Sermon Tone Analysis
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Prayer
Introduction
Exodus
We come at last this morning to our final sermon in our series on Jonah.
We have taken a somewhat big picture approach to our study.
We’ve looked at the big themes of the story.
Those three big themes are first that God is sovereign over all of His creation.
We see that in God’s control over the wind and sea, and again, that theme will be present in God’s appointment of a plant and a worm.
The second big theme of Jonah is that God cares about the nations – about wicked people.
People who reject Him and rebel against Him.
We see that in sending Jonah to Nineveh in the first place, and we saw it with the pagan sailors who ended up worshipping God.
The third theme is that salvation is of the Lord.
Deliverance and destruction are in the hand of God.
Scripture
Luke 19:
Our passage this morning is the final chapter of Jonah. .
If you are able, please stand for the reading of God’s Word.
We do this to show appreciation to God for His Word and in recognition that these are among the most important words we can possible hear today.
says,
Thank you, you may be seated.
Thank you, you may be seated.
The passage we just read starts out with the phrase, “But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry.”
Jonah was angry!
Angry because Nineveh had repented, and God had spared them!
And we are meant to see how absolutely ridiculous this is.
Jonah of all people should appreciate the mercy and grace God has shown the Ninevites.
It was Jonah who had quite recently sinned against God.
Who deserved God’s wrath, but who God, in his amazing mercy delivered.
The same Jonah who wrote a hymn of thanksgiving to God for saving him while in the belly of the fish.
That Jonah.
That Jonah is angry at God for saving other undeserving sinners.
How often do we do that?
Do we ever think that some people don’t deserve forgiveness?
There is a sense in which that is correct.
No one deserves forgiveness, but usually our assumption is that I deserve to be forgiven, but that person does not.
We humans have an amazing ability to show grace.
I’m serious, we will excuse all manner of terrible actions and thoughts and attitudes for ourselves.
We are very gracious and patient with ourselves, and often, we are fairly gracious towards others – as long as they are “one of us”.
If they are in our circle or tribe or group.
As long as they are Israelites.
That really is the fascinating thing here.
Israel during this time is actually experiencing a period of growth and strength, but unfortunately during this time, they are actually rejecting God.
Turning away from God.
So, the Ninevites serve as a rebuke.
The people who should be repenting aren’t.
They are too busy lavishing themselves with grace.
We aren’t so bad, look how good things are!
Everything is fine!
And the Ninevites humbly repented.
That makes Jonah angry.
He has grace for Israel – who is sinning, but not those other people who don’t deserve it.
So while God turns from His anger towards the Ninevites, Jonah turns to anger towards God.
The real problem here is that Jonah has forgotten Who he serves.
Jonah is rebuking God.
Jonah pridefully thinks he knows better than God.
Jonah’s attitude says that Jonah believes that he thinks he knows how to deal with the Ninevites better than God!
I think there is a lesson there for us.
How often do we do the same thing?
How often do we question God about how He providentially rules over His creation – over our lives?
I think we probably do it fairly often.
I think that we have a similar pride issue sometimes.
Don’t get me wrong, there are ways to ask questions of God and wrestle with things that is not sinful.
“God, why are these trials happening in my life?
Is it the result of my sinful choices bearing fruit?
Are you using these trials to refine me and sanctify me?
To make me more like Christ?” Humble questions like that bring glory to God, but questions like what Jonah asked – questions that are really accusations.
Questions which ultimately reject or deny God’s wisdom and goodness?
That is pride and sin.
Jonah does not know best, and neither do we.
Jonah goes out of the city to wait and see if maybe, just maybe the Ninevites would be destroyed.
You can almost hear Jonah muttering to himself in anger as he builds his covering, hoping that God will destroy them after all.
But what we have in this section of the story is a fascinating object lesson.
Jonah builds himself a “booth”.
It would have basically been a wilderness shelter where the top was made of some type of vegetation that Jonah would’ve cut or picked to help provide shade from the hot sun.
To put this into perspective, Nineveh was generally located near the modern-day boarders of Iraq, Iran and Turkey – where those three countries meet.
This is not a nice summer getaway up north.
What happens to leaves when they’ve ben picked and left in the sun?
They wither and dry up, and that is what would have naturally happened to Jonas’s booth after a few days, so God appointed a plant to grow up over Jonah to deliver him from his discomfort.
There is a wordplay happening in the Hebrew here where the word for discomfort or grief is the same word for evil.
So, Jonah tried to save himself from the “evil” of the hot sun, but that was insufficient.
Then God delivered Jonah from his “evil” – from his discomfort, and that made Jonah happy.
Talk about an emotional rollercoaster.
But wait, there’s more because God sovereignly sent a worm to kill the plant causing it to wither.
And on top of that, God sovereignly sent a scorching wind and Jonah ends up nearly having a heatstroke and asking to die.
God points out to Jonah that he is angry over a plant that he had nothing to do with making.
It was God’s plant to begin with.
God alone has the right to dispose of His creation however He wills.
And that is what is truly upsetting to Jonah – that deliverance and destruction are in God’s hands, and God’s alone.
But the reality is that Jonah already knew that truth.
That is the whole reason he didn’t want to go to Nineveh in the first place.
Look again at verse 2, “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.”
Jonah is quoting, or at least referencing a well-known passage in Exodus.
which says,
Jonah knew – or at least should have – that God holds deliverance and destruction in His hands.
So, that is what God teaches Jonah while Jonah is sitting outside the city hoping to see it destroyed.
Jonah couldn’t deliver or save himself from the scorching heat – his attempts had failed.
They were nothing but withered leaves.
God showed Jonah that deliverance – salvation is of the Lord.
One commentator put it this way, “Whereas in verse 3 [Jonah] questions God’s right to deliver, here he challenges God’s right to destroy.”
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