Jonah's Fall from Grace

Introduction: I am not starting today with a personal story or some story that is in the news and highly relevant to the culture. I am starting today with God, more specifically the acts of God in the OT. God’s grace, mercy, love, and forgiveness is seen strung out all through the OT. Consider these 8 acts of God in the OT: 1. God creates the earth and everything in it, including humankind in his own image. 2. God chose the fathers of Israel, from the people of the earth he brought forth people that would worship, lead, and obey him. 3. God brought Israel out of Egypt, through the Exodus God showed grace, mercy, and love by saving his chosen people. 4. God led his people through the wilderness, providing their every need even though they complained and rebelled against him. 5. God revealed himself at Sinai, giving his people laws for which, they should obey and live prosperous. 6. God granted Israel the land of Canaan, God delivered on the covenants he made with his people. 7. God raised up kings in Israel, giving people the leaders, they needed and providing a line for the future Messiah to come from. 8. God sent his prophets, to deliver his message to his people so they might understand. Throughout these 8 acts of God in the OT his grace, mercy, love, and forgiveness are on display for us to see and cherish. And throughout the book of Jonah, we have seen these same acts of grace, mercy, love, and forgiveness just as you would in any OT book. Today as we finish up the book of Jonah, we will see it all on full display, but let’s recap and get a little context first.

1. Context – So far in the story of Jonah we have witnessed Jonah run from God’s calling, we seen some gentile sailors receive grace and forgiveness from God. Jonah is swallowed up by a great fish and repents of his running from God, Jonah goes into Nineveh and gives the word of the Lord to the people, in which they themselves repent and receive grace from God. And last week we seen Jonah get angry about all of this. What we begin see this week, as we finish up the book, is Jonah’s third fall from grace, at least that we know of in this story, and how pride and legalism build a wall between us and the grace of God. Turn with me to Galatians really fast, it is in the NT just before Ephesians and just after 1-2 Corinthians. Galatians 5:4 says, “You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace.” What Paul is not saying is that one can lose their salvation, rather Paul is saying that those who have truly experienced the grace of God in salvation, can build a wall between themselves and God’s continued grace by looking to their works of the law for their justification. The letter to the Galatian church was written to recovering Pharisees, those steeped in pride and legalism because all they ever knew was the law and that they were God’s chosen people. This is precisely where Jonah is, steeped in pride and justification by the law and because he is wanna of God’s chosen people, he thinks he deserves grace while others do not. What has happened to Jonah is that he has fallen away or forgotten the grace that God continues to show him and instead of being gracious towards others he is displaying full blown anger towards them, because of his pride and legalism. This brings us to Jonah 4:5-11 (READ).

2. V. 5 – Jonah sees God give the Ninevites grace and compassion, gets angry with God and leaves the city to wait and see its final outcome.

a. So, Jonah walks three days into the center of the city while proclaiming the word of the Lord to the people and he then leaves the city, setting up a sort of tent or covering for some shade, waiting to see what God will do with the people. I remember when I was in Iraq, we would joke around about the heat of the desert and when it was really hot, we would say “even my eyeballs are sweating.” We would be in full gear sitting in the back of a Bradley fighting vehicle for hours and in 110-degree weather, it felt like 130 in the desert, especially if the wind was blowing. So, you can sort of imagine why Jonah would need this shade over his head. Now the author doesn’t specifically state how long Jonah was there, but from the context it was more than just a couple of days, I would guess he was waiting until the 40 days was up and having some shade was crucial for the life Jonah. But it certainly doesn’t keep Jonah from throwing his fit.

b. For those of us who grew up with brothers and sisters, you can probably identify with Jonah in this aspect. Your brother or sister does something stupid that hurt your feelings and you know mom or dad is gonna be soooo mad. And because it hurt your feelings you sit back and wait for the show to begin. Mom and dad are on the way home from work and you’re just waiting for them to come in and unleash their wrath on your sibling for eating your after school snack. But they come in and with grace, mercy, love, and forgiveness they show compassion to your sibling and now your even more mad! This is Jonah, only the ones he is mad at did much worse things than steal an after-school snack and yet God was still gracious and compassionate towards them. Just as he is with us and yet we often forget the grace that he has given us.

c. Apply – How many times have we looked at some new Christian, that doesn’t look like us, talk like us, act like us, think like us, they aren’t as mature as us, and they don’t believe in the same doctrines as us and think to ourselves, “they won’t last, they will mess this up in some way, be forgotten, and I’ll still be here.” How often do we, like Jonah, sit up on a hill and wait, watching for that person to fail in some way so we can rejoice in their failure and celebrate in our own righteousness? If this is us, like Jonah, we have fallen away from grace. This was Paul’s point in Galatians 5:4 and it is exactly what Jonah is doing. If we aren’t careful, this could be us at some point today, or maybe it has already happened today. If it has, or when it does, we need to repent and remember the grace our sovereign God shows us.

3. READ V. 6-8 – The sovereign God of creation “appoints.”

a. Let me first explain the plant here. While the author doesn’t specify the type of plant that God caused to grow, it is commonly believed to be what is known as a caster oil plant. A very tall bush like plant with really broad leaves that is native to hot climates and would have provided much shade and shelter from the heat of the desert.

b. What we really want to notice here is God’s sovereignty in “appointing” things to happen. Just as God appointed a great fish in chapter 1 verse 17, here God appoints this bush like plant to grow. But why did he cause this plant to grow? Didn’t Jonah already build himself a sort of shelter? If you have ever been to a desert type region, you know there isn’t much out there to build with other than some trash blowing around from a nearby city. It is entirely possible that what Jonah had built for himself was not adequate in providing much relief and so God appointed this plant to grow in order to provide much more shade and relief from Jonah’s “discomfort.” This word “discomfort” in the Hebrew can actually mean evil. The Legacy Standard Bible renders it this way, “So Yahweh God appointed a plant, and it came up over Jonah to be shade over his head to deliver him from his miserable evil.” What Jonah was doing was evil in the eyes of God; Jonah wanted those people to be destroyed and he would have rejoiced if God rained down fire upon them. Yet, God sovereignly appoints a plant to grow, and that plant would provide him relief; God showed grace, mercy, and love towards Jonah. And this plant would soon be destroyed and used as a picture lesson.

c. At this point God has provided relief for Jonah in the form of a bush, that would place plenty of shade on Jonah as he sat in the hot dry desert. And Jonah was “exceedingly” glad about this plant that God had made to spring up out of nowhere. But when the sun had come up the next day Jonah found the plant dead and shriveled up. Here is that word “appointed” again, God appointed a worm to eat the tree while Jonah was asleep in the cool of the night. And so, we are left asking ourselves, “why would God give Jonah this shade and that same night take it away?” In verses 9-11 we will get the answer to that question. So, for now what the author is wanting us to see is God’s sovereignty in creating out of nothing, just like he did in Genesis 1. But God is not done yet.

d. We see God’s sovereignty again in verse 8 when God “appoints” a scorching south wind. The heat got to be too much for Jonah to handle and as he grew faint, he asked God to just let him die! Doesn’t Jonah seem a bit extreme? Like a little kid throwing a temper tantrum when they don’t get their way. Have you ever had one of those moments when God didn’t answer a prayer the way you wanted, and you just wanted to throw your hands up? Why God why? Why didn’t you give me that billion-dollar jackpot in the lottery? Do you see that we’re more like Jonah than we are probably willing to admit? Maybe not as extreme to the point we are asking to die but, we throw fits when we don’t get our way and often, we begin to blame God. Hear me when I say this, God knows better than you do, what you would do, if He answered all your prayers the way you wanted them answered (REPEAT). Jonah does this repeatedly throughout this story, he doesn’t want to obey God but he expects God to do what he wants, not what God wants. Jonah then throws his temper tantrums, God shows grace and mercy, but Jonah continues to blame God and throw his fits as if the the sovereign God of creation is under our rule.

e. Doctrine of sovereignty.

i. 4 times the author uses the word “appoint” in this book and 3 of those times are right here in verses 6-8. What the author is trying to drive home is this truth of Gods sovereignty over his creation. Herman Bavinck one of the great “old dead guys” that I read says this about God’s sovereignty, “God is the creator and therefore the owner, possessor, and Lord of all things. Apart from him there is no existence or ownership. He alone has the absolute authority.” God is the creator of all things and therefore God is the owner of all things. But God didn’t just create a bunch of random stuff, he created with a purpose. And God didn’t just create a bunch of random people for no reason, he created mankind in his own image. So, why would you ever think that God doesn’t love you or the rest of His created people. God created every single one of us for Himself, to love and sanctify; God is continuing to create a people for himself. Church, you are created and loved by the Creator of the universe, cherish and rest in that. In the next few verses God explains the bush and the worm through a picture lesson and leaves us with an important thought to think about.

4. READ V. 9-11 – God and Jonah have a little discussion to end the book.

a. God asks Jonah a very simple question here, “Are you seriously mad about this plant right now?” And Jonah like a little kid throwing a temper tantrum replies, “Yea, and I am angry enough to die!” Now we need to understand that Jonah has brought all of this on himself: running from God, disobeying God, blaming God, hating Gods people, and again throwing his fit saying that he would rather be dead then go on. Doesn’t this sound like some extreme bitterness? Hebrews 12:15 says, “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.” Again, the author of Hebrews is describing this wall being built between us and the grace of God, caused by bitterness and forgetting that which God has freely given us. What Jonah is failing to realize, and what we so often fail to realize, is that all we have is by the grace of God. It is God’s to give and God’s to take away and therefore we are never justified in our anger against God for removing some comfort from our lives. But there is something more going on here, something much deeper than a simple comfort being removed from Jonah’s life. In verses 10 and 11 God uses this incident with the Ninevites and the bush as way to show Jonah the deeper problem within his own heart.

b. Verse 10 God says to Jonah “Look, you have shown pity for this bush in which you did nothing to work for, you couldn’t make it grow and you wouldn’t be able to destroy it.” A bush that sprung up overnight, big enough to provide shade and comfort for Jonah, that was destroyed the very next night; obviously this is a work of God in which he was showing grace and mercy to Jonah. Yet, Jonah is so mad about it that he would rather be dead. God is keeping Jonah alive by giving the very breath he can take, God is saving entire cities, and Jonah is still mad about it. Talk about a lack of being thankful for what God is doing and forgetting the grace God has shown. But God isn’t done speaking to Jonah yet.

c. God goes on in verse 11 to say, “You are showing pity/compassion to this plant, shouldn’t I be showing pity and compassion to this great city, full of people created in my own image, who have lost their way, and have many cattle?” Jonah shows pity and compassion for a plant he neither created or destroyed and yet he believes that God should let his own creatures die without ever letting them come to know Him. How silly and really just ignorant of Jonah to think that God, the creator of the universe, who not only created these people but created them in His own image, should let them perish without ever knowing their Creator. As Bavinck put it, “God is the creator and therefore the owner, possessor, and Lord of all things,” and therefore all people are his and he desires that all repent and come to know Him. This reminds me of Romans 9:15 “For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” Who are we to say who God should and shouldn’t save? Who are we to tell the Creator of the universe what he can and can’t do? But we do it all the time, especially when we are acting like Jonah and throwing little temper tantrums because God didn’t give us what we wanted the way we wanted it.

d. Application - God desires his people to be saved and so should we.

i. So, what do we learn from this last portion of the book of Jonah and really the whole book? One commentary says this about the book of Jonah, “If we show these same things (grace, mercy, love, and forgiveness) to everyone we meet, no matter who they are- no matter their morals, their race, nationality, social class, gender, political beliefs, etc.- then we have understood well the lesson of this book and the heart of our Savior. But if we show these things to some people and not to others; if we show these things to those like us but not to those who are different; if we show these things to those we like but not to those we dislike; if we are in any way selective in terms of the people to whom we show God’s grace, mercy, love, and forgiveness, then we still do not get it. We remain disciples of Jonah, not disciples of Jesus.” As Christians we claim to be disciples of Christ, but do our lives reflect that? Do we look at those we disagree with in anger or with compassion and grace? Do we look at those that have hurt us in anger or with mercy and forgiveness? Do we look at those in need as a burden or with compassion and love? Are we reflecting the heart of Christ in everything we do or are we simply getting mad and throwing temper tantrums because the sovereign God of creation isn’t doing what we want him to do? God is most glorified when His people represent him well, so let us be a people reflecting the heart of Christ and showing grace, mercy, love, and forgiveness the way God intended us to (REPEAT).

ii. How does this last section point us to the gospel of Christ? The OT points us to a God who delights in showing grace, mercy, love, and forgiveness to a sinful humanity and if we take anything from this book it is just that; that God is sovereign and desires his people to know him through the redemption of their souls by the person and work of Jesus Christ. The gospel is strung all throughout the OT and we would do well to recognize it.

Conclusion: (call band up if running behind) As we end this book and get ready to begin a new one, let us see the good news strung throughout the book of Jonah, that God desires his people to know him and like Jonah, God has commissioned each one of us to take that good news and spread it to all the nations, regardless if we like them or not. If you are a Christian, you know that you have been saved, then know your purpose, glorify God in all that you do, preach Christ crucified to everyone you meet, and live out the grace, mercy, love, and forgiveness of God. If you are not a Christian or are unsure if you have been saved, then hear this: Jesus Christ was born into humanity to live the life we cannot live to perfection, He was tried, punished, and hung on a cross taking upon himself the wrath of God that we all deserved, was buried and rose after three days defeating sin and death, and ascended to the right hand of God where he now sits and reigns. This was done for you, and if God is calling you to repent then repent and put your faith in Christ. Whatever you do, don’t leave here without talking to me or Matt and understanding the gospel. I’ll be in the back if anyone needs prayer or just needs to talk.