Do you have a good reason to be angry?

Jonah 4:4-11

a. Jonah’s Unrelenting Anger (4:4-5)

b. God’s method of Discipline (4:6-8)

c. God’s sovereignty (4:9-11)

2. INTRODUCTION

3. BODY

a. Jonah’s Unrelenting Anger (4:4-5)

i. Verse 4 starts with God asking Jonah a very important question. God probes Jonah and it’s important for us to ask ourselves this morning the same question. Do you have a good reason to be angry?

ii. The context of that question comes with Jonah explaining to God how he was right about who God was and how he knew that God would save the Ninevites. We can see clearly that Jonah had some type of vendetta against Nineveh which is why he didn’t want to see them saved.

iii. But when God saved Nineveh, he was very upset with God, to the point that he hated God. That’s when Jonah asked God to just kill him because it would be better to be dead than to be alive. We can see the type of anger that was raging with Jonah. He certainly had a lot of passion if we say it nicely.

iv. So starting in verse 4, God asks Jonah do you have good reason to be angry? The question that God is asking Jonah is, “what right do you have to be angry?” This is an interesting question because of what Jonah said in verse 2. God could have easily rebuked Jonah for his thinking and the hatred he had for the Ninevites. God could have yelled at Jonah and exposed Jonah for his anger and hatred towards Nineveh. But God does exactly the opposite. God asks Jonah a question to cause Jonah to think about why he was so angry.

v. What is important for us to consider is how compassionate God is with Jonah. God reaches out to Jonah encouraging him to pause and reflect. God asks Jonah why he is so mad and waits on Jonah to come to that conclusion. We see a tenderness from God when things don’t go the way Jonah wanted. We could certainly experience this in our own lives but I thought the patience of God was something we need to be more aware of.

vi. So when we think about the question, the question we can ask ourselves is exactly the same thing. I was thinking even in regards to my own soul as to why certain things get me so mad? Why do I get so mad at my children or my wife? What is the cause of my anger? Just like God’s question, what gives me the right to be angry?

vii. These questions led to search the Bible as to answering the question of “What is the cause of my anger?” My answer comes to us in James 4. In James 4, James opens the question in verse 1 by asking What quarrel is there among you? What conflicts are among you? Is not the source of your conflict your pleasures that wage war in your members? The question there is what is the source of your anger? Isn’t it because there are desires within us that are at war with each other? What does this mean James?

viii. James breaks it down in verse 2 by telling us that the desires we have that are at war is our lust which is better understood as greed or desires. You greed and yet you do not have so you commit murder. You are envious and cannot obtain so you fight and quarrel. James gives us a very clear answer there to the source of our anger. Our anger comes from the fact that we want certain things and when we don’t get what we want, that is the source of our anger. What is that? It’s pride. It’s almost a god complex. But it’s also the inability to trust in God and believe that God is good. We think that we should receive everything in life. We deserve to receive everything we ask for.

ix. When we think about it, this is exactly the reason why Jonah was mad but the same reason that we get upset and angry about. We want something and when that doesn’t happen, we get angry. Jonah wanted Nineveh not to get saved, but when they got saved, he was angry with God. Why was he angry with God? Because Jonah knew that God was good and he didn’t want God to be good to Nineveh. Jonah didn’t think Nineveh deserved God’s goodness even though he had received God’s goodness.

x. We have to remember that one of the best ways, one of many ways to get rid of our anger is to trust in God. It is to trust in the character of God. It is to know that God is in control, but also that He loves you and truly does what is best for us. Knowing the goodness of God is the best way to combat anger. It is to know that God loves us.

xi. So in verse 5, Jonah goes out of the city and sat east of it. We see a similar situation where God spoke to Jonah in 1:1-3 and Jonah does what? Jonah flees from God and tries to leave from the presence of God. Jonah leaves the city and sees what would happen to the city. But Jonah is silent in regards to the question that God asked Jonah in verse 4.

xii. So the question is why did Jonah go outside the city? It seems to be pointing back to the fact that God had told Jonah in 3:4, that God would destroy Nineveh in 40 days. What was the condition? That if they would turn from their evil deeds, God would relent. What we see from Jonah sitting outside the city shows that he was hoping that Nineveh would again turn back to their wickedness and God would destroy the city of Nineveh.

xiii. What we continually see from Jonah is that he was refusing to stop hating Nineveh. Rather, he was still angry with Nineveh. We know that he is angry because God asks him that question again in verse 9. So what we are seeing here is Jonah is waiting hoping that although God had saved them this time, hoping that Nineveh would revert back to their wickedness, God would destroy Nineveh.

b. God’s method of Discipline (4:6-8)

i. The question still in our minds is “Do you have a right to be so angry?” So now God is responding to Jonah to discipline Jonah so that he would come to his own conclusion. So what we see in verse 6 is Jonah had made a shelter in verse 5 but it wasn’t adequate. It needed more cooling so God sees Jonah’s need and helps him by appointing a plant to give him more shade. We could tell from this that it was most likely a dry heat as shade gave comfort from the heat. This caused Jonah to be very happy about the plant. Jonah was extremely thankful for the plant that he had received.

ii. But through that happiness we see that in verse 7, God also appoints a worm to attack the plant and kill it until it withered. So in verse 8, when the sun came up, God appointed a scorching wind and the sun to beat down on Jonah’s head so that he became faint and begged to die.

iii. Again, we can’t lose focus of how active God is in the life of Jonah. The book of Jonah reminds us how active God is in our lives. Similarly to God’s engagement in our lives, we see His engagement to Jonah’s life. Through every circumstance, it shows how God is working to orchestrate something for Jonah to learn.

iv. What is God trying to teach Jonah? God is trying to discipline Jonah by helping him to self reflect. Why is Jonah so angry? Well clearly in verse 8, Jonah doesn’t get what God is trying to teach him. What is Jonah’s response to adversity? The moment that Jonah feels like something is hard, Jonah’s response is, I just want to die.

c. God’s sovereignty (4:9-11)

i. This causes God to respond in verse 9, by saying, “do you really have a reason to be angry about the plant?” God is very specific here by asking him, do you have reason to be angry about the plant? It’s not even about Nineveh anymore. But God asks Jonah, why would you be angry about the plant?

ii. But here, finally Jonah responds by saying I do. I am angry enough to die. This is a bold statement by Jonah and I think it is certainly true with us as well. What was Jonah’s response implying? Jonah was saying that he has a right to be angry because he has the right to demand from God that he should favor us over others. But the amazing thing with God is, again, he patiently listens and explains to Jonah the answer to his own statement.

iii. So in verse 10, God explains to Jonah about what actually happened. God says you were happy about the plant, you had compassion on the plant for which you did not work. This is God explaining to Jonah that you had compassion towards a plant in which you did nothing

iv. You had nothing to do with the plant and because it no longer helps you, doesn’t give you the right to be angry. In reality, Jonah had no reason to be angry because God didn’t even need to give him the plant to begin with. But God allowed him to have some relief, just not to the extent that he would have liked or wanted. This is what caused Jonah problems. The issue Jonah had was that God didn’t give him what he wanted. This is the same problem that we also face when we have hardship. We are angry because things don’t turn out the way we want. But is this really the problem?

v. Are the problems we face in life because we don’t get what we want? Sometimes, but I would argue no. When we look at the story of Jonah, what was the lesson that God was teaching Jonah in this section? What we see from the text is, God gave to Jonah what Jonah wanted done to Nineveh. You see, Jonah wanted God to cause hardship upon Nineveh. This is why God causes hardship to fall upon Jonah. But what was Jonah’s response? It was no different. You see, the problem with Jonah was not the external.

vi. This causes us to think crucially about the situation. The problem isn’t what we don’t receive or what we do receive. The problem is inward. This doesn’t take away from the fact that life is difficult. Life is extremely difficult. As you grow older, you start to realize how hard life really is. But even with the difficulties of life, it’s exponentially harder because of our inward problem. The inward problem is greed and pride. It is because of our sin that makes life more difficult than it really should be.

vii. I see this problem every day in my own life. We fail to appreciate the things that we have and because of our failures to appreciate those things, we use that energy to not be thankful but to be angry. Instead of being thankful, we use that energy to be thankful to be angry about what we don’t have.

viii. I recently ran into a homeless man in Burger king. I was waiting for my food and the homeless man from across the room looked at me and said hello to me. I responded by saying hello and asked him how he was doing? He responded by saying that he was blessed. I thought to myself, how could he say he is blessed? He was homeless and hungry. So I went up to him and started to talk with him and he started to tell me how he became homeless because of his divorce and how he became handicap and his health caused him to be homeless. He shared that he was a Christian and that God provides for him and how although he doesn’t have much, he’s trying to be thankful for what he did have.

ix. This is what Jonah should have realized. He should have been thankful for the fact that God had saved him and preserved him but yet, instead of being thankful, he used that energy to be angry with God for not receiving the things that he wanted.

x. But even when Jonah was not thankful, God responds to Jonah in verse 11 by revealing to him God’s own heart. God’s question here in verse 11 captures the intention of this book. God’s purpose in preserving Jonah and the Ninevites is grace and mercy. God had displayed grace and mercy to Jonah by saving him even though he was to die, and again by provisioning him shade when he didn’t deserve it. God’s intention is to always give grace so that people could realize the goodness of God in everything. Well, people can ask if God truly was merciful and gracious, why would he appoint the worm and the wind? We could say we are looking at the problem with the wrong lens. It would not be wrong in helping people see that. People can always look at the same cup. Some people will say it’s half full others will say it’s half empty.

xi. I’d like us to realize that is not the purpose of the example. The purpose of why God appointed the worm and the wind is to show us how life is. In certain times in life, there will be a shade. God will give us shade to help us appreciate the blessings He has given us. But some seasons, God will make the sun beat down on our heads to help us realize the blessings we have in Christ. The purpose of life is to help see God’s goodness.

4. CONCLUSION