what God has called us to do? If not then I beware, there just might be a “whale” close by. God loves us too much to allow us to continue to run without trying to bring us back to his will for our lives. And God has been known to use some pretty drastic measures to turn his people around when we are headed in the wrong direction.
For Jonah it was a whale. For Balaam it was a talking donkey. For Jacob it was an all-night wrestling match and a hip thrown out of joint. For King Nebuchadnezzar it was going insane and living like a wild beast. What’s it going to be for us?
If things sometimes start happening that you can’t explain and troubles come that are truly more than you can handle, could it be that God is trying to get your attention? It’s not always just for that purpose, but you be assured that everything that happens to you does have some purpose in it. Look for the purpose it whatever comes. Is the purpose to turn you around? Is the purpose to get you to pray more and draw closer to the Lord? Is the purpose for you to grow in faith? Is the purpose for you to learn to depend more on the Lord? Is the purpose to help you learn the will of God for you life? What’s the purpose of your troubles?
There’s a lesson there somewhere if you’ll seek it out. Learn the lesson. If not, you might be in the “belly of your whale” a long time. Jonah took three days to finally come to repentance for his rebellion against God’s will for his life. If it took him that long to finally give in, living in the belly of a fish, how long will it take you and I to repent and turn back to God.
I can’t think of anything much worse than being inside a fish. That would be a pretty hopeless condition, but I’ve been in a few places that were pretty rough and the world seemed to be closing in on me, and there didn’t seem to be much hope of it going away. That’s when I learned to call upon the Lord and seek to know his will to overcome the things that had me surrounded.
Just like Jonah, when I finally learned the lesson and turned to God and began to walk in his will, then the problems either went away or God gave me the strength to overcome them and live victoriously in spite of the problems.
Have you ever wondered what happened to the fish that swallowed Jonah? Could it be that somewhere in the oceans that fish still exists? Think about that when you’re on the water at a time when you should be at the Lord’s house! God just might use that fish again on another wayward, rebellious child!
God had mercy on Jonah and the fish spit him up on the beach and then he begins to hear from God again!
Jonah 3:1,2 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.
Jonah 3:3 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.
How many of you think that Jonah ever set foot on another ship? I doubt if he would get close to the seashore ever again and was probably very nervous even if he had to cross a river or a lake. One thing is for certain, he never forgot the lesson of the whale! A lesson hard learned is a lesson not easily forgotten!
This time Jonah listened to God. The call upon Jonah’s life was extremely important. In Jonah’s hands lay the destiny of a city of heathens, enemies of Israel, and the capital city of the Assyrian Empire, yet they were people that God still loved, and God wanted to use his prophet to send them a warning to repent or face judgment!
Jonah 3:4 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.
Jonah 3:5 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.
Jonah 3:6 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.
Jonah 3:7 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:
Jonah 3:8 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.
Jonah 3:9 Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?
Jonah 3:10 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.
Why did God send Jonah to Nineveh? He sent him to preach that judgment was coming unless they repent!
If you look at this story, you’ll find that one of the reasons that Jonah didn’t want to go to Nineveh was that in his heart, he wanted Nineveh to be destroyed. After all, they were enemies of Israel. The Assyrians had attacked Israel many times, and now there was a chance for retribution. Let God destroy them, they deserved it.
That’s an attitude that we often find in Christians today. Instead of praying for their enemies and trying to find ways to help them find Jesus, we are too busy complaining about what they are doing and wondering how long it’s going to take God to take care of them and remove them from the scene. There are a lot of people who are complaining about the conditions in our nation, but how many of them pray for the leaders, and how many are asking God for a revival in our land? Thank the Lord, there are some who are seeking God on their behalf but I think it’s a shame that most of the church world is ready to condemn but not to pray for revival.
Could it be that our nation is in the “belly of the whale” right now? I think the time for our repentance as a nation is just about over! You can only live in that condition for a short time, and then death comes and judgment falls. Lord, help us to turn around and repent, and let it begin with me right now!
It appears to me that Jonah’s ministry really had a major impact upon the people he was sent to minister to. What preacher would not want to see a whole city repent and turn back to God? Wouldn’t it be wonderful if somehow a preacher could preach a revival in Washington D.C. that would cause the whole city to repent, including the President! How about New Orleans, Las Vegas, or even your own home town? Wouldn’t it be great to see a great revival break out right here and our church would be the epicenter of that revival because of the preaching of the gospel?
You would think that Jonah would have been excited and really on fire for God at seeing the great revival that took place in Nineveh! If that would have been today, he would have been on every “Talk Show” on TV, and he would have commercials saying, “Holy Ghost, Deliverance and Salvation Revival”; come on out and get your sackcloth and ashes and see God move! A new book titled “40 Days of Repentance” would have been published! The revival continued in Nineveh and the whole city repented!
But Jonah wasn’t happy! He had just witnessed the greatest move of God in his enemies that he could have ever hoped for! He had watched his preaching change the hearts of thousands upon thousands of people! He had heard the proclamation of the king of the city that the whole city was to repent of their evil ways in the hope that judgment could be averted. But Jonah didn’t thank God for this great miracle revival. He became angry at God!
Jonah 4:1 But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry.
Jonah 4:2 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.
What kind of mixed up, crazy prophet was this Jonah? How could God possibly use such a cynical, hateful man to preach and bring about such a great revival? It surely wasn’t Jonah’s attitude that brought the revival! He didn’t want to preach in the first place, and when he did preach, it was as though he really didn’t want anyone to hear what he had to say. Jonah wanted to see Nineveh judged; not saved!
He knew that God is good! Jonah knew that God preferred to show mercy and grace instead of bringing judgment. He knew that God would hear the cries of the people of Nineveh if they repented, and he didn’t want that to happen. If they repented, God wouldn’t destroy them, and that would make Jonah look like a fool for saying that judgment was coming. It was all about what Jonah wanted, not what God wanted!
Jonah 4:3 Therefore now, O LORD, take, I beseech thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live.
Jonah is the epitome of a man of God with the wrong attitude. He was so self-centered that he couldn’t stand the idea of people thinking of him as a prophet whose prophecies would not come to pass. He forgot his main purpose – to try and save a city. Instead he was only there to watch judgment fall.
When I think of how Jonah was acting, I’m amazed at the patience of God and his grace that is extended to a rebellious man, even an angry prophet with a really bad spirit!
When I think of how many Christians today are living in a manner that is outright rebellious against God, disobedient to his Word, unyielding to the will of God for their lives and just doing their own thing in spite of whatever God does to reach out to them, constantly walking the fence between serving the Lord and living for the devil, and yet God’s grace just keeps reaching out, and the Holy Spirit just keeps calling them back, I’m amazed at the Love of God that never quits! If I were God, my patience would have run out a long time ago.
It’s a shame to say it, but sometimes I see Christians gloating over the fact that a backslidden brother or sister has suddenly come on hard times. It’s as though they are happy about the troubles they have and the attitude is, “They are getting what they deserve. They shouldn’t have forsaken God”! Do we not understand that none of us “deserves” anything from God? How can we forget that except for the grace of God, we could be the one who is in trouble? Should we not be praying that God would extend that same grace to those in need, and then do whatever we can to reach out to them and bring them back to Christ?
Jonah 4:4 Then said the LORD, Doest thou well to be angry?
Jonah 4:5 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.
God tried to speak to Jonah’s heart, to show him that his heart wasn’t right and that his thinking was way off track, but Jonah wouldn’t hear it. He didn’t want revival; he wanted revenge against Nineveh!
So Jonah decided to go set up camp on a hill where he could watch what would happen. In his heart he was hoping that the people of Nineveh wouldn’t truly repent. He hoped that their actions would only be for a short time and that they would go back to being evil in a short time. Maybe God’s judgment would still fall and he wanted to watch it happen.
God had dealt with Nineveh and the whole city had repented. They had heard the Word of the Lord and obeyed it, and now the enemies of Israel had chosen to obey the God of Israel, but the prophet of Israel was the one who God needed to deal with now!
Jonah 4:6 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.
Even in his rebellious condition God still blessed Jonah. Isn’t that just like God? Even when we aren’t doing what we should be doing, and even when we get a really bad attitude, and even when we would rather sit in judgment over someone instead of being happy that they’ve repented and turned their lives around, God still blesses us!
God was still with Jonah while he sat under his booth pouting while the sun dried up the branches that made up the roof that shaded the prophet. While Jonah sat, pouting, griping, grumbling and hoping for God to destroy the city, God’s mercy was given to him and God caused a gourd to grow up quickly and provide a natural shade over the prophet. Jonah was happy about the gourd. It kept the hot sun off of his head while he pouted and waited.
Let me tell you that we can often get into a place where we have such a bad attitude and a wrong spirit. We sometimes become angry with a brother or sister and sometimes it’s over such trivial things. Sometimes we can hold onto grudges, and secretly we are even joyful over somebody else having troubles even though we don’t let anybody around us know how we really feel. The thought is that they deserved what they’re getting, or I’m glad it’s them and not me!
Like the prophet, we sit smugly in our “booth”, enjoying the blessings of God, but secretly inside we are sitting and watching to see whether God’s judgment will come rather than being in prayer for revival and thankful that God is still moving in the land. We take the blessings of God for granted while we have a bad attitude and wrongful thinking.
I know that we have to be focused on the soon coming of the Lord, but we are still to occupy until he comes. We cannot forsake trying to win souls and just sit back and wait for judgment. Souls are hanging in the balance. We can’t just soak up the blessings, sit back and enjoy the presence of the Lord, living under his tender mercy and care, and watch the rest of the world be destroyed. We must ever be about our Father’s business of preaching the gospel and walking with the Lord in true faith and dedicated service.
We can get so self-centered that we lose God’s will and true purpose. We can get so focused on what we want that we forget what God wants. We can get so into our comfort zone, forgetting that God still loves the sinner that we fail to even tell others about Jesus. We can get so settled into our own private booths of life, sitting under the shade of God’s grace, that we forget what our real purpose in life is all about.
Jonah 4:7 But God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd that it withered.
God loved Jonah too, and he wasn’t going to allow Jonah to sit and pout for long. God wanted Jonah to have the same heart of repentance that Nineveh had shown. God wanted Jonah to look up and see the blessings and to understand the heart of God for all men, and not just to keep God inside Jonah’s little box of thinking what God would do. God was already outside of Jonah’s self-created box of thinking. God had already chosen to spare Nineveh, but now it was time to save Jonah too. But Jonah wasn’t going to give up easy. This was one hard-headed, hard-hearted and soon to be hot-headed prophet! God had prepared a worm to take away Jonah’s place of comfort, and it would be the tool to turn Jonah around.
Jonah 4:8 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.
All right Jonah, can you see that the judgment that was prepared for Nineveh is now coming upon your own head? You wanted Nineveh to be destroyed, but now it’s your own life that you want to end! What a turn around!
Jonah was angry at God for taking away the shade of the gourd. He was angry at God for not destroying Nineveh. He was just an angry prophet! He felt disgraced before the people of Nineveh and betrayed by God who had sent him there! Jonah was more worried about himself than he was about a city filled with lost souls and a the will of God for his life!
Jonah 4:9 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.
Have you ever tried to reason with anyone when they are mad? It’s like arguing with a fence post. They are just unreasonable. Jonah thought that he had a right to be mad at God, and he was willing to die before admitting that he was wrong.
Jonah 4:10 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:
Jonah 4:11 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?
Let’s get hold of the big picture here! What’s more important, the shade of a gourd or the souls of 120,000 or more people who God loves, not counting all of the livestock that God has created and given life to? Both the souls of the people and the lives of the animals in the city were important to God. They were vastly more important than bringing judgment just to make this angry man of God look good and feel satisfied with himself.
What’s more important to the Kingdom of God? Is it that God fulfills your own personal dreams and ambitions, or that the souls of men can be won to Christ? Is it that your desires can be met; that you can enjoy the good life; that you can be happy just as you are until judgment comes, or that we should be out there trying to reach as many as we can, in any way that we can, for Jesus?
Can we do like Jonah, build our own private little “spiritual” place of comfort and safety and sit smugly in the presence of God, watching and waiting for the coming of the Lord to take us out, without really caring what happens to those who are going to be left behind?
God help us to get the big picture this morning and realize that we can’t just sit doing nothing, waiting for the end to come. Let us reach out to those who are lost! Let us reach out to those who are in need! Help us to occupy, taking down strongholds of the devil and advancing on his territory to see revival come to lost souls. Help us not to just sit in our little comfort zones waiting for the end to come in judgment to this sinful world.
Lord, help us also if we have developed the attitude of Jonah. Help us to not become cynical and judgmental, seeking only revenge or judgment against those who are the enemies of the Word of God. Let us learn to pray instead! Let us be sorrowful for the condition of the souls of men rather than the condition of the land.
God is preparing a worm this morning! Just as surely as he prepared the worm that destroyed the gourd that shaded Jonah, God is preparing a worm to bring you and I to a place where we will become uncomfortable in the comfort zone we are in right now.
God is preparing a worm to take away your shade tree; to allow the white hot spirit of revival to shine down on you; to help us see where we are lacking and to lead us to Christ where we can become obedient and fruitful servants in his kingdom.
Those things that we now depend upon may soon be taken away. Every passing hour brings us ever closer to the impending financial, political and natural disasters that are surely coming upon this world. America is headed for judgment, and we don’t know how much of that judgment is going to come before the Lord comes to take his church away!
The worm is already destroying the roots of our freedom. The worm is already eating away at the very foundation of our nation. And the worm is already eating away at the things in this world that we have all been focused on for so long.
The worm can destroy the crops in America in a single season. The worm can erase your bank accounts in a single hour. The worm can bring famine, earthquakes, panic, storms and destruction in a moment of time. The worm is eating now. How long it will be before the “shade” of the blessings of our gourd that we have enjoyed in America for over 200 years is destroyed we don’t know.
Are we going to lament and be sorrowful for America but forget about the souls that can still be won no matter what’s going on?
Jesus loves the souls of men and women. He came to save those who are lost. Jesus didn’t come to save a nation, or an empire – he came to save the soul of a man. Don’t lose sight of the big picture!
God will take care of his people through it all, but never let us get to the place where we can sit comfortably in our safe zone in the Lord and forget that we must about our Father’s business of winning souls.
God prepared a worm for Jonah; He’s prepared a worm for America; and He’s also prepared a worm for you if you’re losing sight of what’s important in the eyes of the Lord! Beware of the Worm! When things begin to turn against you, and the heat of God’s light begins to shine down on you, consider your ways! Make certain that you have the right Spirit within and that your heart is right with God.
The Worm is prepared! The worm is already at work! Don’t be caught in its path. Serve God with all your heart and trust him. God’s desire is to always have a gourd in place to keep his people in a place where our needs are met. If we stay close to the Lord and do his will, and let God be God, then happy we shall be, hidden in a secret place with God.
