Jonah 4
Notes
Transcript
Jonah’s Anger and God’s Object Lesson
Jonah’s Anger and God’s Object Lesson
First since chapter four jumps right into Jonah’s reaction we need to be reminded of what happened in chapter 3. Can anyone summarize for us?
Yes, Jonah said that “In forty days Nineveh shall be overthrown!” but the people heard this and repented and God *gasp* relented from the disaster he had planned. Now just for a quick Hebrew lesson the word here for disaster at the end of chapter three is Ra-ah. A play on words happens immediately in Jonah 4:1
But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry.
displeased Ra-a | angry khe-Ra
So the diverted disaster displeased the distraught dove (Jonah’s name is the word for dove in Hebrew so I get to throw it in for alliterative purposes here)
But why is Jonah upset? Here’s where we get let in to what’s been going on this whole time. Remember we’ve already know this story so it’s not a surprise to us but this is actually where we find out what’s up with Jonah and why he ran away. We didn’t know any of this until this last chapter. Jonah 4.2
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.
Jonah is upset because his enemies aren’t destroyed. Thank God we would say, because we see how God’s love has extended beyond Israel even if this prophet didn’t want Him to. If we take Jonah’s reaction in the best light possible he had the wrong idea about the Grace of God that saved him, even own views limited that Grace when it came to those he didn’t like.
A serious self reflecting question is are there people you have in your life that you DON’T want God to save? Think about that seriously and move them to the top of your prayer list for salvation.
Lets read verse three then talk about the whole prayer. Jonah 4.3
Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.”
So the prayer starts with the whining, and why Jonah was upset in the first place but eventually gets to the request that he just die. What is very very obvious is how self centered this prayer is. How many, I, me, or mys do we get in these two sentences? Let’s count them.
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. Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.”
8 in the ESV in the Hebrew there are 9.
How does that fit with the model we built from chapter 2?
Tell God your story
Tell God His story
Remind God of His promise.
Tell God His work of redemption
Tell God your response
This one instead goes
Complain of your situation
Complain of God’s choices
Remind God of His promise
Complain of God’s work in redemption
Complain for God to kill you...
This is not a healthy prayer.
I will say that God always answers prayer but it isn’t always with a “Yes.”
How does God answer? Lets se in verse 4
And the Lord said, “Do you do well to be angry?”
Is it right for you to be angry? God’s answers often come as questions. Jesus did this all the time, should a been a clue for all those guys who knew the Bible so well… Jonah appears to no answer the question. Or does he? You can picture a silent answer to that question from God by picturing a teenager answering their parents question. “Did you clean your room?” *Teenager sulks off towards his room without saying a word*
But let’s read it.
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.
Now, if God had spared the city why did Jonah go sit to see what would happen? Personally I think he truly believed the repentance wouldn’t last two days so might as well watch the show with a good seat. Maybe Jonah setup there just in time to watch the end of the 40 day judgment clock only to be upset still.
God sets up an object lesson in this spot Jonah has chosen to pout in.
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.
So wait does anyone see a problem with this verse?
Here is says God made a plant to cover Jonah with shade, but in the previous verse it just told us that Jonah already built something to do that right?
Not quite but we’ll need to get some context here. Jonah built a sukka a booth same word as the booth the Israelites make for the feast of Sukkot or feast of booths or tabernacles where they go outside build a shelter (booth) to sleep in where it doesn’t have a roof so they can see the stars and remember their time in the desert during the exodus. So it would have provided shade for a lot of the day but not the hottest parts that had the sun directly overhead. Can you guess what this shelter is supposed to clue us into? Yeah, the wilderness and a choice to trust God and go into the promised land or be in fear of the inhabitants.
God however decides to show favor to Jonah or so it seems at first, but God has a plan in this moment.
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.
Here we get the word appointed for the second time, the first you remember was with the fish. God sovereignly decided to give Jonah grace and grow a plant to ease his discomfort. There was no promise that God would make Jonah comfortable but God did it. Jonah certainly hasn’t behaved in a way that would ingratiate himself to God and earn his favor and this blessing.
There is always the next day though.
But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant, so that it withered.
So we have another appointed pointing again to the sovereignty of God. A worm comes up and destroys the plant.
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.”
Ouch a final appointed… a scorching east wind. Jonah again calls out to die. This ties our object lesson together because God asks a similar question again.
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.”
You see how God has just asked the same thing as back in vs 4? Is it right for Jonah to be mad about this?
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. 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?”
God drives his object lesson home. You Jonah pitied a plant that you were not involved in bringing up which was only here a day. Shouldn’t God who is over all things and does have an investment in the lives of men care for a huge city?
And we end with that… the rhetorical question. Doesn’t God care for all mankind? even the animals?
How do we have a mindset that is focused on the lost? What do we do for our community to show them we love them?