Jonah: The ultimate Counseling Session

Good morning everyone. It is another beautiful day where we get to be together and enjoy our time together…what a blessing it is to be able to stand here in front of you every week and worship with you, and then have the opportunity to open the Word together with you. Welcome those of you that are joining us online, or that are listening to this later in the week. We are so happy that you have found us and that you have allowed us to be a part of your family this morning. We would love to have you join us on Sunday mornings at 9:30 for our live in person worship. I promise you will be welcomed and treated as one of the family. Hey, you are all amazing and I love being able to be called your pastor here at Leaf River Baptist Church.

Anyway we have been in the middle of a study of the book of Jonah for several weeks now, actually today will be our final look at Jonah and there is something very special planned for next week as we all worship together on the 4th of July. Now, the 4th of July is a great day for our country as it is the day that we choose to celebrate the freedoms that we all experience being a part of this great nation. However, it is important especially when the 4th of July lands on a Sunday morning to remember that we come to church on Sunday to worship God and have him first in our lives. We do however have the privilege of worshiping in a country that allows us to worship openly and allows us to tell others about our relationship with the Lord. We know that this is not true in every nation. As a matter of fact we have missionaries around the globe and there are some that are serving in areas where they have to be very careful about letting others know that they are Christians. I think that we should be grateful that we do not have to experience that ourselves, and also be grateful for the courage and boldness of those that have been called to serve in countries that are closed to the Gospel. What an important role that they have in the Kingdom of God. Many missionaries have been called to a place that is unkind and they have gone willingly and joyfully. However, that is not true about everyone Actually, we have been studying about a particular person that was called to go to a place that was unkind, and instead of going willfully and joyfully this person ran from God attempting to hide from the God that can see everything. Going out to sea while attempting to get away from the God that created everything and controls everything. Look no one ever accused Jonah of being the smartest man around, he is however the one that God called to do a very big and very important job.

As we have seen in our study so far we have watched Jonah get called to go to a very violent place and we have seen Jonah run from that place and then we saw Jonah get swallowed by a big fish that God appointed. He stayed there for three days and then he was vomited up and finally went to Nineveh in obedience to God’s command. However, what else we saw was Jonah basically doing the bare minimum of telling the people of Nineveh about God, and those people repenting in a big way. That event proves how God works in the hearts of people to bring about repentance, because it seems that Jonah was not a compelling speaker. Jonah didn’t even want these people to know about God. Jonah didn’t feel like these people were worthy of redemption, he practically saw them as subhuman. However, God directed him to go and tell Nineveh about his glory becuase he has a plan and he actually knows a little more than Jonah knew.

There is something else that is really important that God is doing within this story of Jonah. You see, Jonah has seen the outward appearance of Nineveh and judged them as evil and deserving of destruction. However, God saw something else. Actually this frequently happens in life. How many times do you look at someone and think to yourself that this person would never actually change? How many times do you see someone and think, well they deserve what they got? You see, frequently we go through our own lives and we look at the outward appearances, or the public actions. However, God looks at the inward and at the heart. What is really interesting is that in Scripture we read that the heart is evil above all things. Look with me at

Jeremiah 17:9 (ESV)

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?

You see, when we read this passage we are reminded that our hearts are evil. That is really important to remember because that is what God is concerned with…God cares about our hearts and our motives behind what we do or say. Many times that is why God allows things to happen, or causes things to happen in order to reveal our hearts in order to lead to repentance. That is what is so important about this last chapter of Jonah. You see, if we would have stopped at chapter three, we would see Jonah as one of histories greatest prophets and preachers. I mean, God used him to change the hearts of hundreds of thousands of people. So, if that is true, then he is amazing. However, that is not what God is showing us as readers thousands of years later. What God is showing us through Jonah is something that we read about in

1 Corinthians 4:5 ESV

Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive his commendation from God.

God listened to Jonah

OK, we are about to really see what is in Jonah’s heart. You see, up until now we thought that maybe Jonah was scared to go to Nineveh becuase they are so violent and he did not want to die. I mean, I think that is a pretty good excuse here. However, as we read what Jonah said to God we are truly able to see the desire in the heart of Jonah. Remember, earlier we saw that God will reveal what is in the dark and bring it into the light. In other words, God will reveal in our hearts what is there and give us an opportunity to repent and align our heart with his, but in order to do that for Jonah, God takes some time to really listen to him. We really see that happening in the first part of chapter 4. Turn to your Bibles, or in the Bible app, or look on the screen in order to see what God is revealing inside Jonah’s heart.

Jonah 4:1–4 (ESV)

But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. 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. Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” And the Lord said, “Do you do well to be angry?”

Ok, ummmm...it displeases Jonah exceedingly. that is pretty intense. We see Jonah’s lack of joy as he is talking to God, although I feel this is less of a “talk” and maybe more of a yelling session between Jonah and God. It is amazing to me becuase here the narrator of this story tells us what was in Jonah’s heart from the very beginning. He says, “is this not what I said when I was in my country”…Jonah is telling God, “see, I was right”…This is the reason that he ran to Tarshish, not becuase he was scared, but becuase apparently he did not want to give Nineveh the opportunity to repent. Are you seeing this? This is insane…Basically Jonah is saying, “This is what I tried to prevent by attempting to escape to Tarshish!—because I knew:…I knew you would allow them to repent and that you would withhold your judgement upon them, and I really wanted them to be destroyed! I knew it…I knew you would do this because you are gracious, compassionate, merciful, and forgiving. I knew you would do this, so I ran away hoping it would be too late for them before you were able to force me to come here. Please God, just kill me now…I never thought I would live to see these people actually have a place in your mercy, so I don’t even want to live anymore! UGH!!!

Now, we can speculate about why he would feel this way about Nineveh, but what would make sense is that Nineveh and the Assyrians are enemies of Israel. Jonah is likely not interested in being the guy that takes the Lord to these evil people causing them to repent and not be destroyed after-all.

I have to say this is not what I expected to read as I read through this story in Scripture. Honestly, what I expected is a man who was scared, but a servant of the Lord and that he ran simply becuase he was afraid and maybe lacked a little faith. Well, God addressed that within him, strengthen his faith and so he was able to go as a prophet of the Lord with the opportunity to talk about the Lord with a group of people that were far from God. Man, I know that’s how I would feel given the situation. But that’s not what Jonah is going through is it. You see, Jonah ran not because he lacked faith, but because he had faith. Did you catch that…Jonah ran because he had faith…That puts a whole new spin on this story for me, I don’t know about you. Now when I read through this I see that Jonah really was trying to get away from God, not becuase he was scared or defiant, but maybe becuase he was hateful? Did Jonah hate this group of people so much that he doesn’t want to live if they are allowed to exist and worship the same God he worships? That is pretty intense to be honest, and again…this is not what’s expected. I love what Pastor Warren Wiersbe says about Jonah here...

When reputation is more important than character, and pleasing ourselves and our friends is more important than pleasing God, then we’re in danger of becoming like Jonah and living to defend our prejudices instead of fulfilling our spiritual responsibilities. Jonah certainly had good theology, but it stayed in his head and never got to his heart, and he was so distraught that he wanted to die! God’s tender response was to ask Jonah to examine his heart and see why he really was angry — Warren W. Wiersbe

What I think is great is that God just allows Jonah to reveal his hatred of these people and allows him to say and think these things, but then God asks him a question…This is a revealing question as God is bringing Jonah to a place of full understanding here. You see, it is really interesting becuase when I started this series looking at Jonah, Beth and I were discussing this book. One question Beth asked me was, how would you counsel Jonah…So I started thinking through that question and began to read Jonah as a counseling session. Do you know what is amazing though, God is literally counseling Jonah through this whole story. God has spent the story so far allowing Jonah to do and say things, and simply having consequences…well, now, God is going to take some time and have a little counseling session with Jonah. God is asking a question here with the intent of revealing to Jonah what his heart is truly wanting at this moment.

Some of you will remember a little series I did a couple years ago called “rooted” The purpose of that series was to show us that all of our conflict really comes from our own desires, and our own heart. I don’t care if someone else does wrong to you, your response should be glorifying to God. That is basically what that series was about and we had some questions there. One of the big questions that I constantly asked then was, Why do we do what we do? ...(give time to answer--becuase we want what we want) {this is a slide only for online} A follow-up question to that is “what does your heart want right now). Some of you have sat in that counseling room where that exact question is asked. The purpose of that question is to reveal what is in our hearts…in other words, what is the thing that is driving us, is it something glorifying to God, or is it something selfish.

That is what God is doing with Jonah, right now…God has just said to Jonah, “Do you do well to be angry”. Now this passage is translated one of two ways here. The first option is to say, “Why are you so fully angry”. That is a great question and one that would fit this context of a counseling session with Jonah. However, there is another option that seems to be a little more widely accepted among scholars, that is translated as “Do you have the right to be so angry?” Actually this is the way the NIV translates this phrase becuase it seems to be the focus of the real question from God. “Jonah, do you have any right to be angry?”

So God listens to Jonah and allows Jonah to say what he needs to say, and then...

God responds to Jonah

That sounds a little crazy to think that God responding to Jonah in the midst of Jonah acting the way he is acting, but still, God responds and actually provides some comfort to Jonah. God cares for Jonah, otherwise he would not be taking Jonah through this process in order to reveal this sin in Jonah’s heart. You see, God desires that we continue to become more like him every day and many times he provides the opportunity to reveal sin in our own lives so that we can remove it from our lives. For instance, this last year of 2020 taught alot of people alot of things. One thing that I believe God brought forward through the last year is the dependance of many churches on their private facilities, instead of their dependance on God. I believe that God opened the eyes of many church leaders and great things have been happening as a result to that.

So, if God’s goal is for us all, as beleivers, to be more Christlike let’s look at his response to Jonah and let’s see how God responds to Jonah in his perceived hardship.

Jonah 4:5–8 (ESV)

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. 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. But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant, so that it withered. 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.”

Ok, so we need to realize that for the second time Jonah has now left his appointed ministry assignment. First he ran away and got swallowed, now he is essentially running away again. However this time he goes out of the city to get a good spot in hopes of seeing the destruction of Nineveh. Im sure Jonah is hoping that there is no way the entire city/region will repent within 40 days. I mean that is a pretty big job to do, so he goes out and watches. Maybe he thinks there will be a meteor shower that he will get to see come down on his enemies. Maybe he is hoping they will simply burn up, or the Earth will open up and swallow them. I don’t know exactly how he was hoping to see the Ninevites get destroyed, but it does make sense that was his hope.

I love what God’s response to Jonah is in the midst all of this happening. Now, remember for a moment that when Jonah ran away last time, God hurled a storm, and appointed a fish to do his will. So, now, God has appointed a plant to give Jonah some shade. Maybe Jonah is just overheated and upset, so he gets a little shade. Maybe God is about to teach Jonah something else using this plant the same way he used a fish to teach Jonah previously. Yeah, you see, God is not finished appointing things becuase Jonah was very pleased and relaxed due to this amazing shade. So, the next day God appointed a worm to come and destroy the plant.

Ok, follow with me here this morning…In one day a plant has grown to the point of providing a great deal of shade to Jonah. That was amazing and Jonah loved it. Then the very next day God appoints a worm to come in and destroy the plant that grew the previous day. Then, God isn’t done so he appoints a scorching wind and Jonah has the sun beating down on him. Im thinking like a day in August when its like 99 degrees or something, probably hotter than that though. It is ridiculously hot..Jonah could get up and go back down to Nineveh and continue with what God had appointed him to do. No, instead he cries out to God wishing he was dead…again. Did you catch that. Jonah would literally rather die that watch these evil Ninevites repent and enter into a relationship with the Lord. Jonah would rather not exist than to exist in a world where he shares the love of the Lord with “those people”. This heat, to Jonah, is so bad that he might as well welcome the sweet relief of death. That is Jonah’s legitimate response to his circumstances...

God was reminding Jonah what it is like to be alone and hopeless. Just like when he was in the belly of the fish he is alone and miserable in the midst of him rebelling against God. You know, a simple test of character is to ask, “What makes me happy? What makes me angry? What makes me want to give up? Jonah was “a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways” James actually talks about this type of person as he talks about maturity in the Lord…look at this with me in

James 1:7–8 (ESV)

For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

Now, one minute Jonah is preaching God’s Word, but the next minute he’s disobeying it and fleeing his assignment. While inside the great fish, he prayed to be delivered, but now he asks the Lord to kill him. He called the city to repentance, but he wouldn’t repent himself! He was more concerned about being comfortable than he was about winning the lost. The sea, the Ninevites, the vine, the worm, and the wind have all obeyed God, but Jonah still refuses to obey, and in reality, he has the most to gain.

Jonah’s response to God revealing himself to him is amazing. Jonah says again, “I wish I was dead!”

Ok, so Jonah is really of the rails here, and God has begun responding to Jonah, but now it is time for God to just lay it out. Look with me as...

God instructed Jonah

Ok, I love this last part of Jonah so much here…I cannot tell you the amazingness of what we are about to read. I know that some of you like to watch political stuff and debates and things like that. I was watching something earlier this week and it was supposed to be a decent conversation, but ended up being set up to be a bad deal, so one of the commentators walked away from the discussion because he wasn’t interested in a debate and a mic drop moments and scoring points and things like that. Well, you know, I don’t think God is much like that as well. I don’t think God is really into the mic drop moments where he uses peoples own thoughts or words against themselves to bring them to the point of realizing that their logic is faulty…oh wait…maybe he is. I mean if part of what God is looking at is your heart and his desire is that your heart reflects him then there will be times when your own logic within your heart has to come to its logical end and either you will repent of your sinful ways and bring glory to the Lord, or you will run away…much like Jonah....

Well, look at this exchange between God and Jonah.

Jonah 4:9–11 (ESV)

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.” 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. 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?”

Ok, so basically, this is what happened...

God: Do you really have a right to be so angry about a plant?

Jonah: Yes, yes I do have a right to be so angry. As a matter of fact, I am so angry I wish I was dead!

God: You pity that plant which you did nothing to bring about to life. It simply was there one day and the next it was gone. Shouldn’t I have pity for the great city of Nineveh. That place that has more than 120,000 kids as well as cattle that I created...

Jonah… (stunned)

Bam! Mic drop, there is no possible response that Jonah can have here. There is also no response that is given here. We don’t actually know how Jonah responded, but what could have happened? I mean, what if Jonah would have responded differently when God asked about his anger, which has never actually let up? What if instead of responding pridefully the way he did…what if he would have simply paused for a moment to think about the question that God is asking.

What if Jonah had paused for an instant? Maybe he would have recognized the “crossroads” of the moment. The thing is, if he had answered with a negative, he would have had to admit the inconsistency of his logic and the inappropriateness of his anger; but he would have been on the road to recovery, and that would have been pleasing to God. However, the rashness of Jonah’s reply maybe was partly becuase he was suffering from heat exhaustion and dehydration as well as complete frustration with where he was. There was also a misconception that God had been more than fair with the pagan Ninevites and far less than fair in dealing with him. You see, Jonah seems to have convinced himself that because he was a prophet, he was entitled to a certain treatment and God was not being very fair about this situation. Theologian and professor Hans Walter Wolff says that,

“Jonah neither wished to live under the governance of free grace (where the Ninevites are pardoned), nor was he prepared to live under a government without grace (where he does not have shade).”—Hans Walter Wolff

So we can see here that God led Jonah to the end of himself to a point where Jonah had to either admit and repent, or commit to his hatred of an entire group of people having no compassion for the lost, and his love of himself, or in other words, his pride…Look, Jesus wept over the city of Jerusalem for those that were lost. Paul looked at the city of Athens and was greatly distressed over those who reject Christ…Jonah however looks over the city of Nineveh being full of spiritual orphans, those that have no hope spiritually, and he was angered. Jonah had pity on the vine that perished, but he didn’t have compassion for the people who would perish and live eternally apart from God. Jonah needed to learn the lesson of God’s pity and have a heart of compassion for lost souls.

We don’t know what the end of the story is for Jonah. We don’t know what Jonah’s response to God was and if he ever learned this lesson or how God continued to work in his life. What we do know is that God has left us this story with this question that you, as the reader, must answer yourself...

How will you respond?

We read this entire story of Jonah and we see the fight that Jonah has as he comes face to face with his enemies and his desire to see them eternally separated from God. We see Jonah tell God that the reason he ran in the beginning is becuase he knew that God is a God of mercy and those people didn’t deserve it. We know that we live in a county that is full of people who know nothing of a hope in Christ, yet here wee are sitting on a hill over the village of Leaf River, under our shade of this beautiful building. So, how will you respond?

You know, I talk to alot of pastors in the area, and around the nation. Well, recently I had lunch with a friend who is a pastor and he told me a story about the church that he is a part of. He told me about a time soon after he got there when they began to reach out to the community around them. Well, one Sunday morning he was up on the stage doing some work and a family came in and sat in the front of the church. Later another family came in and made some sort of comment like “when did those people start to attend…don’t they know they shouldn’t sit there?” Well, the pastor on the stage heard what was said, which means this family heard what was said as well. The pastor very quickly responded with something like “They started today”, both encouraging the family sitting in the front and showing the family in the back that their statements were inappropriate.

So how will you respond when you see someone here that you know from work and you didn’t realize that they would show up here. How will you respond when an old neighbor or someone that you have had negative interactions with shows up seeking some sort of Spiritual relief? How will you respond when there is an opportunity given to us as a church, or to you as a Christian to serve someone who does not have a relationship with the Lord. Will you look at “those people” with disgust, or will you look to the Lord and thank him for the opportunity to be his hands and feet today.

—Prayer—