Practicing Prayer When We Listen to What God Has to Say

Introduction

Today we are in Jonah chapter 4, finishing up our four-week series on Jonah.

Jonah is great example for us of what not to do.

Call to ministry

Missionary

Prayer Life

But Jonah’s example is not all we learn about in the book of Jonah. We also learn about God.

Called Jonah

Forgave Nineveh

Met with Jonah in prayer

And today, as we look at Jonah’s final conversation with God I hope you will learn to listen to the God who didn’t just pursue the sinful Ninevites, he pursed the sinful prophet. And he didn’t just pursue the sinful prophet, even today he is pursuing you, with that same love.

This is the God who you can come to know more deeply and who will transform your life when you come to him in prayer… and listen.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, I thank you for your Word which speaks to us even today. I pray that this morning as we study your word we listen and hear from you. Amen.

God Listen’s to Jonah’s Prayer (Jonah 4:1-4)

Jonah 4:1–4 HCSB

1 But Jonah was greatly displeased and became furious. 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 merciful and compassionate God, slow to become angry, rich in faithful love, and One who relents from sending disaster. 3 And now, Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” 4 The Lord asked, “Is it right for you to be angry?”

Do you remember the sailors from Jonah 1? The Gentile guys Jonah hired who were panicking when that crazy storm hit? The guys who cast lots to find whose fault it was and only reluctantly threw Jonah over board after throwing their own goods away first? The ones who prayed to God?

Jonah starts his prayer exactly like the sailors prayed on the ship.

“Please Lord.”

He uses the same Hebrew word with the same sincerity as sailors crying out in the raging storm form God’s deliverance.

If you don’t know how to pray this may be a great starting point. “Please Lord” and then unburden your soul.

That’s how both Jonah and the sailors start but that’s the end of the similarities.

The Sailor’s Prayer

The sailors pray for two things and make one confession:

Don’t let us perish

Don’t charge us with innocent blood

God is sovereign: “for You Lord have done as you please”

The sailors show us a good model for prayer.

Be open and honest with God about your needs, your worries.

Confess your sin and ask God for forgiveness.

Pray with humility and recognition of God’s right role as God.

Jonah’s Prayer

Jonah goes in a different direction. He starts with “please Lord” but flips the sailors prayer exactly. Where they had two requests and one honest statement about God Jonah has two statements and then one request. And they are all passive aggressive.

I told you so. “Isn’t this what I said?”

I was right all along!

You are too loving

He references Exodus 34:6-7 which praise God for his grace, mercy, for being low to anger, abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster

In Exodus 32, when when God was giving his commandments the people of Israel turned to other gods creating a golden calf. Moses was angry and threw the stone tablets on the ground.

This statement of God’s mercy that Jonah is quoting comes in the very context of God forgiving Israel and giving them new tablets to

This merciful, loving, character of God is why God has chosen Israel, and spared Israel.

Request: Take My Life

At this point Jonah has run from God, reluctantly obeyed God, and now unloaded on God. The one thing he hasn’t done is listen to God.

God’s Rhetorical Question

But what about God? He’s been patiently, graciously listening to Jonah this whole time.

God is giving Jonah the very mercy that Jonah is complaining about. God can handle Jonah’s complaints, his anger, even his sinful attitude. He doesn’t shut Jonah up. He doesn’t punish Jonah. He doesn’t, flex his power. He asks a simple question: “are you right to be angry?” and then gives Jonah time to think about it.

If you have learned about praying to God as a father from Jesus, then looking back to Jonah it’s easy to see what’s going on. God is a loving father, patiently listening to his angry child in the midst of a temper tantrum.

God isn’t encouraging us to pray like Jonah, but we see in Jonah’s example that God’s primary concern isn’t that we present him with polished prayers. Jonah wasn’t heard by God because his prayer was good but because God is good.

For all that Jonah is getting wrong here, he’s getting one thing right. It is a far better thing to go to God with our resentment and anger than run from God. It is far better to honestly admit our sinful attitudes than to pretend they don’t exist.

Aim for respectful, thankful, mature prayers. But when you miss that aim, don’t run, don’t fake, pray honestly.

And when we bring our sinful anger and resentment, we too will find that God is patient and gracious, and if we listen if we too might hear God ask: “is it right for you to be angry”

Does Jonah Listen to God?

Rather than answering, Jonah merely turns his back on God. But God, doesn’t turn his back on Jonah.

Jonah 4:5–9 HCSB

5 Jonah left the city and sat down 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 up to provide shade over Jonah’s head to ease his discomfort. 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. 8 As the sun was rising, God appointed a scorching east wind. The sun beat down so much on Jonah’s head that he almost fainted, and he wanted to die. He said, “It’s better for me to die than to live.” 9 Then God asked Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?” “Yes,” he replied. “It is right. I’m angry enough to die!”

God’s Activity in Jonah’s Life

Even as Jonah is being passive aggressive, God is active in his mercy and love, and again He demonstrates his involvement in the world by appointing a plant to provide shade for Jonah.

This is word “appoint” is the same word that was used to describe

God appointing a great fish to rescue Jonah in chapter one.

It’s the same word we see a few verses later when God appoints a worm to make the plant wither

and then again when God appoints the scorching east wind.

God is active. He’s working through his control over nature and events. He’s not a distant God unconcerned with his creation. He’s busy appointing and doing.

That’s not just true here in Jonah, but throughout all of the Old Testament where God works and moves in this world. And where do we see God working most clearly? In Jesus.

God took on human flesh, he came and lived among us, died on the cross and rose again.

And even today God is active. He moves in our world. He is still appointing and acting.

The reason we can listen to God in our prayers is because He still speaks! He speaks to us through his word through his Holy Spirit.

God is active in the life of Jonah and He hasn’t given up on this prophet who has given up on him.

So God shows Jonah, just a tiny glimpse of the reality of the judgement that Jonah wants so bad. After letting Jonah experience the relief of the shade, God appoints a worm to kill the plant and let’s Jonah face the heat of the sun.

And then he asks Jonah again if it was was right for Jonah to be angry? This time not asking if it was right to be angry about God saving Nineveh but angry about the death of one small plant.

This time Jonah answers. Yes. I’m angry enough to die.

God’s Final Question

The book of Jonah concludes with God’s tender answer to this angry prophet, and the reverberation of a powerful rhetorical question that lingers unanswered.

Jonah 4:10–11 HCSB

10 So 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. 11 Should I not care about the great city of Nineveh, which has more than 120,000 people who cannot distinguish between their right and their left, as well as many animals?”

Do you see what God is doing? On the grand scale he orchestrated, appointed, a storm and a fish to give the people of Nineveh an opportunity to see His love and grace.

And now, through a plant, a worm, and a scorching wind God has given Jonah a picture to help him understand God’s love.

Jonah cares about a plant, God cares about people.

Honestly, Jonah cared about himself more than a plant. But God cares about others.

Jonah did nothing for the plant, But God created the people of Nineveh in his image.

Jonah started by saying “this is why I ran.” And God is showing Jonah, this is why I care about Nineveh.

God is giving Jonah one more opportunity to listen to the truth. That God is merciful, and compassionate, slow to become angry, and rich in faithful love.

Oh sure, Jonah had heard those words in Exodus, but God is inviting Jonah to truly listen to what they mean.

Conclusion

The story of Jonah ends here. It doesn’t tell us how Jonah responded, although reading this book’s unflattering view of Jonah makes me think that Jonah did, listen to God and share this story with us with the goal that we might learn the lessons that took too long for him to learn.

But the story is open ended so that the reader, so that you, might be forced to ask yourself: “how would I respond?”

As you go to God in prayer will you respond by listening to God’s message of grace for Nineveh? Will you listen to God’s grace for you?

We’ve seen and heard of God’s mercy in Jonah, in the life of Jesus, the teachings of the Bible. For example

Ephesians 2:4-5 tells us:

Ephesians 2:4–5 HCSB

4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love that He had for us, 5 made us alive with the Messiah even though we were dead in trespasses. You are saved by grace!

This is a message God is saying loud and clear to Jonah and to you today.

So pray to God knowing he hears your prayers, but listen, listen to God’s message of grace and love.

Invitation

We’ve talked about listening to God in prayer and now I want to invite you to put that in to practice. As Just plays I invite you to pray where you are. Whether it’s like Jonah sharing your frustration, or crying out for help, or praising God’s goodness pray. And as you do allow room for stillness and listening to God.