Have you ever watched a TV series or movie and when it ended there was no resolution. It didn’t make sense. You get to the end of it, and you go “Wait?!” I paid attention all the way through. I watched the entire series, and we get to the end, and it ends like that! Who knows what I’m talking about? Raise your hand. I have so many questions: did they get back together? Did the good guy live? Did the bad guy actually die? Sometimes they look dead, but they are not really dead. How many of you get frustrated when something ends like that and there is no resolution? Raise your hand. If that kind of stuff bothers you, then you are not going to like Jonah 4. Jonah ends leaving you with a lot of questions.

Today we conclude our series on Jonah and Jonah 4 is the most difficult chapter for me to preach and it will be the most frustrating chapter for you to hear. So with that, let’s review the first three chapters.

Chapter 1: God will often interrupt your life

  • Remember that in chapter 1:1 we are told, “The word of the Lord came to Jonah… saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh, the great city, and cry out against it, because their wickedness has come up before Me.”
  • What did Jonah do? He hated the Ninevites because they were evil, so he got on a ship going the opposite direction, God sent a storm, the sailors on the ship got freaked out, they threw Jonah overboard, and God provided a big fish that swallowed Jonah up.
  • A lesson we learned was that sometimes our problems are God’s provision (the storm, the fish)
  • Another lesson we learned was the main character in Jonah is not Jonah, but God and His mercy and compassion.

Chapter 2: God hears our prayers

  • In chapter 2 Jonah prays to God. Jonah 2:1 says, “Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the stomach of the fish….” and God shows mercy.
  • We learn that when you are in trouble, pray. When you are in trouble, pray! When you are in trouble, pray! Church, what do you do when you are in trouble? Pray!
  • Then God commands the fish to vomit Jonah onto dry land. God had mercy!

Chapter 3: God is a God of a second chance

  • Then in chapter 3:1, “the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time.” How many of you are thankful for a God of second chances? Our God doesn’t just call, but our God calls, back.
  • So, what did Jonah finally do? He finally obeyed the Lord. He preached a hard message, forty days and the city will be overturned by God. It was basically a turn or burn type of message.
  • The entire city responds in repentance. They turn to God in humility.
  • How does God respond to their repentance? How does God respond when the evil people turn from their evil ways and to God? Chapter 3:10 tells us, “When God saw what [the Ninevites] did and how they turned from their evil ways, [God] relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened” (NIV). When they repented, God relented.
  • What do we see? When they repented, God relented. When they turned from their sins, God had mercy on some of the most evil and wicked people who have walked on the face of the earth. But when they repented, God relented. And the whole nation, from the king to the very poorest turned to God.

How do you think Jonah responded? He is a preacher and this national revival breaks out. If I preached, and all of you and the entire city of Mexico turned to Jesus I would be so happy, shocked, thrilled, amazed, and full of joy! It would be like the greatest day ever.

Verse 1

Jonah preached, they repented and what did Jonah do? He wasn’t happy. He wasn’t worshipping. He was mad and disappointed. We know this because of Jonah 4. Take a look at Jonah 4:1, But it greatly displeased Jonah, and he became angry. The word angry doesn’t catch the intensity behind this meaning of the Hebrew word here. It actually carries the idea of furious, raging mad, ticked off, livid, and enraged.

Verse 2

Then we read in verse 2, Then he prayed to the Lord and said, “Please Lord, was this not what I said when I was still in my own country? Therefore in anticipation of this I fled to Tarshish… Now he is about to complain about the most beautiful attribute of God… since I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in mercy…. Let’s just pause here for a moment. Let’s acknowledge that our God IS a compassionate God, a God who is slow to anger, and a God who is abounding in mercy. What kind of God do we serve? We serve a compassionate God, a God who is slow to anger, and a God who is abounding in mercy. That is who we serve and worship! That is who we adore! That is the one we give our allegiance too! He is worthy of every ounce of obedience and dedication we have!

Verse 3-4

And then he says, and One who relents of disaster. 3 So now, Lord, please take my life from me, for death is better to me than life. If you are going to let these evil people off, then I don’t even want to live.

Can we just slow it down for a moment and acknowledge that there is a lot of drama here. I’m kind of like, really Jonah, really?! This is God and you are going to throw this fit. It’s really easy to throw Jonah under the bus, until you put yourself in his shoes. Remember, the Ninevites would rape the women, murder children when they would take over an area, and torture the men and scholars who study this in great detail tell us that is possible and more likely than not that some of Jonah’s family, like his mom or dad, grandparents, and other relatives were violated, tortured, and killed by these Ninevites. So when you are looking at Jonah, there is history. Now let’s give Jonah a little bit of credit because Jonah eventually did the will of God. God told him to preach to the Ninevites, he did and he did the will of God, but he was not happy about it.

Jonah shows us a problem that many of us have. You may have it and I may have it. It’s this. He shows us that it’s possible to the do the will of God without the heart of God. It’s possible to do what God wants, but to do it with the wrong attitude. We can do the will of God with the wrong motives. “Ok, God, I will do this because you told me to, but I’m not going to like it.” This can show up in different ways.

  • You will give what God told you to give, but you don’t really want too.
  • I will forgive them for what they did, but….
  • I’m going to be faithful to my spouse, but….
  • I’m going to sacrifice for my kids, but….
  • I’m going to do the right thing, but….

How many of you know that it is possible to do the will of God without the heart of God?

Verse 5

The story continues in verse 5, look at this. Jonah 4:5, Then Jonah left the city and sat down east of it. Where did Jonah go to sit down? East of the city. Make note of that, we will come back to it. There he made a shelter for himself and sat under it in the shade, until he could see what would happen in the city. Jonah preached his message. Got out of town. It’s interesting that God gives us a very specific direction regarding where Jonah went outside the city. Again, where did Jonah sit down? East of the city. This is important because in the Bible, anyone who travels east is often pictured as moving toward exile or bondage. Many times, in the Scripture when someone travels east they are moving away from God’s will into exile or bondage. Let me show you a few examples so you can see this.

  • Because of Adam’s sin, God sent Adam out of the Garden to the east. (Gen. 3:24)
  • Cain left the Lord’s presence and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden (Gen. 4:16)
  • When Abram and Lot parted, Lot chose to go east to Sodom. (Gen. 13:11-13)
  • With their backs toward the temple of the Lord, men faced east and worshiped the sun (Ez 8:16)

What did Jonah do, the prophet who didn’t obey God, then obeyed God with impure motives went to the east symbolizing perhaps that he is not trusting God again. How many of you know that you can be IN the will of God, but not OF the will of God. You can physically do God’s will, but your heart is not in it. With your mouth you can praise God, but your heart can be far away from Him.

Verse 6

Jonah has reluctantly done what God wanted him to do. He is now sitting east of the city to see what happens. Even though Jonah is sitting outside of the city, and pouting and upset and angry at God… God decides to provide something for Jonah.  Jonah 4:6 says, So the Lord God designated a plant, and it grew up over Jonah to be a shade over his head, to relieve him of his discomfort. And Jonah was overjoyed about the plant. Let’s break this down.

  • We are told the Lord God designated a plant. God designated or provided a plant for Jonah. This is another provision of God. We were told that God designated or provided a great fish for Jonah in chapter 1 and now we see God providing a plant for Jonah.
  • This plant grew up over Jonah to be a shade over his head, to relieve him of his discomfort. The sun was up. It was hot and humid. Jonah was uncomfortable and God provided a plant that would provide Jonah some shade to bring him comfort.
  • What was Jonah’s reaction? And Jonah was overjoyed about the plant. He was very happy. When we are told he was overjoyed, that’s exactly what he was. He was overflowing with happiness. The Hebrew word her means to rejoice greatly and exceedingly overjoyed. This is not, I found a $20 bill happy, but I won the lottery happy. And why was he very happy and overjoyed? Because God has eased his discomfort and because God did something for him. He was very happy, not because thousands of people turned to God, but because God did something for him. Because it was still all about him.

That’s the part that makes me uncomfortable because sometimes I see myself in that. Jonah loved receiving the provisions and blessings from God, but God was about to teach Jonah a lesson. God wants to promote us by testing us. He decided to give Jonah an object lesson and Jonah didn’t like lessons. He is like some of us. Jonah wanted to skip God’s lessons and go straight to God’s blessings. We don’t want the hard stuff, we don’t want the discipline, and we don’t want to be patient and faithful and learn how to die to ourselves, and put others first and be conformed to the image of Christ and we don’t want to persevere… Jonah didn’t want that. But God was about to teach him a lesson and he didn’t want that.

So what did God do? God provided a plant and Jonah started to get comfortable in the shade. Here is what I noticed, about the time you start to get comfortable God has a way of stretching your faith. The moment we start to get comfortable God tends to teach us that we still need Him. And we are going to see God provide two more things.

Verses 7-8

Verse 7 tells us this, But God designated a worm [God provided a great fish, a plant and now a worm] when dawn came the next day, and it attacked the plant and it withered [This is weird, but we know that our God can take the weird and make it wonderful]. 8 And when the sun came up God designated a scorching east wind [there is that east thing again], and the sun beat down on Jonah’s head so that he became faint, and he begged with all his soul to die, saying, “Death is better to me than life!”

  • Jonah is having a hard day! Something that brought him comfort has been taken away. It’s just a plant, but when your heart is out of the WILL of God, your heart can’t see the PLAN of God. When what brought you comfort is taken away, how you react reveals whether God is at the center of your life or whether you are at the center of your life. When your life is about you, then little things can become big things when they are taken away. It can bring you to the point where you might say, “Death is better to me than life!”
    • You didn’t get the promotion, “I would rather die.”
    • You didn’t get the credit at work, “I would rather die.”
    • You felt rejected by someone, “I would rather die.”
    • You didn’t get noticed, “I would rather die.”
    • You didn’t get the job you wanted, “I would rather die.”
    • Your spouse doesn’t love you the way you wanted, “I would rather die.”
    • Your parents put restrictions on you, “I would rather die.”

Some experts who looked at Jonah and studied his personality identified three possible root issues to his very complicated behavior. I’m going to show you what these are and see if you see yourself in any of these because I don’t at all.

Jonah’s Root Issues

  • Erratic mood swings ranging from courageous obedience to extreme dissatisfaction and anger, suggesting underlying frustration and the need to control. (Ouch! Check for me)
  • Entitlement tendences focusing on his own views of justice and expecting God and others to operate within his parameters. (oh man, check)
  • Depressive symptoms manifesting through feelings of burnout, sadness, anger, and hopelessness. (That’s not me today, but that has been me in the past. Check)

It’s so easy to criticize his emotional tantrums. I want to talk to those who are real enough to get it, you might be like that sometimes as well. I can obey God with great faith one moment and ignore God and do my own thing the next. I can be in the presence of God worshiping Him with this passionate and authentic heartfelt adoration and then the next day I can be apathetic and act like He doesn’t exist. I can be obedient to the prompting of the Holy Spirit and then the next day God prompts me to do something and I will say, “No, that’s God.” I hate the lessons, but I love God’s blessings. I can relate.

Verses 9-11

So what does God do? Go provides a plant for shade. The next day God provides a worm and the worm eats the plant. So now, Jonah is saying to God, “What’s up? The sun is about to kill me, pounding on my head. God this is unbelievable. After all I have done for you. I risked my life. I preached to those evil and wicked people and here we are.” How does Jonah end? How does the story end? There is no chapter 5. Are you ready for it? Because it stinks.  Even though it does end strange, God gets the last word. Here it goes, here is the ending. Beginning in verse 9.

But God said to Jonah, “Do you have a good reason to be angry about the plant?” And he said, “I have good reason to be angry, even to the point of death!” 10 Then the Lord said, “You had compassion on the plant, for which you did not work and which you did not cause to grow, which came up overnight and perished overnight. 11 Should I not also have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 120,000 people, who do not know the difference between their right hand and their left, as well as many animals?” There it is. It’s over. Did you miss it. Let me give you that last line as well. The plane just lands. The last line, as well as many animals. It’s like, come on God, you are the author and finisher of our faith and that’s how you end this story. I need something better than that. I want more.

  • Did you change Jonah’s heart? Did he eventually come around and fall in love with you and completely surrender his life to you willingly? I want to know what happened to Jonah.
  • Did Jonah die? If he did, how? Did he get mercury poison form the fish? Did the worm eat him? Did some rogue Ninevite change his mind and kill him? Did he go back to Joppa and live happily ever after? And also many animals.
  • Did Jonah ever forgive the Ninevites himself?

So God says to Jonah, you are going to throw a fit over a plant and cry over a plant, but you want cry over those people who don’t know Me? Come on Jonah. Sadly, this is another way that many of us can be like Jonah because the last thing that Jesus says before ascending into heaven is, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel and make disciples baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and I will be with you always until the end of the world.” Go unto all the world. All the world. God, I’m okay if you save me, but I’m not going to go, and I’m not going to pray for them, and I’m not going to give to help others go, and I’m not going to help and I’m not going to serve because I’m happy to receive mercy from God, but I’m going to reject the mission of God. I want you to forgive me, but don’t expect me to be faithful. I want you to love me, but don’t expect me to love others. I want your help, but don’t expect me to be holy.  I told you chapter 4 is tough. God, I really want my will, but I don’t want your will if your will involves me sacrificing. Chapter 4 ends weird and it’s complicated and it’s in your face at the same time.

Conclusion

So let’s do this. Let’s go back to where we started. Let me ask you the same question I asked back in chapter 1 a few weeks ago. Jonah is not the main character of the book of Jonah. Who is the main character of the book of Jonah? The main character is God! Jonah had issues just like you. But now listen, Jonah’s attitude never changed God’s character. The way he acted, no matter what he did, no matter how much he complained, no matter how much he sinned, no matter how much he ran from God, no matter how much he ignored God, and no matter how far he went outside the will of God… none of that changed God’s character. God was still God. God never changed. Why? Because our God is always a gracious, compassionate God who is slow to anger and abounding in love. He is slow to get angry at us because he is abounding in grace and love. Love is not just something He does, but it is who He is. It’s His nature. It’s who He is! Our God is a gracious and compassionate God. Slow to anger and abounding in love.

The amazing thing about Jonah is that it points us to Jesus in the New Testament and Jesus points back to Jonah in the Old Testament. Matthew 12, Jesus said just as Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights so will the son of man be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights. Then Jesus said this, “… and now something greater than Jonah is here” (Matt. 12;41, NIV). And what is greater than Jonah? His name is Jesus! He is the Son of God, the perfect one, the door in which we enter, He is the water which quinches our thirst, he is the alpha and omega, soon returning conquering king of all kings, and Lord of all lords, and he is greater than Jonah.

  • Jonah ran from God, but Jesus surrendered to Him
  • Jonah fought for his own will, but Jesus said not my will, but your will be done
  • Jonah hated the sinners, but Jesus loves them and He came for them. He ate with them, loved them, and died for them.

Why? Because Jesus has the heart of God. And our God is gracious, compassionate God, who is slow to anger and abounding in love. And so for some of you, you may be a little bit like Jonah. Sometimes you are close to God and sometimes you ignore God. Sometimes you worship him, sometimes you don’t like the way he does business. Sometimes you are happy, sometimes you are sad. And someone right now, you may be afraid, you are worried, you are anxious, you are alone. You feel like you are battling depression and you’re losing hope.

And maybe I’m speaking to someone who is a little bit like Jonah, when you are not even sure if life is worth living. And I want to declare it to you, and I want you to hear it not from me, but hear it from heaven when I tell you, you are never alone. Our God will never leave you and he will never forsake you. And even when you feel helpless with our God, you are never hopeless. Our God is for you.

Because the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time. Our God doesn’t just call, but our God calls back. Our God is the God of second chances. For some of you, God is going to give you a chance today. He is going to give you another chance. Another chance to obey. Another chance to make it right. Another chance to call on Him, another chance to repent, another chance to say, I need you, God. I want to be close to you. He is going to give you another chance. But remember, every chance from God demands a choice from you.

So what are you going to do about who God is? Who is our God? Our God is gracious. He’s a compassionate God. Slow to anger and abounding in love. That’s who our God is.