Jonah 4

Jonah 4 ESV

1 But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. 2 And he prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster. 3 Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” 4 And the Lord said, “Do you do well to be angry?” 5 Jonah went out of the city and sat to the east of the city and made a booth for himself there. He sat under it in the shade, till he should see what would become of the city. 6 Now the Lord God appointed a plant and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be a shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort. So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the plant. 7 But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant, so that it withered. 8 When the sun rose, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint. And he asked that he might die and said, “It is better for me to die than to live.” 9 But God said to Jonah, “Do you do well to be angry for the plant?” And he said, “Yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die.” 10 And the Lord said, “You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. 11 And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?”

The job is accomplished! No more to be done except go home back to Israel. What an amazing time! The whole city turns to the Lord. The greatest revival of all time and Jonah is delirious about it all for God has relented of bringing disaster upon the Ninevites. Of course, I chose the word delirious for Jonah for it is ambiguous. He should have been deliriously happy except, surprisingly, he is deliriously mad and angry. Indeed Jonah seems to sway from the heights of emotion to the heights of another with no calmness whatsoever. As we shall see he goes from extreme to extreme from exceeding anger, to exceeding joy to exceeding depression desiring to die every time something does not go his way. This is not a balanced man!

And it is all because of his racial hatred towards a group of people. This is a man who lives by the seat of his pants and relies excessively on his feelings and now he is about to learn his lesson from God. Indeed God’s patience towards Jonah is incredible and shows his deep love and care for him that he should not be caught up in such sways of emotion, feeling and instead learn about mercy.

Let us go through this chapter which really is only included so that we can see what Jonah had to learn, and being Holy Scripture, so that we can also learn along the way.

Our English does not give the full force of what Jonah is feeling for literally verse 1 says that ‘it was evil to Jonah, a great evil’. He was so angry because there was no calamity upon the Ninevites. He sees the kindness and mercy of God and calls it evil. Nineveh was getting away with it, Jonah thought, much too easily. They must be punished!

In verse 2 he pours out his heart to God. Remember he is livid at God but still, if we come to Him with genuine heart God hears us. If we come in self-righteousness then God will not hear us but Jonah is wanting to get off his chest all his unhappiness at the Lord. And God shows no problem with it.

Nine times, now, in the Hebrew he uses ‘I’, ‘me’ or ‘my’. He is completely caught up in himself and his feelings. And then we hear of the amazing faith that Jonah had at the very beginning: I knew that if I went you would relent. I went the other way because I did not want you to be gracious and compassionate towards those people. I was right, Jonah says. I didn’t change my mind, Jonah says, You did. The Ninevites’ repentance was a necessary condition for their pardon, they would not have altered their wicked course had the Lord not sent them His prophet—for He does not desire the death of the wicked but ‘I am right, so You must be wrong’, is Jonah’s argument. You, he says, are ALWAYS gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love. You should be more discerning about when You should be compassionate, Lord. I am ready to die, Lord, I am so angry at You.

The JPS Bible Commentary: Jonah Outside the Pardoned City: Jonah’s Second Rebellion (vv. 4:1–5)

The God who moved the people of Nineveh to repent of their evil ways hints that His prophet should repent of his excessive righteousness.

Jonah, sits up on the hillside knowing that this city that rushed to repent will only too soon backslide. God was too quick to offer mercy. The result will be that they will back to their own ways again. Jonah’s idea of justice is very one-sided and does not give credence to the repentance of Nineveh and their ability to withhold themselves from their former lives. It is only punishment that will achieve this not mercy. And he has a ring side seat to watch when the fire of judgement from Heaven falls.

Jonah and the other prophets so identify with their role and doing it right that when it does not go according to plan they lose all sense of purpose and meaning. We find this with Elijah too who, after fire really did come down from Heaven but not upon people but a sacrifice and it was to demonstrate that the Lord, He is God, and it is He that the people should serve, he then runs for his life at the threat of Jezebel. He also wanted to die for he felt all alone and no one else would serve God. Even he was mistaken as God told him there were 7000 others who were followers.

Jonah though was still to learn that the Lord completely rejects Jonah’s premise that justice cannot have mercy. And the way he was going to learn, whilst up on the hillside was through a plant.

Opening Up Jonah (6) Lack of Perspective

As Jonah sits in sullen isolation, the Lord miraculously provides a vine that shoots up overnight. He awakens to find that his home-made shack has had a divine makeover.

Opening Up Jonah (6) Lack of Perspective

In kindness, the Lord has provided the vine to give protecting shade for Jonah (v. 6), but Jonah’s delight is wildly out of proportion. Because he has allowed his feelings to dictate his life, he has lost all sense of perspective. Euphoric over a plant and indifferent to the destruction of a city, he stands in need of divine instruction.

Opening Up Jonah Chapter 10: Sun, Wind and Worm (4:7–11)

Once again Jonah and the Lord are locked in battle. It is not a fight between enemies but a struggle for mastery between friends. As a contest it is unequal and there will only ever be one victor, but the Lord’s purpose in engaging in battle is not to punish Jonah. He wishes instead to teach him. Jonah will emerge from this conflict humbled and, we trust, more effective.

Opening Up Jonah Jonah’s Heart Revealed (v. 7)

Jonah deliriously, almost embarrassingly, happy. It is the happiest he has been, despite having been God’s instrument for the most glorious spiritual revival the world has probably ever seen. His delight has been fuelled by the miraculous provision of a plant.

Opening Up Jonah Jonah’s Heart Revealed (v. 7)

Jonah dares to believe that the Lord has come round to his way of thinking after all. If so, he takes it that the kind provision of a shade from the burning heat must be God’s way of apologizing to him. This is vindication of the highest order.

Remember that Jonah was all alone. The Ninevites were certainly not his friends. So, now he has a friend in the plant. You know how it is how some talk to plants even sing. He got attached to this plant. We can get so easily attached to things. Of course, this is true for pet attachments too, for we talk to our dogs and cats in just about the same way as to humans. Or maybe even better than we speak to others.

Opening Up Jonah Jonah’s Heart Revealed (v. 7)

In kindness the Lord may allow us our toys, but he can remove them at a stroke to teach us that our joy should be in him alone.

And this is what Jonah is about to find out.

The vine that had given him such happiness and vindication is destroyed by a prepared worm. The vine had been prepared. The worm had been prepared. Now the wind has been prepared. The shelter that Jonah had is blasted away and it is not a cool breeze but a hot wind and the temperature can only go up. The plant has been shredded just as the sun start to get hot. The wind is hot. The sun is hot. He was waiting for the punishment upon Nineveh but it did not and does not come. There is now a realisation that all these things are happening just for him. And again he wants to die. This is a habit for Jonah. But this is no prayer. This time he does not address God. He is in full meltdown and rebellion against God. He is no longer able to pray he is that angry.

This is ironic for he was angry that God showed mercy to the Ninevites and His right to do that. This time he is angry that God has not shown mercy and His right to do that in destroying a plant. The Ninevites should have been destroyed and the plant saved. The Ninevites have only done harm, the plant has only done good. God is so unfair! And this just adds to Jonah’s sense of impotence and suffering.

The Lord asks Him: Do you have a right to be angry? This is the same question asked in verse 4 about the Ninevites. This time God is explicit about being angry about the plant. And he answers Him: Yes, Yes, I am angry enough to die!

And here is where Jonah has to learn his lesson, the why God prepared the vine, the worm and the wind and before that the fish.

There were 120,000 who could not discern their right and left hands. What is meant by this saying? Is this about those who cannot distinguish between good and evil? Or is it about a lack of knowledge? What group of people can fit such a description? I assume that everyone here knows what is their right and left hands even if getting the right wrong sometimes and left right! So, who is the Lord speaking about for it cannot be adults can it? Only children do not know these things. So, how big was the city? Well we know that it was 3 days’ journey. So, it was huge. The population then must have been closer to 600,000. Indeed historical records show that the city and its vicinity at one stage had 3 million people.

The Lord comes to Jonah: Compare, Jonah, if you will, the plant compared to Nineveh. You did not plant the vine, you did not cause it to come up and yet you feel pity for a plant. Can the destruction of a plant compare with the destruction of human life. The vine existed for 24 hours but Nineveh was one of the first cities ever founded and the Lord planted both the vine and the city.

Jonah’s pity for the plant does not compare as much as the pity the Lord has for the people of Nineveh. It is not wrong to pity the plant but it is also not wrong to pity the city. Of course we see this in Jesus who approached a particular city:

Matthew 23:37 ESV

37 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!

He foresaw its destruction just as He had foreseen the destruction of Nineveh. But Nineveh repented.

And indeed Jesus speaks of this in:

Luke 11:32 ESV

32 The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.

Did Jonah learn his lesson? The book comes to an abrupt end. No answer is given to the final question. The question which is quite leading:

Jonah 4:11 ESV

11 And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?”

I always thought that because of the way the book ended Jonah went on his miserable way. Perhaps he was changed, perhaps not. Who can tell?

But let me put the record straight. Who put the words in this book? How do we know about any of what we are told? Was it not Jonah who recorded his own experience even at his own expense. This was a man who learned the lessons that God taught him. The rebel submitted to God. Jonah is not a man of words. He need not answer the question. He need no longer justify himself. He returned in humble silence.

I want to tie up this book now with a few comments. Jonah was, at the outset, a racist. Only the Jews should be saved. And it was not until the very end that he was changed. What do we think when we think of those of other Countries especially Muslim ones? We may think of the violence that is self-evident in these Countries but can God not send the Good News to such? In repentance God can relent? My point is that if we have an issue because of the behaviour of certain people groups, cities or countries, God, on the other hand, has pity on all who would turn from their ways to Him. And this is also true of our own nation. Even we can turn back the tide, with God’s help. Jonah had a specific call to go the Ninevites. We have the more general call to go to our Countryman and the immigrant and the asylum seeker. We cannot be choosers. For the grace and mercy of God is to everyone who will respond. Jonah did not love the Ninevites but God said go: For I love them. Whether we love or not we, too, are called to go. And maybe God will grant them repentance in the same way God has been gracious to us.

Thru the Bible Vol. 29: The Prophets (Jonah/Micah) God’s Gracious Dealing with Jonah

Since Jonah wrote the book, I think it is reasonable to say that after this experience, Jonah left the dead gourd vine and went down to where the living were walking the streets of Nineveh, and I think that he rejoiced with them that they had come to a saving knowledge of God. My friend, what a message this is! Why don’t you get involved in getting the Word of God out to people? Don’t wait for some great feeling to sweep over your soul. Don’t wait to be moved by a little picture of an orphan. There are so many people waiting to be motivated by things that are emotional. Take the Word of God to them because God loves them; and if you’ll do that, I will guarantee that you will learn to love them also.

Benediction

Exodus 34:6 ESV

6 The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,

Bibliography

Custis, M. (2014). Jonah: A Prophet on the Run. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.

Mackrell, P. (2007). Opening up Jonah. Leominster: Day One Publications.

McGee, J. V. (1991). Thru the Bible commentary: The Prophets (Jonah/Micah) (electronic ed., Vol. 29). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

Ogilvie, L. J., & Ogilvie, L. J. (1990). Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah (Vol. 22). Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Inc.

Simon, U. (1999). Jonah. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society.

Exported from Logos Bible Software, 10:08 10 November 2018.