Sermon Tone Analysis

The Anger of Jonah

Introduction

When Robert Ingersoll, the famous atheist, was lecturing, he once took out his watch and declared, “I will give God five minutes to strike me dead for the things I have said.”

The minutes ticked off as he held the watch and waited.

In about four-and-a-half minutes, some women began fainting, but nothing happened.

When the five minutes were up, Ingersoll put the watch into his pocket.

When that incident reached the ears of a certain preacher, Joseph Parker, he asked, “And did the gentleman think he could exhaust the patience of the Eternal God in five minutes?”

I believe that many of us believe that God is patient, but rarely do we think of it in terms of us.

How much patience God has for us.

We can look at others and examine their lives and see well clearly, God is exhibiting great patience with them.

But in reflecting on how patient God is with us, we will be overcome with great joy in the Gospel.

Reflecting on His patience with us rightly will bring about true worship.

An appreciation of what God has done for us which we are too quick to forget.

We are forgetful people though aren’t we.

And that can get us into trouble.

If we forget a birthday, or an anniversary.

Or an appointment and the person is left the all alone.

Or we can forget to complete a task for work or assignment for school, if not forget that you were supposed to be at work or school that day.

We forget and there are consequences for those things.

But what is the consequence for forget how great a salvation we have received?

We do not lose our salvation.

But I would say that the consequence is greater than we think.

We forget how great a sinner we are and how much God has forgiven us and so when someone upsets us we do not forgive as we should.

When we are having a tough day, we try to rely on our own strength and our own effort, when that was not how we were saved.

We have a great God who we can trust.

Or on the other side of the token, when things are good we become proud and think we did it on our own.

We forget the great joy of our salvation.

The peace we find in Christ.

And the privilege we have of being children of God.

And so we dwindle in our prayer, our service, our bible reading, our evangelism.

1 Peter 1:10-12 10 Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, 11 trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of the Messiah and the glories that would follow.

12 It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven.

Even angels long to look into these things.

And so what ought we to do?

13 Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming.

14 As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance.

15 But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; 16 for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”

We too quickly forget what God has done and what he has called us to do.

And we are reminded of that aren’t we, when we look at the life of Jonah.

The most effective missionary recorded in Scriptures and yet, the unlikeliest candidate for the job.

In Chapter 1 of Jonah, we saw the great responsibility God had placed on him.

How he called Jonah to go to Nineveh and preach to them, but he runs.

He runs away and boards a boat.

And so we see that although he was commissioned, he rebelled against his call.

We continue to follow him on his sea journey to Tarshish and there we encounter him in the midst of a great and deadly storm.

His life is hanging on a thread and in an act of defiance he doesn’t repent while those around him do.

A startling image is impressed in our minds as we read of him thrown into the sea to die, swallowed by a great fish.

But in chapter 2, we read that he is safe in there.

What mercy from God as Jonah is humbled in the great fish and God remembers Jonah.

Chapter 3, Jonah is back on land and he preaches and his message takes effect.

The people repent!

God full of mercy and love forgives the people and relents from the disaster that was to come upon them had they continued in their sins.

And this is truly how we want the story to end.

Every story ought to end with a happy note.

But chapter 4. If only for there to be three chapters then it would be a proper story.

But Jonah’s story is not finished yet.

Jonah is angry.

An unlikely response to what God has done, but he is angry.

He is more than angry, he is furious and upset with God.

But before diving into an exposition, let’s read the text.

Jonah 4:1-11

Body

Now Jonah was not upset because the people did not repent.

Or even that they rejected him or attempted to take his life.

No Jonah is upset for the unlikeliest reason for a missionary.

Hudson Taylor would tell those who wanted to be missionaries to China that there were three indispensable requirements for a missionary:

1. Patience

2. Patience

3. Patience

They required it, because they had to invest themselves into the lives of the people they were reaching our to with the Gospel.

A slow process of answering their questions and teaching them the word.

Patience.

But Jonah was not upset because he had run out of patience for the people, but he was upset because of the patience and mercy and love of God.

It is quite odd.

We knew already from the beginning of the story that Jonah did not want to go to these people.

He did not want to obey the call of God on his life.

He ran.

We knew he that.

And we finally get an answer to the question we may have been wondering throughout the whole epoch.

The question of why.

Jonah knows God’s compassion and mercy and he did not want it to have been extended to the Ninevites.

But not only do we see God demonstrating His abundant patience with the people, we see it also expressed towards Jonah.

Where in chapter 1 the seamen received mercy from God, and chapter 2 the great fish gets it, and chapter 3 the Ninevites get it, here in chapter 4, and truly throughout the whole book, Jonah gets mercy from God. God is patient with him.

He does not strike down this ungrateful prophet but actually continues to provide for him.

So Jonah waves his tiny, little fist at God and says, “I told you so!

I knew you were going to do this.”

Can you imagine telling a sovereign, all-knowing God that you knew.

And so there is Jonah, greatly displeased and furious.

And we read of him praying to God.

But this is not under the same conditions as his previous prayer.

In chapter 2, Jonah’s prayer is grateful, although unrepentant, Jonah acknowledges that God is sovereign and a saving God.

But here in chapter 4, how quickly his prayers turn the opposite direction.

And his complaint is ironic isn’t it.

Almost quoting from Ex 34:6-7.

First, God is seen as a “gracious” (ḥannûn) God.

This word communicates the attitude of the Lord toward those who are undeserving, thereby expressing benevolence in the ultimate sense.

The next word used to describe God is the word “compassionate” (raḥûm).

This word is translated in many ways and can mean “loving” or “merciful.”

It also expresses the understanding and loving compassion of a mother to her child, hence the idea of understanding and loving favor.

God is also described as “slow to anger” (ʾerek ʾappayim).