Most of us have heard the story of Jonah and the whale. We’ve heard how God told Jonah to go the evil city of Nineveh and warn them to repent of their wickedness… or perish. But Jonah didn’t want to go so he got on a boat and went entirely the other direction because he believed he could run from God. But God had other ideas and Jonah ended up in the belly of huge whale.
It’s amazing what spending 3 days and nights in the belly of a whale will do for your state of mind. Jonah ended up praying and repenting, and ultimately he went to Nineveh just like God asked. He preached to that city saying ‘Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!’ And they listened to him, and repented in sackcloth and ashes. END OF STORY… well, almost.
Here’s the rest of the story: Jonah 3:5-4:11 (READ)
The end of the book of Jonah is NOT a pretty picture. It ends with Jonah still sitting around in bitterness and hatred wishing he’d never gone to Nineveh, and wishing they’d have ALL died.
In fact, he even had the audacity to rebuke God by saying: “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.” Jonah 4:2
Believe it or not, Jonah was telling God off! He was NOT happy and he wanted God to know it. Jonah was a bitter man.
But why was he so bitter? Well, the Bible doesn’t say… but I can guess. Nineveh was a nasty piece of work. They were a war-like nation that showed no mercy to those they attacked. If a city opposed them they’d NOT just kill the survivors - they would dismember them and impale them and do other horrible things that I’m not comfortable talking about from the pulpit. Their actions so frightened other cities that… they’d simply surrender rather than face the atrocities of Nineveh.
My guess is, Nineveh had attacked a city in Israel and butchered people that Jonah knew. Perhaps they’d been murdered right in front of his very eyes. So, he doesn’t want Nineveh to repent… he wants them to die. Every last one of them. He’s a bitter man, and you can’t hardly blame him.
Now we’ll get back to Jonah in just a little bit but right now I want to explain the danger of bitterness. Hebrews 12:15 warns us “See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no ‘root of bitterness’ springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled.”
God warns us to be careful! There are sins that will rob us of God’s grace in our lives. In verse 16, for example, God tells us to beware of sexual immorality, and in verses 16 & 17 He warns against godlessness. But God kicks this list off with perhaps the deadliest of sins known to man: bitterness.
Why do I say that bitterness is perhaps the deadliest of sins? Well bitterness causes trouble and defiles many. Churches have split because of bitterness. I’ve seen it divide congregations and ruin churches and damage the name of Jesus - sometimes beyond repair.
Someone in a congregation will become SO angry over an offense they’ve suffered (or believe they’ve suffered) that they can be relentless in seeking revenge. They struggle to enlist others in their cause and they’ll bring trouble into the church of Christ. And they will defile many because of their bitterness.
ILLUS: My dad once told me about the time that his church asked him to be Sunday School Superintendent. He and mom talked about it, and prayed about it, and he accepted the job. But a few weeks later, it became apparent why the Elders had asked him to take the job. Nobody else wanted it. Apparently, there was a young couples Sunday School class meeting in the basement that had gotten out of hand. It was taught by a pair of spinster sisters who had apparently developed such a negative and bitter attitude that they’d run off all the men in the class and now only had a small group of women. I suspect the Elders had approached the sisters about their behavior, but the ladies defiantly continued to meet in their basement class. What the Elders wanted dad to do was dissolve the class. And so… he did. One Sunday Morning he went downstairs, pulled aside the dividers they used, and said “Ladies, I’m sorry, this class will no longer meet here.” And he said the ladies in the class literally came at him with claws extended. Even my dad, a big strong man, was a little scared by their behavior. The sisters had so engrained their bitterness and sectarianism into that class that their bitterness had defiled the faith of those other ladies as well.
So, the 1st reason bitterness is so deadly is because it causes trouble and defiles many. Sexual sin and godlessness can be deadly as well - but ONLY bitterness enrolls others in its cause. But why would bitterness attract others? Because (and this brings me to my 2nd reason that bitterness is so deadly) bitterness is essentially a “religious” disease. It’s a “religious” disease, because - those who are bitter - are convinced that they are right. THEY HAVE GOD ON THEIR SIDE!!!
After all, they are only seeking justice. That other person - or group - has offended them and, that person (group) must be made to pay the price. And their desire for satisfaction for their bitterness will continue for ages.
ILLUS: For years (after those sisters had been removed from their class) they would continue coming to church. They’d stay and take communion… but then leave before the sermon. And they did that till they died! Their defiance and bitterness caused them to declare by their actions that their bitterness was STILL justified.
Bitterness is a “religious” disease, and it’s a religious disease because – those who allow it to take root in their souls – take God’s throne for their own. They sit in judgment of those they are bitter with.
James 4:11-12 warns the church of his day: “Brothers, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against his brother or judges him speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it. There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you— who are you to judge your neighbor?”
WHO ARE YOU to judge your neighbor? (God asks)
Bitterness is terrible and deadly sin because it 1) causes trouble and defiles others AND 2) it causes the bitter person to nudge God off His throne & sit in judgment themselves. And that’s what happened to Jonah. He wanted justice. But he didn’t want God’s kind of justice. Nineveh had been a wicked and evil city and it deserved to be annihilated. Its people deserved to die.
There may be times when you or I will be faced with the same emotion. We’ll tend to be resentful of someone who has mistreated us or someone we care about. And we’ll be tempted to despise them and maybe even do what we can to hurt or destroy them. At the very least… we won’t be baking them cookies.
Someone described bitterness this way: “Someone who is bitter, is angry and unhappy because they cannot forget nor forgive bad things that have happened in the past.” (cambridge.org)
Someone else wrote: “Bitterness starts when we cling to anger and resentment.” (gcu.edu)
ILLUS: I read a story about natives of Polynesia who spent a great deal of their time fighting, and they had a custom for remembering things others had done to offend them. They’d take something that belonged to each offender and hang it in the roof of their hut. Then as they laid in their bed each night, they’d remember each person and what they’d done, and try to decide how to get even.
That’s what bitter people do. They spend their time thinking about what others have done to them. But Ephesians 4:31 tells us… we Christians shouldn’t be like that: “Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.”
Why not? Why shouldn’t we allow ourselves to be bitter about what others have done to us? Well there’s a few reasons: 1st – being bitter defiles us and robs us God’s grace (and you don’t want that); and 2nd – bitterness and resentment proves we don’t trust God.
Romans 12:19 “Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.’”
In fact, Proverbs 24:17-18 warns us “Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and let not your heart be glad when he stumbles, lest the LORD see it and be displeased and turn away his anger from him.”
When it comes to vengeance… keep your hands to yourself and let God do what He does best. Just stay out of His way.
But there’s one more reason we should avoid bitterness, and that reason is that we represent Jesus Christ. Now Jonah didn’t realize that, but he did represented Jesus too. Jesus compared His own death and burial and resurrection to Jonah’s time in the whale: “…as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. (Matthew 12:40) So Jonah’s life was a prophecy of what would happen with Jesus. Jesus would die on the cross… and spend 3 days and nights in the grave.
But the problem for Jonah was… he stopped short of being the example he could have been. Jonah COULD have been an example of God’s forgiveness. In Jonah 4:2 Jonah even says that he knew about God’s forgiveness: “I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and relenting from disaster.”
HE KNEW GOD was merciful; HE KNEW GOD was abounding in steadfast love; HE KNEW GOD would forgive Nineveh - he just didn’t want God to do that. He didn’t want them forgiven; he didn’t them pardoned; he didn’t want them saved… he wanted them dead – all of them.
Now Jonah didn’t mind when God forgave him. When Jonah was trapped inside that whale he BEGGED to be forgiven and he BEGGED to be given a 2nd chance. But his bitterness and anger blinded him to the fact that the God he served was as patient with him as He had been with the people of Nineveh.
But he failed to represent the God he served, and it was not a pretty picture.
CLOSE: A young High School girl named Sally told of one Sunday School class she’d been in. Her teacher, was known for his elaborate object lessons, and on that day when she walked into class and knew they were in for another fun day. On the wall was a big target and on a nearby table were several darts. The teacher told the students to draw a picture of someone that they disliked or someone who had made them angry and he would allow them to throw darts at the person’s picture.
Her girlfriend (on her right), drew a picture of a girl who had stolen her boyfriend. Another friend (on her left), drew a picture of his little brother. Sally drew a picture of someone she didn’t like very much, and she put a great deal of detail into her drawing. The class lined up and began throwing darts, and everyone was laughing and joking. Some of the students threw their darts with such force their targets ripped apart. Sally looked forward to her turn and was filled with disappointment when they ran out of time and the teacher asked the students to return to their seats. As Sally sat thinking about how angry she was because she didn’t have a chance to throw any darts at her target, the teacher began removing the target from the wall. And underneath the target… was a picture of Jesus.
A complete hush fell over the room as each student looked at the mangled picture of Jesus; holes and jagged marks covered His face and His eyes were pierced out. And the teacher closed the class with these words: “Inasmuch as you have done it unto the least of these my brethren, you have done it unto Me.” (Matthew 25:40)
