Running Against God
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
We have looked at over the last few weeks how Jonah started out over in 2 Kings running for God. We then have looked at how Jonah run from God in Jonah 1. We saw how it wasn’t long before Jonah run into God in chapter 2, and how God brought a great revival to the city of Nineveh in Chapter 3…Today I want to look at what happened after that seeming happy ending.
Now, if men had of written the book of Jonah, it would have ended in chapter 3, because it was a happy ending; that’s what we do, right? We like happy endings to our stories and books.
Chapter three ends with happiness, but chapter four doesn’t.
Chapter three ends with victory, but chapter four deals with vice, anger, and jealousy.
Chapter four is filled with despair, discouragement, and depression.
Jonah is unhappy with God’s behavior. God is unhappy with Jonah.
Now, chapter 3 verse 10 brings the book to a climax. The book could end with this verse.
The addition of chapter four is surprising.
Why is Chapter four added? Because Chapter four brings us to a greater climax, to the goal of the whole book.
Chapter three reveals God’s love for all men and so brings us to a climax. Chapter four reveals the greatness of God’s love for all men (by contrasting God’s love for the Ninevites with Jonah’s love for the Ninevites) and so brings us to a greater climax.
Chapter four, like the other three chapters, reveals again that Jonah does nothing half-hearted. He jumps in with both feet.
* In chapter one, he disobeys.
* In chapter two, he repents.
* In chapter three, he preaches.
* In chapter four, if he is going to be unhappy, he will be very unhappy. He is miserable.
Jonah was not displeased and angry. He was exceedingly displeased and very angry. There is nothing half-hearted about his reaction. Jonah was not lukewarm. He was either very cold or hot. In chapter four, he is spiritually cold.
The problem is no longer Nineveh, but Jonah.
How could Jonah fall so quickly after his victory? What an illustration of human frailty. Let us remember that we are sometimes just like Jonah.
This encourages me ya’ll...The book of Jonah and the whole Bible gives no one-sided view of its characters, but presents them as they really were, blemishes and all.
The Bible gives us the world’s only unbiased biographies.
Notice this with me...In Chapter two, Jonah prays for life but in Chapter four, he prays for death.
When we face death, we want to live, but when we face life, we sometimes want to die.
This morning, let’s look at this angry prophet who is now running against God...
I-Jonah’s Anger
I-Jonah’s Anger
1 But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry.
When we read this verse, I don’t know about ya’ll, but I’m shocked and surprised.
Revival came to Nineveh, but Jonah is upset. We would expect this of the world or Satan’s crowd such as the booze and drug dealers, pimps, prostitutes, pornographers and gamblers.
But listen to me; even today, resistance to revival comes from religious people.
Jonah was displeased which means “to be evil or bad.”
Jonah considered the deliverance of Nineveh to be evil or bad.
Look at the text...He was displeased “exceedingly” which means “in great magnitude.” He was also “very angry” which means “to burn, kindle, grieved, hot with anger and disturbed within.”
Jonah was all burned up with anger. This is a dangerous condition to be in.
9 Be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry: for anger resteth in the bosom of fools.
So why is Jonah like this - Well, that’s the surprising part:
Jonah was angry because the people repented and that God forgave them. God relented from bringing the disaster on the people of Nineveh.
• Instead of judgment; God gave grace;
• instead of overturning the city; God gave mercy;
• instead of condemning the people; God gave forgiveness.
Jonah was mad because the pagan Gentiles received the same forgiveness and mercy that God showed to the Jews.
We never have a right to be mad at God because of His work in His world. Our anger towards God does not affect His status one bit. He is still God and He is still on the throne. The prophet’s anger toward God revealed a lot about the prophet’s spiritual condition. If we ever get angry about what God is doing in another congregation, in another individual Christian’s life or in a pagan family member or friend, we too reveal a lot about our spiritual condition.
Warren Wiersbe wrote, “The heart of every problem is the problem in the heart, and that’s where Jonah’s problems were to be found.”
19 As in water face answereth to face, So the heart of man to man.
Jonah’s actions are telling us a lot about his heart…His heart was hardened toward the people of Nineveh and the compassion of God!
II-Jonah’s Attitude
II-Jonah’s Attitude
2 And he prayed unto the Lord, and said, I pray thee, O Lord, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil.
3 Therefore now, O Lord, take, I beseech thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live.
The last time we find Jonah praying was in the fish’s belly, but now he prays again and he’s miserable…Why is he miserable? Because he is running against God.
Notice all the “I’s” and the “my’s” in these verses...
Jonah did not criticize God’s grace when he was delivered from the fish, did he?
With Nineveh, he considers the situation to be different. These folks are the enemies of Israel. If Israel sins, grace should be abundant. If his enemy sins, judgment should fall. His thinking is distorted, but let me tell you we have many many people sitting in church today that say they are Christian and they have this very same attitude!
Jonah’s heart was not right with God even after seeing all of Nineveh repent and come to know God. Jonah should have checked his motives for service. We need to constantly examine what drives us to do the things that we do!
He went and he served, but he was not happy about it.
Look at verse 2 again...
In his anger and malice, Jonah voiced some of the most wonderful words about God in the Bible: “I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil.” What a tremendous revelation about God! No heathen nation ever knew a God like Jonah’s.
This truth about God, which should be something we are most thankful for, actually filled Jonah with rage.
He did not reveal this side of God’s character to the Ninevites; they had to discover it for themselves.
How terrible was Jonah’s spiritual condition! How terrible is the spiritual condition of people today who know the truth about God and keep it to themselves! They are actually filled with envy and malice when they see God blessing others—especially those whom they dislike or with whom they disagree.
Jonah was so disgusted with the outcome of his preaching that he asked God to take his life.
The book of Jonah speaks much about prayer.
* Chapter one—the mariners pray about the storm and casting Jonah into the sea.
* Chapter two—the whole chapter is a prayer.
* Chapter three—Nineveh prays and cries out to God.
* Chapter four—Jonah offers a prayer of complaint.
Of all the prayers, the prayer in chapter four is the worst of all.
Prayerlessness is sin. Sometimes it may be an improvement, especially when you consider a griping, selfish, complaining prayer like this one.
This whole prayer is negative and critical and dishonors the Lord. It is a prayer of a quitter. He no longer wants to be on God’s team. He can’t accept the situation he is in and says, “Let me die.”
Jonah’s pouting in his self pity and selfishness prompted his response to God. Jonah did not praise God for the salvation of the Ninevites because he was not thankful to God for His work in Nineveh. Our attitude in service should be if it pleases the Father than it pleases me. The church has not been left on earth to please ourselves, but to please our Savior.
III-God’s Answer
III-God’s Answer
4 Then said the Lord, Doest thou well to be angry?
John Hannah wrote, “This question implied a negative response: Jonah had no right to be angry. A person should never angrily question what God does, even when it differs from what he expects or wants.”
We have no right to be angry with God.
Jonah was angry unto death. Again Jonah was ready to die. Jonah just thought that he was ready to die. Truly, none of us want to leave this world in the shape that Jonah was in. Jonah’s anger was selfish and destructive to his own life.
Jonah experienced the grace of God, but he didn’t want the Ninevites to experience the grace of God.
James Draper wrote, “The sad thing about making our own God is that we become what we worship. Jonah worshiped a narrow God and he became a little man, short on vision and compassion, long on judgment and hate. Jonah forgot something that we often forget. He forgot that he needed God as badly as the people of Nineveh did.”
Throughout history, mankind has been prejudice toward one another, some do not want others to experience the grace of God because of what color they are, what they look like, what they dress like, or how they act.
The Bible clearly teaches us that the Lord is Creator of all people and He loves all people and He desires to reach all people.
Conclusion
Conclusion
God has called us to share the gospel with every person under the sun that every person may come unto the Son.
God’s answer to the prophet was not what the prophet wanted to hear. We never have a right to be angry at God’s work and we never have a right to ask God to take our life. Is your attitude right before God? Is your service done from the right heart? How’s your motive for service? Have you been angry with God? Are you angry at God today?
Jonah knew that God was gracious, merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in loving-kindness, but he did not want to obey God. May we always serve the Lord Jesus Christ with joy and gladness in heart, being ever mindful that we have been cleansed from our old sins, being ever thankful and grateful for what the Lord Jesus Christ has done for us! God have mercy on a people with an attitude like Jonah!