JONAH CHAPTER FOUR
INTRODUCTION
Most of us love happy endings! My girls when they were little loved Disney’s, ‘Beauty and the Beast.’ In the closing scenes the beast lies dying from a wound inflicted during combat with Gaston his enemy. Belle the beauty finally confesses her love for the beast and just in time gives him the kiss that breaks the curse. The beast is transformed back into a handsome prince and they live happily ever after. Beauty brings life to the beast, we could say.
But we don’t always get a happy ending! The original 1933 ‘King Kong’ Movie is heartbreaking. Having escaped from his chains Kong creates havoc and mayhem in New York searching for the object of his affections, Anne Darrow, played by the actress, Fay Rae. A climactic battle takes place between the air force and Kong as he hangs onto the top of the Empire State building. Kong is injured and plunges 1,000 plus feet to the streets below. In a very moving scene Anne Darrow watches Kong, as he lies dying. A Police Lieutenant says to Carl Denham, who captured the giant gorilla: ‘Well, Denham, the airplanes got him.’ ‘Oh no,’ says Denham, ‘It wasn’t the airplanes. It was beauty killed the beast.’
Well, these films are of course fantasy stories put together for our entertainment. But with Jonah we’re looking at the true story in history of one of God’s prophets. Now with all that’s happened so far – Jonah’s initial disobedience; God’s humbling of Jonah; Jonah’s going to Nineveh at the second time of asking; the Ninevites’ believing the message and being spared –you’d surely expect there to be a happy ending!
But it isn’t quite as simple as that – life usually isn’t. Gordon Keddie says ‘There is something deeply disturbing, even unsatisfying about the last chapter of the book of Jonah.’
We saw in JONAH 3 V 10 “When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, He had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction He had threatened.”
What was Jonah’s response? Wouldn’t you expect him to be joyful and glad? ‘This is great! Look at what God has done among the Ninevites!’ But Instead CH 4 V 1 tells us that ‘Jonah was greatly displeased and became angry’!
Don’t you feel like asking: “What’s going on Jonah?” I believe there are valuable lessons God teaches us here. Rather than Jonah’s story ending negatively for us, we’ll see that it is in fact positive and challenging.
There are three basic things I want us to explore in this last chapter: Jonah’s spiritual setback; God’s generous grace and God’s immense mercy.
JONAH’S SPIRITUAL SETBACK
You can’t believe it! Jonah, after all that had happened in Chapters 2 & 3 reverts to his old attitude and ways of thinking. CH 4 V 2 ‘He prayed to the LORD, ‘O LORD, is this not what I said when I was still at home? That is why I was so quick to flee 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.’
Some people see God as a harsh tyrant, who can’t wait to send people to hell. Others see him as a benevolent indulging old father figure. Both are a million miles away from the way God truly presents Himself in the Bible.
Yes, God is immensely serious about sin – the cross of Jesus is the greatest proof of that! Someone once said: ‘If sin is man’s contradiction of God and His expressed will, God cannot be complacent about sin and still be God.’ No sin in the universe can fail to be accounted for, otherwise creation would fall into moral chaos. Hell is solemnly real.
At same time God is immensely serious about salvation –the cross of Jesus is also the proof of that! H C Trumbull put it like this: ‘Calvary shows how far men will go in sin, and how far God will go for man’s salvation.’ Heaven is gloriously real.
Jonah knew God’s nature and he just didn’t like the fact that God had mercy on the Ninevites. His old fears and prejudices flared up again: ‘I knew it. You’ve spared Israel’s great enemy; been kind to those who deserve calamity. Isn’t that what I said at the beginning of this whole saga?”
Jonah is a warning to you and me that the best of men are men at best; that we are still sinful and inconsistent. The bible doesn’t record men’s failing so that we can point the finger, but in order that we can learn about human nature, our nature. We have to be on the look out! Watch out; be on guard! Never think that sin in this life is totally tamed!
Former zookeeper Gary Richmond explains that racoons go through a glandular change at about 2 years old. After that they often attack their owners. Since a 30-pound racoon can be equal to a 100-pound dog in a scrap he felt compelled to mention the change coming to a pet racoon owned by a young friend of his, Julie. He says: ‘She listened politely as I explained the coming danger. I’ll never forget her answer: “It will be different for me.” And she smiled as she added, “Bandit wouldn’t hurt me. He just wouldn’t.” Three months later Julie underwent plastic surgery for facial lacerations sustained when her adult racoon attacked her for no reason. Bandit was released into the wild.’
We must never think: sin has been conquered in my life; when we see others fall we can never say: “It’ll never happen to me”. Sin apparently dormant can and will lash out and bring us down if we become complacent.
A big point to make is that Jonah’s failure here doesn’t mean that his previous sorrow and repentance inside the sea creature wasn’t genuine and was hypocritical. It was real. Gordon Keddie comments: ‘It is true that repeated instances of old sins, interspersed with periods of reformed behaviour, can raise a serious question as to the reality of that renewal and repentance’ but he goes on to say that this was certainly NOT the case with Jonah.
Remember the evidence that God showed us in chapter 2? It was because of it that God caused the sea-creature to release Jonah.
CH 2 V 6 ‘To the roots of the mountains I sank down; the earth beneath me barred me in forever, BUT you brought my life up from the pit, O LORD my God.’
Ch 2 V 9 ‘Salvation comes from the LORD’ was Jonah’s great confession. Jonah truly trusted in the LORD then – he had now lost a battle with the sin nature within him, but not the war.
The Apostle Paul highlights this warfare in GAL CH 5 V 17 “…the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want.”
This is common experience of every born-again believer. In our very real conflict with sin Charles Spurgeon encourages us: ‘Do believe it Christian, that your sin is a condemned thing. It may kick and struggle but it is doomed to die.’ In the mean time, I say, it can be quite a wrestling match with bruises, bumps and painful blows.
The amazing thing is that God still chose to use Jonah though he was so fragile spiritually. RT Kendall says, ‘We may see that God can use men that are still frail. It shows also how one may still have problems, maladies, infirmities, weaknesses – even after seeing God work.’
We mustn’t think that every one God has greatly used is perfect and never has problems – therefore because of my problems and weakness God can’t use me. We all have our spiritual blind spots; our issues. What God looks for is not total perfection but a desire to be pure and to do His will.
John Newton wrote to a young minister advising that God leads his people through distresses, including a sense of their sinfulness. And their purpose? To: ’preserve in you a due sense of your own unworthiness, and to convince you, that your ability, your acceptance, and your usefulness depend on a power beyond your own.’
When God uses men and women for His purposes He does it in such a way that it is clear – it’s not due to our power and worthiness, but His power and worthiness.
GOD’S GENEROUS GRACE
We really should be quite overwhelmed with what’s going on here! Let’s rehearse it again: Jonah had disobeyed; run away; been restored; been given a second chance – and still manages to make a mess of things.
Just look at this prayer of his in CH 4 V 2 ‘He prayed to the LORD, “O Lord, is this not what I said when I was still at home…”’
Was this a humble obedient spirit before a holy God? No, Jonah was clearly angry and upset! He even wants to die because of what God had done: V 3 ‘Now O Lord take away my life…’
And yet; and yet, God doesn’t blow him off the scene – He continues to persevere with him. How patient, kind and longsuffering God is. You see, Jonah belonged to God. A good earthly father never rejects his child who badly behaves; he doesn’t excuse his behaviour but he still loves him and shows that love by disciplining him. So God our perfect heavenly Father doesn’t condone our behaviour but He will never disown us. The evidence of His love is that He disciplines us to bring us back into His ways.
God understood Jonah; He remembered Jonah was but dust and caught up in a spiritual downward spiral of his own making: John Calvin comments ‘– the faithful often in a distressed state of mind approach God with a desire to pray, and…their prayers are not wholly rejected, though they are not altogether approved and accepted.’ Jonah was perplexed, troubled – and brought his thoughts to God. God forgave the sin in his prayer and saw the struggling heart of His child.
So God patiently deals with Jonah by teaching Him further through a question: V 4 ‘Have you any right to be angry?’ There’s no record that Jonah replied. Instead he picked himself up, headed out of the city and sat outside to watch what would happen. This was a serious spiritual sulk! He tried to build himself a shelter against the blazing hot sun but it was really quite ineffective. As a result God said nothing but provided the shade for him that he couldn’t provide for himself: V 6 “Then the LORD God provided a vine [large leafy plant] and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort”
Is there no end to God’s generous grace? Says Gordon Keddie: ‘[God] gave a gift in return for the Prophet’s bad attitude.’ Jonah didn’t deserve this miraculous respite from the pounding heat. When Jonah was at his worst God did His best for him.
Jonah was very happy to have the vine’s shelter. Perhaps he took it as a sign that God was beginning to see things his way now! Maybe God changed had His mind and the city to be destroyed after all! But of course Jonah had completely misread God’s intentions.
V 7 & 8 tell us that at dawn the next day the vine died; God had a worm or parasite attack it. On top of that, with the rising sun came a scorching east wind and Jonah suffered from heat stroke. He ended up angry again and made a second wish for his life to be ended.
So, what was God doing? He was reminding Jonah, firstly, what His grace is all about. V 9 “’Do you have a right to be angry about the vine?” In other words, ‘Look Jonah, the vine was a gift, you didn’t do anything to get it. I caused it to grow up over you. You didn’t even deserve it; you deserved the opposite. If it wasn’t yours in the first place why get angry when it is taken away?’
The problem was that Jonah got attached to the comfort the vine brought, and forgot the giver. He acted as if he had a right to it. The provision of the vine and its death preached grace to the sulky prophet.
Secondly, Jonah’s obsession with God’s kindness to Nineveh was exposed. It had really got at Jonah and bugged him. When you’re in such a state the slightest irritation can cause you to blow up! What was trivial really, the removal of the vine, stirred up disproportionate strength of feeling. Gordon Keddie comments: ‘Jonah was so consumed with revulsion from God’s goodness towards Nineveh that the slightest irritation cast him into a paroxysm of outraged bitterness.’ A bad conscience often causes extreme reactions in us – like bears with sore heads; prickly porcupines. Jonah was not good company!
Thirdly, God demonstrated yet again that He was in charge and would not be dictated too. A story is told about the atheist, American Orator, Robert G Ingersoll, who died in 1899. When he delivered his lectures against Christ and the Bible, his speaking ability usually assured him of a large hearing. One night after an inflammatory speech in which he severely attacked man’s faith in God, he dramatically took out his watch and said: ‘I’ll give God a chance to prove that he exists and is Almighty. I challenge him to strike me dead within five minutes!’ First there was silence, and then people became uneasy. Some left the hall unable to take the nervous strain of the occasion; one woman fainted. At the end of the allotted time, Mr Ingersoll exclaimed derisively, ‘See! There is no God. I am still very much alive!” After the lecture a young man said to a Christian women: ‘Well, Ingersoll certainly proved something tonight!’ ‘Yes he did’, she said. ‘He proved God isn’t taking orders from atheists tonight” God doesn’t take order from anyone, even Jonah! ‘I chose to show you grace and you didn’t deserve it; and why should I not chose to show grace to the Ninevites who don’t deserve it?’
GOD’S IMMENSE MERCY
In V 10 God underlined to Jonah the depth & extent of His mercy to whom He chooses! ‘You have been concerned about this vine, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. But Nineveh has more than 120,000 people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. Should not I be concerned about that great city?’
The first thing is that God does care: he has mercy. He desires sinful people to turn back to Him. Whilst we are sinners we are not insignificant: ‘Jonah you are sorry about the vine that gave you shelter and been way over the top about it, a mere plant, and for selfish reasons too. In contrast, should I not have compassion on and show mercy to a whole city of living breathing human beings with eternal souls who I made to know and worship me?’
Remember Nineveh was a million miles away from the true God spiritually, embracing idols with their superstition, cruelty and immoral practices. God says that they could not “tell their right hand from their left. In other words, they were in a moral maze; a spiritual mess; unable to tell true right from wrong; calling ‘good’ ‘evil’ and ‘evil’ ‘good’. They were far from God, and in spiritual darkness, but made in God’s likeness and therefore significant. God’s grace alone was the answer for them as it is for all fallen humanity.
The next thing that stands out so brightly is that God’s mercy is not restricted to one nation, or one group of people, or one culture. It extends to all peoples – no matter what their background, behaviour and morality. This was one thing that Jonah had such a hard time with: we can do the same – ‘Not this people Lord, surely not that person. They’re not like us; they don’t fit in.’ In his biography Mahatma Gandhi wrote that during his student days he read the Gospels seriously and considered converting to Christianity. He believed that in the teachings of Jesus he could find a solution to the caste system that was dividing the people of India. He decided one Sunday to attend the services of a nearby church. When he entered the sanctuary the usher refused to give Gandhi a seat and suggested that he go and worship with his own people. Gandhi never returned. ‘If Christians have caste differences also’ he said ‘I might as well remain a Hindu.’ (Daily Bread 1994)
When we see unsaved people let’s look at them first of all as made in God’s image, like us; as those who have turned away from the true God; like we did; and as those who are in huge need of God’s grace, like we are. Everything else, though to be taken into account in a helpful way, is secondary.
CONCLUSION
So question is – was there a happy ending to Jonah’s story – did spiritual beauty revive and transform the ugly beast of Jonah’s soul?
We’re not told outright; but if Jonah truly belonged to God I believe had too.
One of Michelangelo’s paintings in the Sistine Chapel in Rome is called: ‘The Prophets and Apostles’. He sought to capture all the faces of the OT prophets and the NT apostles. Art critics suggest that out of all the faces the artist painted none had a more radiant face than Jonah. Michelangelo was convinced that Jonah did ultimately repent and become a communicator of grace to his own nation through his book and through his preaching as a prophet of God.
Big question for you is: are you right with God? Have you trusted in God’s promises in Jesus; have you known and experienced His race; have you repented and turned to Jesus Christ to be your Saviour, Lord and friend?
And if you are right with God, Make sure you’re not running away from God’s Will for your life. Are you openly, honestly seeking to serve Him in His Will; are you looking to Him through the Word and prayer in dependence on the Holy Spirit?
