WW23: Session 4

Intro

God displays His love by sovereignly working to save undeserving sinners for His glory and their good. Will you fight Him or follow Him?

Jonah 4 ESV

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?” 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?”

What have we learned so far?

God loves in abundance and He loves people who don’t deserve it

How does he love these people? By saving them, redeeming them from their sin

Do not oppose God, it will not succeed and it will not go well for you

God redeems people so that they can join in spreading His love for His glory and our good

Nineveh repents. Jonah’s response?

Jonah tries to justify his sin, he argues that what he did was right

Jonah’s a bit dramatic, don’t you think?

He sees people repent and live when he thinks they deserve to die

So what’s his response?

I know what’s right, it didn’t happen, I’d rather die now.

Jonah is so caught up in what he thinks is right, he’s so caught up in caring about himself, that he misses the whole point.

What he says about God is spot on, it’s truth.

But he hasn’t made the connection to his own life, he hasn’t made the connection of what he’s experienced and what should change

In essence, Jonah puts himself on an equal level as God and critiques him.

“It displeased Jonah exceedingly”

“Is not this what I said?”

“That is why I did x y and z”

Jonah describes God as...

gracious and merciful

slow to anger

abounding in steadfast love

relenting from disaster

And Jonah?

quick to anger

abounding in hate

praying for disaster

We don’t know how much time passed between call 1 and call 2, and the fish. However, you would think he would remember and learn? You would think that God’s love towards him would motivate him to love others?

Jonah is stubborn. Jonah is selfish. Jonah gets angry.

This to me looks like an adult temper tantrum.

Jonah has forgotten.

1. Remember what God has taught you and done for you.

HOW OFTEN DO WE DO THE SAME THING!?

I bet all of us could speak a lot of great truths about God and they’d be spot on

I bet all of us could carry at least some level of spiritual conversation

I know all of us have experience love in ways we haven’t deserved, grace we haven’t deserved.

AND WHAT WE DO?

We are stubborn

We are selfish

We get angry

We justify our sin

We say when things displease us and we tell God why he should have done things our way

God then puts Jonah through another very uncomfortable lesson (with similar language to the great fish to connect the two) to teach him about God’s character and Jonah’s responsibility

Appointed a plant

Appointed a worm

Appointed a scorching east wind

Sun beat down on him, and Jonah…wanted to die

Jonah. You pity a plant that was there for 24 hours and you didn’t even do anything to create it. How much more would God love the people he created?

Are there things in creation that you care about because of how it benefits you? Do you care more than you care for people?

Maybe you (students) pity a video game, a sport, or something else that you most likely didn’t create, you won’t care about it in a few years, etc. YET

you care more about that than you do the humans around you. You don’t care enough to prioritize them, loving them as God loves them.

GOD CONFRONTS Jonah on his behavior. He says Jonah, is your anger good? Jonah’s like, ya it’s very good, good enough to die. FOR A PLANT. HE’s still very much focused on himself

Yes, now at least he’s obeying God but Jonah is lacking love and he is very self-centered, selfish (PRIDE)

2. Respond with humility and obedience.

It’s great that Jonah is finally obeying, but I have to wonder if he was obeying because it was in his best self-interest. He’s thinking “I don’t want more misery, guess I should obey.”

God wants you to obey Him from a heart of love

He doesn’t just want sacrifice (worship)

He doesn’t just want obedience

He wants your heart, which leads to worship, which leads to obedience.

God is not existing to serve you; You are existing to serve God; Will you fight Him or follow Him?

Closing