JONAH: Running AHEAD of God

If anyone but God were writing the book of Jonah, there would be a big period at the end of chapter 3. The way chapter 3 ends would be the end of any regular success story! One of the most successful preaching endeavors ever where a whole city changed and worshiped God, everyone lives, everyone glorifies God… Most stories would end there! Certainly any fake story would with the hero being victorious. But God is writing this for us to learn something even more.

Jonah went, he preached, he converted, he was successful, God showed mercy! But now instead of celebrating, Jonah is furious. …What? That doesn’t sound right - but it’s true.

Ch.1, Jonah ran FROM God. Ch.2, Jonah ran TO God. Ch.3, Jonah ran WITH God.

Jonah now is running AHEAD of God. We will see what we mean by that.

V.1

Jonah was beyond angry that they were saved (3:10).

Jonah knew their wickedness, their evilness!

Assyrian kings boasted of brutal acts such as dyeing mountains red with the blood of enemies, flaying captives alive, and stacking decapitated heads into pillars.

They worshiped evil fake gods who had them do disgusting and awful things as worship!

NO! They didn’t deserve to be spared, but God spared them anyway! And that made Jonah angry.

Even though Jonah didn’t deserve to be spared, and he was...

Luke 15:7 “Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.” When Heaven itself rejoices, I better be too!

Joy should be when someone is born again in baptism! They’re saved! For Jonah, there should’ve been joy and gladness when they repented and God saved them from destruction!

When Obedience Isn’t Enough…

Jonah was really obedient…. but he was also really bitter.

He didn’t want repentance from them he wanted RUIN. He is representing what many can fall into being more caring about their own situation and nation than the salvation of others. Selfish and prejudice, or racist, or nationalist - however you want to put it.

So, we can in fact be doctrinally sound but still be spiritually ROTTEN.

That’s the REAL commentary on Matthew 7:21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.”

We use it out of context to say that this is those who worship God anyway they want. BUT IN FACT this was said to the religious Jews who did the right things but their heart was far from God. Their actions were sound and true to scripture, but their hearts were not where they should be.

We can be doctrinally sound saying “lord lord” but be spiritually sour and away from God.

Sometimes we don’t run away from God in rebellion — we run ahead of Him in self-righteousness.

In running ahead of God, Jonah is trying to Lead God instead of allowing God to lead him! “God you should do this! You should’ve done that! This is what ought to happen!” Jonah is trying to lead God to control how God’s justice and mercy should work.

V.2

Jonah said “I knew this would happen and that’s why I ran!!”

Jonah knew God’s Character but failed to understand the Heart of God and to make himself a man after God’s own heart.

We’re learning that it’s possible to hate what God hates, but not still not love what God loves....I can hate sin that God hates, but I can also not love people. Just because I hate what God hates doesn’t mean I’ve got it all right. I’m half wrong, which means I’m all wrong.

To others in scripture, the mercifulness of God is an awesome thing - (The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love)

David said these exact words in Psalm 103:8 as a praiseworthy thing about God!

Moses said it Exodus 34:6 as an awesome thing about God!

Nehemiah said it in Nehemiah 9:17 that God is merciful and slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love!!!

.....But Jonah uses them as a complaint.... as if God’s goodness is a problem. “God you’re TOO merciful. You’re supposed to be OUR God, not one for these other people and nations!” — Jonah trying to lead God…

Grace isn’t a pie where giving some away means there’s less for you.

Jonah saw God’s mercy and judgment as exclusive to what he thought of is “the right people” instead of for all people. He didn’t care if they changed, because he knew that if you change God will change his course of action!

Jeremiah 18:5–10 “Then the word of the Lord came to me: “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter has done? declares the Lord. Behold, like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. If at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, and if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I intended to do to it. And if at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it, and if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will relent of the good that I had intended to do to it.”

Answer this question silently: Is there anyone that if they got saved I would be exceedingly angry like Jonah? It ought not be so. We can’t hold a grudge that goes as deep as wishing people go to Hell. We’ve got to fix those.

Don’t ever fall into the trap of saying about someone “they don’t deserve forgiveness”. Because you’re right! And guess what, neither do you. But if God forgives them so should I, when God shows mercy, so should I!

Jonah is running ahead of God thinking that he knows more than God.

Matthew 18:23-35

Those of us who are Christians, God has forgiven us of every wrong we’ve committed and every wrong we will commit....SO what is our attitude towards those that wrong us? That’s the point of the parable! Being so desirous of the mercy of God but not willing to extend that which I’ve been given.

How is he going to pay the debt while in a life sentence in prison? (v.30) He can’t, it doesn’t make sense — that’s the picture of refusing to give forgiveness, of holding a grudge, of keeping mercy from someone.

It’s interesting how badly we want it, but we don’t give it.

That’s Jonah.

V.3

The second time in this story that Jonah would rather die. The first was being thrown overboard in chapter 1, instead of repenting and having them turn the boat around. He didn’t repent until after being thrown overboard and after sinking deep and AFTER being swallowed by a fish. That’s what it took to knock down the pride.

Its our job to be faithful and God’s job to determine when the end is. It’s not a good thing for you and I to give up before God says it’s over.

Ask yourself this: do you have enough courage to DIE faithfully? To DIE as a Christian? Not fighting against the end, not in outburst of anger or anxiety...you see Jesus taught us how to live faithfully but He even showed us how to DIE FAITFHULLY. And He did it IN GOD’S TIME IN GOD’S WAY. What will my end be like?

V.4

Are we doing right in how we feel? Anger isn’t sin - it’s what we do when we’re angry when we might sin. Ephesians 4:26 “Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger,”

Emotions aren’t bad - we’re created with them by God Himself who has the same emotions. But they’re not our step by step guide. They’re indicators, warning lights, caution lights, reminders to fill up the tank or to cool down the engine. You’ve got to learn to navigate them wisely, but never dismiss them - God didn’t make you to be a robot, but He also is growing you to be in control of self.

V.5

“A Sullen Retreat”. He was pretty much pouting.

He made some kind of temporary structure. He wanted to see what was going to happen. He pulled away but was going to watch. He isolated himself.

You’d think that he’d run back to Jerusalem. But now his hate and anger has made him go from what was avoidance to now even further worse of “I want to watch this train wreck, I want to see them suffer, I want to see their end”.

V.6

God APPOINTED!

The prophet, the storm, the fish x2, the plant, and in the next verse the worm, and then he appoints a scorching wind.

God is the God of EVERYTHING - yes the worm and the plants too.

God gave him something good and comfortable.

This is the only time we see a happy Jonah!!

We can easily see wrong priorities in what brings Jonah gladness!

What is it that makes you happy? That’s where you find what your heart is focused on just as much the things that you despise.

V.7

Jonah now is about to be back at angry...why? He lost his physical comfort!

He’s angry about that, but at the same time he’s angry that hundreds of thousands of people aren’t burning! WHAT?!

We get angry when our physical comforts are taken away from us. We need to get angry of hundreds of thousands of people being lost!

Jonah has the wrong value system. We need to make sure we’ve got a godly perspective of things, that we have the right values and the right priorities.

V.8

God has used the sun to melt Jonah down and bring the imperfections to the top. That’s what happens when you are refining precious metals - it takes severe and intense circumstance to make the imperfections pop out and then you have to deal with it accordingly! You gonna scrape those things out and remove them? Or are you gonna leave it be?

When Jonah has any dissapointment here he’s willing just to give it all up and throw in the towel. He’s acting like butter in the sun here, ready to just be unusable and wasted away. God is trying to make him firm up like clay, so Jonah is being taken to school again. He’s got something he needs to learn to be a person of God.

V.9

God is saying to Jonah and us - the comfort is gone but I’m God who is in control. That’s the way we need to see physical comforts.

Has anything happened that made it IMPOSSIBLE for you to remain true to God?

The answer is NO. You expected life to be a bed of roses just because you can work hard? That’s an empty expectation - it wont be that way. God is schooling Jonah and us by removing comfort.

If God takes away the comfort in your life, don’t fight so hard to take it back from Him because there is a lesson you probably need to learn there about full dependence ON Him and full contentment WITH Him. And the lesson may not be “how to have that comfort and still be faithful”, you might need to learn the lesson that “I can’t be faithful if I have this so I better just give it up”.

The thing he liked and relied on is gone, BUT he’s still got his God! That’s FAR SUPERIOR to a plant. FAR SUPERIOR to any amount of money, any size home, any successful business or job position.

But Jonah says “yes i do have a right, I don’t like the way you’re doing things” — Jonah is saying there’s a better way, my way — and that him running ahead of God.

V.10

You value the thing you did nothing for and that doesn’t have a soul....You’re out of sync with truth and godly thinking!

Luke 9:25 “For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?” —— that begs the question: what will you sell out for?

Now, if you’re someone that says “Well, every man has a price”..… — you just outted yourself saying that YOU have a price, you just said that there is a point that YOU are willing to sell out. Not everybody has a price.

2 Cor.11 you can read all the things that happened to Paul and he didn’t have a price.

When you value comfort more than souls, comfort over doing the will of God you’re out of sync with God. And you can find out if you do by evaluating how much time you spend in your week on things. Just write out what you do each day, and how much time you spent doing it. You’ll see plain as day what is important to you and what is lower on the totem pole.

V.11

HERE’S JONAH’S BIG LESSON:

God’s lesson is simple — souls are more important than gourds/plants...(DUH)

This is an important lesson because today people are so concerned about physical things that sometimes they forget the fact that God is concerned about spiritual things.

We are bombarded with messages every day that tell us what really matters: your appearance, your house, your job, your comfort, your financial security. And while none of those are sinful in and of themselves, they can easily drown out the voice of what matters most — God’s voice about the state of the soul. We pour energy into building savings accounts, net worth, and retirement plans while our neighbors are spiritually bankrupt. We monitor our kids' grades and athletic performance but rarely check the condition of their hearts.

God didn’t send Jonah to fix Nineveh’s roads or economy — He sent him to speak to their souls. God didn’t create the plant to give Jonah a forever blessing — He used it to expose his misaligned priorities. Did you hear that? God allowed Jonah to have something in order to expose misaligned priorities! WOW! Jonah was more concerned about a temporary comfort than eternal consequences. And if we’re honest, we often do the same.

This hits hard in an age where comfort is king. We pray more for healthy bodies than for clean hearts. We grieve more over gas prices than lost people. We scroll and scroll past tragedy, but we panic when the Wi-Fi goes down.

God is reminding Jonah — and us — that He’s in the soul business. The real crisis isn’t losing a plant. It’s losing people. What moves your heart more: a bad day or a lost soul?

What makes a city great?

The number of people?

The wealth and size?

“don’t know right hand from their left”

They’re children in a sense, they’re adults who lack moral understanding.

They were PRIMED to be taught ANYTHING, and God took advantage of that by sending a prophet!

And you don’t care about that Jonah? God has sent Jonah and has been dealing with him in the manner we’ve seen from the storm, the fish, the plant all to teach Jonah as well. Ninevah needed to learn about God. Jonah still needed to learn too.

A great city is where there is great opportunity.

What is God’s broader purpose in sending a prophet of Israel to a foreign nation and writes a book back to the Israelites but not for the people he sent the prophet?

In Jonah we see a real historical story that helps the people of God better understand about the heart of God, and that I need the same heart of God in my own chest.

The book closes in an neat way that is different than most the rest - God ends this book with a question. Not a profound change of action by someone, not by us hearing the prophet repent and change forever —- BUT A QUESTION for the prophet and a question for you and I. The question God ask is this: — WILL YOU CARE ABOUT THE NATIONS LIKE I DO? WILL YOU ALIGN YOURSELF WITH THE BROADER SCOPE OF MY PLAN, THAT GOD CARES FOR EVERY SINGLE SOUL NO MATTER LOCATION OR BACKGROUND? DO YOU LOVE SOULS?

I can make the argument that this is the most evangelistic book in the Old Testament. Its a book teaching you and me about the heart of God.

Jonah ends sitting in the heat — not the heat of Nineveh’s judgment, but of his own heart’s resentment.

He obeyed with his feet, but not with his soul. He preached the truth, but didn’t love the people. He ran with God, but eventually ran ahead of God — trying to write the ending he thinks is better.

But God says: “Let me be God. Let me show mercy. You just follow Me.”

We don’t have a clue if Jonah repents and changes. We don’t know how Jonah answers the question God asked...

Maybe another question can be asked for you and I — “AM I JONAH?”

God is still asking the same question today: Will you love who I love?

The book of Jonah calls us not just to go where God sends us — but to have His heart when we get there.