Jonah: The Reluctant Prophet - 18

Introduction: We begin again looking at Jonah chapter 4. This chapter deals with Jonah and God working in Jonah’s life. God reveals His heart to us and reveals Jonah’s heart to himself.

We notice one thing in particular about Jonah.

Whatever Jonah did, he did it with all of his heart.

In chapter 1, Jonah ran from the Lord in disobedience.

As we studied the map, we see he attempted to get as far away from God and the calling on his life as he could.

In chapter 2, Jonah showed repentance toward the Lord and prayed accordingly.

There was no reservation in Jonah’s prayer, but he poured his heart out to the Lord.

In chapter 3, Jonah earnestly preached the message that God gave him.

He marching into the city of Nineveh and cried unto it the message that God gave him.

Here in chapter 4, we discover Jonah is exceedingly angry and displeased at Nineveh not being destroyed.

John Butler said this concerning Jonah, “Jonah could never be accused of being "lukewarm" (Revelation 3:15,16), for he was either very hot or very cold. In chapter 4 Jonah is cold, very cold spiritually. But God graciously endeavors to thaw him out and warm up his heart so he will have compassion for the souls of men.”

When we study the Scriptures we discover that one of the most dangerous, hindering states to be in is lukewarm.

The Lord Jesus Christ of course spoke about this dangerous condition in Revelation chapter 3.

The great difficulty in this condition is that it is deceptive.

In Revelation chapter 3 the great inditement concerning Laodicea was that they believed they were “rich,” they believed that they were “increased with goods,” they believed that the had “need of nothing.”

The Bible says in verse 17 of that chapter, that they did not know that they were “wretched,” “miserable,” “poor,” blind,” and “naked.”

The Lord also indicates that he would that they would be fully one or the other.

In verse 15, he states “I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.”

There are many today that are suffering from this very malady.

They are “playing church.” They are on the fence. They are here, but they are not fully here.

They are saved, but they are not fully committed to the Lord Jesus Christ and His local church.

They are contented in the state they are in, and are satisfied just to exist.

There is this positive lesson from Jonah, if he was cold he was cold, if he was hot he was hot.

It is shocking to us what we read in the first four verses.

Let’s read verse number 1 again.

The Bible says, “But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry.”

IV. Jonah’s Pouting: God’s Presentation - Chapter 4

A. Anger and Displeasure v1-4

As we sit here this morning, we cannot fathom in our minds, one who is given to God, one who is God’s man being angry and displeased over sinners getting right with the Lord.

It is easy for us to see the folly in sin and how it bends and distorts man’s actions and thinking from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Can you imagine for a minute a preacher in this condition?

He holds a meeting, preaching one short sermon. The whole place turns upside into revival. Christians are getting right with God, others are getting saved. People are pushing there way down the aisles not to see the preacher at the end of the aisle, but to bend the knee before God, crying out to him.

And in the midst of this occurence, the preacher observing this take place, storms off in anger and displeasure.

In the book of Acts, we read that the Lord compelled Peter by a vision and visitation of Gentiles to go to the house of Cornelius.

It is interesting that entire account, how that the Lord used Peter and taught him at the same time to bring the Gospel to that house.

But when Peter arrived back at the church in Jerusalem, here are the words we read in Acts 11:1-3, “And the apostles and brethren that were in Judaea heard that the Gentiles had also received the word of God. And when Peter was come up to Jerusalem, they that were of the circumcision contended with him, Saying, Thou wentest in to men uncircumcised, and didst eat with them.”

Here it is that we find some with this same attitude. A new mission field is open up. Souls are being saved and upon reporting to the local church, some stand up and have nothing better to say tHan “You went in to the uncircumcised.”

You and I sit in judgment of this waywardness and can point it out easily, can we not?

Notice this quote however, from G. Campbell Morgan, a British evangelist who died in 1945.

G. Campbell Morgan had this to say, “O brethren, how much of the attitude of Jonah is among us.”

John Butler pointedly said this, “We may think and profess piously that we want revival and spiritual growth and blessing; but all it takes to reveal this "displeased" attitude is for the preacher to go an extra few minutes in his sermon or for an invitation to last a few more verses of a hymn than usual or for someone to ask us to give more money for missions, a building program, or some other church ministry. When this happens we fuss, complain, gripe, and murmur. We are "displeased"; and if the truth were known, we, like Jonah, are also "angry." Spiritual progress has upset us. Jonah has nothing on us. We can keep pace with his sour disposition without missing a beat.”

I am told that one time there was lady that was so displeased that she wrote to a magazine of Baptist church group and complained to the editor that their church had revival meetings scheduled during the time of a basketball tournament. - Quote from John Butler.

I want us to allow the Lord and His word to reveal to us the great root of this sin.

In your notes number 1, we have

1. Praying and Honesty v1-3

Again, we can say this about Jonah, he plainly spoke to the Lord about what was bothering him.

There is something to be said about honest praying. We need to put off the facade and be honest with ourselves and be honest before our Lord and Savior.

Notice verse number 2 and 3 that give us this prayer of Jonah.

“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.”

Do you happen to notice anything about this honest prayer from Jonah?

We might say it this way using the language of the Bible, “...out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.” (Matthew 12:34)

9 times in the Hebrew text Jonah uses personal pronouns complaining about what is taking place.

The hallmark of displeasure toward God indicates selfishness.

Pride and selfishness go hand and hand.

It is this thought, “All the world revolves around me, myself and I.”

The opposite of this statement is that which is the truth and biblical, “The world revolves around Almighty God.”

Think about this revealing honest prayer.

Jonah did not complain about the grace of God as it concerned the restoration of Israel’s land (II Kings 14:25)

Jonah did not complain about the grace of God when he was delivered from the fish.

But now Nineveh was on the receiving end of God’s grace and mercy and this was somehow different.

Patriotism became more important than piety.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown in his commentary had this to say, “If Nineveh had been the prominent object with him, he would have rejoiced at the result of his mission. But Israel was the prominent aim of Jonah, as a prophet of the elect people. Probably then he regarded the destruction of Nineveh as fitted to be an example of God’s judgment at last suspending His long forbearance so as to startle Israel from its desperate degeneracy, heightened by its new prosperity under Jeroboam II at that very time, in a way that all other means had failed to do.” Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset, and David Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, vol. 1 (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997), 686.

Jonah indicated by his prayer, that the grace of God is to be exclusive (based on my judgement) not inclusive based on God’s judgment.

This also goes to show us that just sheer knowledge of God is not enough.

Jonah here states “I knew....” that thou art gracious, “I knew...” that thou art merciful, “I knew” that thou art slow to anger…etc.

We must not only have knowledge of God, which is good, but we must be changed by our knowledge of Him and yield to God and His Word. We discover our Lord in the pages of Scripture. He speaks to us and teaches us about Himself.

Throughout this chapter we will discover exactly how deep this runs in the life of Jonah.

And as we discover this, because of the mirror of God’s Word, I believe if we will allow it that God will reveal to us how deep this truly runs in our own lives as well.

I can say without a doubt when I stop to consider my selfishness and pride, that it makes me sick.

My vision is jaded and deformed. My thoughts are tainted and despicable.

Apart from the Lord Jesus Christ, I cannot find my way.

We will also see though how good God is to you and I in that he not only knows what is best for us, but He works in our lives what is best for us.

As we continue to consider this prayer and honesty of Jonah, will see that he requests the LORD to take his life.

What a terrible indication of how sore vexed Jonah is by his clouded vision.

He requests to die.

How many times and how often have you and I in a terrible state have asked amiss and God graciously did not give to us what we requested?

It is such a truth that when we are walking away from God that we fit the description of “blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.” (Matthew 15:14)

We must ask ourselves this question: How can we find our way? How can we see rightly?

The only way is by yielding ourselves to God and His ways.

The only way is to allow God to show us truth, and to see Him high holy and lifted up.

As we think more about this prayer of Jonah we notice in verse number 3, that it is in fact God that knows what is best for Jonah.

Jonah, if we hold this book of the Bible to penned by him, got his life right with the Lord.

If you and I were writing the narrative, we would stop at the end of chapter 3. We would stop with a high note. It might go something like this:

The prophet got right with God.

The prophet preached a great message.

The people all repented and trusted God.

God spared the people in his great and mercy.

And the prophet rides off into the sunset.

But here, we discover this very unfiltered picture of this real life struggle between the man of God and the will of God.

We see that Jonah thought he knew what was best for his life.

But the truth I would like for us to end on this day, is that it is God that knows what is best for you and I.

This is the opposite of pride and selfishness, this is us saying truly yielding to our Lord and Savior, Lord you know what is best for me and I trust you.

Lord you know what is best for my life today and tomorrow and the next day and I trust you.

Lord you know what is best in this circumstance and in this situation and I am trusting you.

I am commending myself and my life in your hands.

When we come back next week we will look at God’s response to Jonah’s honest prayer.

It is amazing, how the Lord answers Jonah with such a though provoking question.

It is a question you and I need to consider this week.

“Doest thou well to be angry?”

There are a many folks that are living their lives day by day with anger deep down inside.

And the Lord asks the question, Doest thou well to be angry?

The question is not are you angry? Jonah has made it pretty plain in his prayer as to why he believed he was angry, but do you do well to be angry.

I wonder how many of us this morning have pent up anger and displeasure toward the Lord, toward His Word, toward God’s people, and toward others?