Jonah and the Great Commission Part 4
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O Lord, you have deceived me, and I was deceived; you are stronger than I, and you have prevailed. I have become a laughingstock all the day; everyone mocks me.
For whenever I speak, I cry out, I shout, “Violence and destruction!” For the word of the Lord has become for me a reproach and derision all day long.
If I say, “I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name,” there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot.
For I hear many whispering. Terror is on every side! “Denounce him! Let us denounce him!” say all my close friends, watching for my fall. “Perhaps he will be deceived; then we can overcome him and take our revenge on him.”
But the Lord is with me as a dread warrior; therefore my persecutors will stumble; they will not overcome me. They will be greatly shamed, for they will not succeed. Their eternal dishonor will never be forgotten.
O Lord of hosts, who tests the righteous, who sees the heart and the mind, let me see your vengeance upon them, for to you have I committed my cause.
Sing to the Lord; praise the Lord! For he has delivered the life of the needy from the hand of evildoers.
For it is for your sake that I have borne reproach, that dishonor has covered my face.
I have become a stranger to my brothers, an alien to my mother’s sons.
For zeal for your house has consumed me, and the reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me.
When I wept and humbled my soul with fasting, it became my reproach.
Answer me, O Lord, for your steadfast love is good; according to your abundant mercy, turn to me.
Hide not your face from your servant, for I am in distress; make haste to answer me.
Draw near to my soul, redeem me; ransom me because of my enemies!
What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?
By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?
Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.
For one who has died has been set free from sin.
Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.
We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him.
For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God.
So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
“A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master.
It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household.
“So have no fear of them, for nothing is covered that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known.
What I tell you in the dark, say in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops.
And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.
Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father.
But even the hairs of your head are all numbered.
Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.
So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven,
but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.
“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.
For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.
And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household.
Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.
And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.
Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
Jonah and the Great Commission Part 4:
Appreciating God’s grace towards others
GPS:
God’s Promise of Salvation
God’s Plan of Salvation
God’s Provision of Salvation
Euangelion ‘news that makes one happy’ or ‘information that causes one joy’ or ‘words that bring smiles’ or ‘a message that causes the heart to be sweet.’
Euangelion! The word comes from the days of battlefield messengers who would come with a report. Many reports from the battlefield would be bad news, they broke through our ranks, many men have fallen, things are going badly. But then, a messenger would run up and shout Euangelion! Good News! The battle is won! We are victorious!
And the word Euangelion, which in English is Good News, the root word for Evangelize, and Evangelist, and evangelism, is what the writers of the New Testament used to describe the telling of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Euangelion! The Good News is here!
And as most of you know, I love the Good News! I love that God has allowed me to preach it! I love that I get to study it! I love the Word of God because it is life to my very soul and it is Euangelion! Good news. But many times we only think that the Good News is found in the gospels, or in the New Testament, but the Good News is found throughout the Bible, because every part of scripture points to Christ. Every part of scripture gives us a glimpse at the Good News. Without the Old Testament to point us to Christ, we would be far less enriched in our understanding of the deepness and broadness and length of God’s saving grace.
Euangelion! The good news is found throughout scripture because all of scripture points us to Jesus Christ. The Word of God has been called a lamp to our feet, a light to our path. It is God’s precious and holy Word to us. It shows us how to find Him, how to please Him, how to worship Him. But if you needed to sum up the entire BIble in one word, I think it would be salvation. The Bible guides us in finding salvation, and in keeping ourselves right with God, and every part of it points us to Christ.
Most of us use GPS in our car. Most people have GPS. Phones come with it built in. The Global Positioning System guides to where we need to go, but it isn't flawless. I put in an address once in SD and it told me to drive across a field. I would have gotten there eventually, if I wasn’t stuck first. We use GPS and trust it even though it is not always perfectly reliable, but do we use the Bible, which is completely reliable, as our guide? The bible is full of the Good News, but it is also full of warnings, and directions. Some GPS systems will automatically reroute you to avoid road construction, traffic, and even weather.
The Bible, if we study it carefully, will guide us to be able to avoid disaster. It will guide us to the right path, and we need to know it so that when those times of difficulty come, we are ready to follow God’s way, and not our own. This morning I am going to use the acronym GPS, but I have another meaning for it. Make no mistake: The Word of God is Holy and good. It is God’s message to us. I would never want to cheapen it by making it a mere tool like GPS, but I believe the acronym can help us to better understand that all of scripture points us towards salvation through Jesus Christ. So this morning, I am going to use the acronym GPS to talk about how the entire bible points us to Christ, and how the Good News in it is ours to keep, but our responsibility to share. We will look at the last chapter of Jonah and once more see what Jonah’s story has to do with the Great Commission, and also how the entire bible points us to Christ.
God’s Promise of Salvation starts in Genesis. God’s tells the serpent that Jesus is coming.
God’s Plan of Salvation continues through the Old Testament. People constantly fail to live up to God’s standard, so he gives them the sacrifices and laws. These also point to Christ, who will fulfill the Law.
God’s Provision of Salvation comes in the very person of Christ, Immanuel, God with us, Jesus is God’s provision for our salvation.
So let’s look at chapter 4 of Jonah and see how this story also points to Jesus, and how we can apply it in our service to Him.
But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry.
And 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.
Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.”
And the Lord said, “Do you do well to be angry?”
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.
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.
But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant, so that it withered.
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.”
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.”
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.
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?”
Today’s message has something of importance to everyone who listens. For the sinner who has not yet repented: Euangelion! Good News! God relents when people repent! For the Christian seeking to please God: Euangelion! Good News! The Good News is entrusted in you to share with others! And finally, for the backslidden Christian: Euangelion! Good News! God graciously gives you many opportunities to return to HIm.
But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry.
Let’s look at the text: “But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry” What was Jonah anger about? You remember from the last sermon that God relented from sending disaster to Nineveh because of their repentance. However, Jonah felt they deserved judgment, and he was angry that God did not execute the judgement that Jonah felt was deserved. In all of this, Jonah has been shown the grace of God. God saved Jonah and gave him a second opportunity to serve Him, by sending the fish. But Jonah doesn’t seem to think that God’s grace should extend to Nineveh. He’s ok with receiving God’s grace himself, but doesn’t like it when Nineveh receives grace.
And 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.
In fact, it is beyond Jonah just disagreeing with God. A close study of the original language here reveals that Jonah actually saw this as an evil thing. He is beyond disagreeing, and beyond offended. He is convinced that God has done an evil thing. You see, Jonah was waiting to see something happen to Nineveh. He was standing by, waiting for Nineveh to fall, for his own enjoyment and pleasure.
It’s a little like lighting the fuse on fireworks. “Light fuse and get away”. Anyone who has set off fireworks has had a dud. You light the fuse, run away, look back, eagerly waiting for the fireworks to go off, the fuse burns, and all of the sudden the fuse has finished burning, and the firework hasn’t gone off. You have a dud. Jonah gave his message, backed away, and awaited the show, yet nothing happened. It was as though the repentance of Nineveh poured water on the fuse of God’s wrath against them, and Jonah was denied his entertainment.
Do we do that? Do we sit back, mad at someone, waiting for God to destroy them, and get mad when they aren't destroyed? We disagree with them, or we feel that God is unfair in giving grace to someone who we are hoping would be brought low by His punishments or wrath? Do we look around us at others and think “They don’t deserve grace.”
What a thing to be mad at! Jonah, who had been the recipient of God’s grace in a powerful way, is mad that God acted within His character. The character of God is described this way many times: a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster. Here Jonah is quoting something that would have been as common a saying among his people as the pledge of allegiance would be among ours.
Exodus 34:6–7 (ESV)
The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,
keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.”
Here was God declaring His character to Moses. Yet Jonah is mad about the fact that God is acting within His very character! Here we are in Exodus, and we see Euangeleon! Good News! God is gracious and merciful! The God’s plan for salvation is already being revealed in the Old Testament.
The exodus passage here contains hope and warning for all of us. God relents from disaster for those who repent of sin, but the effects of the sin are not just eliminated altogether, but rather are felt for generations after. Any questions about this, check out the story of David and Bathsheba and see: though God forgave David when he became repentant, the family suffered for generations because of David’s sin. This where the Bible warns us. Just as GPS can warn us of trouble on the road ahead, God gives us clear warning of what can happen when we stray from His path.
So even though Jonah had finally obeyed God, he was not submitted to God. One person put it this way: “This verse is an extremely disturbing one. It indicates that while Jonah had become obedient, he still lacked a spirit of submission.”
Jonah 4:3 (ESV)
Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.”
I won’t spend too much time on this, because it should be clear to all that Jonah here is pouting. If he can’t have the satisfaction of seeing someone he doesn’t like fail, or worse, be destroyed, then he will throw a pout. Of course, this was before Jesus gave the Lord’s prayer, but Jonah the prophet should have known that the best thing for us to desire is for God’s will to be done.
Next, we see a strong rebuke by God in the form of a question. Oh, don’t we hate being questioned? Our nature resists it. We don’t want to be questioned, we want to be the questioner! Heaven forbid that we get to the point of Jonah, where we demand God take action, and are angered when He doesn’t do things the way we wanted them done. Heaven forbid we, like Jonah, have a greater desire to see punishment than grace.
And the Lord said, “Do you do well to be angry?”
What a stinging rebuke! God is forcing Jonah to answer a question. Yet we see here Jonah has no answer. He is painting himself into a corner, and God is giving him an opportunity to confess and be right before Him, yet Jonah continues to resist. What arrogance can come when we feel we would do better than someone in leadership above us, when we feel we have better answers than our teachers, and heaven forbid we get to the point where we believe we know better than God Himself.
Jonah 4:5–6 (ESV)
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.
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.
Now we see Jonah is still waiting for the dud firework to go off. He makes himself a little spot to sit. The fuse went out, but he is going to wait anyway, and a frustrating wait it ends up being for Jonah. When we light a firework that doesn’t go off, we wait a little while, just in case there is still a spark and the thing could go off. But after a few minutes, we are sure it won’t go off, so we go and pick it up, throw it out, and move on with our lives.
Jonah wasn't about to give up. He was going to stubbornly wait for the destruction of Nineveh, even after he had declared his anger at the Lord for relenting. But here again we see the grace of God. He causes a plant to grow to shade Jonah. God has shown Jonah again and again His sovereignty over nature and events. Jonah has now received so much of God’s grace that it seems hard to believe that he has not softened his heart yet.
Sometimes we do the same thing. We have received such grace from God, yet we do not extend grace to others. We are happy to receive the things of God, but less anxious to share them with others. We sit on the truth that saved us while all around us are people who are also in great need of God’s grace.
There is an interesting thing about the root word translated discomfort here in verse 6. The Lemma (root) for Discomfort, is the same Hebrew word used in Jonah 3:10 " God relented of the disaster", Jonah 4:2 ""relenting from disaster", Jonah 4:1 "It displeased Jonah exceedingly”. It is no mistake that the same root words are used in each of these verses. The writer is clearly trying to make a point, which anyone reading in the original language would not fail to miss: Jonah is not even able to see the irony of his anger about God relenting from punishing Nineveh in light of the grace God has given Jonah.
Jonah 4:7–8 (ESV)
But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant, so that it withered.
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.”
As I studied this, I could not help comparing Jonah to Job. Jonah lost a plant, and wants to die. Job lost his children, servants, crops, and livestock, and his health. His wife said “Curse God and die”, but instead Job worshiped God in his distress, and said “He gives and takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.” Jonah is clearly no Job.
How minor was Jonah’s misfortune in losing the plant compared to the calamity that Job went through. Would you rather be like Job, able to worship God in your distress, or like Jonah, frustrated about losing some comfort, and being angered at the well-being of others?
What about this hot wind sent Jonah’s way? I found this interesting description of the weather in Assyria: “Losing precious shade in this harsh environment was one matter for Jonah. Experiencing this horrible wind was yet another. Most identify this wind as the “sirocco.” When this wind is experienced in the Near East, the temperature rises dramatically, and the humidity drops quickly. It is a constant and extremely hot wind that contains fine particles of dust. It contains “constant hot air so full of positive ions that it affects the levels of serotonin and other brain neurotransmitters, causing exhaustion, depression, feelings of unreality, and occasionally, bizarre behavior.”30 The Septuagint translates it succinctly as a “scorcher.””
In fact, during this type of weather, Islamic law allows for some leniency in sentencing criminals because it is well known that people can be driven temporarily out of their minds in those conditions.
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.”
So again Jonah is questioned by God. Clearly, the very response to God’s question is implied in the asking, but Jonah sets back his shoulders and arrogantly replies. to the question. He has a right to be angry. And in this little hearing, Jonah has just clinched the case against him as he continues to implicate himself.
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.
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 book concludes with a rhetorical question from God. An answer from Jonah is not given, and I suspect that he was silenced by God’s response. God, who created all things for his good pleasure, has all power over his creation. He controls a fish that he sent to rescue Jonah. He controls the plant, and the wind, and the sun. He has every right to destroy what He sees fit, and to spare what He sees fit. But further than that, God is pointing out that not everything in his creation has equal value. Much more valuable to God than a plant are people. And even cattle are more important than a plant.
So the book ends in a question to which no answer is given. But the one who understands the grace and mercy of God does understand. It is clear to the one with open eyes and an open heart that the whole point here is Euangelion! Good News! God’s grace is greater than we can possibly fathom towards those who seek his will and desire to do right and repent when they fail.
Now, a person could say, “Assyria was a pagan nation. They did deserve God’s wrath.” This is true. Don’t get the idea that in any of this God would not have been justified in utterly destroying them. But when we repent, God relents. I often pray for those that I know, and you should pray for all those you know, who are not right with God: “Lord, may they repent, and may you relent”.
The soul in the most danger in this book, I believe, is Jonah. He knows the truth, but he is convinced that being a Hebrew puts him in a different class altogether in deserving God’s grace. But in fact, God points out that the people of Nineveh don’t know any better. Certainly they have a concept of right and wrong, but they didn’t have the preferential treatment God gave to Israel by choosing them to receive His Law, the guidelines for godliness.
Whenever people who know the truth, who know the right things to do and the wrong things to avoid, and choose the wrong anyway, they are in a dangerous place. Someone commented, “to know Yahweh and not obey Him would seem to deserve a greater punishment and deeper repentance.”
So what does this mean to us as a church? How does it relate to the Great Commission? How can we apply what we learned this morning to our life and Christian witness?
One writer said this: ......
“And what about the hard inner core of ego that has never been given over to God’s control? Was our conversion a radical transformation from self-centered willfulness or an effort to recruit God to help us accomplish our goals? Have the harrowing experiences of life broken our inner core of proud individualism, or are we essentially the same people we always were? After the crises are past, are we any more flexible and willing to discern and do God’s will? Are there people we resist loving or caring for because of their contradiction of our values, beliefs, or lifestyle?
Who are our personal Ninevites? If the Lord said, “Arise, go …,” what would be most difficult to obey? Do we ever get so committed to our predictions of what some people or groups deserve that we take on the responsibility, actively or in thought, to program their punishment?
Do we know anyone in a power struggle like Jonah’s? Are there vestiges of that struggle in us? For what do we need God’s pity?
Who in our lives needs God’s pity through us?”
Earlier, I stated that this message has an application for anyone who listens. First, for the person who has not put their faith in Christ, Euangelion! Good News! God saved the Ninevites who repented, and he still saves and forgives those who repent today when they put their faith in Jesus Christ. The entire bible points to Jesus, and the book of Jonah is no exception.
Next for the Christian, Euangelion! Good News! You can be the one to declare the good news, just as our Lord commanded in the Great Commission. However, there is a warning here. Don’t underestimate the grace of God, and don’t begrudge someone else His grace. It is for all who would accept it.
Can a person ever rightly resent the grace of God shown to another? As G. V. Smith has said:
God will (and does) act in justice against sin, but His great love for every person in the world causes Him to wait patiently, to give graciously, to forgive mercifully, and to accept compassionately even the most unworthy people in the world. To experience the grace of God and not be willing to tell others of His compassion is a tragedy all must avoid. Messengers of God can neither limit the grace of God nor control its distribution, but they can prevent God’s grace from having an effect on their own lives
Finally, for the backslidden Christian. Euangelion! Good News! God’s grace is greater than you can comprehend. Do want to get right with Him again? Do you want to serve Him well? Do want to be able to lift Holy hands in worship to Him? Do you want to worship in Spirit and in Truth? It is never too late! You can still turn your back on sin and turn toward God. Perhaps there is something holding you back.
Perhaps you feel shame at your sin. Perhaps you are mad that God is speaking into your life about sin. But God can restore. He can lift you up out of the pit. He is waiting for you to decide. Nineveh was confronted with their sin, repented and God gave grace. Jonah ran from God, and God graciously gave him and opportunity to serve again.
Jonah sinned again in being angry with God, yet God comforted him with the plant. God gives many chances for changes. He does the changing for us if we humbly seek His face and have a desire to be right with Him.