Run Jonah Run Pt 2:

Intro

The children’s book, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day is a comical story of Alexander’s REALLY BAD day.

Alexander's day begins disastrously, marked by the unwelcome presence of gum in his hair and the frustrating absence of a cereal prize, while his brothers gleefully discover theirs. His morning continues to unravel with a skateboard mishap and a jostling car ride, where he's denied a window seat. At school, his woes escalate: his best friend demotes him to third-best, his drawing receives harsh criticism, he forgets song lyrics, and his teacher reprimands him for bringing an "invisible castle" to class. The afternoon and evening offer no respite, as a dentist's visit reveals a cavity, the shoe store lacks his desired blue shoes, his restaurant meal is incomplete, his bath is scalding, he's forced into his least favorite pajamas, his electric train malfunctions, and he's scolded for a simple kiss. Overwhelmed by these accumulating misfortunes, Alexander declares his intention to move to Australia, but his mother's empathetic response, acknowledging that everyone experiences bad days, provides a small measure of comfort, though he still maintains it was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.

If you’re like me, you’ve probably had a few of these days in your life. The days where nothing goes right and you just hate it. Well we’re going to venture to the end of Jonah’s story today. Now this story is really ironic because although this story might be one of the most optimistic stories when it looks at everyone around Jonah, but Jonah himself makes this a Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.

Summary

So picking up from last week, Jonah is vomited out of a fish. Gross. All covered in gastric acids and now being totally stinky, no Versace Eros, no Sauvage, no Bleu de Channel, not even Axe Body Spray! And he beings to make his way towards the place he hates more than anything.

Jonah’s Sabotage, God’s Grace

So Jonah gets to Nineveh and he preaches the shortest sermon ever preached. It was only 5 words in Hebrew. Imagine if preachers only preached 5 word sermons. Well I’ve brushed up on my Hebrew and I’m going to read you Jonah’s famous 5 Word Sermon!

Here’s Jonah’s 5 Word Sermon.

“Ohd Aerbah youm nineveh haphagch”

Jonah 3:4 CSB

Jonah set out on the first day of his walk in the city and proclaimed, “In forty days Nineveh will be demolished!”

Notice here there’s no mention of what they did wrong. No mention of how to stop this destruction. And most importantly, no mention of God!

Now here’s the funny irony in this section. Jonah tells the people that they would be demolished. The Hebrew word I said earlier, “Hafagch” means to “overturn.” This word was used in refrence when God overturned Sodom and Gomorrah, burning it to the ground (See Genesis 19:21). No doubt this is what Noah had intended. BUT there’s another meaning. The other meaning is to be changed to transformed. Primarily, changed into the opposite (See 1 Samuel 10:6). So what do these wicked Ninevites do with this 5 word sermon? They repented! Even the king repents! So in a funny twist, Jonah’s words actually come true. But not in the way he expected. He expected God to destroy them. But they turned from their sin and God forgave them!

Jonah’s Response, God’s Lesson

So Jonah at this point is PISSED OFF. We find out that Jonah wasn’t afraid of Nineveh… Like Veggie Tales would have you believe, but he didn’t want God to forgive them!

Jonah 4:2 CSB

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.

Exodus 34:6 CSB

The Lord—the Lord is a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in faithful love and truth,

Jonah 4:3 (Gen Z Translation)

“Big Chief, just end me, no cap. Living is a mood and this ain’t it”

Jonah 4:4 (Gen Z Translation)

“Okay, like fr? Is your crashout even valid rn lil bro?”

Jonah then goes up and was like ‘I hope Nineveh still gets destroyed.’ Spoiler alert, it doesn’t. So God makes this plant grow to give Jonah some shade because hey, modern day Iran is HAWT. Jonah enjoys it before God sends a worm to eat it. Jonah gets salty again and asks to die again. This time, God asks Jonah if he valued that plant. Jonah nods to which God responds with, then why should I not care about that city of 120,000?

Bringing it Together

Remember Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day? From Jonah’s perspective, you just got vomed by a fish, you stink and it’s a hot stench. You have to go to a place you hate, speak to people you hate, watch God forgive them, then after getting lowkey heatstroke, the only shade you’re given is taken away and the one who’s getting taught a lesson wasn’t the people who were doing all this evil stuff, but you. That’s a HORRIBLE day. But on the other end, this prophet was given a second chance at life and after speaking to these people, all 120,000 of them were offered a second chance at life and took it, adding to the numbers of heaven. Isn’t Jonah noticing the irony of how hypocritical he is? He was shown grace but doesn’t want these people to receive it as well?

People didn’t understand this so Jesus in Luke chapter 15 shares a story about a son who tells his father that he’s dead to him and wants his father to give him half of his wealth. The son loses all of it by his selfish and stupid spending habits. When he returns to his father hoping that he’ll get hired as a servant, the father runs to the son, embraces him, and celebrates that he came home. Such a beautiful story right? This was Nineveh. At the tail end of the story, the older brother enters the scene upset. He’s always lived right. He’s done the right thing. Why wasn’t he celebrated? The biggest thing that we see isn’t an unfair situation, it’s not meant to be that. It’s meant to give us a window into their hearts. The older brother was missing the point. The younger son still lost his money and had to live with the consequences, but he was found again. Nineveh came back to God, they turned from their evilness! Let’s test our hearts out of who we might be. Could you imagine all of North Korea turning back to God and Kim Jung Un leading the way? What would your reaction be? Would it be celebration that such an evil dictator is turning from his ways and is taking small steps in the right direction? Or would you be upset that someone who’s imprisoned and killed so many Christians just for their faith and oppressed his people is gaining the gift of salvation?

Now you are all better Christians than me, because my natural instinct is to be upset! Ya I want him to face the consequences for all the evil he’s done! But when I look at my own life, the evils I’ve done, I’m so glad God has given me a life I don’t deserve. I get to be married to the most beautiful and kind girl in the world, I get to live in a free country, I get to be the youth pastor to some of the best teenagers this world has ever seen! So therefore, I have to pray and ask God to have the same heart towards others as He has. Because I’m selfish. It’s a prayer of mine to share the heart He has! It’s a continual process.

Conclusion

So where in your life are you a Jonah? Maybe there’s people in your school who aren’t Christian that you think to yourself, “They’ll get what they deserve in hell” after they bully you. Maybe there’s people you don’t like because they seem to be pure evil on social media. Maybe you’re upset seeing all of the injustice in the world. What would your heart be honestly if they all turned to God tomorrow? Would you be willing to celebrate that another person has found life instead of the path towards death? Would you be willing to share that love that you were shown? This leads us to our big Idea

Big Idea: Don’t Gatekeep God’s Grace; Celebrate it

Pray

Questions

Just like ‘Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day,’ have you ever had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day?

What was weird about Jonah's 'five word sermon'?

In what ways can we recognize our own reluctance to extend grace to others, similar to Jonah's attitude?

What steps can you take this week to ensure you are not ‘gatekeeping’ God’s grace?