Sermon Tone Analysis

REVIEW:

Wrapping up final week in the book of Jonah.OT prophet who prophesied during a time when Israel had rebelled against the LORD.YHWH sends this prophet named Jonah (Dove son of faithful) on a special mission to deliver a message because their evil had come up before God.Jonah rejects God’s mission and flees to the end of the known world.On his way the LORD uses the sea and the wind to cause Jonah to wake up to not only his disobedience, but also his apathetic heart.As Jonah realizes that he is the cause of the storm he tells the sailors that throwing him overboard was the only way they would be rescued.

And he was right.God used an instrument of death (great big fish) to not destroy Jonah, but spare Jonah from death.Jonah has this moment of self-realization where he sees that what he thought he wanted so desperately really took him to the bottom of the sea floor in the stomach of a giant fish.Jonah repents of his disobedience and God causes the fish to vomit Jonah on the beach.

The LORD hasn’t changed his mission in any way and he gives Jonah the mission again.This time Jonah responds in obedience to the plan.

He proclaims the message, the Ninevites repent of violent and evil ways and God relents of the judgment He initially intended.The purpose of the book of Jonah:

SLIDE - To Reveal the Inconceivable Greatness of God

One of the reasons I love the narrative form of Biblical literature is because of the way we get to watch God interact with mankind.And while we read these stories we are learning about God.

We are trying (with our finite minds) to understand His nature.And just when you think you have God all figured out, He does something absolutely perplexing.God is immutable, he is unchanging, but we are very mutable.

And that’s not a bad thing, in fact we should always be growing.

Living things grow.Does anyone in here feel like they’ve got God “all figured out?”And really there are only two ways to respond when confronted with the idea that we might not have God all figured out.

SLIDE - 1. Humbly

SLIDE - 2. Indignantly

When Isaiah encountered YHWH in , his experience with YHWH brought him to this place of severe self-recognition:

(ESV) — 5 And I said: “Woe is me!

For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”

When he saw himself for who he was, he was then able to see the LORD for who He is.And out of that experience flowed his obedience:

(ESV) — 8 And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.”

The longer you sit under the teaching of the Bible, and the personal meditation on the Bible, you will come to know and interact with God through the Holy Spirit in a very real way.And your knowledge and understanding of God will change.

And you will be brought to the same place as Jonah.

Will you respond humbly (as Isaiah did) or will you respond indignantly?By the simple reading of the text, I think we can safely say that Jonah’s response to this shift in his thinking of how YHWH deals with those outside of the Covenant people of God was in every way, indignant.We need to understand how the Hebrew people viewed themselves and how they viewed the way YHWH interacted with them and those outside of Israel.Not only was the Assyrian empire the most brutal empire and the long standing enemy of Israel, they were pagans.

They were not moral people.

They were outside of the general favor of YHWH.So in a very real sense, the Jews saw themselves as special people.

This served to be an indictment against them.

Because they were a people chosen by God, not because of their goodness, but because of God’s goodness.Jonah, and the Hebrew people had developed a God that was different than YHWH.

They had put their version of god in a box and they were happy to worship that god as long as he stayed in his place.

I’ll show you what I mean:

(ESV) — 1 But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry.

Before skipping to far over that first line, the irony isn’t as clear in English translation as it is in Hebrew: “It was evil to Jonah with great evil.”In

other words, what God had done in relenting of judgment on Nineveh was evil to Jonah with a great evil.

It displeased him exceedingly, he was angry WITH GOD!He obviously lacked understanding here.

Why would God NOT punish the Assyrians?

They were at the very least an excessively brutal military force in the world.

There was only gain that could come to the rest of the world by the removal of the capital city of Assyria.It was not a secret, Jonah hated the Assyrians.

But instead of rejoicing in the withholding of more death he takes the path of self-righteous pity.Any chance a true prophet of God has an opportunity to be a part of God’s plan in the earth should bring joy.And now we get the confession:

2 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;

This is the second prayer of the book, but it has such a different flavor to it.

In we get this picture of a man who is humbled by his own sin and thankful for the grace of God.Here, we see the idols of Jonah’s heart in this perplexing prayer.“You

played a trick on me God.

I knew that you would do this!

Isn’t this what I said?”Jonah is literally out of his mind here, look at what he recites back to God?

“for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster.”

The way Jonah responded reminds me of what one of my kids said to me this week when I asked them why they weren’t working on their chore, they said, “Daddy!

It’s because I hate to work and I love to play.”It’s

like, Jonah is asking God to see his point of view.

This is why I fled, I knew you would do this.

Huh?This combination of attributes of God was like one of the “Coffee mug” verses of the day.

It was like the of the OT.So what does this mean?

The first two commandments?

“Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven images.”If

you remember this is exactly what happened when Moses was atop Mt.

Sinai receiving instruction from God.

They became impatient, thinking something had happened to Moses, so they made an image of a cow out of gold and they began to worship the cow and say the things that they had said of YHWH in times past.In Moses is up in the Mt again conversing with God and he pleads with YHWH to see his glory, to have a full understanding of God’s character.

So YHWH complies and as the LORD descended in the cloud and stood with Moses in the cleft of the rock, the LORD proclaimed these same words to Moses.Because the Hebrews were forbidden to make idols, they were to see the full expression of the character of YHWH in these words.When the Hebrew people returned to Jerusalem after being in exile in Babylon, they rebuilt the temple and the wall and were led to worship the LORD by Ezra the priest and the Levites.

During their worship service they heralded these words in during their prayer.Again the LORD speaks this through the prophet Joel, extending mercy to the Hebrew people.

The point is that Jonah and the Hebrew people were very familiar with the nature of YHWH towards them.

They were a people acquainted with forgiveness, grace, mercy, patience, and steadfast love.But that was THEIR forgiveness.

That was THEIR grace.

THEIR mercy.

THEIR patience.

THEIR love.It was understandable, acceptable, and good for YHWH to relent of disaster towards them, they were used to that, but God blew their mind when he offered mercy towards another people.

Their enemies.This rocked Jonah’s world so badly, he said:

(ESV) — 3 Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.”

What a roller coaster ride of emotions this time was for Jonah.

First he fled wanting that feeling of freedom, then he realizes God is leading him to repent, but he opts to be thrown into the sea, and as he’s falling down to the sea floor he’s thinking, I messed up, I want your will now YHWH, to I can’t stand you God, you spared the people I hate, just kill me.He was either thinking, “I don’t want to be around to see Assyria be the instrument you use to punish Israel.”

Or “I can’t bear to go back home and have to tell everyone that you decided NOT to overthrow Nineveh after all because they repented.”This

is what responding indignantly looks like.

He sees God do something that is out of HIS understanding of God’s character and instead of humble adoration and worship, he’s irritated, confused and angry.

(ESV) — 4 And the Lord said, “Do you do well to be angry?” 5 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.

Peering in on the dialogue it’s hard for me to see how the LORD doesn’t just say, “Jonah, I’m done with you.

I’ve tried to be gracious with you long enough.”Instead

it’s “Jonah, is this anger a justifiable anger, a righteous anger?”It seems rhetorical, but Jonah just kind of angrily storms off the scene.

What’s going on here?

SLIDE - The Inconceivable Greatness of God is Revealed in His Patience Towards People Through Sanctification

I know we’ve talked about YHWH’s patience and longsuffering towards the rebellious.

But this dialogue gives us more detail about God.

He’s not content with Jonah’s outward obedience.

Jonah did exactly what God told him to do, God’s plan was carried out successfully… why doesn’t He just leave Jonah alone and tell him “Good job Jonah, I know that was tough for you, but you bit your lip, took one for the team, and got er done!”?God loves Jonah too much.

He loves Israel too much.

He loves us too much to just require outward obedience.

That would be characteristic of Asshur (the Assyrian god) or any number of the gods of pagan nations.If they believed they were being told by their god to do something, they would have only had to comply.

It didn’t matter if they understood what they were doing, it didn’t matter if they felt it was warranted or right, it was truly blind obedience.YHWH, God has always expected obedience.

But he is deeply concerned with the heart behind the obedience.It seems like God wants Jonah to consider his heart attitude towards the people of Nineveh.

It seems as if the response God was looking for was Joy!Spiritually maturing Christians don’t have everything figured out.

But what they realize is that God really does “work all things together for good.”Spiritually

maturing Christians have confidence that God is actually really good at handling the events in my life.

That as Tim Keller put it, “Our bad things will turn our for good, our good things cannot be taken from us, and the best things are yet to come.”And it is a gracious thing to know that God is patient with us until we get there.So Jonah is hanging out outside the city, just waiting, watching to see what’s going to happen to Nineveh.While he waits, God graciously, patiently teaches this lesson to Jonah, through three different ways:

(ESV) — 6 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.

As Jonah sits, stewing in his anger towards YHWH’s decision NOT to overthrow Nineveh, he builds himself a little booth or tent.

Probably made of leaves and twigs, not anything too strong or durable.As his booth is fading, but his heart is not changing, the Creator (YHWH-GOD) compassionately assigns the plant (that’s his first attempt to teach Jonah) to bring comfort (literally to deliver him from his evil) to Jonah.Jonah benefits from the compassion of YHWH and the obedience of the plant.

And what’s his response?

Joy.In this first lesson God is painting this picture for Jonah where Jonah is getting to be in the Ninevites shoes.

Here is Jonah, committing evil against God, but God (instead of destroying Jonah) actually raises up this plant of deliverance from Jonah’s failed attempt to protect himself?

(ESV) — 7 But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant, so that it withered.

God quickly ends Jonah’s gladness because of the plant by assigning a worm to attack the plant to death.If you’ve been jotting down all the ways that ELOHIM (the name for God that refers to His power and superiority over all) has used the most random things in this story you have him assigning a great storm to wake Jonah up, a great fish to rescue Jonah, a medium size plant to deliver Jonah, and a tiny worm to make him drive home the lesson.This is one of the most fascinating lessons in this book.

Think about this with me, with all of the talk of destruction from line one to the last line, the only thing that actually is destroyed is this plant that’s providing shade for Jonah.This plant of deliverance was something that brought Jonah much joy (exceeding gladness), but had Jonah become possessive of this plant of deliverance?

God’s not done with the lesson: