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A young boy was pulling a large hay wagon down the road when it overturned in front of a farmer's house. The farmer came out and saw the young boy crying and said, "Son, don't worry about this, we can fix it. Right now dinner's ready. Why don't you come in and eat with us and then I'll help you put the hay back on the rack."
The boy said, "No, I can't. My father is going to be very angry with me."
The farmer said, "Now don't argue, just come in and have some lunch and you'll feel better."
The boy said, "I'm just afraid my father is going to be very angry with me."
The farmer and the young boy went inside and had dinner. Afterward, as they walked outside to the hayrack, the farmer said, "Well, don't you feel better now?"
The boy said, "Yes, but I just know that my father will be very angry with me."
The farmer said, "Nonsense. Where is your father anyway?"
The boy said, "He's under that pile of hay."
Anger is an emotion you feel when your expectations of justice are not met in a certain situation. There are times that anger can be justified, righteous anger, such as when Jesus cleared out the temple. But in most circumstances, our anger is unrighteous. Anger makes almost everything feel ugly and it makes us look ugly too; we cuss, we become envious and turn violent. When Michael Brown was shot by a police officer in Fergusson MO, people were angry. People felt passionate about the event that transpired, but that anger turned into rioting and destruction of the town. A department store chain started putting mirrors behind the customer service counters so that people could see how they looked as they angrily complained. It seems that our society has become angrier.
We might expect that there to be triumph in the Prophet Jonah as we conclude the Book of Jonah. He prayed in the belly of the whale, "Salvation belongs to the LORD!” (Jonah 2:9) and then he preaches in Nineveh and "And the people of Nineveh believed God" (Jonah 3:5). But instead, there is prejudice and anger. Thus our final part in our series of Jonah needs some careful consideration and best understood keeping in mind the depth of God's grace
I. Our Anger Causes Us to Miss God’s Grace in Action in Our Own Lives and the Lives of Others
1But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. 2And he prayed to the Lord and said, "O Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster. 3Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live." 4And the Lord said, "Do you do well to be angry?" (Jonah 4:1-4)
Jonah is not just miffed; he's vehemently angry. "See, God, I knew you were going to forgive them. It is tempting to think that Jonah is being self-righteous and has forgotten that he is a sinner. But a better interpretation is that Jonah thought there were sinners - and then there are sinners. We might think, "Well at least I'm not an Adolf Hitler sinner." or "I deserve mercy, but he deserves God's wrath!" What it boils down to is that Jonah had a problem with how deep God's mercy goes; uncommon mercy.
there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance. (Luke 15:7).
Jonah is responding like the prodigal's son's brother. The prodigal returns home and a feast is held. The brother isn't rejoicing that his brother is home, he's ticked that his father is holding a party. Unchecked anger becomes cancer that will not let you go. Once a circus performer would allow a huge Python snake to encircle him and then at the last moment he’d throw the Python off to the roar of the crowd. But one night when he went to throw off the snake he couldn’t and the crowd watched in horror as the snake squeezed the life out of him. What the performer failed to realize is that with each passing performance, the snake was becoming stronger. That’s what happens when you allow anger and unforgiveness to take hold in your life.
The truth is, sometimes we don't want favor to be shown to someone who we don't want favor shown to, especially when that favor or mercy is from God. Just like Jonah in verse 3, anger robs you of life. It steals your joy and joy is supposed to be a signature mark of the Christian.
We are quick to anger; God is slow to anger. The "Hesed" of God is loving-kindness. A steadfast love, or as the New Testament calls it, Agape'.
The heart of the Christian is not for God's judgment or vengeance, but for all people to come to know the love of God, no matter how evil or wretched their heart. Our hearts to see all nations to receive God's mercy and worship God should be more passionate than our own selfish desires.
II. Our Anger Can Cause Us to Seek Judgement on Others When God is Showing Compassion (vv. 5-8)
5 Jonah went out of the city and sat to the east of the city and made a booth for himself there. He sat under it in the shade, till he should see what would become of the city. 6 Now the Lord God appointed a plant and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be a shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort. So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the plant. 7 But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant, so that it withered. 8 When the sun rose, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint. And he asked that he might die and said, "It is better for me to die than to live." (Jonah 4:5-8)
Rather than Jonah celebrating with the Ninevites about the glorious mercy of God, he leaves town and makes camp. It seems that Jonah is more interested in having a front-row seat to God's fire being poured out on Nineveh.
"What gives so much force to the impulse of anger in such cases is the overwhelming sense that the offender does not deserve forgiveness. That is, the grievance is so deep and so justifiable that not only does self-righteousness strengthen our indignation, but it also does a legitimate sense of moral outrage. It's the deep sense of legitimacy that gives our bitterness its unbending compulsion. We feel that a great crime would be committed if the magnitude of the evil we've experienced was just dropped and we let bygones be bygones. We are torn: our moral says the evil cannot be ignored, and the Word of God says we must forgive." (John Piper)
As Jonah waits outside for "the show," God sends to Jonah an object lesson. Like God sending the storm at sea, he is again using nature to teach Jonah an object lesson on mercy. God desires to change Jonah’s understanding of the relationship between justice and mercy. ]The point is, the true source of Jonah’s melancholy and anger is not from the sun, or the storm, or the fish, or Nineveh. The true source of Jonah’s plight is his weak relationship with God.
We see in the vine the providence of God. The word “providence” is striking. It comes from the word “provide” which has two parts: “pro” (Latin: “forward,” “on behalf of”) and “vide” (Latin: “to see”). So you might think that “provide” would mean: “to see forward” or “to foresee.” But it doesn’t. It means “to supply what is needed; to give sustenance or support.” And so the noun “providence” has come to mean the act of “providing for or sustaining and governing the universe by God.”
It was God's providence that called Jonah to Nineveh. It was God's providence that appointed the storm. It was God's providence that appointed the fish. It was God's providence that appointed the vine.
To continue his object lesson, God then sends a worm to eat the vine that was providing him shade and then sends a wind that increases the heat of the day (vv. 7-8). As quickly as Jonah went from despair to relief, he returns to despair, wishing that death would overtake him. The changing tides of life leave us fickle.
Too often we misunderstand the depth of God's mercy and grace in our own lives and the lives of others. At all times, we must realize that. God's grace is not an affront to our sense of justice, but our only hope and the world's hope for salvation.
We want our church our way in a way that makes us feel comfortable. We want our wrongs to be vindicated but not our offenses.
12 Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. (Colossians 3:12-13).
III. Our Anger Can Cause Us to Miss Opportunities for God to Show Mercy to Others Through Us (vv. 9-11)
9 But God said to Jonah, "Do you do well to be angry for the plant?" And he said, "Yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die." 10 And the Lord said, "You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. 11 And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?"
The final two verses of Jonah are the words of God. With Jonah’s heart and motivation exposed, God now provides him some divine counsel. God now shows how repugnant to Him is Jonah’s anger about the plant and the sparing of Nineveh. These final words expose the sin of self-righteousness and the depths of God’s grace and mercy.
You're angry over your precious vine – but what did it really mean to you? Your attachment to it could not be profound, for it was here one day and gone the next. Your concern was only out of self-interest, not genuine love. You weren't even its gardener. What would you expect a gardener to feel like, who tended to the plant and watched it grow only to see it wither and die? And this is how I feel about Nineveh, only much more so. All those people, all those animals – I made them. I have cherished them all these years.
God tells Jonah that he is not in charge. Jonah is the prophet of God, not the other way around. With that, Jonah concludes. We never know the outcome or response of God to
Jonah. Nor do we know what happened to Jonah. God has the final word.
What kind of things steals your joy? "God, why did you let my cell phone screen crack today?" Why did you let me have this bad experience? We allow circumstances, anger, prejudices, and especially unforgiveness to ?rob us of knowing the true depth and beauty of God's mercy. How can I worship a God that allows my precious little plant to wither?
The truth is, a Jonah lurks in all of us. We're born selfish and God wants us to get out of ourselves. The first step is realizing putting first what is important to God as important in our own lives. Like Jonah we muss over things, hurts, and habits that inhibit us from enjoying a closeness with God. Our walk with God lacks time in His Word, it lacks prayer, and it lacks depth. We think that all we have to do is satisfy our religious duty.
19 Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Matthew 6:19-21)
The Book of Jonah displays the Lord in all His sovereign majesty. God is sovereign over the prophet, the boat, the sea, the fish, over Nineveh, sovereign over the plant. God is sovereign and it is here that we find an unrelenting and powerful depth of God's love.
Jonah reveals to us that God is holy. God calls Jonah to go to Nineveh. He will not tolerate rebellious sin, but he is also mercy. God's mercy does not water down or diminish his holiness, it magnifies it. We should never forget that God is holy.
Jonah also reminds us that God is mighty. It was God who sent the storm and it was God who calmed the storm. It was God who sent the fish, directed it to Nineveh, and caused the fish to expel Jonah onto the shore.
Lastly, Jonah reveals that God is merciful and gracious. He is pouring out his mercy daily.
We live in a time of tremendous grace. Our turning from sin is not because we are righteous, but because God is gracious and abounding in love.
How wide and deep is God's mercy? As wide as Calvary's Cross
