Jonah 4
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Let’s talk about where we’ve been:
Let’s talk about where we’ve been:
At the beginning of the book, God tells Jonah to preach to what city?
Nineveh
What does Jonah do?
He runs
Since Jonah runs, God sends a storm on the sea and this culminates in Jonah being thrown into the deep where he is expected to die, but he doesn’t die. Instead God show him mercy, and how did God show Jonah mercy?
By sending a great fish to swallow and bring him to dry land
Since God showed him this mercy, Jonah chooses to do as God told him. So, Jonah goes to Nineveh to preach, and how do the people respond?
They respond by repenting and turning to God
Where we are:
Where we are:
Think about this for a moment. Imagine yourself as a preacher. Imagine that you went to a wicked city and preached a message of repentance… And imagine that the city responded with repentance after you preached a short message.
How would you feel?
I would feel pretty good. I would be happy that people actually took heed of my message because that’s not the typical experience of a prophet.
Typically, when prophets would speak people wouldn’t listen. Typically the message of the prophets would make people uncomfortable, and they would get angry.
1 For three years Syria and Israel continued without war. 2 But in the third year Jehoshaphat the king of Judah came down to the king of Israel. 3 And the king of Israel said to his servants, “Do you know that Ramoth-gilead belongs to us, and we keep quiet and do not take it out of the hand of the king of Syria?” 4 And he said to Jehoshaphat, “Will you go with me to battle at Ramoth-gilead?” And Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, “I am as you are, my people as your people, my horses as your horses.”
5 And Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, “Inquire first for the word of the Lord.” 6 Then the king of Israel gathered the prophets together, about four hundred men, and said to them, “Shall I go to battle against Ramoth-gilead, or shall I refrain?” And they said, “Go up, for the Lord will give it into the hand of the king.” 7 But Jehoshaphat said, “Is there not here another prophet of the Lord of whom we may inquire?” 8 And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “There is yet one man by whom we may inquire of the Lord, Micaiah the son of Imlah, but I hate him, for he never prophesies good concerning me, but evil.” And Jehoshaphat said, “Let not the king say so.” 9 Then the king of Israel summoned an officer and said, “Bring quickly Micaiah the son of Imlah.”
So Jehoshaphat wants to inquire of the Lord, and about 400 prophets say that God is with them, but Jehoshaphat doesn’t feel right about it, so they call Micaiah.
13 And the messenger who went to summon Micaiah said to him, “Behold, the words of the prophets with one accord are favorable to the king. Let your word be like the word of one of them, and speak favorably.”
How do they want Micaiah to speak?
They want Micaiah to speak favorably. They don’t want him to say anything that will make them upset or uncomfortable.
14 But Micaiah said, “As the Lord lives, what the Lord says to me, that I will speak.” 15 And when he had come to the king, the king said to him, “Micaiah, shall we go to Ramoth-gilead to battle, or shall we refrain?” And he answered him, “Go up and triumph; the Lord will give it into the hand of the king.” 16 But the king said to him, “How many times shall I make you swear that you speak to me nothing but the truth in the name of the Lord?” 17 And he said, “I saw all Israel scattered on the mountains, as sheep that have no shepherd. And the Lord said, ‘These have no master; let each return to his home in peace.’ ” 18 And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “Did I not tell you that he would not prophesy good concerning me, but evil?”
So, Micaiah speaks the truth, and the king is angry. But this isn’t surprising… This was typical of the prophets. When they would speak, it would make people angry.
That may be a lesson for us. If we are evangelizing, and we never make people uncomfortable, then maybe we aren’t really speaking the truth because God’s word singes all of us. God’s word shows us where we fail, and that’s uncomfortable for anyone.
So typically, when prophets would speak, people would get upset and they wouldn’t listen. But here we see something different.
Instead of anger, the Ninevites respond with humble repentance. They turn to God.
Like I said earlier, you would expect the prophet to be happy that people are listening to his message… Well this leads us to chapter 4.
Jonah 4:1-4
Jonah 4:1-4
1 But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. 2 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. 3 Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” 4 And the Lord said, “Do you do well to be angry?”
Instead of Joy and gladness, how does Jonah respond?
Jonah was exceedingly angry.
10 When God saw what they 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.
For any other prophet this would be great news, but for Jonah this is horrible. This is not the way that things were supposed to go.
What did Jonah want to happen?
It seems like Jonah wanted God to destroy Nineveh.
That’s understandable. We’ve already talked about how brutal and wicked the Assyrians were. They were just horrible, violent people.
So, Jonah doesn’t want mercy for these people. He wants their destruction. They are his enemies.
But the thing is: Jonah is no longer with God.
How does God feel when the Ninevites turn away from their sin?
He’s pleased, so he shows them mercy.
9 Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.”
10 When God saw what they 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.
How does Jonah feel?
He’s upset.
Notice that the people’s repentance causes God to turn from his anger, but caused Jonah to become angry.
So, Jonah is no longer with God. He’s ahead of God. As a matter of fact, Jonah believes that he’s more righteous than God… “How dare you forgive these people.” Jonah believes that God’s mercy is a bad thing.
1 But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. 2 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. 3 Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” 4 And the Lord said, “Do you do well to be angry?”
God is gracious, merciful, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love, relenting from disaster.
Have we heard this before?
This is how God describes himself to Moses in Exodus 34:6. God is describing his own merciful character, so even from the beginning, we see that God is a merciful God.
So Jonah says: “I knew you would do this. I knew you would forgive these wicked people, and this is why I ran in the first place.”
Jonah concludes this section by telling God that he’d rather die than serve a God who would forgive these wicked people. He would rather die than see these people offered forgiveness.
Jonah 4:5-11
Jonah 4:5-11
5 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. 6 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. 7 But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant, so that it withered. 8 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.” 9 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.” 10 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. 11 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?”
At the end of the last section, God asks Jonah, “Do you do well to be angry.”
How does Jonah respond?
He doesn’t. He’s so angry with God that he just ignores him.
So Jonah goes outside of the in order to “see what would become of the city.”
What do you think Jonah is waiting for?
I think Jonah is waiting to see if God destroys the city… “maybe God will come to his senses and do the right thing. Maybe God will realize that he should destroy this city.”
So God decides to teach him a lesson by using a plant:
God appoints a plant so that the plant could shield Jonah from the heat. The irony in Hebrew is that the verb “to be hot” also means “to be angry.” So, God is trying to same Job from both the heat and his anger.
So, this plant shields Jonah from the heat, and Jonah was glad because of the plant.
But in the same way that God appointed the plant, God also appointed a worm that attacked the plant and it withered.
After the plant withered, God appointed a scorching east wind, and Jonah got a little sunburnt. So, Jonah tells God that it would be better for him to die. (Notice again the obedience of creation)
Then God asks Jonah again: Do you do well to be angry
This time Jonah responds… Yes I do.
So, in the last couple of verses, God gets to the heart of the matter.
“so you want me to show mercy to the plant, but you don’t want me to show mercy to these people?”
The irony of this chapter is clear...
Human repentance doesn’t make Jonah happy… Instead, a plant makes Jonah happy.
Human deliverance doesn’t make Jonah happy… Instead, he wants to plant to be delivered.
That’s what God tells him in verses 10-11. You pity the plant, but you don’t pity people...
Jonah running ahead of God
Jonah running ahead of God
I said it earlier, but Jonah is running ahead of God. He thinks that he’s more righteous than God. He thinks that he can do a better job than God. He thinks that he knows more about deliverance and destruction than God...
He thinks that he is smarter than God.
This is how some people in our world think...
If I were God, I wouldn’t let people starve to death.
If I were God, I wouldn’t let children die.
If I were God, I would do a better job.
These people believe that they are more righteous than God.
Someone might say: I thought you said that it was OK to question God.
It’s OK to question God. We can go to him with our questions, but we’ve always got to come back to our core… We’ve got to remember who God is, and that must be the core our our lives.
When we question God, it’s because we recognize who he is. It’s because we recognize his righteousness and faithfulness. When we question God, we recognize his deity and wisdom.
That’s the difference between Jonah and Lamentations.
Jonah thought he was smarter than God, and that’s why he was questioning God.
The poet in Lamentations recognized God’s righteousness, wisdom, and deity; that was his core. His questions arose out of his knowledge of God.
That’s an important difference.
So, some like Jonah run ahead of God.
Application
Application
The last thing that I want to talk about is how we should apply this book to our lives.
Look at the last two verses:
10 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. 11 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?”
How does Jonah respond to God’s question?
We don’t know...
Why do you think that is?
Here’s what I think. I think we aren’t told Jonah’s response, because this book isn’t about Jonah…
Who’s this book about?
It’s about you and me.
I’ve said it a million times, but the book of Jonah is like a mirror. We are supposed to look at Jonah, and see ourselves.
So, the question is not how Jonah responded to God’s question, but how are we responding to God’s question.
Gordon Wilson was an Irishman who lived from 1927-1995. He lived in the town of Enniskillen in Northern Ireland. In 1987, the British still had colonial power over the Irish, but the Irish were fighting for their freedom (IRA, Irish Republican Army).
The British have a holiday that’s similar to our Memorial Day… It’s called Remembrance Day. It was a day to honor and remember those who died in service to the Queen.
In 1987, Gordon Wilson and his family went to the Remembrance Day celebration in their town of Enniskillen, but on that day, the IRA had planted bombs in the building of the celebration.
Gordon and his family were there… A wall collapsed, and he and his daughter were trapped under it. They were trapped under that wall for some time, but eventually they were found.
Gordon survived, but his daughter didn’t.
Gordon was later interviewed, and his words caught the world by storm.
William Ury recounts Gordon’s words:
No one who heard Gordon Wilson will ever forget what he said in that interview. His grace towered over the miserable justification of the bombers. Speaking from his hospital bed, Wilson described his last conversation with his daughter: “She held my hand tightly, and gripped me as hard as she could. She said, ‘Daddy, I love you very much.’ Those were her exact words to me, and those were the last words I ever heard her say.”
To the astonishment of listeners, Wilson went on to add, “But I will bear no ill will. I will bear no grudge. Bitter talk is not going to bring her back to life. I will pray tonight and every night for the men who did this, that God will forgive them.” No words in more than twenty-five years of violence in Northern Ireland had such a powerful, emotional impact.
A year after, Wilson hosted a public event invited members of the IRA to come and talk with him. During that event, he again announced his forgiveness for the IRA.
Because of his Christian faith, Wilson showed grace and mercy towards the people who did him wrong, and I think that’s a good thing, but everyone didn’t feel this way at the time.
There were people who strongly disagreed with Gordon Wilson’s forgiveness. He received hatemail asking him, “what kind of father are you?” “How can you forgive your daughter’s killers.
This is the attitude that Jonah had, and it’s an attitude that we sometimes have as well.
Jonah failed to see people the way that God sees people.
Jonah looked at his enemies and he only saw the bad. He didn’t see any redeeming qualities in them. He didn’t want to show them any mercy. Even though the Ninevites repented and turned to God, Jonah only saw the negative.
Do we do this at times?
Yeah we do. Sometimes we find ourselves in this mood where we can only see someone’s flaws, and not their good qualities.
Sometimes we pick apart everything that a person does in order to find a way to criticize.
We do this to our friends at times. We do this to our spouse at times. We especially do this to our enemies...
… and that’s where Jonah hits home. How do we treat our enemies? How do we treat the people who wrong us? How do we treat the people who offend us?
Do we hate them? Do we wish evil on them? Do we cheer when they fail and scowl when they succeed? Do we focus on the negative while ignoring the positive?
Sometimes we are just like Jonah…
We will accept God’s mercy and deliverance for ourselves, but we refuse to show mercy and deliverance to others.
We are happy when God ignores our flaws, but we will happily focus on the flaws of others.
Sometimes we care more for plants than people...
God would ask us the same question...
10 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. 11 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?”
Invitation
Invitation
In Jonah 4, Jonah lists all of the negative qualities of God.
2 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. 3 Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.”
Jonah says that God is:
gracious
merciful
slow to anger
abounding in steadfast love
relenting from disaster
Jonah looks at these qualities and says, “how horrible.” I don’t want to serve a God like that. I’d rather die than serve a God like that.
Jonah thought that he was smarter than God… He thought that he could be a better God than God.
Do you agree with him? Do you think that these are horrible qualities in a God?
Me either.
Because God is gracious, merciful, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster… Because of this, our God came to earth and died so that we can have to opportunity to dwell with him in eternity.