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Jonah 4
I love reading novels and watching films where you realise you're coming towards the end of the story and all the loose ends are being pulled together. But just as story seems to be all wrapped up, and all the once seemingly unconnected pieces have fallen into place, and you think you've finally understood the plot, and the motives appear to be all clearly sorted out in your own mind, suddenly there's a final dramatic twist in the tale that completely upsets and overturns your thinking and forces you to reconsider all that you had concluded. A surprise ending catches you unawares. At the end, things are not as they seem. A shocking revelation at the conclusion of the story forces you to revise your whole judgment.
Jonah 4 is the startling final twist in the tale of this Old Testament prophet from C8th BC. If the book had ended at 3:10 we'd have been left marvelling at the revival in Nineveh in response to the bold and courageous preaching of God's appointed messenger. If this had been the end of the story of Jonah, we would have rejoiced in the Lord's compassion in the face of such evident and heartfelt sorrow over sin. The story of Jonah would have ended on a high. But this isn't a fairy tale in which all live happily ever after, as the sun slips slowly down under the horizon bathing Nineveh in its warm light. Everything doesn't turn out right in the end for there's a twist in the tale, for, in 4:1, we discover Jonah burning with anger rather than full of praise. He's furious with rage, not rejoicing with thankfulness at the mercy and grace of God.
Look at the contrast between response of God and Jonah. God saw what Nineveh did & He turned from his anger (3:10); Jonah saw what God did & he burned with anger (4:1). God had compassion on Nineveh; Jonah has none. Rather than rejoicing in the graciousness of God and in the amazing response that his preaching had received, Jonah is bitter and twisted.
Jonah prays to God in his anger and it's a self-justifying, I-focused prayer that lays bare his perverted thinking. Jonah's prayer exposes the reasoning behind his initial disobedience in running from the Lord's call to get up and go and preach to Nineveh, and his present fury at the Lord's most recent action. Jonah's heart is uncovered and it lies naked before us.
Let me paraphrase what Jonah is saying in v2-3: "I knew from the very beginning, when I was still in my own homecountry, that it would turn out like this - that's the reason I ran away so fast in the opposite direction. I wanted nothing to do with this, for I know exactly what you are like - you're a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. I really wasn't the least bit surprised that Nineveh repented and You, O Lord, relented from bringing upon them the judgment they so deserved, for that's the way you always act. I didn't want this to happen. I didn't want to be part of this. Just let me die - I don't want to live any longer"
We might have expected an angry response from Jonah if there had been no response to his preaching - if his prophetic mission had been a failure. We know from 2Kgs 14 that Jonah already had a track record of success, so why this outburst of anger when his preaching had been received so readily and with such evident earnestness? Would Jonah really rather that all the people of Nineveh had been destroyed by God? The answer sadly is yes. J would rather that his preaching in Nineveh had been ignored and that the message that God had given him had not been heeded. Jonah wanted the Ninevites to be punished for their immorality & idolatry - he wanted them to get what they deserved. They were the enemy; he was an Israelite and this prophetic mission to which God had appointed him was to the capital city of Assyria, a nation which represented a great threat to Israel's security and its people's safety. In v2 Jonah's nationalism is evident as he speaks of his own homecountry - his homeland. He's acutely aware that he's not at home in Nineveh. He doesn't want God to show favour towards Israel's enemy. Jonah wants God to apply strict justice and wipe them from the face of the earth; to fully punish Nineveh and give them all that they deserved. Jonah left no room in his thinking for the mercy and grace of God. He has no love for the people to whom God has sent him.
In v4 Jonah is divinely cross-examined. "Have you any right to be angry?" The Lord asks Jonah. The implication is that God had had the right to be angry - a right that He didn't exercise, for Nineveh did deserve punishment. Their wickedness merited destruction, but they had repented and God had relented. God had had a right to be angry, but Jonah had none. Jonah gives no reply to the Lord's question. It is to force J to answer this question that occasions the following actions by the Lord.
Jonah goes out of the city (5) and sits down to the east of Nineveh. He builds a shelter to provide some shade and he waits to see what will appen. What is Jonah doing? Remember that Jonah had issued a 40 day warning that God's judgment would fall upon the city (3:4). Were the 40 days still running? Did Jonah think that the Ninevites' confession of sin and profession of faith would not last, or that ultimately God would not relent? Was Jonah concerned about his reputation back at home in Israel and hoping that God would yet bring judgment against Nineveh and that he would have a ringside seat to witness the destruction of his own country's great enemy?
Jonah had observed so much - he had seen pagan people clearly aroused and spiritually awoken by his preaching, yet his own heart was untouched and unmoved by God's grace. Jonah had obeyed the Lord's call (eventually) but his outward actions were not accompanied nor inspired by a fitting motivation - for in himself, Jonah was narrowminded, hardhearted, and selfish.
Once again, as with the great fish, Jonah will have to be confronted with himself and be instructed as to the errors and inconsistencies in his own thinking. For the Jonah who fumes with anger in chapter 4 is the same Jonah from whose lips came forth praise for his own deliverance & rescue in chapter 2. The Lord takes action to instruct Jonah. In verse 6-8, we read three times of the Lord appointing or providing something, just as He previously appointed a great fish (1:17) to teach Jonah a personal and unforgettable lesson in salvation. Firstly, we read (6) that the Lord appointed a vine that grew up rapidly and provided much-needed and much-appreciated shade for Jonah. It eases his discomfort and Jonah is delighted with the vine. The God appointed (7) a worm that chews the vine, causing it to wither. Finally (8), God appointed a scorching east wind. Without the vine, this scorching wind and the blazing sun make Jonah feel faint. Jonah is angry and again he wants to die. Verse 8 is an echo of Jonah's words in v3.
Jonah's situation outside the city is clearly being compared with that of the citizens inside the city. The comparison is made explicit by the repeated question (9) in which the Lord asks Jonah has he a right to be angry about the vine. Jonah responds sharply "Of course I do - I'm so angry about it I want to die." By these words Jonah condemns himself. Like the clever barrister who, in cross-examination, has got the defendant to respond to a question in such a way that their own words can be used against them to convict them, the Lord now presses home the charge against Jonah, and plainly exposes the inconsistency and disproportion of Jonah's feelings towards the vine.
Jonah is angrily screaming at God about the loss of a plant, but is unconcerned about the loss of 120,000 human souls & their animals in Nineveh. To say that Jonah was unconcerned about Nineveh doesn't do justice to Jonah's depth of feeling - rather he was greatly exercised & troubled that the city hadn't been destroyed. Jonah cared more about a single plant than many people. The vine wasn't even his - he didn't cause it to grow. He had had a little taste of God's grace (in the provision of the vine) and he'd had a little taste of God's judgment (in the wasting of the vine, the scorching wind and the blazing sun) and he'd been moved to compassion - "You have been concerned (had pity) about this vine"(10). Yet Jonah rebuked the Lord for having compassionate concern on Nineveh, which was of infinite more value than a single vine. "Should I not be concerned (have pity) about that great city?"(11) The book of Jonah ends with the Lord's question unanswered, but we are left in no doubt what the answer ought to be.
Jonah's concern for a plant seems trivial and absurd and completely inconsistent with his callousness over the destiny of the 120,000 people of Nineveh, and he is rightly condemned for it, but in your rush to judge Jonah, consider whether by so doing, you judge yourself, for you too might be guilty of harbouring similar thoughts to those of Jonah. The spirit of J is still alive and active in the Christian church. We may not express it or recognize it, for we are generally blind to our own inconsistencies and faults, and our outward actions may not always betray the attitudes that lurk in the depths of our hearts. Consider if like Jonah, you care more for plants than people - does your garden occupy more of your time and energy and interest than other people? Do you care more about your home than other people? Does your own comfort and happiness outweigh your concern about the eternal security of others? Are you more concerned about your reputation than for God to be at work saving others?
Don't misunderstand me. I'm not saying that there is anything inherently wrong in gardening, or having a comfortable home, or caring for animals, or whatever your interests might be. This is rather a question of priorities. What really moves you? What gets you going? What are the things that make you angry? How deeply moved are you by those who are heading towards a lost eternity? These questions and this challenge come with force to me also, for I am not exempt, and my own attitudes and motives are not beyond reproach.
How deeply moved are we by the needs of other people - their physical, emotional and spiritual needs - particularly those who we might consider as our enemies? Do you ever think that some people are more deserving than others - that there are some people who have no right to God's favour?
If there was anyone the early church considered to be undeserving of God's mercy and grace it would have been Saul of Tarsus. He was zealous in his persecution of Xns; he hunted them down and approved of their stoning. Surely he deserved only God's judgment. And yet God reached down and revealed Himself to Saul as he rode to Damascus in search of Christians to imprison and persecute. Saul, the infamous persecutor, was transformed by God's grace to become Paul, the great apostle & preacher. Listen to Paul's own testimony in 1Tim 1: "CJ came into the world to save sinners - of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, CJ might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him & receive eternal life."
Jonah thought the Assyrians were beyond God's grace and only deserved judgment. The early church thought that Saul of Tarsus was beyond God's grace and only deserved judgment. Is there anyone you consider to be beyond God's grace and only deserving God's judgment? Maybe you consider yourself to be beyond God's grace? Take hope, for Paul's experience and that of Nineveh testify that there is no-one who is beyond the reach of the Saviour. He will gladly welcome & receive all who turn to him in repentance & faith.
So as we conclude this study of the life of Jonah, let us pray that, as individual Christians and as a church, we would be moved by compassion for others; that we would readily and wholeheartedly proclaim full and free salvation, and declare unashamedly and without reservation that full forgiveness & eternal life is available in Jesus Christ to all who would call out to him.
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