Jonah 4
Jonah • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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“Oh, I’ll Pray for you”
“Oh, I’ll Pray for you”
I am reminded of a song by Jaron Lowenstein - I Pray for you
I pray your brakes go out runnin' down a hill
I pray a flower pot falls from a window sill
And knocks you in the head like I'd like to
I pray your birthday comes and nobody calls
I pray you're flyin' high when your engine stalls
I pray all your dreams never come true
Just know wherever you are, honey, I pray for you
This is not the way we are to pray for people. It doesn’t matter what they have done to us, how they have hurt us, or anything related to us.
People are made in the image and likeness of GOD. This means that they are due our prayers as image barers!
Now let’s look back just a verse really.
God saw their actions—that they had turned from their evil ways—so God relented from the disaster he had threatened them with. And he did not do it.
Jonah went into the most wicked city imaginable, preached a message of destruction is coming, and the people repented! Not just 1 or 2, which is always awesome.
It is always awesome to see someone come to know the Lord!
The messager, Jonah, was so effective that the entire city got saved! THE WHOLE CITY!
Let me tell you something, this is every preachers dream! That we would preach a message and that cities would be saved!
Talk about a mountain top moment here! THis is a reason to celebrate.
And yet...
Jonah was greatly displeased and became furious.
THis is NOT THE REACTION that we would expect from a prophet of GOD! Preachers preaching repentence, seeing salvations! BUt Jonah was displeased.
Not just displeased, but GREATLY displeased.
Interesting that Ninevah was a Great city, and now Jonah is Greatly displeased.
And not just Greatly Displeased, but FURIOUS!
Furious is great anger. Wrathful. BOILING! SULLEN!
Jonah was greatly displeased and became furious. He prayed to the Lord, “Please, Lord, isn’t this what I said while I was still in my own country? That’s why I fled toward Tarshish in the first place. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger, abounding in faithful love, and one who relents from sending disaster. And now, Lord, take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.”
Jonah lays all his cards on the table. He didn’t flee to Spain because he was afraid he would fail the mission given to him by God. JOnah says he ran away becacuse he knew God! He knew that the people would hear the message and repent. He knew that God had already been working on the hearts of the people.
Jonah says God I know that you are
gracious
compassionate
slow to anger
abounding in faithful love
and one who relents from sending disaster!
These are all things we all know about God! We sing these things. Basically Jonah says: GOd I wanted Ninevah to BURN and I knew you would spare the city if they repented!
The Lord asked, “Is it right for you to be angry?”
God often teaches us lessons by asking us questions.
Who told you, you were naked?
Who will go for us?
Who do you say I am?
Why are you persecuting me?
Jonah left the city and found a place east of it. He made himself a shelter there and sat in its shade to see what would happen to the city.
So Jonah leaves the city, finds a little place, and sits down. THe Word of God says that he was waiting to see what would happen to the city.
What do you think he was hoping to see? Destruction. He had walked through it saying destruction was coming. He was wanting to see God do what he preached.
Then the Lord God appointed a plant, and it grew over Jonah to provide shade for his head to rescue him from his trouble. Jonah was greatly pleased with the plant.
This is the only time we see Jonah given a attribute of positive descriptions. He was greatly pleased.
God appointed this plant to grow. TO Rescue Jonah from his troubles.
Because the sun is hot in Iraq. Jonah was greatly angry.
The word angry literally translates: to be HOT! To be BURNING!
So not only was Jonah sitting out there BURNING psychologically and spiritually, he was burning literally under the hot desert sun!
ANd God, being
gracious
compassionate
slow to anger
abounding in faithful love
and one who relents from sending disaster
Graciously, because JOnah didn’t deserve
Compassioantly, because God cared more for Jonah than what Jonah deserved
Patiently, because God was dealing with a flawd human prophet who was still learning.
lovingly, because God loves His children
and not wanting to see destruction come upon His child.
Sends a plant, a flower, to offer shade to Jonah.
One may say to: COOL JONAH!
And of course, it greatly pleased Jonah.
Jonah enjoyed all those wonderful attributes of GOd when they were being poured out on him.
We can be that way can’t we. We like when God blesses us, but when people who don’t deserve the blessings get blessed. . .
They don’t deserve . . .
When dawn came the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant, and it withered.
As the sun was rising, God appointed a scorching east wind. The sun beat down on Jonah’s head so much that he almost fainted, and he wanted to die. He said, “It’s better for me to die than to live.”
Bitterness
Then God asked Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?”
“Yes, it’s right!” he replied. “I’m angry enough to die!”
God’s question echoes Jonah 4:4 “The Lord asked, “Is it right for you to be angry?””
And the Lord said, “You cared about the plant, which you did not labor over and did not grow. It appeared in a night and perished in a night. So may I not care about the great city of Nineveh, which has more than a hundred twenty thousand people who cannot distinguish between their right and their left, as well as many animals?”
God showed His mercy toward Jonah through a lot of preparation:
THe Lord prepared a great fish
the lord prepared a plant
the lord prepared a worm
the lord prepared a wind.
But the largest: the Lord prepared JOnah - a person.
Have you ever heard of someone coming to know Jesus, and then you got angry because of it? No? Ever said: well I doubt that?
I use this one alot, because it is atruly a heart testing question:
Guy on death row because he admitted to killing people. You find out that he accepted Christ, does He deserve heaven?
It is NEVER about what we deserve, because our best acts are filthy rags!
All of us have become like something unclean,
and all our righteous acts are like a polluted garment;
all of us wither like a leaf,
and our iniquities carry us away like the wind.
but as for me, I will sacrifice to you
with a voice of thanksgiving.
I will fulfill what I have vowed.
Salvation belongs to the Lord.
Salvation belongs to the Lord
God of mercy beyond our imagination!
You know where else the echo of mercy for the sinner rings through?
Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, because they do not know what they are doing.” And they divided his clothes and cast lots.
Unmatched mercy and love!
Putting into practice the Sermon on the Mount!
“You have heard that it was said, Love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,
Teaching a lesson that Jonah had to learn. A lesson we have to learn!
God created the people of NInevah, and the animals.