What Right Do We Have to Be Angry?

Introduction

If you had to pick one word to characterize our world today, what word would you choose? Certainly words like confused, upset, and depressed are all accurate, I would argue that angry reigns supreme. So many people are simply angry in our world right now. People are angry at police. People are angry at rioters. People are angry at politicians. People are angry at teachers and administrators. People are angry at rules and other people are angry at the people who are angry with the rules to begin with! People are angry about so many different things and we know how powerful anger can be. Because of this, let’s look at what the Bible says about anger.

The Bible says that anger can be a good thing at times! As Christians, we know that we should be angry about our sin - our sinfulness should genuinely make us angry and this is not a bad thing. We see examples in Scripture of Jesus being angry in places like Matthew 21:12-13 and we see Paul talk about anger in Ephesians 4:26-27 where he says

Ephesians 4:26–27 ESV

26 Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27 and give no opportunity to the devil.

So there is a way to be angry and to not sin. This is what we can call righteous anger.

However, there is also unrighteous anger and we know many examples of this because this is what we normally experience, sadly! Many people in our world today are experiencing unrighteous anger. What we will see in our text tonight is an example of unrighteous anger as Jonah expects God to bring about justice the way that Jonah wants… As we will see, God is in control and God wants us to join Him in His plan! Therefore, rather than be angry because things don’t go our way, let’s strive to submit to God’s plan and extend mercy to others, even those who might not “deserve” it.

Jonah 4 NASB95

1 But it greatly displeased Jonah and he became angry. 2 He prayed to the Lord and said, “Please Lord, was not this what I said while I was still in my own country? Therefore in order to forestall this I fled to Tarshish, for I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, and one who relents concerning calamity. 3 “Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for death is better to me than life.” 4 The Lord said, “Do you have good reason to be angry?” 5 Then Jonah went out from the city and sat east of it. There he made a shelter for himself and sat under it in the shade until he could see what would happen in the city. 6 So the Lord God appointed a plant and it grew up over Jonah to be a shade over his head to deliver him from his discomfort. And Jonah was extremely happy about the plant. 7 But God appointed a worm when dawn came the next day and it attacked the plant and it withered. 8 When the sun came up God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on Jonah’s head so that he became faint and begged with all his soul to die, saying, “Death is better to me than life.” 9 Then God said to Jonah, “Do you have good reason to be angry about the plant?” And he said, “I have good reason to be angry, even to death.” 10 Then the Lord said, “You had compassion on the plant for which you did not work and which you did not cause to grow, which came up overnight and perished overnight. 11 “Should I not have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know the difference between their right and left hand, as well as many animals?”

Anger can confuse us (1-4)

Verse 1 tells us that Jonah was greatly displeased and angry. What was he angry at? Look back at Jonah 3:10 as God did not bring about destruction and judgment on Nineveh but instead brought about mercy. Let’s imagine what this looked like. Jonah wanted to see Nineveh burn and suffer but instead they receive divine mercy. Because of this Jonah starts throwing a fit. He pouts and stomps his feet. As one commentator notes, Jonah literally hated what God had done. Jonah either severely misunderstood God’s mercy or Jonah hated these people so much that he wanted them dead. Do you see how Jonah’s anger confused him in this regard? Sadly, many people are confused today as well. Many people, Christians and non-Christians alike, are so self-centered that they miss out on the joy of being involved in God’s incredible work of redemption and salvation. Jonah was involved in this plan for this wicked city and they actually repent. If there was ever a time to rejoice and thank God for what He has done it would be this time, yet what does Jonah do? He gets angry! Why is this the case? Because anger makes us confused and not focus on what truly matters.

God has given mercy towards wicked sinners - this confused and angered Jonah. This confuses and angers people today too. This would never happen in this church, but there are some stereotypes of churches where people judge others for not wearing a suit/dress to church or for having a tattoo or for not knowing the traditional church language. There are some people who attend church and call themselves Christians who say that if you like contemporary Christian music or if you have a tattoo then you’re not a Christian. You don’t deserve God’s mercy because you’re a wicked sinner. Newsflash, we’re all wicked sinners! Legalism is disgusting and a cancer in the church that we have to address. What we see in the Numbers 14 is that

Numbers 14:18 NIV

18 ‘The Lord is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.’

Our God is a God of mercy and Jonah is not a fan of this attribute of God. He wants God to be quick to anger rather than slow to anger. Again, his hatred towards these people confused him deeply.

What is the conclusion to Jonah’s prayer in these opening 4 verses? He asks the Lord to take his life because death would be better than life. Jonah is not unique in praying for death to come as a prophet. This was something that both Elijah and Moses cried out to God wishing that they would die. Elijah cried out to die in 1 Kings 19 because the people of Israel stopped worshiping God and he was frustrated with the people. You could say that Elijah was understandably angry at the people! When we examine Jonah’s reason for being upset in verse 2 and 3, we see that Jonah wanted to die because God had forgiven the people of Nineveh. Jonah was depressed because of Nineveh’s redemption! Doesn’t this just seem a little silly? It does. Yet there are times when we do the exact same thing, friends. Someone experiences mercy and grace from God and we get upset. We see someone get something that they don’t deserve and it can rub us the wrong way - maybe we don’t say that aloud because it sounds bad but we feel it internally. Friends, let’s remember what we all deserve and how we have received mercy from God.

As verse 4 says, what reason do we have to be angry?

Whenever a sinner is forgiven and God brings about redemption and restoration, is it right for us to be angry? The answer is no. Do not let anger confuse us, God is God and He will have mercy upon who He will have mercy.

Anger can make us miserable (5-8)

Sadly, things don’t get better for Jonah. We’re not entirely sure of how much time transpires between verses 4 and 5 but what we see is Jonah move locations from the city towards a hill of sorts perhaps. In Jonah’s mind, God has already changed his mind once in this story. He was going to destroy Nineveh and decided at the last minute not to. Because of this, God could possibly change his mind again. As a result, Jonah wants to have a front row seat whenever he changes his mind and brings about hell, fire and brimstone upon Nineveh. Again, this was a man who hated this city and these people - he wanted them to be destroyed!

Before we continue, though, Jonah gets a bad reputation sometimes for how much he despises the Ninevites. Think, though, about the reputation of this city and these people. They killed innocent civilians. They flayed people alive. They were wicked and evil people! It makes sense as to why Jonah would want them to be judged for their wickedness, right? In fact, in a courtroom whenever someone was accused of these types of crimes, we would expect an honest, good judge to find them guilty and punish them accordingly, wouldn’t we? Yet, we see in Scripture that God is a God who longs to bestow mercy and forgiveness. In fact, in the Sermon on the Mount, what does Jesus say we should do to our enemies? We should love them and pray for them! It’s safe to say that the people of Nineveh were enemies of Jonah and he hates them. This is a natural place to be in human terms but as Christians we are called to forgive! This can be extremely hard sometimes.

Even though it’s hard, it’s not impossible whenever we rely on God’s strength and guidance. Jonah doesn’t seek God’s help in the matter, though. Jonah begins to pout - something that none of us have ever done when things haven’t gone our way.

He goes to sit in the shade while observing what will happen in the city. This was a situation where Jonah had some time on his hands to do some things. On the one hand, Jonah could have examined his heart and prayed that God would create in him a new heart as Psalm 51:10 tells us to do. Jonah doesn’t do this. He doesn’t repent. Rather, he keeps on looking down at Nineveh to see if they would go back to their wicked ways and get what they deserved.

Whenever we have “free-time” we need to be conscientious as to how we use it. Free-time isn’t a bad thing by any means! We talked about this a few weeks ago during Wednesday night Bible study how our time is a blessing from God. So how do we use it? Let us vow not to use it how Jonah did. Instead, let’s use our free time to honor God. To study Scripture, to pray and to examine our own lives/heart to see if there are things that we need to hand over to God.

God provides for Jonah in the heat of the day, though, as a plant/vine grew and gave him some shade. How can a plant grow in a day and provide a prophet shade? How can a fish swallow an adult? God’s plan will come to fruition one way or another! He provides some shade for Jonah and Jonah is said to be extremely happy about the plant. Some of you are extremely happy about your plants as well! I have family members who have these indoor plants and I have absolutely no idea why, but they do! What happens to this plant that brings Jonah happiness? God sends a worm to attack and destroy the plant. There is much talk about destruction in the book of Jonah regarding the city of Nineveh but the only thing that is destroyed in the entire book is the plant that brought Jonah so much happiness! Jonah becomes miserable because of his anger towards these people.

God is at work in all of these things as well. Sometimes God acts quickly with the plant and the worm, other times He works slowly. Think of the difference of a microwave and a crock pot. Both are useful and have their jobs but they go about them completely differently. It’s the same way in our lives sometimes. Sometimes God answers immediately, other times He answers and works slowly. We trust in Him during the process, though, unlike Jonah who found himself in the heat and begging to die.

We know how hot it can get in Missouri in July and early August - in baseball they call this time of the year the “dog days” of summer because it’s so hot that you step outside and you’re already drenched in sweat it seems! This is the type of heat Jonah is in as he waits for God to bring about destruction upon Nineveh. This scorching east wind, as one commentator notes, in the middle east makes the temperature rise very quickly because of the heat and dust it brings with it. Some of the results of this wind include: exhaustion, depression and bizarre behavior. As Jonah finds himself in this heat and with this wind, he exhibits some of these behaviors and begs God to kill him. Why? Because of his anger towards these people.

Anger turns our focus inward (9-11)

The final 3 verses show God talk to Jonah and ask him several questions. “Do you have good reason to be angry?” Jonah replies and says, “Of course! I have good reason to be angry even to the point of death!” Jonah is concerned about a plant that gave him shade… God was and is concerned about sinners in Nineveh. Jonah wants his plant to grow back and receive mercy, God gives mercy to the evil people of Nineveh. Do you see the disconnect here? Jonah’s focus in inward and on his own situation so much so that he doesn’t care about others receiving mercy. Have you ever experienced such a situation? For many of us, it is so easy to get worked up whenever our things stop working or break. We wonder, “Why did my phone have to stop working today?” We could rephrase the question to say, “Lord, why didn’t You show mercy to my cell phone today?” We laugh, but even as Christians we are tempted to care more about our phone not working or a computer crashing than we are people who living in sin and do not know God!

Whenever we focus on ourselves first and foremost, we turn the spotlight on us. This is easy to do, certainly, but we are called to love and give mercy to others just as God does. As one commentator says, “What right do we have to demand that God should favor us and not others?” God’s wish for His creation is salvation, not destruction. This should be our prayer and hope as well! Rather than turn the focus inward and pray for the destruction of others, we instead pray for humility and pray that people will experience the grace, mercy and freedom that only God can offer us!

Conclusion

The book of Jonah concludes with a question without an answer. God had mercy on this city, just as God has mercy on people today who we might not be big fans of. Whenever this happens, we must evaluate our hearts and humble ourselves. God has a plan and His plan is perfect!

It can be easy to be angry at times. We see all the things happening in our world and everyone seems to be angry. As Christians, though, let us not follow the example of Jonah and pray for the destruction and elimination of those who we don’t agree with. Instead, let us pray for their salvation. As Exodus 33:19 tells us, God will have mercy upon who He will have mercy - if you’re a Christian, you’ve received that mercy! Let’s vow to share that with others. Rather than allowing anger to rise up in your body like lava does inside a volcano, give that over to God. Ask Him to help give you a proper perspective of things and instead of dwelling on our plan and being miserable when things don’t go our way, let’s pray that God will help us be flexible in the week and weeks to come.