A Pouting Prophet and a Gracious God - Jonah 4
Pastor Jefferson M. Williams
Chenoa Baptist Church
9-29-19
Jonah 4 Redo
If you will turn with me to Jonah four and will begin reading in verse one.
When Jonah saw that all the people were fasting and crying out to God, he fell to his knees and cried out, “Thank you O Sovereign God! I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. You are so good! I’m blown away by your mercy, for me in the fish and for the Ninevites in their ignorance. They are now my brothers! You are good and Your love endures forever!”
Jonah spent many days with the Ninevites, preaching and discipling them.
So ends the story of the prophet Jonah, a faithful prophet and friend to all who call on God’s name.
What’s wrong with this ending? Well, it’s not actually the real ending to the book of Jonah! Some people think that Jonah ends with the whale. If you’ve been in church a while you might think it ends with the revival in Nineveh.
But this morning, we will study the real ending to Jonah. I love how the Bible tells the truth. There is no sugarcoating at the end of the book of Jonah.
If I was Jonah I probably wouldn’t have included this chapter. But I’m thankful that he did because it will give us much to think about today.
Jonah Recap
We are continuing our series on the OT book of Jonah. God said go to Nineveh and proclaim judgement. Instead of going 550 NW to Nineveh, Jonah boards a ship bound for Tarshish, which is 2,500 miles east!
God said go and Jonah said no. He knew it was a suicide mission. Imagine a rabbi standing on a street corner in Berlin in 1942. But he also hated the Assyrians and had no interest in seeing them get a chance to repent. The love of God was reserved for the Jewish people alone and the Ninvites were a brutal people who had terrorized Israel.
Jonah finds himself in the middle of the sea in a terrible storm. Jonah might run but God would pursue him.
The sailors understood this was a supernatural storm and began praying to their gods. The captain went below deck and found Jonah asleep. He woke him up and begged him to pray.
After casting lots, the sailors discover the storm is Jonah’s fault. He tells them that he is a Hebrew and that he worships the God who created the land and the sea.
The sailors are terrified. You are running from the God that created the sea…in a boat…on the sea?!
He tells them to throw him overboard and the storm all stop. What’s the best way to get out of going to Nineveh? Dying would work.
They have more compassion that he does and try desperately to row back to land. They finally give up and pray to Jonah’s God and ask that they not be punished for throwing him overboard.
They hurl Jonah into the sea and the storm stops immediately. The sailors break out in worship on the deck while the sulking prophet treads water waiting to drown.
But God had other plans. He appointed a big fish to swallow Jonah and he spent three days and three nights in the most interesting air B and B ever!
From the belly of that big fish Jonah finally did pray, that’s what we studied last week from Jonah two. If you weren’t here last week, I would encourage you to watch the sermon on our FB page.
It was a conflicted prayer. He was thankful that God sent the fish to rescue him but he still wasn’t sorry for his disobedience. He still had no interest in seeing the brutal Ninevites receive mercy from God.
Jonah is called to go to Nineveh a second time and he obeys. He proclaims “40 more days and Nineveh will be overturned.” To his absolute amazement, all the people, from the common to the King, repent, put on sackcloth and cry out to God for mercy.
That will bring us to chapter 4.
Remember the big idea of Jonah:
God is a God of extravagant grace, especially to those who least deserve it!
Turn to Jonah 4.
Prayer
Jonah’s Anger with God
“But to Jonah this seemed very wrong, and he became angry. He prayed to the Lord, “Isn’t this what I said, Lord, when I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. Now, Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.” But the Lord replied, “Is it right for you to be angry?” (Jonah 4:1-4)
Jonah was horrified by the Ninevites’ repentance. Remember, they were the bad people and Jonah and the Israelites were the good people. Wickedness deserved punishment. That’s how Jonah’s mind worked.
The Hebrew literally reads, “To Jonah it was a disaster, a great disaster.” It was a disaster that they could possible avoid disaster! And he was angry, which is a word meaning “to burn.” It’s the emotional that humans feel with their expectation of justice is not met.
In June of 2016, a California judge sentenced Brock Turner, a Stanford University student and standout swimmer, to jail for sexually assaulting unconscious female. The prosecutors had asked for six years but the defense attorneys said that would damage his swimming career. The judge decided against six years and sentenced him to six months so he could swim competitively.
The feeling I had when I heard the news, the feeling you have hearing this story, this is what is called “righteous anger.”
It wasn’t fair to the victim and it outraged the family and her supporters.
Jesus demonstrated righteousness anger when he entered the Temple, made whips, turned over the tables, and drove out the money changers saying, “It is written, “My house shall be called a house of prayer but you make it a den of robbers.” (Matthew 21:13)
What Jonah was feeling was not righteous anger but unrighteous anger. His unrighteous anger put him at odds with God’s mercy.
He bows low and prays, right in front of the Ninevites, an “I told you so” prayer.
Then Jonah does something that’s just plain cold. He throws God’s attributes back in his face.
I knew it! I knew You were going to do it this way! That’s why I ran the other way!
He then quotes, or mostly quotes one of the most treasured texts in all the Torah -Exodus 34:6 and six other places. God relented and had not destroyed the Jewish people for erecting a golden calf idol while Moses was on Mt. Sini receiving the Ten Commandments:
“I am a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity…”
Interestingly, Jonah leaves off the end of the verse, “…but He does not leave the guilty unpunished.”
Jonah doesn’t approve of God’s actions and he pitches a temper tantrum right in front of the Ninevites.
He wanted God to be consistent - good people get blessed and bad people get blasted.
Jonah is like an ancient Archie Bunker. Black and white. If you looked like him, thought like him, voted like him, then he liked you.
He sees mercy as a sign of weakness. If God forgives the Ninevites, then other people will think it’s okay to be wicked.
God is gracious. Grace is getting something you do not deserve. To Jonah, the Ninevites were not deserving of grace.
God is compassionate. This word means “soft like the womb.” To Jonah, the Ninevites had showed no compassion to the nations they had plundered so they deserved no compassion from God.
God is slow to anger. He keeps loving rebellious people. Who is God proving Himself to be slow to anger with? Jonah!
God is abounding in love. This is an unrelenting love that unconditionally rescues the repentant sinner. But that was only for Jonah and his people - the good guys.
God relents from sending calamity. The Ninevites were in need of mercy and they deserved no mercy! Send in the big guns, hellfire and brimstone.
He kneels are cries out, “Kill me now! Let me die! Your grace is too abundant! Don’t get me wrong. I appreciate the mercy you showed me in the fish but I can not deal with you showing mercy to these terrorists! I’d rather die than see them get forgiveness!”
He has a death wish. He sees no way to make life fair. As Jonah is pitching his irrational, five year old temper tantrum, God simply asks him a question:
“Is it right for you to be angry?”
Literally it reads, “Will your anger result in any good?”
It’s a very similar question to the one God asked Cain, when he was angry and considering murdering his brother Abel:
“Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.” (Gen 4:6-7)
Jonah doesn’t respond to this question and walks away from this conversation with God and from the repenting Ninevites to set up camp on a hill overlooking the city.
God needed Jonah to understand His love for sinners like the Ninevites so He decided to give him an object lesson using a weed, a worm, and a warm west wind.
Pouting over a Plant
"Jonah had gone out and sat down at a place east of the city. There he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city. Then the Lord God provided a leafy plant and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the plant. But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the plant so that it withered. When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die, and said, “It would be better for me to die than to live.”
But God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?” “It is,” he said. “And I’m so angry I wish I were dead.” (Jonah 4:5-9)
Jonah constructed a little shelter for himself and got some popcorn and a soda and waited for the show. He was willing to wait for 40 days if need be. He was convinced that the Ninevites would revert back to their old ways and God would blast them to kingdom come. He excitedly waiting for the fireworks.
God had more work to do with his pouting prophet.
He caused a plant to grow up and provide him shade. This was probably a castor oil plant that grew quickly and had huge fonds for shade.
He was very exceedingly happy! Wait wasn’t he just so angry he wanted to die? Now he’s giddy over this plant.
Then God continues with the object lesson and appoints a worm to chew the plant so that it died.
The sun rose, and remember they were in the desert, the temperatures rose and Jonah was about to have a heatstroke.
Again, Jonah wanted to die! And again, God asks him a question, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?”
When God asked the question before, Jonah ignored and walked away. Not this time.
He says that it is right for him to be angry. I’m so angry I wish I were dead!
By the way, this is the first time that Jonah admits that he’s angry.
I love what John Piper says, “We shouldn’t be angry at God. But when we were, we should tell Him.”
Have you ever watched a toddler who is tired melt down over nothing? Or have you ever watched an adult melt down over something trivial?
Phil Johnson writes that God gave Jonah
the lesson of the weed - compassion is for sinners, not saints
The lesson of the worm - compassion is for people not things
The lesson of the wind- compassion is for others, not yourself
Jonah is in full meltdown mode. And God is ready to bring the object lesson home.
No Compassion for the City
“ But the Lord said, “You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?” (Jonah 4:10-11)
God is so gentle with Jonah. Here’s the deal -you got all excited about this plant which you didn’t make or tend it. It was temporary. It was just a plant.
Shouldn’t I be concerned with the great city of the Ninevites? You had no real relationship with the plant but I created the Ninevites. There are 120,000 who don’t know their left hand from the right. Most commentators believe that this was a Hebrew idiom to describe kids. There could have been more than a million in the city.
If you feel concern for the weed’s destruction, shouldn’t I be concerned about the Ninevites’ destruction?
The main word in this section is “concern.” It’s a word that means to have tears in your eyes.
It’s the same picture when Jesus stood on a hill and looked down on Jerusalem with tears and said,
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those sent to her! How often I have longed to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were unwilling.” (Luke 13:34)
God, in unrelenting compassion, mercy, and grace has great concern for those He made.
Peter wrote:
The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:9)
I love that He adds that He loves the cows!
God is udderly committed to making all things new. The whole creation is mooooving in a new direction. I don’t mean to milk this but the cow line is funny.
Look at the next verse with me. Let’s read it out loud. We can’t because that’s the end of the book of Jonah. In fact, it’s the only book other than Nahum that ends with a question.
We can imagine Jonah walking the 550 mile trek back to Israel rolling these events over and over in his mind. What did God want to teach him. What does God want to teach us?
What can we learn?
Jonah’s unrighteous anger distorted his thinking and kept him from seeing the true beauty and wonder of God’s amazing grace.
Is it a sin to be angry? No. Paul told the Ephesians:
“In your anger do not sin”: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold.” (Ephesians 4:26-27)
Being angry is not the sin. It’s the way you react to your anger that can lead you into sin and give satan a foothold in your heart.
Eric Redmond gives us three results of unrighteous anger that we see in Jonah:
Unrighteous anger can make you think that life with God is not worth living.
When I get mad, the same word comes out of my mouth - REALLY?
Here’s Jonah’s thought process.
Jonah believed that God should be the kind of God that followed his rules. The good guys get blessed, the bad guys get blasted.
If God forgive evil people, then people would be emboldened to be more wicked!
Because God had chosen to forgive the Ninevites, Jonah literally didn’t want to be a part of that universe. This led to despair and a death wish.
Unrighteous anger distorted his mind. If God wouldn’t play by his rules and do things the Jonah’s way, then it would be better if he just died! If God isn’t going to kill the Ninevites, then He might as well kill Jonah!
He can’t see that amazing revival, the amazing example of God’s mercy, right in front of his eyes. Instead of being stunned by grace, Jonah is suicidal because of grace. Jonah loves grace when it’s given to him.
B. Unrighteous anger can make you hope for the judgement of God on others that you would not want for yourself.
We love justice and we have long memories.
On August 10, 1969, Leslie Van Houten was a 19 year old member of Charles Manson’s “family” and helped kill a couple and smear their blood all over the walls. She has been in jail for 49 years. She has received a bachelors and masters degree and has gone through extensive therapy.
In June of this year, the parole board again voted, for the third time, to release her. But the governor of California overrode the release saying that she still posed a threat.
Off the record, everyone says she deserved to go home but no one is willing to put their name to the paper. In other words, most people believes she deserves grace, would want that same grace for themselves, but will let justice win again.
This is one of the sure signs that your heart is sick with the disease of legalism.
Say you are pulled over going 82 in a 70 mph zone. Are you guilty? Yes. But what about the car that passed you going 90? He was more guilty. You were late for work, the police officer should understand that give you grace. That other car was probably a serial killer driving away from his latest victim. He deserves the ticket, not you!
Sure you were late for work. But your dog got out and you had to go chase her down. Your boss should understand. Now, that terrible person who works with you was late. She should be fired!
Have you ever found yourself bitter or frustrated when someone you don’t like gets a blessing from God?
Have you ever gotten angry when someone you don’t like gets away with something?
Jonah was very grateful for the fish and the weed - both saved him from certain death. It was grace. He was entitled because he was a Jew.
Now wait, why did God chose the Jewish people? Because they were awesome? Nope, simply because it pleased Him to do so- grace.
Jonah wanted justice for the Ninevites. They were bad and they deserved it. Do you see Jonah’s hypocrisy? And ours?
C. Unrighteous anger can cause you to miss opportunities to be merciful the way God is merciful.
Jesus told several stories trying to drive home this point.
He told the story of a business man who went and picked up workers very early in the morning and promised them a denarius for a full days work.
He picked up more throughout the day, the all way to an hour before quitting time.
When it came time to pay the wages, the workers that had worked all day were furious that the others got paid the same as they did!
‘These who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.’ (Matthew 20:12)
The owner of the field answered:
‘I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’ (Matthew 20:13-15)
Wouldn’t it be strange if the people that got the same pay begrudged the other workers? It’s not their money. They worked and got exactly what was promised.
He told the story of a servant who owed the King 10 billion dollars. The king demanded his money and threatened to throw him into prison. The servant fell on his knees and begged for mercy. The King felt compassion for him and forgave the debt.
As he was leaving, he say another servant who owed him ten dollars. He demanded it and threatened him. The other servant fell on his knees and begged for mercy but none was given.
Would it be crazy for people who have received grace upon grace to be unwilling to give it back to others?
He told the story of a prodigal son who went off into the foreign land wasted all the father’s money. He returns and asks to be made a servant but the dad throws a party for him.
There is an older brother who hears the noise and asked what was going on. He confronts the father:
‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’ (Luke 15: 29-30)
The father answers gently:
“‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’” (Luke 15: 31-32)
Wouldn’t be nuts not to celebrate that brother’s return and instead sulk in the field alone?
What are all these stories trying to convey? It brings us right back to the beginning:
God is a God of extravagant grace, especially to those who deserve it least, which is all of us.
Extravagant grace pays the workers who worked one hour the same as those who worked all day!
Can you just imagine the Pharisees watching Jesus tell the thief on the cross, “Today you will be with me in Paradise?” I have been good all my life! I have kept the law. I have stayed away from sinners. And now Jesus is saying that this common criminal, minutes away from death, gets paradise? Kill me now!
But let’s be careful before we judge that Pharisee too harshly.
Let me ask this question - who would you not want to sit next to at the banquet table in heaven?
Let me read you a quote to end:
“It is wrong for people who commit crimes to try to shift the blame to someone else. I think that is just a cop out. I take full responsibility. I didn’t feel accountable to anyone. There comes a point where a person has to be accountable. I always believed the lie that evolution was the truth and that we all came from slime and when we died that was it. I’ve come to believe that the Lord Jesus Christ is the true creator of the earth. I’ve accepted Him as my Lord and Savior and I believe everyone will be accountable to him.”
These are the words of Jeffrey Dahmer. He was a serial killer who kidnapped, raped, tortured, killed, and ate at least 17 victims.
After seeing an interview in which he talked about a search for hope, a Christian woman wrote him and sent him a Bible study for him to do. He did it and returned it asking for more. Back and for it went. He asked for a pastor to meet with and Roy Ratcliff answered that call and met with him, led in to Christ, and baptized him just six months before he was murdered in prison in 1994.
One professor said, “If Dahmer is in heaven, I don’t want to go.”
Jeffrey Dahmer is a trophy of extravagant grace, just like you and just like me.
You might say that he didn’t deserve forgiveness or heaven and I would agree with you. And I would add neither do you! None of us do. That’s why it’s called Amazing Grace.
That’s what I think Jonah finally got. How do I get that? Because this book is in the Bible and Jonah must have spent that long road back to Israel trying to understand what was wrong with his heart.
Video: Some people
Ending Song: Amazing Grace
