WEBVTT 00:00:06.959 --> 00:00:12.720 This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota. 00:00:16.800 --> 00:00:27.600 The Bible routinely presents life and reality in sets of contrasts. 00:00:27.920 --> 00:00:43.840 So, for example, in the Gospel of Luke, the Lord Jesus tells the parable of two men at the temple, both apparently there to worship, to pray, to offer sacrifices. 00:00:44.320 --> 00:00:50.479 One Jesus says was what we might call your typical Christian. 00:00:50.960 --> 00:00:53.039 They called them Pharisees then. 00:00:54.000 --> 00:01:01.280 The other was a reject, whose job was to collect taxes for Rome. 00:01:01.840 --> 00:01:04.799 Both came to worship, both came to pray. 00:01:05.359 --> 00:01:19.120 And Jesus says the reject was sitting off by himself, lifting up his face to heaven and beating himself and saying, Be merciful to me, O God, a sinner. 00:01:21.519 --> 00:01:29.120 The other one, Jesus said, looked at the tax collector and said, Thank God I'm not like him. 00:01:30.879 --> 00:01:37.439 Then he asked a question, which one of those two men do you think went to his home justified? 00:01:38.480 --> 00:01:39.840 Two contrasts. 00:01:40.719 --> 00:01:43.359 Opposite sides of the spectrum. 00:01:43.680 --> 00:01:53.680 Similarly, in the Gospel of Luke, before that illustration, Jesus told the story of a family with two brothers. 00:01:54.239 --> 00:02:00.480 One asked his dad for all of his inheritance and went away to a far country and spent it all. 00:02:01.760 --> 00:02:08.560 He returned later, ashamed, humbled, begging for forgiveness. 00:02:08.960 --> 00:02:13.039 The father was so excited to have his son back that he threw a party. 00:02:14.639 --> 00:02:28.800 But the older brother, who had stayed home and labored for his dad, heard the party and figured out what was going on, could not believe that his father had shown mercy to his son. 00:02:31.280 --> 00:02:37.120 We might ask, which of those two brothers is justified? 00:02:44.879 --> 00:02:55.360 And as we do that, working through the last chapter in the book of Jonah, we might ask ourselves, which of those contrasts represents us? 00:02:56.960 --> 00:03:05.680 The one who's been humbled, maybe brought to the very bottom, and comes back humbly to God, receiving mercy? 00:03:06.639 --> 00:03:14.159 Or the one who can't believe that God would extend mercy to rejects. 00:03:15.759 --> 00:03:19.599 If you have your Bible, I encourage you to open it to Jonah chapter 4. 00:03:20.159 --> 00:03:27.520 In Jonah, we have a reluctant prophet who finally entered the great city of Nineveh. 00:03:28.080 --> 00:03:44.159 He preached the shortest sermon recorded in the Bible, and he watched an entire city turn around, stopping their evil, and in essence feeling sorry, repenting for their wickedness. 00:03:44.400 --> 00:03:55.039 They were humbled before God, the king, the highest of the residents, all the way down to the homeless on the streets, even the animals wore sackcloth. 00:03:55.280 --> 00:04:00.319 They fasted, they humbled themselves before a God they barely knew. 00:04:00.560 --> 00:04:06.800 And the response was that God relented from the disaster that he was going to bring upon the city. 00:04:08.479 --> 00:04:10.080 That's a miracle. 00:04:11.120 --> 00:04:20.079 And that miracle makes the book of Jonah's last scene one of the most uncomfortable. 00:04:21.040 --> 00:04:32.079 Because God showed mercy to a city, to an entire large city, and God's own prophet was furious about it. 00:04:35.360 --> 00:04:38.319 The book has been building to this moment since chapter one. 00:04:38.639 --> 00:05:07.120 Everything that's happened from Jonah running from God's commission to getting in a boat and having to face a storm, being thrown overboard, swallowed by a great fish, his prayer at the bottom of the sea, his being vomited onto the dry ground, his recommissioning, his one-sentence sermon, everything has been driving to this point, to this final scene between an older brother and his father. 00:05:09.279 --> 00:05:12.399 Between a Pharisee and his God. 00:05:14.079 --> 00:05:18.959 This last chapter is the point of the whole book. 00:05:20.560 --> 00:05:32.800 And it tells us that we can hold every right belief about God and still be resentful of how God works. 00:05:34.000 --> 00:05:35.439 It's incredible. 00:05:35.759 --> 00:05:45.360 The whole time it's confronting us with a God who keeps on pursuing our narrow hearts because he wants them to look like his. 00:06:46.800 --> 00:06:49.279 Can you hear that tone in Jonah's voice? 00:06:50.720 --> 00:06:58.639 Therefore, now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live. 00:07:02.480 --> 00:07:08.079 The Lord said, Jonah, do you do well to be angry? 00:07:11.360 --> 00:07:16.560 Jonah went out of the city and sat to the east of the city and made a booth for himself there. 00:07:16.639 --> 00:07:20.560 He sat under it in the shade till he could see what would become of the city. 00:07:21.839 --> 00:07:31.680 Now Yahweh God appointed a plant and made it come up over Jonah so that it might be a shade over his head to save him from his discomfort. 00:07:32.480 --> 00:07:36.240 So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the plant. 00:07:37.120 --> 00:07:43.439 But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant so that it withered. 00:07:43.920 --> 00:07:51.199 When the sun arose, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint. 00:07:51.519 --> 00:07:56.800 And he asked that he might die, and said, It's better for me to die than to live. 00:07:58.720 --> 00:08:03.759 God said to Jonah, Do you do well to be angry for the plant? 00:08:04.639 --> 00:08:08.639 And he said, Yes, I do well to be angry for the plant. 00:08:09.040 --> 00:08:10.560 Angry enough to die. 00:08:13.519 --> 00:08:20.240 And the Lord said, You pity the plant for which you did not labor. 00:08:21.600 --> 00:08:27.120 Neither did you make it grow, but it came up in a night and perished in a night. 00:08:28.560 --> 00:08:30.800 Should I not pity Nineveh? 00:08:31.360 --> 00:08:38.639 That great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left? 00:08:39.600 --> 00:08:41.600 And also much cattle? 00:08:47.360 --> 00:08:50.480 I want to preach about four sermons on this one chapter. 00:08:50.960 --> 00:08:53.600 I'm going to try to limit it to part of a sermon. 00:08:54.399 --> 00:09:00.480 But I want you to know first is that Jonah knows what he's talking about. 00:09:02.080 --> 00:09:03.600 He knows his God. 00:09:04.080 --> 00:09:19.759 It is not inappropriate for us to compare him to a New Testament Pharisee, a teacher of God's word, a believer in God who has been taught all of God's ways, knows God's character, knows God himself. 00:09:22.159 --> 00:09:28.320 We must recognize that because the very first thing this chapter tells us is that even theologians are sinners. 00:09:30.240 --> 00:09:42.639 Even theologians, those who know who God is, can express who their God is, know what God is like, even they sometimes rebel. 00:09:44.080 --> 00:09:51.440 This chapter opens with a two-part description of what we might describe as Jonah's emotional state. 00:09:52.960 --> 00:10:02.000 First, we see that God's act of mercy towards this massive city was evil to Jonah. 00:10:02.480 --> 00:10:03.679 A great evil. 00:10:03.840 --> 00:10:11.919 Verse one, it displeased Jonah exceedingly, literally says, it was exceedingly evil to Jonah. 00:10:12.240 --> 00:10:17.200 When was the last time you said to God that something that God did was evil? 00:10:18.799 --> 00:10:21.279 Even we wouldn't go that far, right? 00:10:22.559 --> 00:10:24.240 Well, we think we wouldn't. 00:10:24.480 --> 00:10:26.559 But sometimes we act that way. 00:10:27.279 --> 00:10:36.480 Jonah is so upset that he believes God's mercy to this particular group of people is evil. 00:10:37.759 --> 00:10:39.679 And he's angry about it. 00:10:40.080 --> 00:10:41.679 He's very angry. 00:10:42.000 --> 00:10:47.360 God's mercy to a group of people, to a city, makes him angry. 00:10:48.559 --> 00:10:52.320 From the very first chapter, we have seen this theme beginning to develop. 00:10:52.399 --> 00:10:57.840 In chapter one, the word for evil was used to describe Nineveh's wickedness. 00:10:58.559 --> 00:11:05.200 Nineveh's evil, it said, rose up to heaven and was an affront to God. 00:11:05.279 --> 00:11:07.279 It was right there in his face. 00:11:09.279 --> 00:11:15.840 God told Jonah to go to Nineveh and cry out against the city because their evil had come up to him. 00:11:17.279 --> 00:11:25.759 It's the same word that the king used in his decree in chapter 3 to tell people to turn from their evil ways. 00:11:26.320 --> 00:11:32.000 So God recognizes their evil, and the king recognizes their evil. 00:11:33.279 --> 00:11:42.639 Interestingly, it's the same word used in chapter 3, verse 10, for the word disaster that God resented or relented of. 00:11:43.519 --> 00:11:53.679 So this word evil can be used in the Bible for something that's bad in the sense of it's not, it's morally neutral. 00:11:54.960 --> 00:12:00.240 It's not necessarily right or wrong, it's just the consequences, the effects are negative. 00:12:00.480 --> 00:12:01.679 It's bad. 00:12:02.720 --> 00:12:08.399 It can also be used for something that is evil in a moral way. 00:12:08.480 --> 00:12:14.960 That is, it's opposed to God's holiness, to God's perfect, righteous standards. 00:12:16.320 --> 00:12:28.080 So God is going to bring an evil in the sense of it's disastrous, of such magnitude on the city of Nineveh that it would be very bad for them. 00:12:30.399 --> 00:12:35.600 Now the same word takes on a unique effect in Jonah's story. 00:12:36.320 --> 00:12:45.919 God leaves off, he turns away from the disaster, this kind of evil, not morally neutral, bad for them kind of thing. 00:12:46.000 --> 00:12:53.200 He turns away from it, choosing to not bring it on them because they turned from their wicked ways. 00:12:55.440 --> 00:13:00.879 And the evil now rests in the prophet. 00:13:05.919 --> 00:13:12.159 The disaster God didn't bring on Nineveh is now evil to Jonah. 00:13:15.200 --> 00:13:17.039 The evil hasn't been resolved yet. 00:13:18.720 --> 00:13:21.279 So it starts in Nineveh in a city. 00:13:23.360 --> 00:13:30.399 Then moves to God's realm where God decides how he's going to deal with this evil, and he says, I'm going to be merciful. 00:13:30.480 --> 00:13:31.759 I'm not going to deal with this. 00:13:31.840 --> 00:13:33.360 I'm going to let it go. 00:13:33.600 --> 00:13:35.519 The disaster is not going to come. 00:13:36.480 --> 00:13:46.879 But that doesn't resolve the theme of evil because now the evil is not in the evil people, it's in God's prophet. 00:13:50.720 --> 00:13:58.080 Jonah, the prophet sent to the wicked city, now embodies the problem of evil himself. 00:13:58.399 --> 00:14:02.080 Jonah prays, sort of starting with, I told you so. 00:14:05.759 --> 00:14:11.679 That tells us, going all the way back to the beginning, that Jonah didn't run from God out of fear. 00:14:12.399 --> 00:14:19.519 He didn't run from God about doubting God's power to accomplish something. 00:14:19.759 --> 00:14:26.639 Instead, he ran because he knew full well that God could do this and God would do this. 00:14:26.879 --> 00:14:31.120 He understood that if Nineveh turned from their evil, God would be merciful. 00:14:31.440 --> 00:14:39.840 So his flight from God in the very beginning was a weak attempt to avoid what he found intolerable. 00:14:41.759 --> 00:14:43.440 What was intolerable? 00:14:45.519 --> 00:14:50.559 God extending mercy to people Jonah didn't like. 00:14:53.519 --> 00:15:01.840 Jonah then quotes in verse 2 one of the most sacred theological passages in Israel's ancient tradition. 00:15:02.000 --> 00:15:10.879 It's like, it's initially from Exodus chapter 34, verse 6, where God is telling Moses what he's like. 00:15:11.679 --> 00:15:17.039 So he's gracious and merciful, he's slow to anger, he's abounding in steadfast love. 00:15:17.600 --> 00:15:27.919 But there's an additional phrase to what Jonah includes here at the end of verse 2 that makes this more likely a reference to the prophet Joel. 00:15:29.279 --> 00:15:45.039 Because Jonah references not just these positive characteristics about God, but an additional thing that says he relents from disaster, which is exactly what we find happening at the end of chapter 3. 00:15:46.559 --> 00:15:56.320 Seems as though whoever's writing the story of Jonah knows the prophet Joel has read that portion of scripture. 00:15:57.519 --> 00:16:02.799 These were words that were repeated to Israel as a call to be like God. 00:16:03.919 --> 00:16:20.000 He is the one who is gracious and merciful, who extends steadfast love, who even chooses not to bring disaster on people who respond to him rightly. 00:16:20.720 --> 00:16:28.080 These are the theological foundation of many of Israel's hopes before a holy God. 00:16:30.159 --> 00:16:34.080 These were the words that they said, this is our God. 00:16:36.720 --> 00:16:40.879 But Jonah now quotes these words as a grievance. 00:16:45.039 --> 00:16:50.879 What should have been a praise for God's character has turned into an angry protest. 00:16:52.240 --> 00:16:56.639 Jonah's received every one of these mercies from God. 00:16:57.200 --> 00:17:00.879 He survived a sea storm that he should not have survived. 00:17:01.360 --> 00:17:04.240 He's been delivered from the darkness of a fish's belly. 00:17:04.400 --> 00:17:08.480 He's been given a second commission without a word of rebuke or correction. 00:17:08.640 --> 00:17:12.880 And now he recites all of those mercies as a problem. 00:17:15.599 --> 00:17:19.200 But they're only a problem because God gave them to Nineveh. 00:17:22.160 --> 00:17:26.079 These words are Jonah's version of how could you? 00:17:27.119 --> 00:17:28.720 How could you do that? 00:17:32.000 --> 00:17:34.799 Listen, Jonah's theology is correct. 00:17:35.519 --> 00:17:38.480 His knowledge of God is rich and detailed. 00:17:38.799 --> 00:17:48.480 He's described divine character with precision, but what he cannot tolerate is how far that character extends. 00:17:50.960 --> 00:17:57.839 It's as though God goes to those on death row and extends mercy to all of them instantly. 00:17:58.799 --> 00:18:01.119 And Jonah's just dumbfounded. 00:18:04.319 --> 00:18:11.119 The only natural conclusion in Jonah's mind is to die. 00:18:13.359 --> 00:18:16.160 Take my life, he says, verse 3. 00:18:16.480 --> 00:18:21.200 For it is better for me to die than to live. 00:18:21.839 --> 00:18:28.319 If you've read your Bible or been in church long, you might recognize that line because it's been used before in the Old Testament. 00:18:29.599 --> 00:18:33.519 Elijah said the same words in 1 Kings chapter 19. 00:18:34.000 --> 00:18:39.680 He was fleeing from the wicked Queen Jezebel, fleeing for his own life. 00:18:39.920 --> 00:18:44.160 He's exhausted from an intense period of ministry. 00:18:44.960 --> 00:18:51.440 And he gets out into the desert and he collapses under a little broom tree and he tells God, just take my life. 00:18:53.519 --> 00:18:54.559 I'm done. 00:18:56.160 --> 00:18:59.680 I think there's an intentional parallel going on here. 00:19:00.160 --> 00:19:05.279 But Jonah's context points to a slightly different meaning. 00:19:05.599 --> 00:19:07.519 Elijah is exhausted. 00:19:08.799 --> 00:19:12.720 He's running for his life after a brutal period of ministry. 00:19:13.519 --> 00:19:18.880 And God responds to Elijah with compassion and tenderness. 00:19:19.039 --> 00:19:21.440 He gives him food and water and rest. 00:19:23.039 --> 00:19:28.640 Elijah's death wish came from an emptiness up. 00:19:29.279 --> 00:19:31.039 He's just exhausted. 00:19:32.799 --> 00:19:35.200 Jonah's plea is different. 00:19:36.799 --> 00:19:39.359 He's not exhausted from serving God. 00:19:40.480 --> 00:19:41.599 He's bitter. 00:19:42.799 --> 00:19:45.279 He's bitter with what God has done. 00:19:46.799 --> 00:19:54.799 He wants to die because he finds life in a world where God shows mercy to people like the Ninevehes intolerable. 00:19:58.960 --> 00:20:04.400 So which of the contrasts does Jonah reflect? 00:20:05.680 --> 00:20:07.839 The Pharisee or the tax collector? 00:20:08.960 --> 00:20:12.079 The younger brother or the older brother? 00:20:15.839 --> 00:20:17.920 God's response is fascinating. 00:20:18.240 --> 00:20:20.160 It's not condemnation. 00:20:21.599 --> 00:20:23.039 It's a question. 00:20:25.599 --> 00:20:28.720 Do you do well to be angry? 00:20:29.759 --> 00:20:33.119 Literally, the Hebrew reads, Is it good for you to be hot? 00:20:36.559 --> 00:20:39.039 But notice the unwritten contrast. 00:20:39.440 --> 00:20:41.839 The Ninevites responded with humility. 00:20:42.000 --> 00:20:51.759 They're getting down on the ground, dirty, covered with itchy stuff to represent their humility before God, while Jonah responds with getting hot and angry. 00:20:53.440 --> 00:20:59.920 This Hebrew word for angry builds on the intensity of emotion that rises up within us when we're angry. 00:21:00.079 --> 00:21:02.000 It's as though heat is building up. 00:21:02.079 --> 00:21:03.359 There's a fire within us. 00:21:03.519 --> 00:21:08.640 So you can imagine Jonah here all red-faced and steaming as he's angry with God. 00:21:11.440 --> 00:21:13.519 But God's completely calm. 00:21:15.359 --> 00:21:19.920 There's no hint of condemnation or hint of judgment in the words. 00:21:20.720 --> 00:21:22.720 The question is almost pastoral. 00:21:23.039 --> 00:21:24.240 It's gentle. 00:21:24.640 --> 00:21:30.640 It's an invitation for Jonah to examine himself honestly. 00:21:32.400 --> 00:21:36.000 Jonah is angry with the extent of God's mercy. 00:21:36.720 --> 00:21:43.200 And God is still merciful to the prophet, even as he's boiling in rage. 00:21:46.640 --> 00:21:49.039 But Jonah doesn't respond. 00:21:52.559 --> 00:21:54.160 That would be hard for me. 00:21:55.359 --> 00:21:59.599 If I'm talking to one of my kids and ask them a question and they don't answer me and they turn and walk away. 00:22:00.000 --> 00:22:01.519 I don't really like that. 00:22:04.079 --> 00:22:05.839 That's what happens here. 00:22:07.119 --> 00:22:09.440 Jonah doesn't respond to God's question. 00:22:09.599 --> 00:22:14.640 He walks east out of the city to learn a lesson, hopefully. 00:22:14.880 --> 00:22:22.880 The lesson is that creation itself can reveal how misguided our hearts can be. 00:22:24.480 --> 00:22:28.240 Jonah finds a high point on a hill outside of the city. 00:22:28.400 --> 00:22:29.680 And he sits down to watch. 00:22:29.920 --> 00:22:37.039 He throws together a sukkah, which is a temporary booth, a dwelling place used in the desert. 00:22:37.200 --> 00:22:40.480 Israel did this out in the desert during their years of wandering. 00:22:40.640 --> 00:22:50.720 And they were supposed to use those, build those every year during the festival of Sukkot each year to remind them of God's provision and caring for them during the desert wanderings. 00:22:50.880 --> 00:22:57.680 So Jonah positioning himself as somebody who is appreciative of what God has done for him. 00:23:00.240 --> 00:23:04.240 Well, he can't appreciate what God has done for others. 00:23:05.519 --> 00:23:08.960 He's not accepting God's mercy toward Nineveh. 00:23:09.279 --> 00:23:16.559 Somewhere inside of him, there's still a hope that the reversal that he wants is going to come. 00:23:16.880 --> 00:23:20.960 That God will somehow change his mind and destroy Nineveh. 00:23:21.680 --> 00:23:25.359 And if he does, Jonah wants a front row seat. 00:23:28.640 --> 00:23:30.240 God's not like me. 00:23:30.400 --> 00:23:32.400 And you can be thankful for that. 00:23:32.720 --> 00:23:38.240 I would have been so tempted to just zap Jonah instead of Nineveh. 00:23:41.119 --> 00:23:46.720 But God is so long-suffering in his patience that he does not even challenge Jonah. 00:23:48.079 --> 00:23:52.480 Instead, he appoints a plant as an object lesson. 00:23:53.839 --> 00:23:56.960 Says God appointed, verse 6, a plant. 00:23:59.039 --> 00:24:08.960 He appointed a Kikion plant, likely a castor oil plant or something similar, known for its rapid growth in hot climates. 00:24:09.200 --> 00:24:19.839 And God nevertheless causes this to sprout and to grow up rapidly overnight so that it's large enough to provide shade for Jonah the next day. 00:24:21.200 --> 00:24:25.279 And if you followed our study from the beginning, you're ready for what happens here. 00:24:25.599 --> 00:24:28.720 God first appointed a great fish in chapter one. 00:24:29.200 --> 00:24:32.559 Now God appoints specifically a plant. 00:24:33.279 --> 00:24:37.680 And that appointing action will occur two more times in this chapter. 00:24:37.920 --> 00:24:41.759 First, it will appear with a scorching east wind. 00:24:42.559 --> 00:24:44.480 Sorry, first it's a it's a worm. 00:24:44.720 --> 00:24:48.960 God appoints a worm, then he appoints the scorching east wind. 00:24:49.920 --> 00:24:54.400 Appointed, appointed, appointed. 00:24:54.799 --> 00:25:06.720 Every instrument surrounding Jonah throughout this story has been a deliberate act by a sovereign God orchestrating everything around his resistant prophet. 00:25:10.240 --> 00:25:20.559 The entire story is an account of a God who rules over every element of his creation and who's been directing them repeatedly to one man. 00:25:22.799 --> 00:25:31.279 Nineveh only needed a one-sentence warning of destruction before they were humbled. 00:25:32.319 --> 00:25:40.160 Jonah needs specific, directed work from God over and over and over. 00:25:42.400 --> 00:25:46.240 The plant, thankfully, gives Jonah shade. 00:25:47.359 --> 00:25:49.599 And that's another point of irony. 00:25:50.240 --> 00:25:56.160 The Middle Eastern sun and heat are evil to Jonah. 00:25:58.400 --> 00:26:02.640 The same word is used for how Jonah feels about God's mercy. 00:26:04.000 --> 00:26:11.200 Jonah feels like what God has done is evil, and now the way creation is treating him is evil. 00:26:11.440 --> 00:26:15.759 Everything is evil, except for Jonah, of course. 00:26:16.079 --> 00:26:17.920 Jonah's all right and good. 00:26:18.400 --> 00:26:21.680 Everything else is wrong. 00:26:22.000 --> 00:26:24.400 God, on the other hand, is merciful. 00:26:25.119 --> 00:26:31.039 He provides what amounts to instantaneous shade for the bitter prophet. 00:26:31.599 --> 00:26:40.799 And for the first time in this whole book, and the only time, Jonah experiences genuine happiness. 00:26:41.920 --> 00:26:45.519 It says he rejoiced with great joy. 00:26:47.279 --> 00:26:51.440 It's not just he was happy, he was really happy. 00:26:52.480 --> 00:27:00.240 That same kind of intensification of the emotion is found in verse one with how Jonah felt about God's mercy. 00:27:00.480 --> 00:27:02.640 He was exceedingly angry. 00:27:02.799 --> 00:27:05.440 Now he's exceedingly joyful. 00:27:06.880 --> 00:27:14.799 So Jonah not this emotionally flat kind of person who doesn't really feel things. 00:27:15.279 --> 00:27:20.079 No, he's got full capacity for joy and anger. 00:27:20.960 --> 00:27:27.759 He experiences both sides of the spectrum, but only towards his own circumstances. 00:27:28.720 --> 00:27:37.279 He can't feel joy about God relenting about bringing disaster on 120,000 people that God sent him to reach. 00:27:37.519 --> 00:27:41.039 Oh, but he can feel perfectly happy about his own circumstances. 00:27:41.680 --> 00:27:44.799 As long as they satisfy him. 00:27:50.079 --> 00:27:56.000 God's pointed questions can't even break him out of his self-pity. 00:28:00.480 --> 00:28:03.680 Friends, our emotions are grounded in our own perspectives. 00:28:05.519 --> 00:28:10.480 And they will often lead us away from God's character, not toward it. 00:28:12.960 --> 00:28:14.720 We see that in Jonah. 00:28:16.319 --> 00:28:30.160 All of his emotions as a human being are directing him not back towards what he knows to be true, but actually away from what he knows to be true. 00:28:31.519 --> 00:28:36.960 So at dawn the next day, God appoints a worm that eats away at the plant so that it withers. 00:28:37.839 --> 00:28:40.640 There's something divine about all of this, right? 00:28:40.720 --> 00:28:45.519 That the plant springs up and grows up large enough to provide shade overnight. 00:28:45.920 --> 00:28:48.559 And then the next day it's just all of a sudden withered. 00:28:48.880 --> 00:28:50.480 God's doing this. 00:28:50.960 --> 00:28:57.359 He's using his creation to teach Jonah, to draw something out of Jonah. 00:28:57.920 --> 00:29:05.119 He appoints a dry, scorching east wind called the Siroko, and the sun now is beating down on Jonah's head. 00:29:05.599 --> 00:29:10.079 His sukkah, his temporary dwelling place, his booth, doesn't provide shade. 00:29:11.200 --> 00:29:13.119 The plant is now gone. 00:29:13.440 --> 00:29:20.160 He's sitting out on this hill waiting for Nineveh to burn. 00:29:22.160 --> 00:29:24.319 But he's the one burning. 00:29:25.519 --> 00:29:27.039 Is he gonna get it? 00:29:28.640 --> 00:29:30.799 Jonah's bitterness comes out again. 00:29:31.440 --> 00:29:33.839 Word for word, the same as before. 00:29:35.599 --> 00:29:40.240 It is better for me to die than to live. 00:29:40.880 --> 00:29:42.640 Better there is the word good. 00:29:45.200 --> 00:29:47.519 It's a good thing for me to die. 00:29:49.359 --> 00:29:58.319 That repetition is intentional in verse 8, because the narrator wants us to see and to feel that nothing has changed with Jonah. 00:29:59.440 --> 00:30:12.640 All that God has done, all that God has brought him through, all of the specific appointing of elements to draw him back, nothing has changed Jonah's heart. 00:30:13.200 --> 00:30:18.799 The hurricane could not awaken Jonah in the bottom of the boat, either physically or spiritually. 00:30:19.039 --> 00:30:24.640 The days inside the fish, going down to the bottom of the sea, humbled him only a little bit. 00:30:25.599 --> 00:30:33.920 And now the repentance of an entire city could not move him to feel anything for the people standing before God. 00:30:36.880 --> 00:30:44.400 But now he grieves something he appreciated only for one day. 00:30:45.839 --> 00:30:49.920 He grieves the loss of a plant. 00:30:52.160 --> 00:31:01.839 He didn't plant the seed, he didn't water it, he didn't patiently wait for it to grow, he didn't tend it or care for it. 00:31:02.000 --> 00:31:07.039 It was just there one day and gone the next, and Jonah's devastated. 00:31:10.000 --> 00:31:13.359 Now we have to notice Jonah's pain at the loss of the plant. 00:31:13.519 --> 00:31:15.359 His sadness is genuine. 00:31:16.160 --> 00:31:22.799 The pain of losing a plant exposes Jonah to more than the Middle Eastern heat. 00:31:23.920 --> 00:31:25.920 It exposes his heart. 00:31:27.519 --> 00:31:36.480 From the very first sentence of this account, Jonah has shown no concern, no care whatsoever for animals or people. 00:31:38.720 --> 00:31:43.839 But he grieves a plant so much that he wants to die. 00:31:46.559 --> 00:31:53.200 Now we need to think about that and understand how big of a deal that really was. 00:31:54.160 --> 00:32:00.079 Because in their ancient way of thinking, in Jewish thought, plants were non-living things. 00:32:00.960 --> 00:32:02.480 So there were categories, right? 00:32:02.559 --> 00:32:09.039 There were human beings and animals, which in the beginning of Genesis, God breathed into them life. 00:32:09.519 --> 00:32:15.119 So people at the top, animals, those were living things. 00:32:15.599 --> 00:32:21.039 Plants didn't have that breath of God, so they weren't non-living things. 00:32:21.680 --> 00:32:23.359 And that way of thinking. 00:32:24.079 --> 00:32:33.200 So Jonah here is caring more about a non-living thing than all of the living things around him. 00:32:33.839 --> 00:32:36.079 Whether human beings or animals. 00:32:36.880 --> 00:32:39.680 Jonah's grieving a plant. 00:32:42.480 --> 00:32:44.400 What does God do with that? 00:32:45.279 --> 00:32:48.640 Again, if I were God, enough of you, Jonah. 00:32:49.039 --> 00:32:49.680 Done. 00:32:55.359 --> 00:32:56.799 God doesn't do that. 00:32:58.640 --> 00:33:02.079 But like God pursuing Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. 00:33:02.880 --> 00:33:04.480 He asks questions. 00:33:06.720 --> 00:33:09.200 God asks the same question again. 00:33:11.119 --> 00:33:14.720 Jonah, is it good for you to be hot about the plant? 00:33:17.599 --> 00:33:20.160 This time Jonah answers God's question. 00:33:20.640 --> 00:33:24.799 Yes! Absolutely, it's good to be angry. 00:33:25.119 --> 00:33:26.640 Angry enough to die. 00:33:27.920 --> 00:33:29.759 Jonah's one stubborn guy. 00:33:30.160 --> 00:33:32.160 Gotta hand that to him, I guess. 00:33:34.079 --> 00:33:36.079 So glad I'm not like Jonah. 00:33:41.599 --> 00:33:48.720 Before we judge Jonah too harshly, it might be good for us to think about how patient God is with us. 00:33:50.160 --> 00:33:53.599 For us to come around to see things from his perspective. 00:33:56.720 --> 00:34:01.920 And our narrator gives God the final speech of the book in verses 10 and 11. 00:34:02.160 --> 00:34:09.519 It's a special kind of logical argument that moves from a smaller case to a much bigger case. 00:34:11.440 --> 00:34:13.440 So the small case is the plant. 00:34:14.239 --> 00:34:16.639 The much larger one is the city. 00:34:17.840 --> 00:34:23.440 Hey Jonah, you you have compassion and pity for the plant. 00:34:25.280 --> 00:34:26.239 That's great and all. 00:34:27.440 --> 00:34:28.880 You didn't do anything for that, though. 00:34:29.119 --> 00:34:30.719 You didn't make it grow. 00:34:31.440 --> 00:34:33.920 It was there one night and it was gone the next. 00:34:35.360 --> 00:34:41.360 So if you show that kind of pity and compassion for a plant, doesn't it make sense? 00:34:41.440 --> 00:34:48.800 Isn't it reasonable that I, the creator of all things, should care about the living things? 00:34:50.400 --> 00:34:54.000 Especially a massive number of them. 00:34:56.800 --> 00:35:04.000 The force of God's little speech here builds so that it's irresistible. 00:35:05.039 --> 00:35:08.079 Jonah didn't have a prior relationship with the plant. 00:35:08.239 --> 00:35:16.719 He didn't tuck it into his pocket as he traveled from Israel to Nineveh, taking care of it along the way and then planting it. 00:35:17.039 --> 00:35:19.280 Jonah had no prior connection. 00:35:19.519 --> 00:35:20.559 He didn't do anything. 00:35:20.719 --> 00:35:22.639 He knew it for one day. 00:35:22.880 --> 00:35:29.840 And the intensity of the feeling that he has for that one plant is enough for him to feel like he should die. 00:35:31.119 --> 00:35:54.719 If that's what Jonah can muster for something that was not living and didn't cost him anything, then how much more should God care for a city of 120,000 people that he formed and watched across generations? 00:35:57.679 --> 00:36:03.760 God's pity is far more warranted than anything Jonah could feel for the plant. 00:36:05.599 --> 00:36:08.480 Now there are some confusing things here. 00:36:09.039 --> 00:36:14.239 There's that phrase who do not know their right hand from their left? 00:36:15.199 --> 00:36:21.519 That could refer to young children who haven't yet learned to distinguish from right from left. 00:36:22.400 --> 00:36:27.440 Or it could be a metaphor for the spiritual bankruptcy in Nineveh. 00:36:28.719 --> 00:36:29.679 But think about that. 00:36:29.760 --> 00:36:38.559 If there are 120,000 young children, what does that say about the population of the entire metropolis? 00:36:40.000 --> 00:36:41.440 It's massive. 00:36:43.119 --> 00:36:49.840 Imagine how many total people Jonah wanted God to just wipe off the face of the planet in an instant. 00:36:53.679 --> 00:37:02.719 On the other hand, if that represents the overall population of lost, sinful people, it still demonstrates that Jonah has no spiritual compassion. 00:37:05.039 --> 00:37:15.920 But God looks at that mass of people and he responds with pity and a desire to be merciful. 00:37:18.480 --> 00:37:21.119 Now the cattle get the last mention. 00:37:22.320 --> 00:37:24.320 And they're placed last on purpose. 00:37:27.119 --> 00:37:28.960 God made these animals. 00:37:30.320 --> 00:37:32.800 They're included in the king's decree. 00:37:34.000 --> 00:37:36.480 The cattle are wearing sackcloth. 00:37:37.280 --> 00:37:39.679 The cattle are fasting along with the people. 00:37:39.760 --> 00:37:42.880 They're not eating any food and they're not drinking any water. 00:37:43.760 --> 00:37:52.239 They are lumped together with the living creatures who are displayed as responding to God's character. 00:37:52.719 --> 00:37:57.119 They're counted among the reasons that God cares for this city. 00:37:57.199 --> 00:38:02.400 And Jonah's lack of concern for animals doesn't even get there. 00:38:04.079 --> 00:38:07.280 Jonah doesn't care about living things. 00:38:08.960 --> 00:38:10.639 Even if they're animals. 00:38:24.960 --> 00:38:28.239 It's about the prophet mirroring the heart of God. 00:38:30.960 --> 00:38:41.599 Jonah knows that God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and relenting from disaster. 00:38:43.519 --> 00:38:44.800 He knows that. 00:38:59.199 --> 00:39:01.599 Right there with an unanswered question. 00:39:03.360 --> 00:39:04.480 It's unresolved. 00:39:04.800 --> 00:39:06.239 There's no answer to the question. 00:39:06.320 --> 00:39:08.559 There's no reconciliation of Jonah. 00:39:08.960 --> 00:39:11.679 There's no moment where he finally weeps over the city. 00:39:11.760 --> 00:39:12.719 There's no confession. 00:39:12.800 --> 00:39:13.840 There's no repentance. 00:39:14.000 --> 00:39:17.679 The story just ends with God's question hanging in the air. 00:39:20.239 --> 00:39:24.400 And the way it ends is, I think, the whole point. 00:39:28.000 --> 00:39:32.880 That open ending is the author's deliberate theological strategy. 00:39:33.519 --> 00:39:39.360 The question that God put to Jonah is the question presented to each one of us. 00:39:40.800 --> 00:39:44.159 Are you going to represent my character? 00:39:46.400 --> 00:39:49.360 Should I not pity Nineveh? 00:39:51.360 --> 00:39:53.679 Now the right answer is obvious, right? 00:39:54.960 --> 00:39:58.960 By now we can assume that hopefully Jonah knows the right answer. 00:39:59.679 --> 00:40:02.800 The question is, is he going to live it? 00:40:04.639 --> 00:40:12.880 If we're honest with ourselves, we live in Jonah's sandals more often than we would like to admit. 00:40:14.159 --> 00:40:20.880 Because we live and act as though our perceptions and our feelings are more righteous than God's. 00:40:23.920 --> 00:40:27.519 So Jonah functions as a mirror for us. 00:40:28.559 --> 00:40:32.800 He is the man with the right theology, but a narrow heart. 00:40:33.119 --> 00:40:41.119 He can recite every covenant promise of grace and mercy and be furious that those promises reached further than he wanted them to reach. 00:40:44.320 --> 00:40:47.920 Let's point the finger a little more closely at our own hearts. 00:40:49.119 --> 00:40:55.920 Jonah is every single one of us who wants God to judge another person for how they've hurt us. 00:40:58.320 --> 00:41:01.199 Or for how evil we perceive them to be. 00:43:29.039 --> 00:43:36.079 Open the door of our hearts so that we might be able to see inside of that door. 00:43:38.000 --> 00:43:45.119 Lord, it's easy for us to put Jonah up there as an example of somebody we're so thankful we are not. 00:43:47.119 --> 00:43:48.320 But maybe we are. 00:43:50.559 --> 00:43:53.039 So open our hearts to see what they're like. 00:43:54.719 --> 00:44:02.480 Reveal to us by your spirit those things within us that need to be repented of. 00:44:03.199 --> 00:44:22.480 Convict us by your spirit and draw us into a place where we can come humbly to you to actually respond to your questions with humility and thankfulness that you are making us more like you. 00:44:25.119 --> 00:44:31.920 Lord, we recognize that when we come before you, we are exposed, just like Jonah was. 00:44:32.800 --> 00:44:40.880 And when we're exposed before you, we recognize that we are so vile before your holiness. 00:44:42.480 --> 00:44:55.280 And nothing but the blood of a perfect and righteous Lamb slain for our sins, that can enable us to be forgiven and to stand before you. 00:45:13.519 --> 00:45:14.159 Amen. 00:45:16.239 --> 00:45:20.000 That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church. 00:45:20.159 --> 00:45:27.039 Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus. 00:45:27.280 --> 00:45:31.360 You can learn more by visiting our website at faithfree.com.