Jonah

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Recap Jonah

Instead of going to the Gentiles in Ninevah he goes to a Gentile port to ride with Gentile sailors to a Gentile land completely opposite of where God commanded.

God sends a storm. Instead of repenting, Jonah would rather be thrown into the sea and drowned. The storm relents and the Gentile sailors worship and make vows to Yahweh.

God provides a great fish to swallow Jonah. In his distress, Jonah says some of the right things in his prayer - he acknowledges some things about God and uses psalmic language- but words of repentance are obviously lacking.

God does spare Jonah’s life, albeit unceremoniously.

Text (Jonah 3-4)

Jonah 3:1-3 “Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you.” So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days’ journey in breadth.”

In what manner does he take the message? Paul said in 1 Cor 13:1 “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.” We will see in what manner Jonah went.

Jonah 3:4-5 “Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s journey. And he called out, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them.”

Contrast this immediate response to this simple message to a similar call made in Jonah 1:2-3 ““Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.” But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord.” Ridiculous! The city that is so bad that it is literally about to be destroyed repents immediately. The prophet didn’t respond that way and doesn’t seem to see the irony.

Jonah 3:6-10 “The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh, “By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water, but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.” When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.”

This is a true and complete repentance. Not simply fasting and calling out, but turning from evil and violence. Even the animals were prevented from eating.

This is great, right? One of the most effective street preaching of all time...

Jonah 4:1-4 “But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. 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.” And the Lord said, “Do you do well to be angry?””

Now we find out why Jonah ran. Now we understand his heart. He wanted them to die. He didn’t want them saved. Jonah had judged them and had found them guilty of death, repentance or not. And Jonah knew that God would do this. Jonah knew God’s character and how God would act…and Jonah disapproved. In fact, Jonah would rather die than live in a world where God exercised his grace the way God saw fit. Jonah wanted to determine how God would be gracious.

This is supposed to sound ridiculous. Jonah was the man ran from God. In spite of that he was just saved by God from the depths of the sea. He can’t see how he is wrong and he can’t see how he has experienced grace.

God asks, “Do you have the right to be angry?” It is rhetorical, but in what follows we will see it fleshed out.

Also, the word angry is the same word for hot - we even have that connection in English - so I’m going to replace that in the reading because there is just a little bit of word play.

Jonah 4:5-11 “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 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. But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant, so that it withered. 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.” 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.” 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 gave Jonah a small thing and then took it away. Jonah didn’t ask for it. Jonah didn’t deserve it. Jonah didn’t make it grow. But Jonah complains - mourns - that it was taken away from him. Jonah would rather die than live in a world where God allowed this perceived injustice against him. Jonah is more concerned for the preservation of his shade than the preservation of people. A lot of people. This is an extraordinarily self-centered view. It’s ridiculous.

Contrast with Job 1:21 “And he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.””

The story ends with God’s rhetorical question. Essentially, “You care about an insignificant plant. Shouldn’t I care about an entire city of people who need to be taught the right way? Or, if the people mean nothing to you, could we at least say that it would be a waste of cattle?” That’s it. The end.

The point of the story is not to see where Jonah’s character arc ends, its to show us an utterly ridiculous picture of a man who is too absorbed with his own self and his own identity that he can’t see God’s way. God - “a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster.” 2 Pet 3:9 “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.”

Jonah’s problem really wasn’t disobedience - you could say he repented of that. Jonah’s problem wasn’t that he appears to be an over the top whiner and grumbler - even though he appeared to be so. Jonah’s problem, like so many spiritual problems, was a matter of the heart. He didn’t love like God loved. He didn’t understand it and it seems he didn’t want to.

View it from Jonah’s perspective.

First, Ninevah is in Assyria. They are NOT Israelites. They are pagans.

Second, they either have or will take over (I think it hasn’t happened yet) northern Israel, and Jonah could’ve known this.

Third, these people are on the brink of destruction. If your city is on the brink of destruction by God, you are in a pretty messed up city - nearly complete, pervasive depravity.

How would you fare in Jonah’s shoes?

Let’s say there was a city - not even in the United States - across the border that had the combined moral depravity of every “sin city” in America you could think of. Growing up you always heard terrible things about people there. Your parents and mentors always warned not to go there and never associate with those people. Your conditioning led you to both fear and hate these people that you really didn’t know.

How would you respond if you learned that that very city had an epidemic of drug addiction? Would you think they got the just desserts of their progressive drug policies? What if there wasn’t a single church in that city? Would you scoff at their irreligious society? What if some who went there were kidnapped and trafficked? Would you derisively say that they never should’ve went there? If you heard news of a massive gang killing in that city would you shrug and chalk it up to their own faults?

Would we respond in our hearts with hate or with compassion? It’s not hard to see egregious acts of evil in this world. It is right to be appalled by the world. It is correct to call out the sin in the world. But our hearts should ache for the people who are still in the world and not in Christ.

Jonah thought he was different than the Ninevites - better. There is a real temptation to think that we’re different - as if we never had problems or, if we did, we weren’t as bad as some people. We tend to think that we got our own lives together, found Christ on our own, started going to church, and if other people wouldn’t make such a mess of their own lives then they could be where I am. That is the temptation, but that is lie.

1 Cor 6:9-11 “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”

Rom 5:10 “For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.”

This is why in the New Testament:

Jesus said Mt 5:44 “But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,”

Taught us to pray Mt 6:12 “and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.”

Apostle John says 1 Jn 4:20 “... he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.”

And again 2 Pet 3:9 “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.”

Simply knowing these things is not enough. The saddest or most ironic thing about the story of Jonah is that he knew and understood the nature of God, but he didn’t want to embrace it and he chose not to. We should reflect on our on hearts. Is there a person, group of people, or a subculture that we have labeled “Doesn’t deserve forgiveness,” or “I’m better than them,” or “Hopeless”? If so, let us repent of our pride and hate. This is a heart issue. Changing your words and surface behaviors won’t change your heart. You must decide to want what God wants. Jonah knew what God wanted - but Jonah decided he didn’t want that. Loving sinners? Loving Godless, depraved, broken people? Jonah was out. Don’t be like Jonah - he was a fool. Let us be honest with ourselves and decide to follow God by adopting his heart as our own.

Invitation

We can all reflect on this. But if you would like to pray with someone about some conviction or struggle within your heart, we would love to pray with you. We are about to sing a song in which we will all sing and pray that we would have changed hearts. You can come visit me during that time.

Or you may have been convicted that you yourself need to be in Christ and not of this world. If that is the case or if you have questions about what that means and how to do that, you may visit with me during the song or after services. Whatever you need to do this morning, do it, whether during the song or afterwards. Lets stand and sing.