An Angry Prophet
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25 “Now his older son was in the field, and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing.
26 And he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant.
27 And he said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf, because he has received him back safe and sound.’
28 But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him,
29 but he answered his father, ‘Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends.
30 But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!’
31 And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours.
32 It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.’ ”
Prayer
1 But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry.
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; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster.
3 Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.”
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.
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.
7 But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant, so that it withered.
8 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.”
9 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.”
10 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.
11 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?”
Introduction
Exodus
6 The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,
7 keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.”
We come at last this morning to our final sermon in our series on Jonah. We have taken a somewhat big picture approach to our study. We’ve looked at the big themes of the story. Those three big themes are first that God is sovereign over all of His creation. We see that in God’s control over the wind and sea, and again, that theme will be present in God’s appointment of a plant and a worm. The second big theme of Jonah is that God cares about the nations – about wicked people. People who reject Him and rebel against Him. We see that in sending Jonah to Nineveh in the first place, and we saw it with the pagan sailors who ended up worshipping God. The third theme is that salvation is of the Lord. Deliverance and destruction are in the hand of God.
Scripture
Luke 19:
41 And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it,
42 saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.
43 For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side
44 and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”
Our passage this morning is the final chapter of Jonah. . If you are able, please stand for the reading of God’s Word. We do this to show appreciation to God for His Word and in recognition that these are among the most important words we can possible hear today. says,
1 But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry.
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; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster.
3 Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.”
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.
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.
7 But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant, so that it withered.
8 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.”
9 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.”
10 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.
11 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?”
Thank you, you may be seated.
Thank you, you may be seated.
The passage we just read starts out with the phrase, “But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry.” Jonah was angry! Angry because Nineveh had repented, and God had spared them! And we are meant to see how absolutely ridiculous this is. Jonah of all people should appreciate the mercy and grace God has shown the Ninevites. It was Jonah who had quite recently sinned against God. Who deserved God’s wrath, but who God, in his amazing mercy delivered. The same Jonah who wrote a hymn of thanksgiving to God for saving him while in the belly of the fish. That Jonah. That Jonah is angry at God for saving other undeserving sinners. How often do we do that? Do we ever think that some people don’t deserve forgiveness? There is a sense in which that is correct. No one deserves forgiveness, but usually our assumption is that I deserve to be forgiven, but that person does not. We humans have an amazing ability to show grace. I’m serious, we will excuse all manner of terrible actions and thoughts and attitudes for ourselves. We are very gracious and patient with ourselves, and often, we are fairly gracious towards others – as long as they are “one of us”. If they are in our circle or tribe or group. As long as they are Israelites.
That really is the fascinating thing here. Israel during this time is actually experiencing a period of growth and strength, but unfortunately during this time, they are actually rejecting God. Turning away from God. So, the Ninevites serve as a rebuke. The people who should be repenting aren’t. They are too busy lavishing themselves with grace. We aren’t so bad, look how good things are! Everything is fine! And the Ninevites humbly repented. That makes Jonah angry. He has grace for Israel – who is sinning, but not those other people who don’t deserve it. So while God turns from His anger towards the Ninevites, Jonah turns to anger towards God.
The real problem here is that Jonah has forgotten Who he serves. Jonah is rebuking God. Jonah pridefully thinks he knows better than God. Jonah’s attitude says that Jonah believes that he thinks he knows how to deal with the Ninevites better than God! I think there is a lesson there for us. How often do we do the same thing? How often do we question God about how He providentially rules over His creation – over our lives? I think we probably do it fairly often. I think that we have a similar pride issue sometimes. Don’t get me wrong, there are ways to ask questions of God and wrestle with things that is not sinful. “God, why are these trials happening in my life? Is it the result of my sinful choices bearing fruit? Are you using these trials to refine me and sanctify me? To make me more like Christ?” Humble questions like that bring glory to God, but questions like what Jonah asked – questions that are really accusations. Questions which ultimately reject or deny God’s wisdom and goodness? That is pride and sin. Jonah does not know best, and neither do we.
Jonah goes out of the city to wait and see if maybe, just maybe the Ninevites would be destroyed. You can almost hear Jonah muttering to himself in anger as he builds his covering, hoping that God will destroy them after all. But what we have in this section of the story is a fascinating object lesson. Jonah builds himself a “booth”. It would have basically been a wilderness shelter where the top was made of some type of vegetation that Jonah would’ve cut or picked to help provide shade from the hot sun. To put this into perspective, Nineveh was generally located near the modern-day boarders of Iraq, Iran and Turkey – where those three countries meet. This is not a nice summer getaway up north. What happens to leaves when they’ve ben picked and left in the sun? They wither and dry up, and that is what would have naturally happened to Jonas’s booth after a few days, so God appointed a plant to grow up over Jonah to deliver him from his discomfort. There is a wordplay happening in the Hebrew here where the word for discomfort or grief is the same word for evil.
So, Jonah tried to save himself from the “evil” of the hot sun, but that was insufficient. Then God delivered Jonah from his “evil” – from his discomfort, and that made Jonah happy. Talk about an emotional rollercoaster. But wait, there’s more because God sovereignly sent a worm to kill the plant causing it to wither. And on top of that, God sovereignly sent a scorching wind and Jonah ends up nearly having a heatstroke and asking to die.
God points out to Jonah that he is angry over a plant that he had nothing to do with making. It was God’s plant to begin with. God alone has the right to dispose of His creation however He wills. And that is what is truly upsetting to Jonah – that deliverance and destruction are in God’s hands, and God’s alone. But the reality is that Jonah already knew that truth. That is the whole reason he didn’t want to go to Nineveh in the first place. Look again at verse 2, “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.” Jonah is quoting, or at least referencing a well-known passage in Exodus. which says,
6 The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,
7 keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.”
Jonah knew – or at least should have – that God holds deliverance and destruction in His hands. So, that is what God teaches Jonah while Jonah is sitting outside the city hoping to see it destroyed.
Jonah couldn’t deliver or save himself from the scorching heat – his attempts had failed. They were nothing but withered leaves. God showed Jonah that deliverance – salvation is of the Lord. One commentator put it this way, “Whereas in verse 3 [Jonah] questions God’s right to deliver, here he challenges God’s right to destroy.” Again we see that Jonah thinks that he knows best. Thankfully, though deliverance and destruction are not in the hands of sinful men like Jonah with rollercoaster emotions. Instead, deliverance and destruction are in the hand of God who is perfectly wise, good, merciful and just and holy and will by no means clear the guilty. That should be both a point of comfort and of fear.
I don’t know if you have noticed, but we have touched on two of the three big themes of Jonah in this chapter. God is sovereign over His creation – we saw that in the growing plant, the hungry worm and the scorching wind. And we have seen that deliverance and destruction are God’s. That salvation is of the Lord. The third big theme in Jonah - that God cares for rebels – is also present in this chapter. Look at the point God makes to Jonah in verse 11. God’s point is that there are 120,000 people there! Jonah was upset about a plant he had no investment in, yet was heartless towards 120,000 people.
In thinking about this, I’m reminded of another Prophet years later who looked over a city with a very different reaction. Look with me at . It says,
“And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”
41 And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it,
42 saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.
43 For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side
44 and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”
Jesus in that passage is actually prophesying against Jerusalem. Jerusalem would be destroyed by the Romans in 70 A.D. and the destruction was devastating. The destruction was also deserved. Jesus had come. The promised seed who would crush the head of the serpent had come. God made flesh had come and Jerusalem would reject Him. Jesus who had never done anything wrong, but instead had always done good. Healing people. Teaching people. Feeding people. Jesus would be lied about, beaten and crucified. That is what Jesus was approaching when He drew near to the city and looked over it. His response? Sadness and grief – not for His fate, but for theirs.
If ever a prophet had a right to rejoice in the destruction of a city, it was Jesus, and yet He doesn’t. Even in proclaiming and prophesying destruction against Jerusalem, Jesus is not elated – He’s saddened over their spiritual blindness and hardheartedness and the destruction that comes from that.
There is another connection here that I don’t want us to miss. Jonah, throughout this whole process reluctantly obeyed God. Jonah doubted God’s wisdom and rejected God’s will – for all the good that it did him. Jonah was angry with God for God disposing of His creation as God sees fit.
Jesus, on the other hand, came to do the Father’s will. Jesus perfectly obeyed the Father. Jesus never rejected or God’s will or questioned God’s wisdom. Scripture says that for the joy set before Him, Jesus endured the cross. Jesus didn’t face the cross while grumbling. He did it joyfully. That doesn’t mean he was skipping and smiling down the road with the cross on His back. We see in the last passage that Christ wept, but there is a joy that sets it’s face to do the hard thing for the glory of God.
And Christ did do the hard thing. On the cross, Jesus bore the full weight of God’s wrath for the sins of His people so that in Christ there is forgiveness of sins. Nothing speaks more clearly of God’s heart for rebels. But we should also be careful not to look at the story of Jonah or the story of the cross and see a God who is only merciful. A God who ignores sin. Deliverance is in the hand of God, and praise God for that, but so is destruction, and it is no less praiseworthy. We saw in the Exodus passage that God will by no means clear the guilty.
No amount of showing ourselves grace, of forgiving our own sin will do any good. Ignoring the sin of those in our “group” does not bring deliverance. Only one thing brings deliverance and it comes through the cross. Throw yourself at the mercy of God who is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. Like the Ninevites, call out to God in humble repentance. Turn from your sin and turn to Christ. Trusting Him and His righteousness alone.
Conclusion
Maybe you are here this morning, and you are a believer, but see a lot of Jonah in your heart. You know God, you trust Him most of the time, but sometimes you doubt His wisdom and goodness. Sometimes you pridefully believe that you would do things different – better.
Or maybe, like Jonah, you find yourself being unforgiving towards others – maybe even critical of others. You don’t rejoice at what God is doing in their life. You don’t hope that God will deliver them instead you hope that “those people” get what they deserve. Maybe it is the person who cut you off in traffic, or the person on Facebook who holds a different political view as you. Or maybe it is the guy next door who you’re pretty sure is on meth, or maybe it is the fellow church member a few pews over who did something you didn’t like that one time.
Or maybe, you see in your own heart a tendency to ignore or downplay the sin in your life or in the life of those in your circle. You pour out a false grace that doesn’t deal with the sin problem. You make excuses to justify sin instead of repenting of it. If any of those things apply to you, Believer, it is serious sin. I hope that God has spoken to you through His Word this morning and shown you your sinful attitude like He did to Jonah. Repent, brethren.
Perhaps you are here, and you realize that you are not a Christian. You have never trusted Christ. Maybe you had a religious experience as a child, but you realize now that it wasn’t real. Or maybe you have been trying to soothe your conscience by telling yourself that your sin is not that big of a deal. You cannot lavish grace and forgiveness upon yourself that is not yours to give to yourself. What I mean by that is that you have sinned against God. Sure, you’ve sinned against others also and should seek their forgiveness, but even those sins are ultimately against God.
Maybe this analogy will help make sense of what I mean. If I were to walk up to you right now and punch you square in the nose (which I wouldn’t actually do). Let’s say I immediately felt bad about doing it, so I turned to the person sitting next to you and asked them to forgive me. Can they forgive me for punching you in the nose? No. Let’s go a step further, and instead I asked myself for forgiveness for punching you in the nose. Would I be forgiven? Absolutely not, and the hubris and pride that I would be showing by trying to forgive myself would make you angrier. So too with God. You’ve sinned against Him and He alone can forgive you. Trying to forgive yourself is pride and hubris and only adds insult to injury. It adds sin upon sin. You should know that if you will not humbly repent and flee from your sin and flee to Christ and seek forgiveness from the One whom you sinned against, you will face the just and terrible judgment of God. I pray you will cry out to God.
We are about to transition to a time of worship through response. We believe that any time people hear the Word of God, they respond in worship or rebellion. Worship may look like humbly and brokenly repenting or it might look like praise and joy for what God has done in Christ. However the Spirit of God is applying His Word to your heart, I hope that you will not rebel against it.
I will be on the front row worshipping along with you. If you need to talk or pray, please feel free to come get me, I’d be delighted to talk with you. If you need to pray up front, you’re welcomed to do that. If you would like talk after the service, I’d be happy to stick around for as long as you need. Whatever the case, please do your business with God.
Let’s pray.