The Scorching East Wind of Self Pity
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Good morning! Turn with me to Jonah 4. This morning we will wrap up our study through Jonah.
Quick Recap of Jonah.
Throughout Jonah we’ve seen 5 themes.
God’s Heart, Power and Forgiveness
God’s Missional Nature
Rebellion against God’s commission is REBELLION AGAINST GOD!
Repentance
Identity
We’ve seen these throughout. The book is built off of these! And today is no different!
Today’s passage hits right on point 5. It hits right on the idea of IDENTITY!
WHO ARE WE? WHO AM I!
And that’s fitting I think. Jonah itself as a book shows a roller coaster of sorts.
Jonah starts off by immediately losing sight of WHO GOD IS AND WHO HE IS, then seems to regain it and in chapter 4 seems lost again!
It’s a bit like a roller coaster! UP AND DOWN AND UP AND DOWN!
But unlike a roller coaster at an amusement park, this roller coaster is anything but fun!
Self-Pity is the name of this roller-coaster. It’s a roller-coaster that is focused only on one person, OURSELVES!
Today, our main point addresses the key issue with this!
Main Point: Self-Pity is a trap that robs us of joy!
Body
Body
As we finish up Jonah this morning, we are looking at Jonah 4. If you remember, Jonah last week was given a second chance to fulfill his GOD-GIVEN task!
1 The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time: 2 “Get up! Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach the message that I tell you.”
Jonah was to GET UP, to GO TO NINEVEH and then to PREACH THE MESSAGE THAT GOD TELLS HIM!
And what is that message? The message is that NINEVEH will be DESTROYED in 40 days!
The people of Nineveh BELIEVED GOD and they REPENTED!
OVER 120,000 people were SAVED BY GOD! We talked about how this is like the entire city of Springfield!
Imagine that! ALL OF SPRINGFIELD IS SAVED AT THE SAME TIME!
Now, what do you think Jonah’s response was?
God has saved all of these people and has SHOWN himself! There’s been massive REPENTANCE and by all accounts, this is a GOOD THING!
In Jonah 4, we see Jonah’s response to this.
1 Jonah was greatly displeased and became furious.
Jonah sees that Nineveh is spared and he has two emotions.
He is GREATLY DISPLEASED and BECAME FURIOUS!
Do you remember the two words that we highlighted at the start of Jonah?
It was RA, or EVIL and then it was GADOL, which means GREAT!
Jonah’s displeasure is GADOL! HE IS GREATLY DISPLEASED!
Think about some of the other times this word has been used. The storm was GADOL, the FISH is GADOL, the city of Nineveh is GADOL and the SAILORS FEAR WAS GADOL!
This displeasure of Jonah is GREAT!
This isn’t minor frustration, this is GREAT DISPLEASURE!
Have you ever been disappointed? Like you didn’t get the gift that you wanted at christmas as a child, or you didn’t get to do something you wanted to do?
That’s being upset. JONAH is GREATLY DISPLEASED!
He’s upset!
But Jonah isn’t JUST displeased. Jonah is FURIOUS!
He becomes FURIOUS!
There’s another way to translate this word.
He becomes HOT! HE BECOMES CONSUMED WITH HIS ANGER! There’s a similar word in Arabic with a similar meaning. In Arabic, this word literally means “BURNING WITH ANGER IN YOUR THROAT!”
Think about how intense this is! JONAH IS NOT JUST DISAPPOINTED, HE’S CONSUMED BY RAGE! Every part of his being is CONSUMED!
This right here is the PROPHET OF GOD! And why is he angry? Not because he has been physically harmed, but because GOD DIDN’T DO WHAT HE WANTED!
God had MERCY AND GRACE AND JONAH IS ANGRY!
Jonah’s upset because he HATES THAT GOD GAVE MERCY and he begins to PRAY!
As Jonah prays, I want you to listen for something.
Do me a favor and listen for EVERY TIME that Jonah says “I” or “Me” or “MY”
2 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. 3 And now, Lord, take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.”
Jonah is so angry that he prays complaining to God! HE complains to God and says that God’s forgiveness is the REASON that he FLED from God!
Let’s call this what he is. Jonah is CONSUMED with hate!
And honestly, he’s consumed with pride! Look at his 8 references to “Me, My, or I” in his prayer! That’s not exactly a GOD CENTERED prayer!
Jonah is supposed to go and to PREACH THE MESSAGE THAT GOD HAS GIVEN HIM! He should see the Ninevites as what they are- people made in the IMAGE of God!
But instead, he just doesn’t get it! Jonah doesn’t care, he DOESN’T LOVE THE PEOPLE OF NINEVEH!
And now in his anger, he goes one step further!
He begins to throw the attributes of God in God’s face and he begins to BLAME GOD for WHO GOD IS!
Instead of saying, “WOW GOD! I’M SO BLESSED TO SEE THIS!” Jonah says, “LORD, TAKE MY LIFE FROM ME, FOR IT IS BETTER FOR ME TO DIE THAN TO LIVE.”
That’s a sickening thing! Jonah has totally missed it.
He’s seen all of this stuff, but he just misses it over and over! Jonah is whining and he is complaining.
And now let me make this personal. We do the same thing! How often does God do something and we sit there and say, “That’s not good enough!” And hear me, we may never ACTUALLY SAY THAT, but we ACT LIKE IT!
We act like somehow we should be able to control God and friends, hear me, THAT ISN’T OUR JOB!
Jonah thinks that if he complains then maybe God will change his mind!
But God doesn’t change HIS MIND! God’s mind is unchangeable! In fact, as Jonah even admitted, GOD’S LOVE IS FAITHFUL!
4 The Lord asked, “Is it right for you to be angry?”
Now God responds to Jonah!
Take a second and think about this- GOD is SPEAKING to JONAH!
GOD, THE CREATOR OF THE UNIVERSE IS RESPONDING TO JONAH!
Jonah’s down here throwing a temper tantrum and GOD TAKES TIME TO RESPOND TO HIM!
Look at God’s response!
“IS IT RIGHT FOR YOU TO BE ANGRY?”
I selfishly HATE THIS QUESTION!
Do you know why?
I hate it because there are times that I GET ANGRY WITH GOD!
There are so many times that I get upset and I think to myself “YES I SHOULD BE ANGRY! THAT’S NOT WAHT I WANTED!
But what business is it of ours to be angry?
Now, God does something really interesting I think in Jonah 4. God does not speak as much as Jonah.
Now, what does that mean? I think that it shows further that Jonah is having a temper tantrum!
God DOESN’T HAVE TO SPEAK! God doesn’t have to DEFEND his position because GOD IS GOD!
Jonah on the other hand has to defend and argue his position, which is something that he will NEVER do!
5 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. 6 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. 7 When dawn came the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant, and it withered.
So Jonah hears God and he leaves Nineveh!
Next, Jonah makes a shelter so that he can see what is going to happen!
Jonah wants God to change his mind! Jonah wants God to say, “Hey Jonah, I’ve been thinking some more and I think you are right. I should destroy Nineveh! Let me just whip up some Sodom and Gomorrah fire for them!
But that doesn’t happen because GOD IS UNCHANGEABLE AND BECAUSE NO ONE CAN BOSS GOD AROUND!
Jonah, the prophet of the Lord, has forgotten something!
Jonah is a prophet who works FOR GOD! Jonah is a PROPHET OF THE LORD, not the other way around!
God does not work for Jonah!
Just think about this though! Jonah has been rescued from a deadly storm by a GREAT FISH and then was rescued front he BELLY OF A FISH still thinks he’s in charge of God!
He is in denial essentially!
To put it bluntly, I want to yell “WAKE UP JONAH!” THINK!
But just as I’m ready to throw that stone of condemnation at him, I stop and remember- I AM NO BETTER!
How often do I do the same thing!?!
As we continue reading we see that Jonah makes himself a shelter and then that God gives him a plant that provides shade for his head.
Jonah is “greatly pleased with the plant.”
This is GADOL pleasure! JONAH IS GREATLY PLEASED!
It can also be translated as GREATLY JOYFUL! HE IS FILLED WITH JOY ABOUT THIS!
Jonah is JOYFUL FOR THIS PLANT THAT GOD HAS GIVEN HIM!
And don’t be fooled, GOD GAVE HIM THE PLANT! The author of Jonah uses a unique word here
This wasn’t anything that Jonah has done!
And God does something else then. God appoints a worm that attacks it!
Another way to say this is that God ASSIGNS a worm to attack this plant!
God SOVEREIGNLY decides that this plant is going to die!
So it is attacked and then the plant WITHERS!
Just as suddenly as it grows it dies!
Now let me be clear. The idea of the plant isn’t the point. It really isn’t.
The author of Jonah uses the word for plant 5 times. It is the ONLY 5 times that this word is ever used in the Bible!
So we don’t know exactly what type of a plant it was and that is on purpose!
See, we cannot let our focus be on the plant when we need to see how GOD IS TEACHING JONAH A LESSON!
Because that’s what’s going on! God uses a plant to TEACH JONAH a lesson!
8 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.”
Now not only has God killed the PLANT, God now appoints a SCORCHING EAST WIND!
This is a HOT, DRY WIND! “East Wind” is used 21 times in the Old Testament. In those 21 times, it is NEVER USED IN A POSITIVE MANNER!
It is always used to show judgement.
Here’s some examples:
(Joseph)Genesis 41:6,23,27
27 The seven thin, sickly cows that came up after them are seven years, and the seven worthless heads of grain scorched by the east wind are seven years of famine.
(Plague)
13 So Moses stretched out his staff over the land of Egypt, and the Lord sent an east wind over the land all that day and through the night. By morning the east wind had brought in the locusts.
Coming judgement against THE ASSYRIANS prophesied by ISAIAH during the invasion under Hezekiah
26 Their inhabitants have become powerless,
dismayed, and ashamed.
They are plants of the field,
tender grass,
grass on the rooftops,
blasted by the east wind.
3 times in Job- 15, 27, 38
2x in Isaiah, 3x in Ezekiel and NEVER ONCE IS IT POSITIVE!
The point is clear! God is sending a WIND OF JUDGEMENT AGAINST JONAH!
The plant is gone and now there is this wind and the sun BEATS DOWN ON HIS HEAD!
I had a professor in seminary, my Hebrew professor actually, who argued that this showed that Jonah was bald and made him feel better about being bald himself. I’m not sure I’d brag about being like Jonah, but it’s honesty at least!
Jonah overheats and he almost faints.
Again, he WANTS TO DIE!
Look at what he says! “It’s better for me to die than to live.”
Jonah is ANGRY!
I want to be clear, Jonah isn’t really struggling with depression, he’s struggling with dissatisfaction.
Jonah is DISSATISFIED WITH GOD!
And there’s rich application in this response for us!
How easy is it for us to become dissatisfied by what God has given us?
But in reality, isn’t the question “WHY HAS GOD GIVEN US SO MUCH?”
I know that sounds harsh, but it’s the truth!
As humanity, we deserve death for our sins, and JESUS took our place! We could NEVER deserve that!
Yet that’s what we received!
And at the same time, how was our salvation secured?
JESUS (GOSPEL!) (NOTICE HOW MUCH GREATER JESUS IS! DIED FOR US IN LOVE, GAVE IT ALL UP! HE SACRIFICED DESPITE OUR REJECTION STARK CONTRAST!)
9 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 asks Jonah a question about his response.
God asks Jonah if this is the right response.
And look at Jonah’s answer! “Yes it’s right! I’m angry enough to die!”
Jonah is once again in clear rebellion.
In many ways, Jonah is what could be called an INCLUSIO!
It means that it mirrors itself.
Usually, it’s marked by repeated words or phrases, or events… (Psalm 118- repeated first and last statement Psalm 118:1)
1 Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
his faithful love endures forever.
In this case though, the inclusio is marked by Jonah’s rebellion!
And there is a reason that it being an inclusio matters…
Jonah is angry and this is highlighted in verse 9. I find his response highly convicting because I know how easy it is for me to ignore what GOD HAS GIVEN ME!
Maybe you don’t struggle with that, but personally for me, I need to INTENTIONALLY REMEMBER ALL THAT GOD HAS GIVEN ME, ESPECIALLY WHEN I’M UPSET!
Now, listen to God’s response.
10 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.
Jonah has an interesting ending. It ends with GOD SPEAKING and REBUKING Jonah!
God does something interesting. He points out to Jonah how Jonah’s view of love is flawed!
See, Jonah cared so much for this plant that he did no work for, a PLANT, but Jonah didn’t care at all about Nineveh!
God then compares the plant to Nineveh. He then compares HIS LOVE FOR NINEVEH to JONAH’S “Love” for the plant.
Because here’s the thing! God CARES AND LOVES the people of Nineveh! The people of Nineveh are totally lost!
They cannot “distinguish between their right and their left.”
This is unique wording, but the meaning is clear.
God isn’t warning you not to drive in Nineveh because they can’t figure out directions! God’s point is much more emotional than that.
These 120,000 people are totally lost! They are totally confused, they live in darkness and chaos and their animals do too because of their wickedness!
But why? Because they haven’t heard!
THAT’S WHY JONAH SHOWS UP! IT ISN’T FOR VACATION, IT’S FOR GOOD REASON! It’s to PROCLAIM SALVATION!
APPLICATION- How do we respond to people around us? Especially people we don’t like?
Conclusion
Conclusion
How do I respond when God does things differently than I would?
Central to Jonah 4 is Jonah’s response to what God does with Nineveh.
Jonah knows what he wants. We’ve talked about it before. Jonah wants FIRE AND DESTRUCTION!
That isn’t what God does though!
The Ninevites BELIEVE, REPENT and ARE SAVED! And how does Jonah respond? He responds by growing ANGRY! He becomes resentful and he’s upset that God would SPARE the Ninevites!
Basically, Jonah begins to argue with God! And that’s what we see in Jonah 4! He doesn’t just ask grow upset because of a plant, he’s upset because GOD DIDN’T DO WHAT HE WANTED!
And that’s the challenge for us. Sometimes God doesn’t give us what WE want! We may WANT that promotion, or that new car, or whatever, but GOD MAY NOT GIVE US THAT!
God may keep our current car running, may keep providing for us with our current job! Will God provide? ABSOLUTELY, but GOD’S WILL as Jonah learned in Jonah 4, is not the same as God’s will.
And so my challenge for us is simple.
When God does something differently than what you WANTED HIM TO DO, HOW DO YOU RESPOND?
Do you respond by saying, “YES GOD!” or “God, let’s reconsider.”
If I’m honest, at least for me, it’s easy to fall into the second camp. It’s easy to say, “This doesn’t seem fair, this isn’t right, or why not?”
And although those feelings are real, although WE WILL FEEL THOSE, WE cannot let that DIRECT OUR entire BEING! Jonah does! And that’s the risk. We HAVE TO KEEP OUR EYES ON GOD EVEN IN THE MIDST OF THE BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT!
Jonah is at heart disappointed. He self-pities and he totally loses sight of God! May the same NOT BE TRUE OF US! Even when we are disappointed, God is worthy of praise!
Is my Prayer Life more about ME or GOD?
This is a second important question for us. Jonah’s prayer, and it is a PRAYER, is marked by his self-centeredness! It’s about what JONAH WANTS, not about GOD!
And so my challenge for us is simple. When we pray, let’s make it first and foremost about GOD!
Consider the Lord’s Prayer. Matthew 6:9-13
9 “Therefore, you should pray like this:
Our Father in heaven,
your name be honored as holy.
10 Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us today our daily bread.
12 And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And do not bring us into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.
I’m not going to get into the weeds of exegeting this text and break it down, but look at this prayer! Even when it talks about something with US, it is about GOD doing something!
It’s all focused on GOD! May our prayer lives be JUST LIKE TAHT!
We NEED to keep the focus of our prayers not on ourselves, but on God!
Because here’s the honest truth. When our prayer lives become about US, not GOD, we will MISS GOD! We will miss what GOD IS DOING! We will fall into self-pity LIKE JONAH and we will begin to waver.
So let me challenge you, Keep your EYES ON GOD IN PRAYER!
Practically, let me give us a challenge. When I was in college, I was given this same challenge at a low point in my walk with God. Every day, make a note of one thing, ONE THING, that you can give thanks to GOD for! For instance, it might be the weather, or it might be a good day of work! It doesn’t have to be big, but give thanks for 1 thing! As we do that, it will help us to keep our prayer lives LESS FOCUSED on US and MORE FOCUSED ON GOD!
Will I live out God’s Mission?
This final application is really the challenge of Jonah.
As we’ve done in all of our series together, Ruth, Jude and now Jonah, we’ve talked about a few main themes to watch for when we start the series and we reviewed those at the end of the series. Today, we reviewed those at the beginning of our message.
But I want to end our time today with one final question from this series.
WILL I LIVE OUT GOD’S MISSION?
Because God’s mission is still going today! God’s mission to MAKE DISCIPLES WHEREVER WE GO, BAPTIZING them is still going!
God’s mission for us is centered on the fact that we will take our faith with us WHEREVER WE GO! That whether it is to Schnucks, or to work, or to lunch after this, we will LIVE OUT OUR FAITH!
And as we’ve talked about, God’s mission is centered around discipleship, which is BRINGING SOMEONE WITH YOU!
There’s a cost to discipleship. There just is. It isn’t always convenient to live out your faith and IT DEFINITELY isn’t always convenient to bring someone with you as you live out your faith.
But friends, this is what God has called us to! God has called us to ACTIVELY FOLLOW HIM AND GOD HAS FURTHER CALLED US TO TAKE HIS MESSAGE OF SALVATION TO THE WORLD!
And so I want to challenge us as we are finishing out our series through Jonah with 2 practical questions.
First, do you feel like you can share your faith if you were asked to?
Listen, there’s no shame in being honest and saying, “Hey, not really.”
Here’s all I’m going to ask for. If you don’t feel like you COULD share the gospel with someone around you, let me know, or let your community group leader know! We aren’t in this to shame you, we want to help as we all SEEK TO LIVE OUT THE MISSION THAT GOD HAS GIVEN US.
But let me give you one practical tip. A great way to share your faith is to share your story! How did YOU COME TO KNOW JESUS? HOW DID YOU COME TO FAITH?
Share that with someone! That’s a great place to start! It’s what so often happens in the Bible! Paul does this multiple times at the end of Acts! He doesn’t use an illustration, or perfect scripture memory, Paul SHARES HIS STORY and we CAN DO THAT TOO!
With that in mind, my second question for us is: Who in your life can you be praying for opportunities to share the gospel with and to invite to church?
Keep that person in mind, but don’t just identify them, GO TO GOD AND PRAY FOR THEM! BRING THEM BEFORE GOD!
And invite them! Invite them to our easter egg hunt, invite them to church! Next Sunday we’ll have some Easter invite cards ready for you to take. In the lobby TODAY, we have some regular invite cards that you can take! So let me challenge you, spend this week praying for that person and then next week, continue praying for them and INVITE THEM!
Jonah knew his mission and Jonah willingly chose to run from it! Let that not be said of us.
Let me pray for us as we close.
