Jonah 4:10-11
But the Lord said, “You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?”
Introduction
Today we’re continuing our look at the minor prophets. Something I failed to mention earlier is that there are actually 12 minor prophets, so we’re only looking at a third of them. Today, though, we look at perhaps the best-known minor prophet, and that is Jonah. We know this story well, don’t we? It’s the one with the fish with the man who gets swallowed up by it. But sometimes we get stopped at just that point, don’t we? We don’t really look at too much more than that. There are enough lessons within the book of Jonah that could keep us talking about it for weeks on end. Honestly!
One of the Bibles I own is a study Bible, and the first thing that it says in its introduction of the book of Jonah is “does God’s love have limits?” One of the hardest things for us to learn from this chapter is that God truly does love our enemies. Jonah was told to go and preach to his enemies, but Jonah had found he could not love them, and did not expect God to love them either! Coloring Jonah’s viewpoint was that he was highly nationalistic. It is believed that this book was written, or at least begun to be told, at a time when there was a great nationalism for Judah. Some scholars believe that the story was told by Jonah to a scribe right after he returned from Nineveh, and that over time it grew in its importance to the people after they had returned from the captivity in Babylon. But for right then, during the time of the origins of the story, God’s people were enjoying a level of luxurious living that they had rarely experienced. Times were good! Why go and rock the boat, and why go to try to save a group of people that threatened the good times they were having? That was the viewpoint that Jonah was living with.
We also can be certain that when Jonah was told to go to Nineveh that he was living in the days of Jeroboam II because we are told in 2 Kings 14:25. Interestingly enough, at least to me, is that we can know when that happened because of a great earthquake that destroyed part of Jerusalem in 760 BC. Modern archeologists have found evidence of a great earthquake from that time period, and have dated it using technology, once more showing that the Bible is truthfully true when it reports things, even to this day! That means that Jonah was prophesying at the same time that Amos, Hosea, and Joel.
Additionally, I think it’s worth noting that there is a disagreement amongst Christian and even Jewish scholars about the veracity of this book’s claims. There are some scholars that believe that this story is completely mythical, meaning that it is complete fiction and just an imaginary experience intended to relate a lesson, much like a parable. Another view is that it is allegorical, meaning that once again it is used to represent something else, that being God’s people in captivity and the fish being the sinful nature that is holding them there. Finally, and I personally believe this viewpoint, is that it is truly historic; in other words, what Jonah said happened to him is what happened to him, and that the lessons learned from this are trustworthy and true. But let’s look at this book and see what it can teach us today.
Running from God (chapter 1)
Look at chapter 1 here. The first verse says “the word of the Lord came to Jonah.” and then in verse 2 Jonah was told by God “go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it because its wickedness has come up before me.” This is a very clear instruction from God of what to do, of what will happen to this city of Nineveh if he doesn’t go and preach, and how pressing the issue was to Jonah! But what happens? Jonah runs. Verse 3 says “But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish.” I’ve got to say that this part has always been the most funny to me. The creator of everything, the omnipresent God, the one who knows everything about everyone all the time...Jonah tries to run away from God and his purpose for Jonah. Now, how well do you think that ever works? Jonah was being a coward! He was having a hissy fit over being told to go and save his enemy! He gets aboard a boat, thinking that because he wasn’t going to go to Nineveh that it would be destroyed, and that God would let him off the hook.
It was a prideful thing to do, wasn’t it? He wanted his enemies crushed, destroyed, obliterated! Certainly after coming to reason, God would agree with him, right? I mean, these are the people who defiled the name of the Lord! Wouldn’t they be the ones who deserved the punishment? Now, we can get onto Jonah’s case pretty hard here, but how many times have we been told by that still, small voice to go and talk with someone about their faith, but yet somehow we don’t find time to do it? Or we say, well, that’s someone else’s job to do? Trust me, I’m in this same boat as you are! It’s not pleasant to talk to people we don’t like, isn’t it? Especially about something so touchy as faith. But when we don’t go and talk to them, we are doing what Jonah did here! We are hoping that they will be obliterated, tortured in the great lake of fire at the end of all time. Can we live with that on our conscience?
Well, Jonah goes out onto the boat with a bunch of people who are not of his kind. And what happens? God sends a great storm up, large and terrible enough so that the boat is threatening to come to pieces. It got so bad that they threw the cargo over the side of the ship to save weight, and in turn destroyed part of their livelihood. But what do we see Jonah doing? Oh, he’s down below decks, enjoying a nice deep sleep. He’s not helping, he’s not praying, he’s a peace here! I feel like Jonah is enjoying the thought that he’s hoodwinked God, that his enemies are going to be destroyed.
Down comes the ship captain. You can imagine the rage this man must have had seeing this passenger sleeping with HIS ship going to pieces. He wakes him, asking “How in the world can you sleep? Get up and call on your god. Maybe he will take notice of us and we will not perish.” This man was obviously not a person who believed in the One True God. All he knew was that they were being punished for something that they had had no part in, other than the innocent manner of taking in this passenger who seemed to be at peace with all even though a great storm was coming through! So when he comes on deck, the people of the boat know that something supernatural is happening, and to discern who was responsible, they cast lots. They take out strings or bits of wood cut to different lengths, and lo and behold, Jonah is holding the short one. They ask him so many questions, but the most important one is this: What have you done? It says in verse 10 of chapter 1 that they already knew that he was running from God.
Finally, Jonah takes responsibility for his actions. He had tried to outrun God, but he finally realized that there was no way. How can you even try to outrun God? He tells the sailors to throw him into the sea, and it would become calm after that. Try as they might to not have to do this, knowing that killing was wrong, these pagan sailors beg of God to forgive them for throwing Jonah into the sea. They throw Jonah into the waters, and immediately the sea becomes calm. It says in verse 16 that “at this the men greatly feared the Lord, and they offered sacrifices to the Lord and made vows to Him.” Amazingly enough, you can look at this scene in a certain way that these people were saved because of having to go through this storm. Not only saved from the destruction of their vessel or losing their lives, but they made vows to God. They were saved from their pagan ways by an amazing event in their lives. But this is the end of their story, but not of Jonah’s. What happens next? God spares Jonah’s life, sending a great fish for the prophet to be swallowed up into, staying in this fish’s gullet for three days and three night. And what happens there reminds us that we are to run with God, not away from him.
Running to God (chapter 2)
You can imagine the intensity of Jonah’s situation here. I know many of you fish, and you’ve gutted plenty of fish to make sure you can eat them. The inside of some fish is not a pleasant smell, is it? And often, the stomach of a fish contains pretty nasty things. Now, Jonah was in the stomach of a fish for three days and three nights, surrounded by strange sounds, no light, and by this terrible stench. He was fully aware of God’s complete power and control over his life. One study Bible I have said this: Jonah, like many other humans, prayed when he was driven to it. Well, understatement of the year there, right?! Jonah was in a place where he most certainly did not want to be, and was certainly placed there against what he would want! But he comes to realize his terrible ways.
When he is in this giant fish, he fully knows his sinfulness. He knows that it is his alone, and that he caused it himself. But beyond this, he knows that he has to accept the full responsibility for those actions, whatever they might be. I believe that, when you read this prayer, that Jonah knows that God could very easily take his life as punishment for his running away. He knows that God could have just as easily allowed for him to drown in the ocean. He was in great despair, but not without hope! He runs back to God. In verse 9, chapter 2, Jonah says “what I have vowed I will make good. Salvation comes from the Lord.” Jonah knows that he is helpless to save himself, but he fully trusts God to remove him from that situation and to answer his prayer. And answer him God does, in perhaps one of the most punishing ways! When I was a teenager, we had a man named Dale Crum who did a one man show as Jonah, and when he got to this part, he described it in vivid detail. He went “and there I was, on the shore, covered in VOMIT!! OY, it was disgusting!!” Punishment, indeed. But there was hope! In life, there is hope!
Running with God (chapter 3)
It says in chapter 3:1-2 “the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time: Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.” Even though he had completely and utterly disobeyed, God gives Jonah another chance at this. Have you ever had your child disobey you? Sometimes you might just close your eyes for a second, breathe, and then tell them to go do it again. Or sometimes you might punish them, then make them go and do it anyway! Well, I don’t think it was that severe, but God still had this task for Jonah to do. But this time, Jonah did it. Not out of a sense that he had to repay God for his deliverance, not because God had his attention right then. I feel that Jonah did it because he had truly learned from his unrighteous ways. He truly understood that he was running with God!
Verse 3 tells us that Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh. Now, Nineveh was a large city. It was the capital city of the Assyrian Empire, and was located in the northern part of modern day Iraq. It was so large that it would take you three full days of walking to get across it. Besides that, if you can think of where Jonah was going, which was across the Mediterranean Sea, this meant that he had either 1) been thrown up on the coast of Iraq, which would be quite a feat for even a large whale to get to the other side of the Saudi peninsula in three days (although not completely out of the question since this IS God we’re talking about), or 2) he had travelled to the city over land, which would have been a long journey as well! But what is important to realize is that Jonah GOES. He ensures himself to follow God fully, and he proclaims the message “40 more days and Nineveh will be overturned!”
It was a simple message. Nothing of what God was going to do, what God could do for them, nor any great expository preaching. Just 8 words: 40 more days and Nineveh will be overturned. Doesn’t sound like much, does it? Doesn’t sound like a great message that would turn people away from their sin. Can you imagine if someone was down at the store down here saying that? 40 more days and Suches will be overturned. We would likely think that person needed some medical attention, right? But because God was in this message, it was powerful. Powerful enough that the Bible simply says in verse 5 of chapter 3 that “The Ninevites believed God”. They fasted, put on sackcloth, and urged everyone they knew to do the same! And in time, the news even reached the Assyrian king.
The king took this message seriously, to the point that he called the entire city to fast, and to even have their animals fast! He also called on the people to call on the one true God to spare them, and to turn from their wicked ways. He would say in his decree, which we find in verse 9 “Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.” And amazingly enough, God does have compassion on these people. Even though they were enemies of God and of God’s people, God spares them because they turned to Him. As one writer put it, “Wrath is never God’s last work to a repentant people.” Much like how later in the story of the Bible, the wrath that God has for all people because of sin was not the last word for repentant people: Jesus Christ took the wrath for our sins on the cross instead!
Running ahead of God (chapter 4)
One of the books that I used for this lesson today said “one tends to limit God through disobedience”. Now, can we truly limit God? Of course not. But the intent of that phrase was to mean that we can limit our usefulness to God, our understanding of God, and the way that his Word can be spread through our disobedience. Now, Jonah had finally been obedient to God. But we get to chapter 4. He is still not happy about this situation. He had relented his will to God, but he had not relented his emotions to God about it all. His still viewed the Assyrians that lived in Nineveh as his enemies!
Now, something that we must note when we look at this last chapter is something that Biblical scholars nearly all agree on. During this time of Jonah’s life, the exiles had returned from Babylon and in doing so, they had come to think of themselves as only exclusive to the blessings of the Lord and His salvation. It’s a simple trap for us to fall into: those who don’t believe God are certainly evil, and don’t they deserve punishment? The view of the Jews was one of narrowmindedness, of exclusivity, and of intolerance for those who had harassed and embarrassed them. They were God’s chosen people, right? And didn’t God command us not to go and be involved with those unclean people? They had taken this to the nth degree, though. Even though God had shown that he is the God of ALL people, these Jews were making a point to NOT go and tell them about God and his salvation. Because these people had repented in Nineveh, God saved them. It served as a sharp rebuke to Israel’s exclusiveness, and serves as a rebuke to us today. We have to remember that God is the God of all, and that Christ died for all peoples.
Well, with that in mind, Jonah sits and pouts. Jonah 4:1-4 says “But Jonah was greatly displeased and became angry. He prayed to the Lord, ‘O Lord, is this not what I said when I was still at home? That is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. Now O Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.” Wow. Just wow. The conservative estimate for the population of Nineveh is 120,000 people. And Jonah is ANGRY with God for saving them. He’s trying to even justify why he ran at this point! He was indignant to God directly for saving these people, all because of his prejudice against anyone who was not Jewish. He was so angry over the repentance and the salvation of people that he was ANGRY. How ridiculous is that?
But again, haven’t we seen this ourselves in times past? I know that I have. I remember being a member of a church where they had a large group of young people come to Christ. It became a great center of activity for these young people to come to, and would end up having a lasting kingdom impact because many of these people went on into ministry after going off to college. But there were people within that church who were angry that all these young people had come to THEIR church and had done so much to THEIR building. They had become angry and indignant because these people were not the same as them. They still viewed them as the enemy! And that church ran off most of the young people, and ensured that the young people would not come back when they ran off their youth minister and pastor that had built up that ministry. It’s the same thing, isn’t it?
God answers Jonah in verse 4, have you any right to be angry? Well, did he? I don’t think that he did. He was truthfully, to me, being a big ole baby! He never answers God, and leaves in a huff. We get so angry with God sometimes when we want to do something our way, but God puts something in our path that we must do for Him. God does something here while Jonah sulks. Jonah has gone out and sat down in a place east of the city. He sets up a shelter for himself, and God makes a great vine to come and cover over Jonah. Well, this is more like it, right? Yeah, I did God’s work, and even though I’m unrighteously angry, God’s still taking care of me. Alright. The Bible says that Jonah was very happy about the vine!
But at dawn the next day, God provides a worm to eat the vine, which in turn falls. The sun was hot that day, and the east wind was blowing right in his face. Y’all know, especially in the last few weeks, how uncomfortable it was with the heat and then a breeze comes and you get no relief from it. It just blows hot air in your face and makes you more uncomfortable and likely more angry! Well, this was Jonah’s plight. He’s hot, he’s angry, he’s uncomfortable, and his vine is gone now. He says “It would just be better for me to die now!” Once again, God asks Jonah, “do you have a right to be angry?” but this time, God adds “about the vine?” Jonah says that he is, enough so that he wants to die!
But God does respond to Jonah this time. He tells Jonah, you didn’t make this vine, you didn’t tend it or make it grow. I did. You’re more upset about a vine than you are about the 120000 living, breathing people in this great city, even if they are enemies of MY people. He asks Jonah, “Should I not be concerned about that great city?” The Bible does not record the answer of Jonah, nor do I think that we really need it. You know, Jonah wanted forgiveness and grace for himself and his multitude of sins. He was prideful, was deceitful, was ornery, and even had hate in his heart. These are some major sins, no matter how you cut it. But Jonah, in his ignorance, only wanted that forgiveness for himself and not for the Assyrian people who were his enemies. He had missed out on the message of grace for all peoples in the world that God was showing to him.
Truthfully, God had every reason to destroy Nineveh. They had been extremely wicked, they were idol worshippers, and they denied the one true God. But they had, in the end, turned to God. God looked at the innocent multitudes who needed His love and cried out in true repentance to Him for His grace. Jonah was ready to die because God had shown them grace, and had been long suffering for them. Within the human mind, seeking to justify self and gain revenge against others cannot understand and accept God’s grace, even for those who we do think of as enemies! We cannot establish a monopoly on grace for those who are Christians. That grace is for all peoples.
Conclusion
You know, this reminds me of a time when I was doing reenacting. We were at a battle in Jonesboro, GA. We were in our group of guys, and we were told that we had to run up this slight incline to ‘overtake Yankee cannon’. What they didn’t inform us was that when they said run, they meant run as fast as the fat old guys could do (who, incidentally, are about what age and shape I am now. Smart me, right?!). Well, me and my best friend Josh Reeves tear out of that line. We’re running as hard as we can, determined to make our best show to take out the cannons by ourselves. We are running hard, clear across the battlefield, and then, Josh first, we realize that we are WAY ahead of everyone else. I mean by like 200 yards! If it had been a real battle, we’d have been sitting ducks! We had outrun our coverage, and had outrun all sort of protection. We ended up being so far ahead of the pack that we were ‘taken prisoner’ by the Union forces, and trust me, we heard it from them, we heard it from our friends, we heard it from even the spectators. Boy were we dumb to run so fast and so far out in front of everyone!
Well, that was what Jonah was doing at the end of this story. He had outrun God’s grace. He had gotten so wrapped up in his own self, had gotten so wrapped up in his own identity and his own prejudices that he could never understand why God wanted to save these heathen people. But here’s the one thing that we can take away from this today, if anything. No matter if we outrun our coverage, if we outrun all the rest of the people that we are supposed to be with and to witness to, we can NEVER truly outrun God. It is completely and utterly impossible to escape God.
Jesus compared himself to Jonah as recorded in two places in the Gospels. Jesus Christ spoke in both of those spots that a wicked generation asked for a sign, and that much like the sign of Jonah, the son of man would spend three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. And even harsher, Jesus says in Matthew 12:41 “the men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now something greater than Jonah is here.” The people of Jesus’ day wanted a sign from God that salvation was truly coming. Jesus had told them right there that salvation was HERE and NOW. But yet they still rejected Him. It is a reminder that Jesus Christ is truly the salvation of the World. Not just of those who sound and look like us, but of all of mankind. And when we know that, we are able to go and witness to anyone and everyone about the greatness of our God. Let’s pray.
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