Sermon Tone Analysis

This week marks the fourth and final week where we will be looking at the book of Jonah.

This of what all we’ve seen so far from the book of Jonah.

We saw how Jonah ran away from God and attempted to flee to the city of Tarshish, which was in southern Spain.

We saw how God hurled a storm down at Jonah, forcing the sailors on board to throw Jonah into the ocean.

We learned that no matter how hard we try, there is no way we can outrun God.

But then in chapter two, we saw the mercy of God, and the thankfulness of Jonah as Jonah was swallowed by a big fish, and he survived to tell the story.

And then last week, we saw how Jonah finally decided to obey God’s command and go and tell Nineveh that God was displeased with their sins against Him.

And so, as you hopefully remember, Jonah went to Nineveh and told them that in forty days God was going to destroy them for their sins.

And do you remember what the people did?

From the king all the way down to the peasants, and even the cattle; the citizens of Nineveh were begging to God for mercy.

The Bible says that they gave up their evil ways and their acts of violence.

And the final verse of chapter three told us that God had mercy on the people of Nineveh, and He decided not to destroy them.

Chapter three showed us the amazing grace of God.

But now, as we look at chapter four, we are going to see Jonah’s reaction to God’s grace, and we are going to get a look straight into the heart of God.

This chapter is one of the most profound in the entire Bible for giving us a glimpse at our own priorities, and giving us a glimpse at the priorities of God.

This is a really exciting chapter.

And to see what I’m talking about, please turn in your Bibles to Jonah chapter four.

“But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry.

And he prayed unto the LORD, and said, ‘I pray Thee, O LORD, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country?

Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that Thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil.

Therefore now, O LORD, take, I beseech Thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live.’

Then said the LORD, ‘Doest thou well to be angry?’

So Jonah went out of the city, and sat on the east side of the city, and there made him a booth, and sat under it in the shadow, till he might see what would become of the city.

And the LORD God prepared a gourd, and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shadow over his head, to deliver him from his grief.

So Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd.

But God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd that it withered.

And it came to pass, when the sun did arise, that God prepared a vehement east wind; and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted, and wished in himself to die, and said, ‘It is better for me to die than to live.’

And God said to Jonah, ‘Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd?’

And he said, ‘I do well to be angry, even unto death.’

Then said the LORD, ‘Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not labored, neither madest it grow; which came up in a night, and perished in a night: and should I not spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than six score thousand persons that cannot discern between their right and left hand; and also much cattle?’”

Let’s pray.

The title of our fourth and final sermon from the book of Jonah is “The Value of a Human Soul.”

Essentially, this is a sermon on priorities.

Jonah chapter four demands the question of us, “What is really important to you?”

If you had to rank the priorities in your life, where would God show up?

Where would your family show up?

Where would your car show up?

Your shoes?

Your house?

Your neighbor?

This short chapter forces us to look at not only our answers to these questions, but it forces us to look at God’s answers to these questions.

And any time we answer a question differently from God, we know that there is a very real problem.

But unlike most chapters, chapter four does not break down well into three main points, or six main lessons, or anything like that.

In God’s grand finale in the book of Jonah, He gives us one big point, and that point is the one point of this morning’s sermon.

The value of a human soul.

Before we get to see how God views humanity, we get to see how Jonah views humanity.

To see what I’m talking about, look at verse one of this chapter.

“But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry.”

This verse doesn’t make sense at all unless you put it in its proper context.

Any time you begin a chapter of the Bible and it doesn’t seem to make sense by itself, you need to look at the passage before it.

What on earth has Jonah in such a tizzy?

Well, the answer is found in the last verse of Jonah chapter three.

The last verse of chapter three tells us that God has decided to not destroy Nineveh because they repented of their sins.

God saving Nineveh is what has Jonah so upset!

And just notice how angry he is about all of this.

The Bible says that he was displeased exceedingly, and he was very angry.

Jonah is mad!

And why is he mad?

Because God saved Nineveh!

That sounds pretty strange, doesn’t it?

But you have to remember that Jonah hates the people of Nineveh.

He genuinely wanted God to destroy them.

Just in case you have any doubts, look at what Jonah prays to God in verse two.

“And he prayed unto the LORD, and said, ‘I pray Thee, O LORD, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country?

Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that Thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil.”

First off, we have to give Jonah a little bit of credit.

Whenever Jonah was furious, he started to pray.

I think you would all agree that going to God when we are angry is the proper thing to do.

And the content of Jonah’s prayer shows that he is both a man of great faith, and a man of horrible priorities.

Do you see what Jonah says in his prayer?

Jonah knew that this is what was going to happen.

Jonah just knew that if he went to Nineveh, that gracious God of his was going to forgive those low-down, good-for-nothing Ninevites.

And Jonah didn’t want that.

Church, that is why Jonah fled from God! It wasn’t because he was scared of them.

It wasn’t because he didn’t want to walk that far.

It’s because he knew that God would forgive them!

Look at what Jonah says about God.

He calls God gracious, merciful; he says that God is slow to anger, and of great kindness, and then he says that God is prone to change His mind about destroying people.

You see, church, Jonah knew that God would forgive the Ninevites, and that’s the last thing on earth he wanted!

So I hope that you can see what I mean when I say that Jonah was a man of great faith, because he knew that God was a forgiving God.

But he was also a man of horrible priorities, because he would rather see a whole city destroyed than saved.

And just to show you how serious Jonah was about his hatred, look at what he tells God in verse three.

“Therefore now, O LORD, take, I beseech Thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live.”

Wow! Can you believe what he just said?

He said that he would rather be dead than live in a world with God-fearing Ninevites.

This is not designed to be a sermon on racism, but I’m sure you would agree that Jonah was an extremely racist man.

But then, in the midst of all of Jonah’s hatred, and anger, and confusion, the God of the universe speaks out to Jonah in verse four.

Look at God’s simple question.

“Then said the LORD, ‘Doest thou well to be angry?’”

God calls out to Jonah and asks him if he is in the right to be so angry about Nineveh being saved.

And you know, I don’t think God expected an answer from Jonah.

God knew Jonah’s heart, and where his priorities lied.

So for the rest of chapter four, God gives Jonah an object lesson that he would never forget.

While I’m not going to read verse five again, notice that in verse five Jonah led the city of Nineveh, and he went and made himself a little booth, so that he could wait and see what happened to the city.

Do you see what Jonah is doing here?

Jonah is so convinced that he is in the right here, and he honestly thinks that God is going to change His mind about Nineveh and go ahead and destroy it.

So Jonah leaves the city and goes and makes a little shelter designed to block the wind and the sun, and he just waits.

And he waits.

And he waits.

I can just imagine Jonah thinking, “Any minute now God is going to realize just how wicked those Ninevites have been.