The God of Grace

Jonah 4:1-3 “But it greatly displeased Jonah and he became angry. He prayed to the Lord and said, “Please Lord, was not this what I said while I was still in my own country? Therefore in order to forestall this I fled to Tarshish, for I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, and one who relents concerning calamity. “Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for death is better to me than life.””

1. INTRODUCTION

a. Jonah’s Anger (요나의 분노) (4:1)

b. Jonah’s Honesty (요나의 솔직함)(4:2-3)

2. BODY

a. Jonah’s Anger (요나의 분노) (4:1)

i. Chapter 4 begins with Jonah’s response to what God had done in Chapter 3:10. God relented from destroying Nineveh because they had turned from their wicked way. We would think that Jonah would be pleased to see God withhold His wrath from Nineveh considering that God had withheld His wrath from Him by preserving him. Yet, in Chapter 4:1, it greatly displeased Jonah and not only that, it caused him to be angry.

ii. If we read the plain English, we really lose the force of what the Bible is saying. The language used here is more clearly understood as, Jonah hated what God had done. God had forgiven Nineveh of the evil things they had done. Jonah would be so angry with God that now, Jonah was doing the very evil that the Ninevites had done to God. The evil characteristic of the people of Nineveh had now described the prophet Jonah.

iii. How are we to understand this? Just as God was greatly displeased with the people of Nineveh, now Jonah was greatly displeased with God. This caused Jonah to be angry with God. But why is Jonah so mad with Nineveh?

iv. Some people argue that Jonah didn’t want Nineveh to be saved because they were not Israel and maybe that could be true. Maybe Jonah did believe that Israel was the only nation who was chosen of God and truly God’s people.

v. People have made this claim because Israel was constantly at war with the Assyrians and due to this war, it caused hatred to exist between the two nations. This might have been reason why Jonah did not want the people of Nineveh to be saved.

vi. Although it could be true, it’s hard to believe that to be true. It’s more likely that Jonah was upset that God had saved Nineveh because he couldn’t stomach the fact that Nineveh was clearly wicked. It makes it clear in the text in 1:2 that their wickedness was deserving of wrath. In Jonah’s mind, he understood that wicked behavior should translate to punishment.

vii. I think we all understand this to be true. If we do something wrong, we understand that we deserve the consequence for our mistakes. I don’t think Jonah was entirely wrong on his evaluation. The problem was, Jonah had done wrong to God. He disobeyed God after God had told him what to do. Yet when Jonah disobeyed God, God gave him grace. God didn’t pay back Jonah for his disobedience. Rather, God listened to Jonah’s repentance and in the language of 2:7, Jonah’s prayer came to God. God had received Jonah’s prayer and God preserved him. So what is the problem? Jonah was a hypocrite. He didn’t want grace to be given to others although he had received grace. We might think that was wrong of Jonah to react in this way. This is no way that a Christian should act.

viii. But in many ways, we are similar. When someone does something wrong to us, we are upset with them and we justify why we are angry with them. We come up with many reasons to stay upset at them. But when we do something wrong to others, we tell ourselves why it’s okay. We are very forgiving of ourselves and let ourselves get off the hook.

ix. This is how Jonah was thinking. He thought that it was completely correct for God to give grace to him and to keep him. But when God decided to save Nineveh, the people who treated Israel wrongly, the people who disobeyed God and their wickedness had reached God, Jonah could not understand God’s grace. God could justify why he deserved grace, but could not understand why God would give grace to others.

x. But we have to consider what one of the purposes of the Bible is. It is to remind us the greatness of God’s salvation. It is not merely thinking about the people who we think deserve salvation. No, rather it is about people in which whom God has redeemed, not because they deserved it, but rather, because God was gracious.

xi. When we read the Old testament, God had saved Israel from their idol worship in Exodus 32. Exodus 32 is the story of the golden calf where the people of Israel worshipped the golden calf that Aaron had made with gold while Moses was visiting God receiving the ten commandments in Exodus 31. This picture of God saving Israel, His covenant people, and now, sparing the Assyrians, the very enemies of His own people, shows that nobody is too far from God’s grace. By God saving the Assyrians, it shows God’s grace has no limits and can save all.

xii. When we think about the story of Jonah, it reminds us of God’s saving grace. We like Jonah might think sometimes, that we are deserving in some fashion of His grace. We think that we aren’t really that bad. We do our part in society and we don’t lie and commit bad crimes. We aren’t that bad. Afterall, we aren’t like the Hitlers or the Stalins of the world. We aren’t like them. You see when we hold to this type of view, when we think we are actually decent people, then we start to think that there are people who deserve God’s grace and others who don’t. Well Jonah probably thought this way too. Jonah thought that the Ninevites were like Hitler. Just as many people think that Hitler don’t deserve God’s grace, Jonah thought that the Ninevites didn’t deserve God’s grace. This is why Jonah was angered.

b. Jonah’s Honesty (요나의 솔직함)(4:2-3)

i. Jonah opens verses 2 by praying in his anger. What Jonah prays for here reveals his heart and what he knew about God. It’s also interesting to note that although Jonah was committing this evil act before God, by basically hating God for what He had done, he still prays. Instead of complaining about God, He complains to God. One of the lessons that I’ve thought about is, learning how to pray during intense times. This is where our character really starts to show. Christians need to know and learn how to pray in stressful moments, even in moments when we are angry just as Jonah was.

ii. However, when we compare the two prayers, the one in chapter 2 and now here in chapter 4, we see a stark contrast. Obviously, the circumstances are different and they called for different types of prayer. One of the key things we see here is in the way Jonah prays. Here in Chapter 4, Jonah seems to be selfish, self centered. It’s almost as if Jonah is teaching God and bringing it to God’s attention on how he knew of God and was displeased with Him.

iii. Jonah comes off as if he knew God and that’s why he didn’t do what God asked him to do. He starts the prayer by questioning God, was this not what I said to you when I was still in my country? What we see in this question is, God, didn’t I tell you this already? It’s almost as if Jonah was teaching God something He didn’t already know. Jonah then continues in his prayer by saying, because I knew this, I was forestalling this and fled to Tarshish.

iv. Jonah here was admitting that he knew that God would forgive the Ninevites and therefore, he fled to Tarshish because he didn’t want them to be pardoned. Although it seems as if Jonah was teaching God, it shows his short sightedness.

v. Jonah prayed to God and told him what bothered him. He didn’t want the Ninevites to receive pardon. But God did exactly what he didn’t want God to do. Therefore, this made Jonah angry.

vi. We might think this was wrong of Jonah but again, when we are angry with people, we don’t want the best for them. We find it hard to pray for people we don’t like. Why? Because like Jonah, we want God to in some sense punish them for wronging us. Why is it that we find it hard to forgive others? Because in some sense, we don’t want the best for the people who did us wrong. But this is the same mindset that Jonah had.

vii. The second half of the prayer, Jonah states who God is in His nature. He admits that God is gracious and compassionate and slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness. He is quoting Exodus 34:6-7 after Israel had disobeyed God. After God had saved Israel and led them out of Egypt, they made a calf of gold and worshipped that calf instead of God.

viii. Jonah admits just as he admits in 2:9 that salvation is of the Lord, and by stating who God is, he was admitting again who God was. We might think of this as praise, and when we think about who God is, it is praise to God. But when we think about how Jonah was stating this, it shows us Jonah’s heart.

ix. This verse indicates to us that while Jonah had become obedient, he still lacked submission. We see again who Jonah was in his heart. Although he knew God, he explained to God why he disobeyed and stood behind it. Again, we could grow critical of Jonah but many times in our lives, we do the same. The clearest example is when we are mad at someone and stay mad at them. We should forgive others more easily, but we hold on to our anger because we feel like they deserve to be punished more. Although we know who God is, we still decide to hold our anger against people.

x. Verse 3 closes Jonah’s prayer which points back to his attitude in chapter 1. Jonah’s prayer in chapter 2 is in complete contrast to the prayer here. In 2:7, Jonah talked about how his life was withering away, how he was dying and God had saved him.

xi. But here, instead of asking the Lord to save Nineveh, because God had saved Him, instead, he asks God to take his life. There is a complete contrast here in chapter 4. But an important lesson for us to learn here is through this, we see who God is. One of my favorite things about Jonah is how open and honest Jonah is, and how God responds to his openness. Jonah really expresses his anger and displeasure with God. And God doesn’t reject him. Rather, God answers him.

xii. I want us to remember this. The book of Jonah doesn’t give us a right to go to God and complain about God. We should not complain about God, but complain to God. There’s nothing wrong with us complaining to God. But there is a great problem to complain about God. We should never blame God for our problems. Rather, we should bring our problems to God.

3. CONCLUSION