The Pouting Prophet
Notes
Transcript
People can change
People can change
On our last Sabbath with Jonah we had left him right after the city of Nineveh repented and God relented. God used his brief message, (5 Hebrew words) to penetrate the hearts of the people of Nineveh. The people spread the message like wild fire. When the word reached the king, he didn’t allow the message to get tied up in governmental red tape. He didn’t pass the buck saying, “It is impossible to legislate morality” or defer his leadership position to others. Rather, he issued a proclamation calling the nation to repentance and prayer-he acted more like a prophet than a politician. And the people followed.
What do you expect Jonah’s reaction was? Do you suppose that he join the people of Nineveh in repentance and marinate in God’s grace? Certainly, Jonah had some repenting to do of his own.If you recall in our previous discussions, he didn’t really repent in the belly of the fish? Hardly. In the belly of the fish, he may have given lip service, but he reminds me more of a politician than a prophet-he said what he had to say to get delivered from his peril, but I do not sense a true heart-felt repentance, do you?
If he’d repented, wouldn’t he of had a better attitude and preached with more effort than he did? You’ll remember that a few weeks ago, we concluded that God used Jonah because of his obedience-paper thin as at was—Jonah was obedient, and God used him to accomplish His purposes.
How then do you think Jonah responded? Let’s look at our text for today.
1 This displeased Jonah terribly and he became very angry.2 He prayed to the Lord and said, “Oh, Lord, this is just what I thought would happen when I was in my own country. This is what I tried to prevent by attempting to escape to Tarshish!—because I knew that you are gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in mercy, and one who relents concerning threatened judgment.3 So now, Lord, kill me instead, because I would rather die than live!”
Does it surprise you that Jonah became angry? Vs one says that “This displeased Jonah terribly and he became very angry”. The first clause reads literally, “It was evil unto Jonah, a great evil.” Chapter 4 displays a striking contrast between the impatience of the human heart and our long-suffering of God. Jonah was more than displeased; he was highly indignant that “God repented of the evil” (ch. 3:10).
What a Jerk
What a Jerk
Do these verses describe the attitude of a prophet of God? After experiencing that, we would never respond like that! Surely this is an anomaly in scripture, surely Jonah is the only one of God’s servants that responded with such callous disregard for others, right?
Contemplate your response before you before you answer.
Some of you may remember the program “Who wants to be a Millionaire”. You had life lines that you could use if you needed an answer. You can poll the audience, use 50/50 or phone a friend. Maybe we should poll some people in the Bible that might have information on this answer.
You could poll the prodigal’s brother and see what he would say. Do you think he heard sobs coming from his father’s room at night? He must of seen the pain in his father’s eyes as he stood out front waiting for his son to return home.
Yet when he heard the news that his errant brother came home and his father showed him mercy, he was so angry that he wouldn’t even go into the house. His father had to leave the party for his son to listen to the older brother complain:
29 So he answered and said to his father, ‘Lo, these many years I have been serving you; I never transgressed your commandment at any time; and yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might make merry with my friends. 30 But as soon as this son of yours came, who has devoured your livelihood with harlots, you killed the fatted calf for him.’
Or you could poll those who witnessed Jesus responding to the harlot who poured the costly perfume on his feet. She heard that Jesus was reclining at one of the Pharisees’ table, so she “crashed” the party. She knelt before Jesus and began to weep. As her tears mixed with the road dust on his feet, she wiped his feet clean with her hair and splashed the perfume on his feet. Showing her appreciation for God’s grace, she ministered to the Lord.
As if God’s grace was meant exclusively for church people, Jesus’ host responded,
39 Now when the Pharisee who had invited Him saw this, he spoke to himself, saying, “This Man, if He were a prophet, would know who and what manner of woman this is who is touching Him, for she is a sinner.”
You could ask the workers who labored all day in the parable of the Vineyard. The owner of the Vineyard needed laborers in his field so he recruited some workers early in the day to work all day long for a denarius. At the third hour, he saw others standing in the market place looking for work, so he hired them to go into the vineyard and work with a promise to pay them whatever is right. He did the same the sixth, the ninth and the eleventh hour. At the end of the day, he called all his workers from the field and paid them the same wage—a denarius.
The workers who worked all day long were not inspired by the landowners grace, instead, they said,
12 saying, ‘These last men have worked only one hour, and you made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the heat of the day.’
All of these people have something in common-they wanted God’s grace for themselves but weren’t too happy to see His grace freely given to others.
How does God feel about his children who want to hoard grace?
To the prodigal son, the father replied,
31 “And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that I have is yours. 32 It was right that we should make merry and be glad, for your brother was dead and is alive again, and was lost and is found.’ ”
To his host, Jesus said,
40 And Jesus answered and said to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” So he said, “Teacher, say it.” 41 “There was a certain creditor who had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. 42 And when they had nothing with which to repay, he freely forgave them both. Tell Me, therefore, which of them will love him more?” 43 Simon answered and said, “I suppose the one whom he forgave more.” And He said to him, “You have rightly judged.”
And to the early workers, the vineyard owner said,
13 But he answered one of them and said, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? 14 Take what is yours and go your way. I wish to give to this last man the same as to you. 15 Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things? Or is your eye evil because I am good?’ 16 So the last will be first, and the first last. For many are called, but few chosen.”
So Jonah once more he yielded to his inclination to question and doubt, and once more he was overwhelmed with discouragement. Losing sight of the interests of others, and feeling as if he would rather die than live to see the city spared, in his dissatisfaction he exclaimed, “So now, LORD, kill me instead, because I would rather die than live!” Divine mercy had spared his own life when he was disobedient, but he was jealous in his hate when God extended the same mercy toward others.
You can see the contrast between Jonah and the stories of God’s mercies that we just discussed can’t you. God then asks a question.
4 Then the Lord said, “Is it right for you to be angry?”
Jonah’s anger came purely from selfishness. It was not a noble indignation like what prompted Jesus when He drove out the money changes from the temple. Jonah so missed the blessing that could have been his when he didn’t let the grace that was given freely to the Ninevites wash and cover him as well.
Jonah didn’t answer, he didn’t want to talk, he left. He went out to the east side of the city and sat down where it was protected to watch and see what would happen.
Of course what Jonah was hoping would happen didn’t. Instead God gave him another object lesson.
6 And the Lord God arranged for a leafy plant to grow there, and soon it spread its broad leaves over Jonah’s head, shading him from the sun. This eased his discomfort, and Jonah was very grateful for the plant. 7 But God also arranged for a worm! The next morning at dawn the worm ate through the stem of the plant so that it withered away. 8 And as the sun grew hot, God arranged for a scorching east wind to blow on Jonah. The sun beat down on his head until he grew faint and wished to die. “Death is certainly better than living like this!” he exclaimed.
The gourd plant grew and brought relief, but then got eaten by a worm and the plant withered and died. Isn’t so often true in our human experience that when a new day of joy and gladness seems about to begin, some worm of misfortune or sorrow comes along to turn hope into despair.
God used agents from His creation - the plant, the worm, the sun, and the scorching east wind - to get Jonah to talk again and the strategy worked. God can no express His rationale for forgiving the Ninevites.
9 God said to Jonah, “Are you really so very angry about the little plant?” And he said, “I am as angry as I could possibly be!”10 The Lord said, “You were upset about this little plant, something for which you have not worked nor did you do anything to make it grow. It grew up overnight and died the next day.11 Should I not be even more concerned about Nineveh, this enormous city? There are more than one hundred twenty thousand people in it who do not know right from wrong, as well as many animals!”
If Jonah could have compassion for a plant how much more is it justified for God to have compassion for the Ninevites, and even for the cattle in the city? Does this book reveal to us God’s missionary passion to save lives.
The Book of Jonah
The Book of Jonah
I hope you’ve enjoyed our study of Jonah these past few weeks as much as I have. I don’t know about you, but I’ve related to Jonah’s mistakes. When he tried to outrun God, I thought of times when I’ve been out of the Lord’s will and resisted His Word. When He conspired with others to try to out row God, I thought of times when my rebellion affected others. As he was sinking to the bottom of the sea, I thought of times when I blamed God and others for problems I created myself.
Then when he was safe in the fish God prepared, I thought of the many times that God provided for me, even when I didn’t know it at the time. When God used Jonah to bring revival to Nineveh, I thought of times when God did great things in spite of me. And when Jonah’s prejudice surfaced after the people repented, I was reminded that I often see people differently than God does.
Jonah was angry with God.
Anger can kill as we will know, but it affects us as well. I’ve heard it said that “getting angry is like taking a small dose of some slow-acting poison—arsenic, for example—every day of your life”
When Steve Tran of Westminster, California, closed the door after activating twenty-five bug bombs, he thought he had seen the last of the cockroaches that shared his apartment. When the spray reached the pilot light of the stove, it ignited, blasting his screen door across the street, breaking all his windows, and setting his furniture ablaze.
“I really wanted to kill all of them,” he said. “I thought if I used a lot more, it would last longer.” According to the label, just two canisters of the fumigant would have solved Tran’s roach problem.
The blast caused over $10,000 damage to his apartment building. And the cockroaches? Tran reported, “By Sunday, I saw them walking around.”
Anger is one letter short of danger. Don’t blow your screen door off trying to deal with a cockroach irritation in life.
26 “Be angry, and do not sin”: do not let the sun go down on your wrath,
This story about Jonah isn’t about Jonah, though it bears his name, and it isn’t about me, though I’ve related to the story-it is a book about God! A God who demands righteousness. A God who tells His prophets what to do, and won’t take no for an answer. A God that controls the winds and the waves and the fish of the sea. A God that can hurl a great wind and prepare a great fish. A God that can sustain a life in the belly of a fish for three days and three nights. A God that will hear the cries of a pagan nation and forgive them. A God that takes time to teach his errant prophets.
And He is a God that can use the story of a rebellious man to teach the greatest lesson of all.
40 For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
No, this isn’t a story about Jonah at all—It is a story of a God that can do the impossible and that takes notice of great cities and lousy prophets-and you, and me.
Today is the time to embrace God. It is time to accept His will for our lives and submit to Him, it is time to live out a gracious life that is empowered by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.