The Book of Jonah, Lesson 4

Assignment: Read Jonah 4, Numbers 14:18-20 and Luke 15:11-32

Chapter four highlights the tension between the justice and mercy of God.  According to Jared Byas (Jonah For Normal People, Perkiomenville, PA/The Bible for Normal People, 2022, p. 79) God and Jonah each get exactly 47 words in this chapter. God gets the last one as we might expect. So, where are we? The Ninevites repented and Gods relented. It may have been hard for Jonah to understand God’s rationale, but God didn’t need him to either understand or approve. “But to Jonah this seemed very wrong, and he became angry.” (V.1) God is God, Jonah is not. We would do well to remember that notion when we are tempted to second guess him. That is likely the lesson the author intended. God has no problem with us expressing our true feelings. He can take it. If nothing else, it demonstrates our faith.

Jonah believed the people of that great city were so wicked they deserved the worst that God could do to them. We might say the same thing about our country today. We pay multimillion dollar salaries to athletes and celebrities while children go to bed homeless and hungry. Some of those we elected to fix our nation’s problems have become both part of the problem and public spectacles in the process. As they engage in petty partisanship, crime, poverty, homelessness, and hopelessness is growing in many communities. We do not have to look very far these days to see people we think God ought to punish. That is a story as old as humankind. Jeremiah asked, “Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why do all the faithless live at ease?” (Jeremiah 12:1 NIV) David saw it in his day, too. “Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; do not fret when people succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes” (Psalm 37:7). Our God is a just God and a time of reckoning awaits those who do not repent. Yet it is not his will that any should die lost, but that everyone would come to him in repentance. Jonah was so focused on God’s justice that he entirely missed God’s grace in his life while at the same time resenting God extending it to those he considered undeserving of it. And that is what really frosted his cake.

Although the Assyrians had not yet become the dominant nation that history remembers, they were on the ascent as a regional military power and were known for their ruthlessness in victory. Jonah undoubtedly viewed them as his people’s greatest threat. In his mind, warning them would be tantamount to a treasonous act. Yet God sent him to do just that. He accepted the Ninevite’s repentance and spared them. He did so even though they did not know or worship him. Yet, when they turned from their wicked ways God responded with mercy.  Jonah got mad and his pridefulness and bigotry became evident.

He prayed to the Lord, “Isn’t this what I said, Lord, when I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing 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. 3 Now, Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.” (V. 2-3) Reading this makes me want to commend Jonah for his honesty in prayer. We could all do more of that. But his honesty and transparency contain a smugness that makes me want to shake him and ask, “What are you thinking?” He had just preached a message of destruction to a city, perhaps one as large as modern-day Los Angeles. He was hoping God would eliminate it from the face of the earth. When that didn’t happen, he shook his sanctimonious finger at God and said, “I told you so.” He apparently did not stop to think that for a God who could obliterate a large city, squishing a little self-centered, crybaby would offer no challenge at all. Here we get an inkling that God had a purpose for Jonah beyond simply warning Nineveh.

We do not really know why Jonah got angry so quickly. Perhaps he was angry because God sent him there in the first place. Another possibility is that he is mad at God for having spared the city. But that is not likely. Jonah, “. . . waited to see what would happen to the city.” (V.5) Jonah did not yet know God had or would spare Nineveh. A more logical explanation for his anger might be his disappointment over the Ninevites exercising initiative by repenting. And that they did so with no help from him. Maybe Jonah’s expectation of God’s change of heart was based on his own nation’s history. He repeatedly responded with mercy when Israel repented from her sin.

We will never know for certain, but his anger may have been a defense mechanism to remove his sense of guilt by turning attention away from his accountably for rebellion and bigotry. Rather than admit he was wrong, and God was right, he may have attempted to put God on the defensive. We do the same thing when we shift blame to God or others even when we know we are wrong. Anger is one of our basic emotions that has served a protective purpose over the long course of human history. It is related to the “fight, flight, or freeze” response of the sympathetic nervous system. It prepares human faculties for the first option—to fight and Jonah was obviously gearing up for what would be a futile slugfest with God.

The primary difference between anger and most other emotions is it is a natural response to pain. We tend to focus our anger away from the proximate cause of our pain. The pain in Jonah’s case may have been the weight of his sin. Rather than give in to Jonah’s childish, “I want to die” statements, God essentially responded to him the way Billy Sunday did to a woman who admitted having a hot temper. She said, “There’s nothing wrong with losing my temper. I blow up, and then it’s all over.” Mr. Sunday replied, “So does a shotgun, and look at the damage it leaves behind!”

Jonah could not comprehend why God had shown concern for Israel’s greatest enemy and likely resented God treating pagans the way he did his people. Could it be God doesn’t play favorites? After all, he promised Abraham all nations would be blessed through him. Jonah was an instrument of God’s blessing. And when the Ninevites repented he was not happy about it.  “I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.” (V.2)

He expected God to act justly but could not intellectually accept God being merciful. As we discussed in lesson 1, Jonah’s “patriotism” seemed to lead him to choose his country over his God. Even God agreed the people of Nineveh were bad folks, yet Jonah rightly assumed he would spare them if they changed their ways. Somewhere in the process he certainly must have wondered if God was going to destroy the city, why he would give them a heads up.

Jonah was first and foremost a proud, political, nationalistic Jew. He thought because he was a descendant of Abraham, he was somehow better than the people of Nineveh. When faced with choosing between the security of his country and obedience to his God, he was apparently willing to push God away rather than see his nation’s enemies spared. Genuine Jesus followers must not confuse patriotism, love of country and respect for its traditions and history, with nationalism. Patriotism is usually positive. Nationalism is often negative and violent—think German Brown Shirts in the 1930s. It is political patriotism on steroids. It is beating a Capitol police officer with an American flag while storming the seat of democracy. It is calling for the lynching of the vice-president and others who hold differing political views.

Jonah didn’t have Jesus who expects us to be willing to forgive, to love and offer others his saving grace. But he did have the Pentateuch and might have considered the words of Joseph. “God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.”  (Genesis 50:20 | NIV) The great thing about our God is that he does not respect national borders or distinguish between the people he created. None are considered better or more special. We all bear his image. God responded to Jonah with the same grace and patience he demonstrated toward Nineveh even though Jonah seems to have already forgotten about his time in the fish’s belly.

“Now, Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.” (V.3) Jonah is singing a far different song now than he did when he was under water. He faced certain death for his own disobedience and cried out to the Lord but, since he never asked for forgiveness, he apparently did not see himself as a sinner. If he did, he must have thought he was a better sinner than the Ninevites. Remember what he said in his earlier prayer? “Those who cling to worthless idols turn away from God’s love for them.” (Jonah 2:8) What a hypocrite! His hatred was sin. And his nationalism was an idol. The Ninevites did not even know the God who offered them salvation, but Jonah turned away from his God’s love twice: once when he ran and now when he asked God to take his life. Jonah knew he deserved to die for his sin and, in his rage, may have believed he was giving God permission to punish him. His pride is certainly on full display. He still had not accepted the fact he is not God.

There are people sitting on church pews today who have never accepted that they are still sinners, separated from God. They are called, “cultural Christians.” They are members of churches, likely the church in which they were raised, but, like Jonah, have never been convicted of their sin or recognized they needed a savior. Yet they call on God with the same sort of familiarity Jonah used. How about you? Have you asked for God’s forgiveness? Is Jesus both your lord and savior? Jesus said, “Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’” (Matthew 7:22-23 | NIV)

“Jonah had gone out and sat down at a place east of the city. There he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city. Then the Lord God provided a leafy plant and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the plant. But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the plant so that it withered. When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die, and said, “It would be better for me to die than to live.” (vv.5-8)

Jonah’s pride reached its zenith by his preferring death rather than repenting of his disobedience. His reluctance to take responsibility for his actions could have cost him his life, not to mention those of the people of Nineveh. Don’t we do that, too? How many relationships have been damaged or destroyed by pride when we refuse to admit being wrong or apologize even when we know one is owed? Pride distorts reality. Jonah was a strong proponent of God’s grace when he faced death inside the fish, but now he resents it. He didn’t want to die before, but now that he’s mad, he’s ready to go. For a prophet, he had remarkably little appreciation for God’s grace or his sovereignty. God had saved him from the fish’s belly for a purpose beyond saving Nineveh. When God’s purpose for the city was achieved it became all about Jonah. What does it say about his job as a prophet that he was angry because people responded to the message God gave him to deliver?

The Book of Jonah is, first and foremost, about God’s grace and sovereignty and the plant was the metaphor that he chose to demonstrate it. “But God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?” “It is,” he said. “And I’m so angry I wish I were dead. ”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?” (vv.10-11) Jonah mourned the loss of a plant that he did not plant or maintain. Nevertheless, he became angry with God for sparing at least 120,000 people (possibly infants and young children) who could not distinguish between their left hand and right hands.

The chapter ends with a question that provides a glimpse into God’s heart. He exercised his sovereignty through grace by extending the same unmerited favor to Nineveh that he offers anyone willing to repent and follow Jesus. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9)

Here is what Jonah didn’t know about grace. God’s grace, like his mercy, is a function of his sovereignty. We have nothing to do with it. We cannot earn it. And, like Jonah, we certainly don’t deserve it. We may only accept it when it is offered. It does not belong to us exclusively. We have an obligation to warn others of sin’s consequences. Jonah forgot he was included in God’s promise to bless all nations through Abraham. Even worse, he failed to see he had also been the recipient of God’s grace despite his rebellion and disobedience. We don’t know what happened to Jonah. But we do know that God spared Nineveh temporarily because of the people’s change in behavior.

If you don’t follow Jesus, it might be a cultural distinctive that is holding you back. As Americans we have been nurtured on the belief that we make our own way. We cannot help but wonder if we are missing something in the gospel message. God offers: a restored relationship with him, forgiveness of all sin, a clear conscience, an opportunity to start over in the way we live, how we relate with others, plus the promise of eternal life. We cannot believe it is a gift resulting from faith alone in Jesus alone. Jesus plus nothing else. Some people pass on the gospel because it seems too easy. We all know that, except for God’s grace, the first rule of economics is, “There is no such thing as a free lunch.” So if we refuse this great way of being saved, how can we hope to escape? The Lord himself was the first to tell about it, and people who heard the message proved to us that it was true. (Hebrews 2:3 | CEV)

Please do not simply assume you are automatically a Christian because you were born or reside in a Christian nation. Following Jesus requires turning toward him in genuine repentance, expressing your willingness to follow him and committing do what he says. Yet, if the story of Nineveh demonstrates anything at all, it is that if we take even a small, halting step toward God, he will close the distance. As Nineveh so vividly demonstrates, God does not want to destroy anyone. His will is for everyone to repent and come to him by accepting to follow Jesus as both lord and savior. Nineveh only went halfway. Eventually the city paid a price for sin. Sadly, the Bible teaches the same fate awaits those who never fully surrender to Jesus.

The second thing we learn about grace is, although we have received it, we must guard against taking it for granted or thinking of it as making us better than those around us. Jonah was saved from drowning and from becoming fish food, yet he continually failed to appreciate that God was extending the same grace to Nineveh that he had received. God cannot love any of his image-bearers any more or any less. Jesus expects us to love God and love others—all others, no exceptions. Sadly, too many of us follow Jonah’s bad example. Jonah saw and despised the Ninevites as sinful and rebellious but failed to recognize and accept he was just like them.

If Jonah had had his way, the people of Nineveh would have been toast. He hoped his anger would change God’s mind. But anger does not make us right nor will it change God’s plan. Like Billy Sunday did with that woman, God reminded Jonah of the damage that would be left behind. It would be wrong to destroy people who did not know him or appreciate what he expects from those who do. Jonah’s anger resulted from the pain caused by his acute awareness of God’s basic character. The Psalms are filled with examples of people expressing anger at God, largely because they could not see into the future the way he does. God is ok with our honest, angry prayers, but before we start telling him how to be God, we would do well to remember he has access to information that we don’t. Few of us respond like we fully understand and appreciate God knows things we don’t and, consequently, fail to trust in his sovereignty.

In addition to his smugness over finally completing the job God tasked him to accomplish, he compounded his anger at God by misuse of Scripture to bolster his case. He twisted Scripture in his attempt to chastise God. He quoted only part of Exodus 34:6. But let’s look at the whole passage. “‘. . .The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished . . .’”  Nineveh would eventually pay the price for her sin.

Jonah acted like God reneged. He believed he had kept his part of the bargain, but God didn’t since the city was spared. The God of all creation really did not need Jonah to do anything for him. He wanted Jonah to learn crucial lessons about obedience, trust and grace. God decides who merits his grace. And for those to whom he grants it, grateful obedience is the natural response. God’s desire for Jonah and believers today is that we love and obey him—trusting him with all aspects of our lives. He always has our best interests at heart. God certainly demonstrated his love for Jonah and proved that he could be trusted.

There will be occasions in our walk with Jesus when we know that God has a job for us to do and should anticipate that there may be a lesson or two contained in it. Our response says a lot about where we are in our walk of faith. If it feels like a burden or obligation, rather than a love offering, we should ask ourselves what how important is our relationship with God. If something is more important to us than glorifying him with our service, we risk becoming like Jonah, bitter, reluctant, self-righteous, and resentful. Accepting God’s grace as a sinner may be easier than living out his grace as a saint. Dallas Willard is credited with observing, “Grace is not opposed to effort, but to earning.”

Discussion

1. What does the passage say to Jesus’s original audience?
2. What lesson did you take from the chapter?
3. When is it ok to complain or argue with God?
4. Can anyone or people be too bad for God’s grace?
5. How have you experienced God’s grace in your life?
6. Jonah seemed to be placing his nationalism over his duty to God. What place should nationalism and politics play in the life of a disciple?
7. If the worm was a metaphor, what might it represent?
8. What does it mean to repent?
9. Can you think of a lesson you learned from God you did not anticipate, perhaps to discover the truth in Romans 8:28? 
10. How would you witness to a “cultural Christian” without judging them? 

(Rev. 11/22/2022)