Over the past four weeks we’ve been following a series on Jonah. Today we move on to the last chapter in the book of Jonah and the last talk in our series.
Since some of you haven’t been with us as we’ve gone through the book of Jonah, I’d like to fill you in on what’s been happening.
The prophet Jonah lived about 800 years before Jesus. At that time, the 12 tribes of Israel had split into two nations: the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah.
In Jonah’s time the Assyrian Empire had been expanding and was threatening the northern kingdom of Israel. Eventually, it invaded Israel and took the people of Israel into captivity. The first mention of Jonah in the Bible is just before this happens so it’s not clear if Jonah witnessed Assyria invading Israel or not.
Although the story of Jonah relates to events that happened in Assyria 2800 years ago, we actually know a lot about Assyria at that time. Probably the main reason we know so much is that the ancient city of Nineveh – the capital of Assyria – was excavated in the mid-19th century. A remarkable library dating back to about the time of Jonah and containing more than 30,000 clay tablets was discovered. Here are some pictures of them.
These tablets give us a detailed picture of what Assyria was like. They show us that the rulers of Assyria were exceptionally cruel. God described Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, as wicked; some Bible translations say ‘evil’. One Middle East scholar wrote that ‘Assyrian national history … is as gory and bloodcurdling a history as we know.’ Judging by the things the Assyrian rulers did, God’s description of Nineveh as ‘wicked’ is thoroughly justified.
God will not tolerate Nineveh’s wickedness. He intends to destroy the city. But he would much rather not do that. So he sends his prophet, Jonah, to go and preach against it. The fact that God sends Jonah to Nineveh means that he might just change his mind about destroying the city.
Jonah doesn’t want to go but eventually he changes his mind, goes to Nineveh and proclaims, ‘Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.’ That is told in Jonah chapter 3. At the end of chapter 3 we read:
‘When God saw what they [that is, the people of Nineveh] did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.’
That’s the end of the story, we think. The disaster has been averted. Everyone can live happily ever after.
But there is another chapter in the Book of Jonah. Chapter 4 starts as follows: “But…”
As soon as we read the word ‘but’ we know that something is wrong. What is it? The verse continues: “But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry.”
Jonah was angry. Why?
I’d like you to try to imagine yourself as Jonah in a modern-day context. I think it will help you to relate to what Jonah would have felt.
I’d like you to imagine yourself as a Middle Eastern Christian called Jangir. You belong to a little-known people group called the Yazidis. Hardly anyone had heard of your people until about seven or eight years ago. Then a terrorist organization called ISIS appeared. It attacked and conquered your territory and committed unspeakable acts. Suddenly the Yazidi people became famous.
A few months ago, God appeared to you in a dream and told you to go to Raqqa, the town in Syria which ISIS had made their capital, and preach against ISIS. You don’t want to go to Raqqa one little bit but eventually you go. God tells you to tell ISIS, ‘In forty days, ISIS, you are going to be overthrown.’ You obediently proclaim what God told you to say. Then you confidently wait for God to do what he said he would do.
But now, there’s a surprising and unexpected development. ISIS takes your message seriously! It turns from its wicked ways. And now, God announces that he’s changed his mind. He won’t overthrow ISIS after all!
So, Jangir, how do you feel? Do you feel angry? You looked to God for justice but God has been a soft touch. He’s been far too compassionate.
That is exactly how Jonah felt. Look at how chapter 4 continues. Here’s verse 2. Jonah tells God:
‘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.’
Generally, it’s great that God is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love. So why is Jonah unhappy? In Jonah’s way of looking at it, this was not a time for God to be gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love. In Jonah’s way of looking at it, Nineveh deserved God’s justice.
So Jonah isn’t happy. We can imagine how he’s feeling.
The remainder of the chapter tells us what God does next. This is really helpful to look at.
I’m going to try to apply this to two kinds of situation:
A) We can apply what God did for Jonah to the situation where ONE OF OUR FRIENDS is hurting. God has done something in his life which makes no sense at all and he’s very angry. We want to help. Can we see some key principles in this passage?
B) We can apply what God did for Jonah to the situation where WE are hurting. God spoke to Jonah in a surprising way. We need to know that God sometimes speaks in this way in order to hear him.
A) So let’s take the first situation. ONE OF OUR FRIENDS is hurting. We want to help. What can we learn from the way God ministered to Jonah?
I’d like to suggest two things. They are very simple and obvious and people probably tell us them all the time. But we still need to be reminded of them.
First, GOD LISTENS. Second, GOD ASKS QUESTIONS.
God listens.
God doesn’t leave Jonah to go off and sulk. He’s hovering around, engaging with him. To listen to someone, you actually have to get close to them. Duh! You hear better if you sit closer to the front in a classroom. To hear people we have to be in touch with them.
I once heard a story about the director of a company. The company had a factory and an office block next to the factory. The director and other senior managers worked in the office block. However the director decided not to have a bathroom in the office block. He and the other senior staff would use the same bathroom as everyone else, at the far end of the factory. The director’s reasoning was that it would force him and the other senior staff to get out and meet the rest of the employees. I’m not sure what you think about that but the intention is good. People at the top of an organizational tree can be very cut off from the people at the bottom. Something like that can happen in Christian life too. A leader can be so focused on his important task that he neglects the individual who needs his help. Sometimes, Christian leaders even neglect their own families. It isn’t funny. When you lose contact with people you can’t listen. God hovered around while Jonah had his rant.
How much did God listen? Look at what’s going on in Jonah chapter 4. Verse 1 is an introduction. In verses 2 and 3, Jonah is speaking. In verses 4 to 9, God only asks two questions. It isn’t until we reach verses 10 and 11 that God gives his view. God does a lot of listening before he gives his opinion. It’s a great example.
But let’s dig a bit deeper. Look at what Jonah says to God in verses 2 and 3. Jonah’s focus is on God’s compassion. Now look at verses 10 and 11. When God replies, it’s about his compassion. In other words, GOD RESPONDS TO WHAT JONAH SAID. It shows that he’d listened.
One threat if we’re trying to help someone is that we may make assumptions about what they’re struggling with.
To take Jonah as an example, when I look at Jonah’s situation, I would probably assume that he was unhappy because he felt that justice had not been done. Last year the George Floyd case was often in the news. At one point George Floyd’s brother talked about how he wanted justice for his brother. I might assume that Jonah wanted justice for Israel, for all that his people had suffered at the hands of the Assyrians.
But Jonah didn’t mention God’s justice. Jonah complained to God that he was too compassionate. That is the issue God replied to. So God is a very good listener and if we want to minister to people in the way God ministered to Jonah, we need to be good listeners.
When I started to train as a minister, I found this very difficult. Before I started to train as a minister, I’d had a long period of working in secular organizations. There, work was a place for working! In one place I worked someone had put up a notice along these lines: “Would those people who have nothing to do kindly go and do it somewhere else.” Work was a place for working – and drinking coffee and yattering didn’t count as work.
So training to become a minister was very uncomfortable for me. For much of the day we sat around drinking coffee and yattering. (It had to be good coffee – that was important.) You might think that sounds like heaven but it wasn’t heaven for me. I didn’t find it easy at all. I still don’t. But I understand that if we want to respond appropriately to people, we have to listen to them – and there’s a place for coffee.
Second point: GOD ASKS QUESTIONS
Just because we’re listening doesn’t mean we don’t speak at all! Look at verse 4. God asked a question. Look at verse 9. God asked the same question!
Is this typical of God? Does God generally ask a lot of questions? Yes, he does. Someone has written a book called ‘Jesus Is the Question: The 307 Questions Jesus Asked and the 3 He Answered.’ In the description, it says, ‘In the Gospels Jesus asks many more questions than he answers. To be precise, Jesus asks 307 questions.’
OK, so JESUS asked a lot of questions! What about God, in the Old Testament? God also asked a lot of questions. Let’s take Job as an example. The Book of Job is longer than any of the New Testament letters. It has 42 chapters. From chapter 3 to chapter 37 it’s mostly Job speaking and he’s mostly complaining. God patiently listens. I could never have listened for that long! But my point here is not that God is a good listener; I want to show that God asks questions. After Job has finished with all his complaints, God asks him some questions. In just two chapters, chapters 38 and 39, God asks Job 52 questions!
If Jesus and God ask so many questions it must mean that questions are good. I think it’s fairly self-evident that if we want to listen well, we need to ask questions.
But think about the questions God asked Jonah. I suppose God could have asked Jonah, ‘Jonah, how are you feeling?’ But God doesn’t need to ask Jonah how he’s feeling. He knows Jonah is angry. We don’t need to ask the obvious.
God asked Jonah twice, ‘Is it right for you to be angry?’
God wants to help Jonah get rid of the anger. But he doesn’t simply give a command and the anger vanishes. Jonah needs to think about the basis for his anger.
So we see that God doesn’t simply ask questions: he asks just the right questions.
If we want to minister to people in the way God ministered to Jonah, we need to think carefully about the questions we ask.
B) Let’s turn now to the situation where WE are hurting. How might God speak to us?
One thing that’s remarkable in the Book of Jonah is how often God acts in the natural world or speaks to people through the natural world. In chapters 1-3 God sends a storm and sends a great fish. He commands the great fish. In chapter 4 God makes a gourd grow. He sends a worm to eat it. He sends a scorching east wind.
Does God often act in the natural world or speak to people through the natural world? Absolutely! All through the Bible God performs miraculous acts in the natural world in order to speak to people. Let me give just two examples. Jesus cursed a fig tree and it immediately withered. God sent plagues on Egypt. There are many, many more such examples. Since God doesn’t change then it’s perfectly possible that God could speak to us individually or collectively through things that take place in the natural world.
If we want to be open to God speaking to us in a similar way to how he spoke to Jonah, then we need to be open to the possibility that God might speak to us through the world of nature.
So, in this chapter, we’ve looked at how God ministers to Jonah. God listens and he asks appropriate questions. God speaks to him through the world of nature. Let’s try to follow God’s example in listening and asking questions. And let’s be open to the possibility that God might speak to US through the world of nature.
Talk given at Rosebery Park Baptist Church, Boscombe, Bournemouth, UK 26 July 2021
