Anger and Idolatry: Jonah's Kryptonite

Introduction

Doctors and Psychologists tell us that there are 6 basic emotions that people feel on a regular basis: Fear, Anger, Joy, Sadness, Disgust, and Surprise. We look around our world today and we see these fundamental emotions on display day after day but it seems like one reigns supreme over the others. Our world is so angry these days! In 2019, before COVID, 42% of Americans said that 2019 was the year that they have been the most angry and 84% of Americans said that our current generation is more angry than the one before ours. This was before COVID and I think we’d all agree that COVID made people more angry, not less! People are angry at fast food workers. People are angry at teachers and school board members. People are angry at children. People are angry at their bosses. People are angry at politicians. People are angry at doctors. People are angry at rules and other people are angry at the people who are angry with the rules. Some people aren’t angry and they get angry that they aren’t angry about anything at the moment! We know that anger is a powerful emotion and it’s also one that the Bible talks about often.

The Bible tells us that anger can be a good thing at times!

It should make you angry, as a Christian, whenever you sin and disobey God’s Word. Yes, there is grace and forgiveness whenever we fall short, but there should be disappointment and anger whenever we drop the ball. We see that Jesus was angry in the Gospels toward certain religious leaders in places like Matthew 21:12-13

Matthew 21:12–13 CSB

12 Jesus went into the temple and threw out all those buying and selling. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the chairs of those selling doves. 13 He said to them, “It is written, my house will be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a den of thieves!”

We also see Paul talk about anger in Ephesians 4:26-27 as he shares this about it

Ephesians 4:26–27 CSB

26 Be angry and do not sin. Don’t let the sun go down on your anger, 27 and don’t give the devil an opportunity.

So there is anger that is permissible and allowed, but we have to understand that by and large, our anger leads to sin. We look around our world and we see anger leading to disrespect, violence, and destruction. We see anger causing physical, emotional, and mental problems in our world. Tonight we’ll do something that I pray we get accustom to at FBC Salem - conclude a verse by verse study of a book in God’s Word. In Jonah we’ve seen a lot of good and a lot of bad. We’ve seen a person run away from God’s call for His life (bad) and we’ve seen God’s power displayed in such a way that other people take notice (good). Tonight, though, we’ll see the conclusion of God’s plan for the people of Nineveh and we’ll, sadly, see Jonah’s response to God’s plan. As we study God’s Word, let’s pray that God gives us the ability to submit to His plan and give mercy to others, even those who don’t deserve it.

Jonah 4 CSB

1 Jonah was greatly displeased and became furious. 2 He prayed to the Lord, “Please, Lord, isn’t this what I said while I was still in my own country? That’s why I fled toward Tarshish in the first place. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger, abounding in faithful love, and one who relents from sending disaster. 3 And now, Lord, take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” 4 The Lord asked, “Is it right for you to be angry?” 5 Jonah left the city and found a place east of it. He made himself a shelter there and sat in its shade to see what would happen to the city. 6 Then the Lord God appointed a plant, and it grew over Jonah to provide shade for his head to rescue him from his trouble. Jonah was greatly pleased with the plant. 7 When dawn came the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant, and it withered. 8 As the sun was rising, God appointed a scorching east wind. The sun beat down on Jonah’s head so much that he almost fainted, and he wanted to die. He said, “It’s better for me to die than to live.” 9 Then God asked Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?” “Yes, it’s right!” he replied. “I’m angry enough to die!” 10 And the Lord said, “You cared about the plant, which you did not labor over and did not grow. It appeared in a night and perished in a night. 11 So may I not care about the great city of Nineveh, which has more than a hundred twenty thousand people who cannot distinguish between their right and their left, as well as many animals?”

Unrighteous Anger and Idolatry Confuse Us (1-4)

Maybe you’re wondering how exactly Jonah falls into the category of idolatry whenever he was a prophet of God and told other people about the God of the Bible. That’s a good question and one that we need to flesh out. What exactly is idolatry? Often times whenever we think of an idol we think of a golden statue and people bowing down to worship it. This is idolatry, but idolatry is also about our identity. The Bible tells us that we are made in God’s image and created to give Him glory. Idolatry elevates ourselves above our Creator. Idolatry is whenever we build our identity on something other than God. Jonah was tempted to build his identity on what he looked like and where he was from rather than what God had called him to go and do. Idolatry can also be whenever we desire something more than we desire God - this is where many of us fall into problems! See, Jonah desired the destruction of Nineveh and the prosperity of Israel more than he does in serving God faithfully. God has a universal message for sinners: repent and trust in Me! Jonah was good with that message whenever it lined up with his identity and priority list, but not when it opposed his views… Jonah’s problem throughout this book was believing false things about God and this is ultimately idolatry… but this isn’t where Jonah’s problems end and it’s not where our problems end either.

We all know people who believe false things about God and who prioritize their views above God’s views. What do these people often do whenever God does something that they don’t expect? They usually get angry. Here’s the difference between a true follower and a fake follower, between someone like Job and someone like Jonah: Whenever God does something that we don’t like, a true follower will trust and obey, a fake follower will throw a fit. We’re all tempted to throw a fit and Job did for a period of time in his suffering… But ultimately, Job submitted and trusted in God. This must be our takeaway, not what we see from Jonah here in our text.

Jonah is greatly displeased and angry that God chose to forgive Nineveh.

Jonah 3:10 CSB

10 God saw their actions—that they had turned from their evil ways—so God relented from the disaster he had threatened them with. And he did not do it.

Let’s imagine what this looked like. Jonah wanted to see Nineveh burn and suffer but instead they receive divine mercy. Because of this Jonah starts throwing a fit. He pouts and stomps his feet. As one commentator notes, Jonah literally hated what God had done. Jonah either severely misunderstood God’s mercy or Jonah hated these people so much that he wanted them dead. Do you see how Jonah’s anger confused him in this regard? Sadly, many people are confused today as well. Many people, Christians and non-Christians alike, are so self-centered that they miss out on the joy of being involved in God’s incredible work of redemption and salvation. Jonah was involved in this plan for this wicked city and they actually repent. If there was ever a time to rejoice and thank God for what He has done it would be this time, yet what does Jonah do? He gets angry! Why is this the case? Because anger makes us confused and not focus on what truly matters.

God has given mercy towards wicked sinners - this confused and angered Jonah. This confuses and angers people today too. This would never happen in this church, but there are some stereotypes of churches where people judge others for not wearing a suit/dress to church or for having a tattoo or for not knowing the traditional church language. There are some people who attend church and call themselves Christians who say that if you like contemporary Christian music or if you have a tattoo then you’re not a Christian. You don’t deserve God’s mercy because you’re a wicked sinner. Newsflash, we’re all wicked sinners! Legalism is disgusting and a cancer in the church that we have to address. What we see throughout the Bible is that God is slow to anger

Numbers 14:18 CSB

18 The Lord is slow to anger and abounding in faithful love, forgiving iniquity and rebellion. But he will not leave the guilty unpunished, bringing the consequences of the fathers’ iniquity on the children to the third and fourth generation.

Exodus 34:6 CSB

6 The Lord passed in front of him and proclaimed: The Lord—the Lord is a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in faithful love and truth,

Joel 2:13 CSB

13 Tear your hearts, not just your clothes, and return to the Lord your God. For he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in faithful love, and he relents from sending disaster.

This is good news and this shouldn’t lead to anger, but it does for Jonah! James 1:19 instructs us to do the same as our God

James 1:19 CSB

19 My dear brothers and sisters, understand this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger,

Jonah wants God to be quick to anger and slow to listen to the cries of these people for mercy. His anger is intense! So intense, in fact, that he prays that God would simply take his life. Death would be better than life. Again, the reason he didn’t want to go to Nineveh in the first place was because he was afraid that God would not send the disaster that these people deserved. This is what unrighteous anger does. It makes us do silly things. Think of a time in which you got upset because of something silly - maybe that was over Thanksgiving with your family or maybe that was earlier in the week. I’ve gotten upset at someone because they got something that they didn’t appear to deserve only to remember that I’m in the same boat. I have received God’s mercy and grace that I could never deserve and whenever someone else gets that same thing, I’m tempted to get upset, angry, and frustrated. This is Jonah! He gets depressed because Nineveh repents. May we never get to this point, church! May we never forget our desperate need for God’s grace and get upset whenever other people receive it. After all, verse 4 sums this up: What right do we have to be angry?

Whenever a sinner is forgiven and God brings about redemption and restoration, is it right for us to be angry? The answer is no. Do not let anger confuse us, God is God and He will have mercy upon who He will have mercy.

Unrighteous Anger and Idolatry Lead to Misery (5-8)

Sadly, things don’t get better for Jonah. We’re not entirely sure of how much time transpires between verses 4 and 5 but what we see is Jonah move locations from the city towards a hill of sorts perhaps. In Jonah’s mind, God has already changed his mind once in this story. He was going to destroy Nineveh and decided at the last minute not to. Because of this, God could possibly change his mind again. As a result, Jonah wants to have a front row seat whenever he changes his mind and brings about hell, fire and brimstone upon Nineveh. Again, this was a man who hated this city and these people - he wanted them to be destroyed!

Before we continue, though, Jonah gets a bad reputation sometimes for how much he despises the Ninevites. Think, though, about the reputation of this city and these people. They killed innocent civilians. They flayed people alive. They were wicked and evil people! It makes sense as to why Jonah would want them to be judged for their wickedness, right? In fact, in a courtroom whenever someone was accused of these types of crimes, we would expect an honest, good judge to find them guilty and punish them accordingly, wouldn’t we? Yet, we see in Scripture that God is a God who longs to distribute His mercy and forgiveness. In fact, in the Sermon on the Mount, what does Jesus say we should do to our enemies? We should love them and pray for them! It’s safe to say that the people of Nineveh were enemies of Jonah and he hates them. This is a natural place to be in human terms but as Christians we are called to forgive! This can be extremely hard sometimes.

Even though it’s hard, it’s not impossible whenever we rely on God’s strength and guidance. Jonah doesn’t seek God’s help in the matter, though. Jonah begins to pout - something that none of us have ever done when things haven’t gone our way.

He goes to sit in the shade while observing what will happen in the city. This was a situation where Jonah had some time on his hands to do some things. On the one hand, Jonah could have examined his heart and prayed that God would create in him a new heart as Psalm 51:10 tells us to do. Jonah doesn’t do this. He doesn’t repent. Rather, he keeps on looking down at Nineveh to see if they would go back to their wicked ways and get what they deserved.

Whenever we have “free-time” we need to be conscientious as to how we use it. Free-time isn’t a bad thing by any means! So how do we use it? Let us vow not to use it how Jonah did. Instead, let’s use our free time to honor God. To study Scripture, to pray and to examine our own lives/heart to see if there are things that we need to hand over to God.

God provides for Jonah in the heat of the day, though, as a plant/vine grew and gave him some shade. How can a plant grow in a day and provide a prophet shade? How can a fish swallow an adult? God’s plan will come to fruition one way or another! He provides some shade for Jonah and Jonah is said to be extremely happy about the plant. Some of you are extremely happy about your plants as well! I have family members who have these indoor plants and I have absolutely no idea why, but they do! In this area of the world, it gets upwards of 110 degrees in the sun - shade becomes genuinely a lifesaving thing in this world! But, what happens to this plant that brings Jonah happiness? God sends a worm to attack and destroy the plant. God appoints the things happening in this book and this is so important for us to remember today as well: God appoints the storm, the fish, the vine, and the worm. These things don’t happen by accident - there is a purpose to this book and there is a purpose to our lives as well.

There is much talk about destruction in the book of Jonah regarding the city of Nineveh but the only thing that is destroyed in the entire book is the plant that brought Jonah so much happiness! Jonah becomes miserable because of his anger towards these people.

God is at work in all of these things as well. Sometimes God acts quickly with the plant and the worm, other times He works slowly. Think of the difference of a microwave and a crock pot. Both are useful and have their jobs but they go about them completely differently. It’s the same way in our lives sometimes. Sometimes God answers immediately, other times He answers and works slowly. We trust in Him during the process, though, unlike Jonah who found himself in the heat and begging to die.

We know how hot it can get in Missouri in July and early August - in baseball they call this time of the year the “dog days” of summer because it’s so hot that you step outside and you’re already drenched in sweat it seems! This is the type of heat Jonah is in as he waits for God to bring about destruction upon Nineveh. This scorching east wind, as one commentator notes, in the middle east makes the temperature rise very quickly because of the heat and dust it brings with it. Some of the results of this wind include: exhaustion, depression and bizarre behavior. As Jonah finds himself in this heat and with this wind, he exhibits some of these behaviors and begs God to kill him. Why? Because of his anger towards these people.

Unrighteous Anger and Idolatry Turn Our Focus Inward (9-11)

The final 3 verses show God talk to Jonah and ask him several questions. “Do you have good reason to be angry?” Jonah replies and says, “Of course! I have good reason to be angry even to the point of death!” Jonah is concerned about a plant that gave him shade… God was and is concerned about sinners in Nineveh. Jonah wants his plant to grow back and receive mercy, God gives mercy to the evil people of Nineveh. Do you see the disconnect here? Jonah’s focus in inward and on his own situation so much so that he doesn’t care about others receiving mercy. Have you ever experienced such a situation? For many of us, it is so easy to get worked up whenever our things stop working or break. We wonder, “Why did my phone have to stop working today?” We could rephrase the question to say, “Lord, why didn’t You show mercy to my cell phone today?” We laugh, but even as Christians we are tempted to care more about our phone not working or a computer crashing than we are people who living in sin and do not know God!

Whenever we focus on ourselves first and foremost, we turn the spotlight on us. This is easy to do, certainly, but we are called to love and give mercy to others just as God does. As one commentator says, “What right do we have to demand that God should favor us and not others?” God’s wish for His creation is salvation, not destruction. This should be our prayer and hope as well! Rather than turn the focus inward and pray for the destruction of others, we instead pray for humility and pray that people will experience the grace, mercy and freedom that only God can offer us!

Conclusion

The book of Jonah concludes with a question without an answer. God had mercy on this city, just as God has mercy on people today who we might not be big fans of. Whenever this happens, we must evaluate our hearts and humble ourselves. God has a plan and His plan is perfect!

It can be easy to be angry at times. We see all the things happening in our world and everyone seems to be angry. As Christians, though, let us not follow the example of Jonah and pray for the destruction and elimination of those who we don’t agree with. Instead, let us pray for their salvation. As Exodus 33:19 tells us, God will have mercy upon who He will have mercy - if you’re a Christian, you’ve received that mercy! Let’s vow to share that with others. Rather than allowing anger to rise up in your body like lava does inside a volcano, give that over to God. Ask Him to help give you a proper perspective of things and instead of dwelling on our plan and being miserable when things don’t go our way, let’s pray that God will help us be flexible in the week and weeks to come.

This book fails to give us the positive, encouraging, and uplifting call to action that many people long for today. There isn’t must positive - it’s largely negative. But we do see that the God of the Bible is sovereign and compassionate to the nations - even those who are wicked sinners. Our call to action today individually and as a church is to not be like Jonah and desire to soak up all of God’s mercy for ourselves - but to distribute that mercy with others too!

We live in a world that is not much unlike Nineveh and God has graciously postponed His judgment… but that will not last forever. There are people around us who think and look differently than we do and we are left with a choice. Will we pout or will we proclaim the Gospel? Our answer to this question reveals the God that we serve. Either it is ourselves whom we serve or it is the God of the Bible! May we be a people who proclaim the Gospel boldly for all to hear.