Jonah: The Reluctant Prophet - 17
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Introduction: This is the final chapter in the book of Jonah. In this chapter, we see God once again dealing with Jonah. Spiritual growth is certainly in view here as well as a view of God’s ways.
Text: Jonah 3:10-4:1-4
As we finished last week’s lesson we began to look at verse number 10 which shows us God’s mercy and grace.
In this account, we are given a glimpse of the thoughts and actions of God toward a people group.
When we see this take place, we ought to remind ourselves that this is not just an isolated incident.
Because the Lord has given us certain select incidences of His grace and mercy, we may be tempted to think of God as not exercising His actions toward man at other times.
But this morning I would like us to be reminded that God has been exercising His mercy and grace all throughout human history.
In spite of those incidences that are not recorded for us in the Scriptures, we can rejoice that our God, the One True Living God, is the God that sees.
He sees, not only individuals, but He sees the nations as well.
When we think about and consider how our Lord Jesus Christ in humility came to this earth being robed in flesh.
How He was born in a manger, to grow up in a common family.
How that He was rejected and scorned, how he was smitten and became sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him, it ought to remind us of His forbearance, His love and great mercy toward us.
Let us read once again verse number 10.
The Bible says, “And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.”
We are reminded that:
God saw their works. v10
This is no small truth to stumble past because for the hopeless there is hope.
For those that have no confidence in this present world and in man, this is most comforting indeed.
We might express the marvel of this best using the plain words of Scripture.
Psalm 144:3-4 “3 Lord, what is man, that thou Takest knowledge of him! Or the son of man, that thou makest account of him! 4 Man is like to vanity: His days are as a shadow that passeth away.”
Truly we are blessed because God sees us.
But secondly, I want us to see in this verse that:
2. God dealt with them in mercy. v10
As we examine verse 10 we see that God dealt with these people at this time in mercy.
They were under a sentence of conditional impending judgement.
But now, God sees their works and deals with them based on that fact.
What was it that God saw?
“...that they turned from their evil way...”
There are several items I want us to consider in relation to this.
First of all, rest assured that God does not change.
This is not an example of God changing, he is immutable.
As a matter of fact the plainest verse in the Old Testament that expresses this is Malachi 3:6, which states:
Malachi 3:6 “6 For I am the Lord, I change not; Therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.”
In Psalm 102:27 we find these words,
Psalm 102:27 “27 But thou art the same, And thy years shall have no end.”
In the New Testament most of us are familiar with James 1:17 that express both the goodness of God toward us and also His immutability.
James 1:17 “17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.”
I like this quote again from the book Preacher on the Run that may be a help to us in thinking through this:
Preacher on the Run: The Meaning of Jonah The Unchangeableness of God
To ask, ‘Could God not change his mind about some things?’ is to ask the wrong question. If he could change his mind, he would not be God. What does it mean for you to change your mind? At the very least, it implies that unforeseen circumstances have arisen. Or it may be that your earlier decision was wrong and needs to be corrected. Or it may be that you were powerless to carry out your intentions and have been obliged to change your approach. But God is not ignorant of the future, or guilty of erroneous opinions, or powerless to carry out his will. He is not a man that he should change his mind. He is the eternal I AM, who knows the end from the beginning. He is the Lord; he does not change.
He then outlines 3 points that I believe are sufficient for you and I to grasp:
God is unchangeable but He is not inactive.
When we look out at this world today, we see change all the time. There are decisions that people make and consequences that take place many times unforeseeable consequences to us.
Example: My dad talked about as a younger man getting upset and hitting a steel door. He caused damage to his hand but at that time did not fully understand the long term consequences of that decision.
God has given to us within bounds a certain scope of choices. But our understanding of these choices are bound in time.
For example: I can choose to eat chocolate cheeseburgers everyday for breakfast lunch and dinner for as long as I am able to do so.
But it is unknown to me the full measure or consequences of that choice.
God, as an example, has expressed His love and grace toward us through the Lord Jesus Christ, His Holy Word, and His Spirit.
In His Word He has made known to us the ends of some of our choices.
When we think about eternity for instance, we have been given in plain terms the result of receiving or rejecting His way and means of Salvation.
God the Father sent God the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ and it is through His grace we can receive Salvation by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
We enter into God’s grace and provision through faith.
This is a choice that has a definite result or consequence which is made known to us.
If I receive the Lord Jesus Christ as my Savior by faith, as God has drawn me to Himself through His grace, ‘I shall be saved.’
John 3:36 "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.”
Going back to the previous example however, I may not know or understand or comprehend in totality the results of eating chocolate cheeseburgers for the rest of my life for breakfast lunch and dinner.
But this does not mean that God does not know or is somehow inactive in my life.
He does not change even though I may change and make choices without knowing the consequences or knowing in part the consequences.
But I do know based on His Holy Word the sure consequences and result of rejecting the Lord Jesus Christ as my Savior.
If I reject the Lord Jesus Christ, I will spend all eternity separated from Him in the lake of fire.
You and I live Day by Day just as hymn writer wrote.
God however is not constrained or bound by time as we are.
He is eternal. His view of us is not limited by time, He sees the beginning and the end.
He sees everything that was, is and will be.
He already knows the choices that we see as happening in a moment.
The purpose and counsels of His will are fixed. And because He is God he changes not.
What you and I perceive as God changing towards us is not His changing, but rather our changing or making choices.
So while it appears that God changes, from our perspective, He in fact has not changed at all but rather is dealing with us based on our change.
Which leads us to point number 2.
God deals with us in terms of what we are and where we are.
In other words, God condescends and accommodates us and deals with us at our level. He is the creator and infinite, we are creatures and finite.
He speak to us in plain human language.
The language that we are given concerning our wonderful infinite personal God is that which we can understand.
As we have discovered before when the Bible uses an anthropomorphism such as “the hand of the Lord...” it is human language and attributes applied to God strictly for our understanding.
God deals with us in terms of promises and threats; punishments and rewards.
“The direst threats point to the richest of blessings.” Gordon J. Keddie, Preacher on the Run: The Meaning of Jonah.
When we consider God’s Holy Word, we find within it God’s help to man, who is lost and undone.
A delivery of truth that exposes us to how things truly are.
God’s Word shows us ourselves in our despicable state, and the choices before us that we can make, but the consequences of those choices.
The Lord guides us by showing us who He is and by doing so, we know for instance the wages of sin.
And so we see God’s grace and mercy vividly on display for us here is this passage.
Again the Bible says, “And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.”
So, for our understanding and admonishment also, had Nineveh not repented, they surely would have been destroyed at the end of 40 days as God declared.
This has clear-cutting ramifications to you and I.
As we apprehend this, it adds all the more seriousness and reverence to who God is and also how fully absolute His Word is.
If we do not apprehend this, God and His Word does not change.
IV. Jonah’s Pouting: God’s Presentation - Chapter 4
A. Anger and Displeasure v1-4
Let’s begin reading verses 1-4 now in Jonah chapter 4.
Read Jonah 4:1-4
1 But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry. 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. 4 Then said the Lord, Doest thou well to be angry?
We begin this chapter with this plain statement as to Jonah’s thoughts and emotions.
And you can see it there in the words given to us in our outline in letter A.
These two words are both taken from the text.
Notice with me that Jonah was not just displeased, we see here an adverb that describes his level of displeasure.
The Bible says, Jonah was displeased ‘exceedingly.’
And if that was not enough is states he was not just angry, but “very” angry.
“How sad the contrast between God’s feeling on the repentance of Nineveh towards Him, and Jonah’s feeling on the repentance of God towards Nineveh. Strange in one who was himself a monument of mercy on his repentance! We all, like him, need the lesson taught in the parable of the unforgiving, though forgiven, debtor (Mt 18:23–35)”
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.
We can think through some reasons as to why Jonah is angry.
Why do you think Jonah is displeased and angry?
At the end of the day the reasons are important and helpful to us, but they are ancillary to the root cause - - - which is pride.
I will close for this week with this statement from Albert Barnes.
“He would, like many of us, govern God’s world better than God Himself. Short-sighted and presumptuous! Yet not more short-sighted than those who, in fact, quarrel with God’s Providence, the existence of evil, the baffling of good, “the prison walls of obstacles and trials,” in what we would do for God’s glory.” - Albert Barnes