Jonah 4.1-Jonah Is Infuriated With God's Decision To Spare The Lives Of The Ninevites
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Wednesday November 24, 2010
Jonah: Jonah 4:1-Jonah Is Infuriated With God’s Decision To Spare The Lives Of The Ninevites
Lesson # 48
Please turn in your Bibles to Jonah 4:1.
Chapter four contains the sixth and seventh scenes in the book of Jonah and thus contains two divisions.
The first appears in verses 1-4, which records Jonah’s angry reaction to the Lord sparing the Ninevites and the second appears in verses 5-11.
In chapter four, we see for the first time a conversation between the Lord and Jonah whereas in Jonah 1:1-3, only the Lord speaks and in chapter 2, only Jonah speaks.
In contrast to chapter 2, which paints Jonah in a positive light, chapter 4 paints the prophet in a negative light.
The conversation between the Lord and Jonah in chapter 4 gives the reader insight into the character of both.
In the first and third chapters, the Lord issues only commands (1:2; 3:2) but in chapter 4, He only asks questions and makes statements.
In the first and third chapters, the Lord is directing Jonah’s actions through commands but in chapter 4 He is seeking to persuade him to change the prophet’s attitude towards the Ninevites through questions and statements (4:4, 9a, 11).
This evening, we will note Jonah 4:1, which records that Jonah thought it was evil on the part of God, in fact, a great evil, which made him furious that the Lord did not destroy Nineveh because the Ninevites repented.
Jonah 4:1, “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?’” (NASU)
Jonah’s angry reaction to the Lord sparing the Ninevites is an example of Israelite national pride and self-righteousness.
The question posed by Jonah in 4:2 expresses the prophet’s convictions that the Lord refrain from destroying the Ninevites since in his opinion they are too wicked.
Jonah is comparing himself to the Ninevites and concludes that he and his Jewish countrymen are superior to the Ninevites.
However, he fails to see that God concludes that both groups have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23) and that there is none righteous, not even one (Romans 3:10).
Jonah is not judging himself and Israel according to God’s perfect holy standards but rather he is doing so by comparing himself to the Ninevites.
In chapter 4, the Lord is teaching Jonah that He has compassion for all men and not just Israel including the wicked Assyrians.
Jonah 4:1 describes the prophet’s reaction to the Lord’s decision to spare the city of Nineveh, which is recorded in Jonah 3:10.
This verse begins a new emphasis in the narrative.
In scene six (4:1-4), we have the angry reaction of Jonah because the Lord exercised His mercy and grace with respect to the Assyrians, who were the Nazis of the eighth century B.C.
In scene five (3:3b-10), the prophet is never mentioned but in scene sixth, he dominates.
However, in the seventh and final scene (4:4-11), the focus shifts to Yahweh and the lessons He taught Jonah.
Jonah 4:1, “But it greatly displeased Jonah and he became angry.” (NASU)
This verse stands in direct contrast with the preceding statement, which is Jonah 3:10, which records that when God saw the actions of the Ninevites and that they repented from their wicked behavior, He relented concerning the judgment He threatened them with.
The contrast is between Jonah’s angry reaction with what should have been his reaction, namely, joy and thanksgiving.
The verb rā∙ʿǎʿ means “to be unjust” and is used here of Jonah considering God to be unjust for not destroying the Ninevites and for exercising mercy and grace towards them and forgiving them of their sins when they believed in Him and repented from their evil behavior.
The word does not mean “to be evil” since this would have Jonah ascribing evil to God which the prophet knows is totally absent from the character of God.
Rather, the word means “to be unjust” since in context, he is referring to God’s decision to relent when the Ninevites repented.
This is indicated by the context since in 4:6, God provides Jonah with the qiqayon plant in an attempt to persuade the prophet that He was justified in sparing the lives of the Ninevites (4:10–11).
In fact, the noun form of the word appears in Jonah 3:10 where it means “judgment” speaking of God’s decision to relent from destroying Nineveh.
“Jonah” is composed of the preposition ʾěl (אֶל) (ale), “to,” whose object is the masculine singular form of the proper noun yownah (יוֹנָה) (yo-naw), “Jonah.”
The proper noun yownah is the object of the preposition ʾěl, which expresses judgment or opinion indicating that God’s decision to not destroy Nineveh “in the judgment” or “opinion of” Jonah was unjust.
“Greatly displeased” is composed of the feminine singular form of the noun rā∙ʿā(h) (רָעָה), “it displeased” and the feminine singular form of the adjective gā∙ḏôl (גָּדֹול) (ga-dol), “greatly.”
The noun rā∙ʿā(h) means “unjust” and is referring to God’s decision to not destroy Nineveh and the adjective gā∙ḏôl is modifying this noun and denotes that Jonah considered this decision by God as a “great” injustice.
The noun rā∙ʿā(h) functions as a cognate accusative emphasizing the intensity of Jonah’s displeasure with God’s decision to spare the Ninevites.
“And he became angry” is composed of the conjunction wa (וָ) (wa), “and,” which is prefixed to the third person masculine singular qal imperfect form of the verb ḥā∙rā(h) (חָרָה) (khaw-raw), “became angry” and the preposition le (לְ) (lamed) and the third person masculine singular pronomial suffix –hû (־הוּ) (who), “he.”
The conjunction wa introduces a result clause indicating that Jonah became infuriated “as a result of” considering God’s decision to spare the lives of the Ninevites a great injustice.
The verb ḥā∙rā(h) means “to be infuriated” and is used of Jonah’s great anger or rage with respect to God’s decision to spare the lives of the Ninevites.
To summarize, this verse begins the sixth scene in the narrative and presents the contrast between Jonah’s angry reaction with what should have been his reaction, namely, joy and thanksgiving.
The Lord’s decision to spare the lives of the Ninevites infuriated Jonah, which was due to Jonah’s self-righteousness.
He, like Israel was no better than the Assyrians since there is none righteous according to God’s perfect holiness standards.
Jonah was treated in grace and mercy by the Lord after Jonah rebelled against His command to go to Nineveh.
Like the Ninevites, Jonah was worthy of death in the eyes of a holy God since both were disobedient to God and in fact, Jonah more so since he like the rest of Israel were given great privileges by God (See Romans 9:1-5).
They were given the Law in writing while in contrast the Gentiles did not have it in writing and thus Jonah stood more condemned than the Ninevites since he like the rest of Israel received greater revelation from God than the Ninevites and the rest of the Gentile world.
The Gentiles had creation and the inherent law within them but in stark contrast, the Jews have the temple worship, their forefathers were the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
They were the recipients of the covenant promises made to these men since they were their racial descendants and the Lord promised that the Messiah would be a Jew.
Therefore, Jonah, like the rest of Israel was under great condemnation because they received greater revelation concerning God and His ways than the Ninevites who were Gentiles.
The prophet thanked the Lord for exercising grace towards him but he is infuriated when God exercises that same grace towards those he considers to be better than.
Jonah repented with respect to his attitude towards God and in particular obeying Him as demonstrated in 3:1-4.
However, he still hasn’t repented with respect to his attitude towards the Ninevites because he is self-righteous as demonstrated by his anger in 4:1-4.