This post is adapted from a sermon I recently preached. You can listen to the sermon here (forgive the audio and video quality).
How do you view God?
Maybe you think that God is watching your every move and looking for an excuse to smite you.
Maybe you view God as a grandfather that overlooks anything you’ve done wrong and sweeps it under the rug.
Maybe you view Go some other way. The important question to consider is this: does your view of God come from your experience or the Scriptures?
In chapter four, we get a glimpse into the character of God and His care for His creation.
There are four main scenes in Jonah:
- Jonah and the sea – Jonah runs from God’s will (1:1-16)
- Jonah and the fish – Jonah reluctantly submits to God’s will (1:17-2:10)
- Jonah and the city – Jonah reluctantly fulfills God’s will (3:1-10)
- Jonah and the Lord – Jonah questions God’s will (4:1-11)
Sermon Text – Jonah 4:1-11 (click to read the text)
There are two sections in Jonah 4.
In verses 1-4, we see Jonah’s angry prayer to the Lord. In verses 5-11, we see the Lord’s lesson for Jonah.
Jonah’s Angry Prayer to the Lord (1-4)
But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. (Jon 4:1)
The fact that God had relented of his wrath upon the Ninevites (Jon 3:10) “displeased Jonah exceedingly and he was angry.”
Jonah is really upset that God spared the Ninevites. He hated these people and wanted God to bring judgment upon them.
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. (Jon 4:2)
Verse 2 tells us that Jonah fled to Tarshish because he knew God’s character. Jonah gets this language from Ex 34:6-7, which is the Old Testament text that is most used to describe God’s character.
Here is some context of Ex 34:6-7:
Ex 32 – Moses had spent 40 days with God on Mount Sinai and had received the 10 Commandments, written by the very finger of God.
While Moses was meeting with God, the Israelites fashioned the golden calf and began to worship it. God threatens to pour out His wrath and Moses intercedes for the people.
In Ex 32:14, we read, “And the LORD relented from the disaster that he had spoken of bringing on his people.”
Moses came down from Mount Sinai and had the Levites run through the camp with their swords out. That day, 3000 people were killed.
Moses then mades His way back up Mt Sinai to once again meet with the Lord.
As Moses was on the mountain, the Lord provided new tablets of stone with the 10 Commandments written on them and then He proclaimed these words:
Ex 34:6-7
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, 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 the Scriptures. He knew that the Lord was merciful and had extended mercy to Israel so many times. He also knew that God would be kind enough to show mercy to the Ninevites if they repented.
3
Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” (Jon 4:3)
Because the Lord did show mercy to the Ninevites, Jonah prays that the Lord would take his life. Jonah says it is better for him to die than to live.
4
And the Lord said, “Do you do well to be angry?” (Jon 4:4)
The Lord gently corrects Jonah: “Do you do well to be angry?”
Jonah had rebelled against God and was shown mercy (Jon 2).
The Ninevites had rebelled against God and were shown mercy (Jon 3).
When the Lord showed Jonah mercy, He was grateful. He offered a long prayer of thanksgiving (Jon 2) because he was spared from death.
When the Lord showed the Ninevites mercy, Jonah was angry. He prayed in his anger that he would die. Think about this: Jonah is speaking to the author of life, who should be the only real source of meaning in his life, and he is asking to die, because he doesn’t think his life is worth living.
Jonah is speaking to the author of life, who should be the only real source of meaning in his life, and he is asking to die, because he doesn’t think his life is worth living.
Have you ever been there?
Perhaps your life wasn’t going as you thought it should and you just asked wanted to die. Friends, this attitude is ungodly and suggests that God is not sovereign, wise, or good.
Jonah believed that Nineveh’s repentance was not in the best interest of Israel. His love of country had trumped his obedience to God. If your love of country leads you to wish for the spiritual condemnation of others, then you have made your country an idol.
Jonah was angry that God would show mercy to the Ninevites.
One of Jonah’s problems was that he saw himself as morally superior to the Ninevites.
It’s easy for us to compare ourselves to others. We think that we deserve God’s mercy, but “these people” do not. It’s easy to look down and condemn “greater” sinners, while believing we are good (see the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector in Luke 18:9-14).
Jesus warned in Matthew 7:1-6 that we should not see the spec in our brother’s eye without taking the log out of our own eye. Jesus said we will be judged according to how we judge others (Matt 7:2).
How many of us hate the moral downgrade that has happened in our country but at the same time do not hate the sins that live in our own hearts?
We condemn homosexuals but let our children and grandchildren live in fornication under our roof. We give them devices that they use to look at porn.
We condemn transgenders but we fail to fulfill biblical gender roles in the home and in church. Women are not submitting to their husbands and men are not leading their families to serve Jesus.
We wish we could vote out corrupt politicians, but we refuse to confront unrepentant sin in the church. Church discipline is almost extinct in American evangelicalism.
Ironically, it is so easy for us to judge Jonah without examining ourselves. It is as easy for us to judge others as it was for Jonah to judge the Ninevites.
The story of Jonah is something that we all need to learn and to remember every day. We are all sinners (Rom 3:23). We are all in need of God’s mercy and grace. It’s easy to look down on someone else, but the fact is that without Jesus, we would all be in hell along with the worst sinners than come to our minds. Until we understand the depth of our own sin, we will never appreciate God’s grace or have a true love for lost sinners. Until we understand the depth of our own sin, we will never appreciate God’s grace or have a true love for lost sinners.
Until we understand the depth of our own sin, we will never appreciate God’s grace or have a true love for lost sinners.
In vv. 1-4, we see Jonah’s angry prayer to the Lord.
In vv. 5-11, we see the Lord’s lesson for Jonah.
The Lord’s Lesson for Jonah (5-11)
Notice the parallel structure of Jonah between chapters 1-2 and 3-4:
The end of Jonah is the only section of the book that doesn’t have a counterpart. Thus, Jon 4:5-11 is the object lesson of the book and leaves us with a question that the author wants us to ponder.
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.
Jonah went out to the east of the city and made a booth for himself. A booth is a shelter of branches that gives some shade. Jonah sat in his little booth in the shade, waiting to see what would happen to the city.
It seems that Jonah was hoping that God would in fact send his wrath upon the city. Jonah wanted Nineveh to go up in smoke like Sodom and Gomorrah. So, Jonah waited in the heat under the shade of his booth.
Once again, Jonah is oblivious to his own hypocrisy. When Jonah was disobedient to the Lord, He was grateful for God’s deliverance through the fish (Jon 2). But when it came to the Ninevites, whom he perceived to be more sinful than himself, He had a front row seat to what he hoped would be the fireworks of God’s wrath.
It’s been said that in Jonah is similar to both brothers in the parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32). In chapters 1-2, Jonah is the prodigal who is in rebellion against his father (God). In chapters 3-4, Jonah is the older brother, who is angry that his father (God) would forgive the sins of his younger brother (the Ninevites).
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.
But God knew what Jonah was doing and more importantly, He saw into Jonah’s heart. In His kindness, God used a plant, a worm, and a wind to show Jonah the condition of his heart.
Verse six says that, “The Lord God appointed a plant” in order to give Jonah some shade “to save him from his discomfort.”
The text also says that Jonah “was exceedingly glad because of the plant.”
Remember in v. 1 (Jon 4:1) that God’s mercy toward the Ninevites displeased Jonah exceedingly, but here he is exceedingly glad because of the plant that is now giving him shade.
Jonah is completely self-absorbed. He is more worried about his own comfort than the fate of the Ninevites. This is a pattern in Jonah’s life. Remember, he slept during the storm while the sailors were deathly afraid. Now he is enjoying some shade while hoping for God to destroy Nineveh.
And so, God uses a worm and a wind to confront Jonah’s narcissism.
7-8
But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant, so that it withered. 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.”
After a day of enjoying the plant that provided shade, “God appointed a worm” and “God appointed a scorching east wind.” After the tree was gone and the wind blew, the sun beat down on Jonah’s head so that he was faint.
Once again, Jonah desires to die – “It is better for me to die than to live.” This is the second time that Jonah has asked to die.
Jonah had called the Ninevites to repentance, but he refused to repent himself. Jonah refused to repent when the storm came and he continues to be hard-hearted in the face of God’s love and mercy.
It’s easy to condemn the sin we see on the news. It’s harder for us to look in the mirror and to see the sins in our own hearts.
It’s easy to condemn the sin we see on the news. It’s harder for us to look in the mirror and to see the sins in our own hearts.
9-11
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.” 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. 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?”
The Lord once again asks, “Do you do well to be angry?”
Jonah, in v. 9, for the third time, desires to die.
The Lord uses the plant to prove His point. If Jonah pities the fate of the plant, who only lived for a day, then should not the Lord pity the city of Nineveh, which is home to more than 120,000 people who do not know their right hand from their left? The phrase “do not know their right hand from their left” means that the Ninevites are spiritually blind and do not know what to do about it.
Conclusion
We are not given Jonah’s answer to God’s question. The real issue is how we answer the question.
What is your attitude towards people who are spiritually blind and living in sin?
Do you know that they will experience God’s wrath without Jesus? Do you care?
Do you have compassion for the lost?
Do you rejoice when sinners repent?
Imagine if God treated us the same way we sometimes wish He would treat others.
We are to look on even those we think are wicked sinners with compassion. Instead of condemning others, we are to pity them and show compassion for them. This doesn’t mean that we excuse or overlook sin. It means that we recognize that we, too were once dead in our sins (Eph 2:1). Instead of condemning sinners with an attitude self-righteousness, we share the truth in love, offering them the hope of the gospel.
Does your heart reflect the heart of Jonah, or the heart of Jesus?
The story of Jonah is proof that God loves sinners. The message of Jonah points to the message of Jesus.
The story of Jonah is proof that God loves sinners. The message of Jonah points to the message of Jesus.
Consider the similarities and differences between Jonah and Jesus:
Jonah preached a message of judgment, but Jesus preached a message of grace and salvation.
While Jonah almost died for his own sins, Jesus died for the sins of the world
Jonah’s ministry was to one city, but Jesus was and is the Savior of the world
Jonah’s obedience was reluctant but Jesus always submitted to the Father and willingly laid down His life.
Jonah hated the Ninevites but Jesus loved those He came to save
Jonah went outside the city to watch Nineveh be judged. Jesus was crucified outside the city so that we would be spared from God’s judgment.
In Exodus 34:6-7, we saw that the Lord is:
- Merciful and gracious
- Slow to anger
- Abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness
- Forgiving of iniquity and transgression and sin
- But he will by no means clear the guilty
If you’re reading this article and you are not a Christian, I am warning you: God is merciful, but he will by no means clear the guilty. We have all sinned and are all guilty of breaking God’s Law. We all deserve God’s wrath and to spend eternity in hell separated from Him.
But the good news is that you can be forgiven this very day. Repent of your sin and trust in Jesus alone, and God will extend mercy and grace to you because of the work of Jesus Christ – His life, death, burial, and resurrection.
For Christians, our attitude towards sinners should reflect the compassionate heart of Jesus rather than the calloused heart of Jonah.
What lost people are you praying for?
Have you shared the gospel with anyone recently?
How many times have you complained about how things are going in our country?
Considering your answers, does your heart for sinners reflect the heart of Jonah, or the heart of Jesus?
Our attitude towards sinners should reflect the compassionate heart of Jesus rather than the calloused heart of Jonah.
The way things get better in our world is when Christians start loving people the way God loves people. The gospel is the power of God for salvation for everyone who believes (Rom 1:16).
If you want to see change in the world, love God with everything you have, and love your sinful neighbors as you love yourself and share the gospel with them.
Jonah hated the Ninevites but God loved them.
Who are the Ninevites in your life?
Will you see them as God sees them and love them as God loves them?