When God Saves and We Moan
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Claim (of the passage) - God is gracious (compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love) - even towards selfish believers.
Focus (of the sermon) - God in His love is consistently gracious to us even when we rebel. Stop our selfish ideas about life and God, and start giving our all to spreading his grace and enjoying His work.
Function (for the congregation) - to knock selfish ideas about how God should do things out of our heads, recognise his incredible grace and love for us, and start spreading that joy to others.
PRAY
Jonah has demonstrated some low points so far.
He was commanded by God in Chapter 1 to go to Ninevah and preach to it.
But he hightailed it out of there.
His next low point was a literal one - the bottom of the sea, where God brought him to a point of desperatarion and despair.
His despair caused him to call again in mercy to the Lord.
Jonah finally had seen that he was to obey the Lord, even if he didn’t like it.
And so once the great fish had vomitted him back onto dry land,
God calls him again to preach against Nineveh.
And so he does.
The message god give him to say
On the first day, Jonah started into the city. He proclaimed: “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned.”
jon
It was more successful that a Billy Graham mission.
If you were here last week, that great city as a whole put on sackcloth and held a fast.
The humbled themselves, they cried to God for mercy.
Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.”
When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction he had threatened.
On the first day, Jonah started into the city. He proclaimed: “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned.”
jon
I can think of a few ways you might respond to this sort of news if you were Jonah, but none of them would be quite as extraordinary as Jonah’s.
None would be quite as low as his responce.
Low has a new depth to it this week in the book of Janah!
But Jonah was greatly displeased and became angry.
or I particularly like the new NIV...
But to Jonah this seemed very wrong, and he became angry.
But Jonah was greatly displeased and became angry.
The next thing he does seems positive - he prays..
but what he prays is initially casts him in a poor, but then
he says one of the most shocking things in scripture:
The first part of v2
He prayed to the Lord, “O Lord, is this not what I said when I was still at home? That is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.
He prayed to the Lord, “O Lord, is this not what I said when I was still at home? That is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish.
No-one is exactly clear as to why Jonah is so angry about God saving the Ninevites. But he’s not happy and he knew it would happen.
1 reason for his angre that some give,
is that perhaps Jonah is angry that he will now look foolish for predicting judgement,
but now it wont come.
I think this is unlikely, becasue if the Ninevites are genuinely repentant,
becasue they genuinely believe that judgement is coming.
Then they are not going to mock the person who saved them if the judgement then doesn’t come as a result of their repentance
Far from being angry at Jonah for making a mistake they are more likely to be relieved and thankful to Jonah for warning them.
God’s prophesies of judgment in the bible are always conditional on an in appropriate response.
There are a number of examples where God relents because of the repentance of the people.
Another reason given for Jonah’s angre is just the general hatred the Jews had for the Ninevites.
I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.
They were evil and unclean in their eyes.
I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.
ALmost a kind of national jelously - that God was their God.
And related to that, might be Jonah’s envy that his own people at this point are being fairly wicked themselevs.
It might have been that Jonah was hoping the Ninevites would be destroyed,
so that he could go back to his own people and explode at them!
“Look what happens to rebelious people!
Sort your act our Israelites! Return to the Lord!”
With no judgements to speak of,
what hope has he got now to convince his own people.
Anyway,
because we don’t know exactly what his angre was about,
it’s a bit of a red herring to pursue any of them in detail.
I think the point is much more simple.
Whatever his reasoning,
however good or holy,
justifiable it was,
he simply didn’t like God’s way of dealing out grace.
1 - The Unacceptable Grace of God - from our perspective
1 - The Unacceptable Grace of God - from our perspective
The next thing he says is simply shocking:
He prayed to the Lord, “O Lord, is this not what I said when I was still at home? That is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.
jon 4
He quotes Exodus 34v6-7 as if it’s a terrible condemnation of God’s character!
This is massively ironic!
Especially when we consider the context of the passage he quotes in Exodus.
Back in , God himself proclaims these very words about himself.
But he does so at a point of great rebellion and tension amongst God’s own people.
While Moses,
the great leader,
is on the mountain top receiving the 10 commandments from God,
the people are down the bottom of the mountain building an idol!
Have a look at it now: Page No?
Ex 32v7
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go down, because your people, whom you brought up out of Egypt, have become corrupt.
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go down, because your people, whom you brought up out of Egypt, have become corrupt. They have been quick to turn away from what I commanded them and have made themselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf. They have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it and have said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.’
“I have seen these people,” the Lord said to Moses, “and they are a stiff-necked people. Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation.”
The Holy Bible: New International Version—Anglicised (1984) The Golden Calf
7 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go down, because your people, whom you brought up out of Egypt, have become corrupt. 8 They have been quick to turn away from what I commanded them and have made themselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf. They have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it and have said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.’
9 “I have seen these people,” the LORD said to Moses, “and they are a stiff-necked people. 10 Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them.
-
Moses then pleads for mercy on behalf of the people,
and God, relents.
It’s the same word Jonah uses here of God relenting before the Ninevites.
Moses Goes down the mountain with the 10 commandments on 2 stone tablets and when he sees the golden calf, the idol, he is enraged and smashes the stone tablets on the ground!
But God is still patient, and not long afterwards commands Moses to return to the mountain to receive the commandments again.
It is then, on the mountain top, in the light of shocking idol worship, and rebelion of his own people, that God declares of himself..
And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation.”
Ex 34v6
The Holy Bible: New International Version—Anglicised (1984) The New Stone Tablets
6 And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, 7 maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin.
Jonah takes one of the most poignant, patient and gracious moments of God in his peoples history.
And rubs God’s nose in it!
I don’t like your grace!
I’m fed up of your compassion and abounding love.
Would you just wipe these miserable people from the earth.
I know you are slow to angre, rich in love, faithful, you have been nothing but that to me.
But do you really have to be like that to everyone!
PAUSE
But the Lord replied, “Have you any right to be angry?”
Jonah didn’t answer… He’s too angry it seems, angry enough to die!
Jonah went out and sat down at a place east of the city. There he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city.
Off he stomps out of the city of Ninevah,
“Maybe God has got my message - maybe he’s realised I’m right.
I’m going to sit and watch
- maybe that 40 day time bomb I’ve set in Nenveh will still go off!”
His actions to us seem unbelievable.
His hypocrisy, the irony -
he’s the one who doesn’t deserve God’s grace.
He’s the one who ran away from God.
He’s the one showing no recognition of God’s soverignty and power.
And as he sits down, builds a half-hearted shelter from the sun,
he can sit, Pause, and contemplate.
PAUSE
Are we at times any better than Jonah?
Do we ever rub the grace fo God back in his face?
No, we all say.
I love the fact that God saved me.
I love that I am free from judgement.
I love being part of God’s family.
I even love coming to church,
Reading my bible, praying.
I love the grace of God.
Well so far Jonah agrees with you.
All that is self-centred grace.
It benefits you and me.
It’s great and good, but it is still self benefitting.
But what about when we can’t be bothered to tell our friend about Jesus, about the coming judgement?
What about the times we right someone off for God. They will never believe. - so why bother..
What about getting involved in prison minisrty, or sacrififcal overseas ministry.
We mention the idea of becoming a missionary in a sermon, kids slot, ministry news or bible study regularly at GC.
And I haven’t managed to get rid of anyone yet.
Do we even talk about these things with our spouses?
Do we pray about them being an option.
Do we consider giving up our comfort for mission or evangelism.
That seems to be the challenge fo Jonah.
Why? Because like Jonah, we’re comfortable.
If not,
Why? Because like Jonah, we’re comfortable.
And that suggestion isn’t comfortable.
We really need to be telling our colleagues about Jesus - but have we?
I mention that we need more money to go towards evangelism or missions - but the church finances don’t increase.
Why? Because like Jonah, we’re comfortable.
In short - God’s grace is unacceptable - it’s not quite enough for us to do those things!
We would never say it,
but to make a huge change in our lifestyle,
to give more money,
to speak out at work,
to move our family overseas
well, it’s not really something we are prepared todo, becasue God’s grace in unacceptable.
That’s for someone else.
Someone else can make the sacrifice, the change, take the risk,
We would never say it, but we are often no better than the shocking, ironic and hypocritical Jonah.
PAUSE
So what’s the solution?
Well it’s to listen to God for once
2 - The Unacceptable Grace of God - from God’s perspective
2 - The Unacceptable Grace of God - from God’s perspective
God is not finished with Jonah. And he has an important lesson for him.
They really didn’t I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.
NIV (NEW) - This seemed very wrong!
UNACCEPTABle GRACE - slow to anger, gracious, compassionate, abounding in love (ex 34v6-7) PROPERLY FUN
V3 - So DIM!!!!!
What we’ve been waiting for... v4
And Jonah walks off!!!!!!!!! Still hoping it will be destroyed.
As Jonah sits and sulks in the hot sun, God creates a plant for him.
Then the Lord God provided a vine and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the vine.
JOnah builds a rubbish shelter
Literally, he ‘REJOICED WITH REJOICING’.
jon 4
God builds a better one - Jonah is thrilled.
Jonah is delirious with this plant.
Why?
Becasue it suits him!
It makes his life easier!
It’s the rear extention to our house.
The pormotion at work.
the luxuary holiday,
the swift recovery from ilness.
It’s the place for our child at the grammer school!
WE LOVE this type of grace!
(There is nothing wrong with enjoying this grace from God).
What is wrong is our perspective on things.
Jonah should have been ‘Rejicing with rejoicing’ over the slavation of the great city of Nineveh! But instead he wanted to die.
He was missing out on the glourious joy of serving God,
becasue he didn’t see it being to his personal gain.
And then something extraordinary happens.
I’m not talking about the fact that God now sends a worm and an easterly wind to destroy the plant.
I’m talking about the fact that the narrator of Jonah, changes the name he uses for God.
So far in Jonah, as is typical in the OT,
whenever God is referred to in relevance to His own people,
to Jonah, the word Yahweh, is used.
But in reference to foreigners.
People who don’t belong to God,
the Ninevites in this book, the word Elohim is used.
But NOW..., the author, we presume Jonah,
But God is planning his final lesson.
for who else would know all the details,
starts to use
the Word Elohim for God in a section referring to - Jonah.
You can see it in English, by the times LORD in capitals is used for Yahweh,
or God is used for Elohim.
What’s the author doing...
He’s making us see how the grace Jonah is unhappy about,
is the same grace he is benefitting from as an Israelite.
Jonah is being counted as a foreigner,
a man who deserves judgement just as much as the Ninevites.
Stop your self-centred view of how my grace works is the point.
But the Lord replied, “Have you any right to be angry?”
Then the Lord God provided a vine and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the vine.
Yahweh asks the question.
But Jonah doesn’t listen,
The God of
So then v6,
Then the Lord God provided a vine and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the vine.
jonh 4 6
Yahweh, Eloihim provides the vine.
The grace of God towards Jonah is being made equal to the grace Eloihim is showing to Ninevah.
Not so speicial after all Jonah.
Then v7 and 8 Elohim destroys the vine and brings great distress upon Jonah.
And now v9
And now v9
But God said to Jonah, “Do you have a right to be angry about the vine?”
“I do,” he said. “I am angry enough to die.”
Eloihim - the God of all the universe, the god who will bring judgement to the wicked,
Asks the same question as v4.
Yahweh yes - but don’t think you are any different to the wicked you are judgeing Jonah.
just becasue you are saved - does not make you more deserving of grace!
You are saved becasue I am gracious says Elohim,
Here comes the punchline.
v10 - But the Lord - But Yahew - His personal name for his dearly loved people, the name Jonah would know and love:
Like that great scene in Lord of the rings when Gandalf needs to put Bilbo Baggins in his place,
Bilbo is not forthcoming about the ‘ring;
and so as Gandalf speaks he grows in size, his voice deepens and has terrifying authority - “Do not take me for a fool” or whatever he says.
But then he returns to his normal caring demeaner, to make his point, “I’m your friend Bilbo”
But the Lord said, “You have been concerned about this vine, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight.
But Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about that great city?”
We love God’s grace when it suits us, the vine, the nice house, our health.
And if any of that is taken from us, well we are enraged!
We love those things, we care for those things, how dare you God destory them.
And yet, we are happy to watch millions pass to the grave
without making every effort to save them.
We morn for the loss and judgment of comfort,
But we barely blink an eye for the eternal damnation of thousands of people.
The book of Jonah is God, our comapssionate and faithful friend,
growing in size stature and terrifying authority,
“KNow your place Chruch! Declaire my grace to all, with all you have”
And then he returns to the Lord and saviour we have always known.
“I’m your friend, I know what is best, even for you!”
the very last word in the book is cows.
Should I, The LoRD, not have even enough concern for the cows in Ninevah to send you to them, to delcare my judgement, so that they may be saved?
It would be worth it for an insignificant cow - how much more for thousands of people!
We will not
As G. V. Smith has said:
‘God will (and does) act in justice against sin, but His great love for every person in the world causes Him to wait patiently, to give graciously, to forgive mercifully, and to accept compassionately even the most unworthy people in the world. To experience the grace of God and not be willing to tell others of His compassion is a tragedy all must avoid. Messengers of God can neither limit the grace of God nor control its distribution, but they can prevent God’s grace from having an effect on their own lives.‘
- This time it is a personal lesson
Jonah loves the vine and morns it’s destruction - But had no hand in it’s growth
The New American Commentary: Amos, Obadiah, Jonah (3) God’s Methods of Discipline (4:6–8)
Yahweh is preferred in an Israelite context and Elohim elsewhere. Walton picks up this observation and further notes that the use of the compound name in v. 6 introduces the object lesson in which the term Elohim is used while Jonah is in focus. This, he argues, signals the reader that God is putting Jonah “in Nineveh’s shoes to help evaluate whether his anger is justified.” He further notes that in the object lesson, “God then did to Jonah what Jonah wanted him to do to Nineveh.”
Jonah hates the Ninevites and wants their destruction - But had no hand in it’s growth
Don’t miss out.
WHY IS GOD STILL BOTHERING WITH JONAH? - HE”S ONE OF HIS. GOD WNATS US TO UNDERSTAND HIS GRACE TO ALL.
Don’t be a hypocryt.
Don’t be like Jonah.
What’s the difference? One benefited JOnah, (selfishness) the other didn’t.
What are you going to do about declaring God this week, this year, next year.
But I don’t think we should leave the book of Jonah just there.
There needs to be one more big question answered...
If Jonah was so useless,
so hypocritical,
so selfcentred
why, why, did God keep bothering with him.
Why does this whole book follow his story.
Why is the book not about the thousands saved in Ninevah,
or the sailors, or even the obedient fish!
Why is this book all about Jonah being pursued, brought back to grace,
brought to obedince,
and persevered with,
with God’s personal and attentive hand,
despite his rebelion.
Why did God not just leave him,
Forget him,
use someone else,
give Jonah what he wanted,
It’s an important question,
because it’s the same question we probably have.
We all too easily relate to Jonah.
We all too easily love grace that bring personal comfort,
but really can’t be bothered to do much else.
Why,
Why is God still showing an interest in us.
Why?
Jonah knows, and so do you.
But instead of using it negatively, let’s rejoice in it.
Let’s rejoice that Jesus, fulfills it and makes it possible,
What is it?
It’s in
4v2
The Holy Bible: New International Version—Anglicised (1984) Jonah’s Anger at the Lord’s Compassion
I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.
PRAY
3 - The Unacceptable Grace of God - FOR US
3 - The Unacceptable Grace of God - FOR US
And so, he mourns a simple vine, but doesn’t care for 120000 people (who are lost - right hand from the left?) and many cows.
If JOnah is concerned for a vine that serves him,
Should not God be concerned about great city that is NOT serving him.
V2 - i or my repeated 9 times
Missing out on the joy of selfless service
Focus (of the sermon) - God in His love is consistently gracious to us even when we rebel. Stop our selfish ideas about life and God, and start giving our all to spreading his grace and enjoying His work.
Function (for the congregation) - to knock selfish ideas about how God should do things out of our heads, recognise his incredible grace and love for us, and start spreading that joy to others.
Countless numbers of modern-day believers miss much of the joy of being involved in God’s wonderful work because of self-centeredness.
(Amos, Obadiah, Jonah (NAC)): Here we see how bad theology may also lead to despair. If the Israelites had not had such a limited understanding of their God, an understanding that, among other things, tied together much too closely faith in God and social/political/economic prosperity, they would have been better enabled to cope with the realities of life.”
JONAH IS BEING COMPARED TO THE NINEVITES, not the ISRAELITES - (Amos, Obadiah, Jonah (NAC)): Here we see how bad theology may also lead to despair. If the Israelites had not had such a limited understanding of their God, an understanding that, among other things, tied together much too closely faith in God and social/political/economic prosperity, they would have been better enabled to cope with the realities of life.”
V6 - DELIRIOUSLY HAPPY _ REJOICING WITH REJOICING! HA, God has agreed with jonah! (Don’t speak too soon)
V7 - !! The only ACTUAL destruction in the book of Jonah is not on the sailors, Nineveh or anyone else, but on something Jonah actually did care about!!
110 degrees
Jonah “neither wished to live under the governance of free grace (vv. 1–3), nor was he prepared to live under a government without grace (vv. 7–9).”
WHo are you YOU to question mE!
V11 - Should I not, ON THE OTHER HAND....
God’s wish is for salvation not destruction
GREAT QUOTE:
(Amos, Obadiah, Jonah (NAC)):
‘God will (and does) act in justice against sin, but His great love for every person in the world causes Him to wait patiently, to give graciously, to forgive mercifully, and to accept compassionately even the most unworthy people in the world. To experience the grace of God and not be willing to tell others of His compassion is a tragedy all must avoid. Messengers of God can neither limit the grace of God nor control its distribution, but they can prevent God’s grace from having an effect on their own lives.‘
Morally naive but not morally innocent!
The book ends conclusionless! What will your life end with?
Wonderful and joyful (but sacrificial and selfless) service and obedience to spreading the news of God’s grace,
Or with life missing out on the joy of enjoying God’s grace now. How sad - how mocked Jonah must have felt. You should feel mocked if you don’t want to spread the grace of God.
Cows.