Grace Magnified
Jonah 4 ·September 24, 2023· Joel Passmore
Part of: Jonah
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This sermon series on Jonah has been great for me. I hope it's been great for you. I've enjoyed studying Jonah. I want to read that quote again that I did at the start. It's on the front of the bulletin. Your worst days are never so bad that you are beyond the reach of God's grace. And your best days are never so good that you are beyond the need of God's grace. So what are you like when you're at your worst? Think about that for a second. Don't be afraid.
I'm not going to ask you to say anything out loud. But just think about it. What are you like when you're at your worst? How do you act? What comes out of your mouth?
These are questions nobody likes to consider, including me. For good reason. We're really glad that very few people see us when we're at our worst. But now smartphones are everywhere.
And sometimes people are recorded when they lose it. Sometimes those videos end up on YouTube. Be honest. Most of you have seen a video of somebody at their worst. Somebody completely losing it. Maybe somebody at like a fast food counter throwing things, yelling at the cashier. Maybe somebody in a road rage episode getting out of their car and pounding on the other car. Or just completely flipped out. Or maybe things like the Alabama Riverfront brawl that end up on the news.
Because people will oftentimes say something later when they've calmed down and they see a video of themselves like that. They say, that's not who I am.
But that doesn't really hold water, does it? I mean, that is you in the video. You said those words. You acted that way. It might not be who you want to be. But those actions and words didn't come from nowhere.
Maybe the only thing more frightening than having your worst moment captured on video and put up onto YouTube would be have it recorded in the Bible. That's what happened to Jonah.
In this chapter, the last chapter of Jonah, he's at his worst. It's hard to watch. In large part because if we're honest, we see ourselves in Jonah. It looks familiar. But the key question is this. How does God respond?
How does God respond when Jonah is at his worst? Turn with me to Luke. Not Luke. That will be in a few weeks. Jonah, chapter 4. I'm actually going to start at verse 10 of the last chapter. I don't think I told you guys to put that on the screen. But it's in the bulletin. To pay attention to this, this is God's word for us. It's reliable. It's trustworthy. It's without error. And it's meant for us to encounter God and to build our lives upon.
Starting in chapter 3, verse 10. When God saw what they did, Nineveh, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.
Chapter 4. But it displeased Jonah exceedingly. And he was angry. And he prayed to the Lord and said, Oh, Lord, is this not what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish. For I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and relenting from disaster. Therefore, now, oh, Lord, please take my life from me. For it is better for me to die than to live. And the Lord said, Do you do well to be angry?
Jonah went out of the city and sat to the east of the city and made a booth for himself there. He sat under it in the shade till he should see what would become of the city. Now, the Lord God appointed a plant and made it come up over Jonah that it might be a shade over his head to save him from his discomfort. So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the plant. But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant so that it withered.
When the sun rose, God appointed a scorching east wind and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint. And he asked that he might die and said, It is better for me to die than to live.
But God said to Jonah, Do you do well to be angry for the plant? And he said, Yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die. And the Lord said, You pity the plant for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle.
Pray with me. Oh Lord, may the beautiful mystery, the beautiful controversy of your gracious love be good news for us today. Show us that we need it, and show us that you have it in abundance, no matter where we are today.
Show us who we are and who you are, and help us to run to you, gladly and joyfully, and rest in your love for us. Jesus, we pray this in your name. Grace magnified.
God's persistent, pursuing love for stubborn, wayward people. Now keep that up there for just a second. In this last chapter, all of the themes of Jonah, running, pursuit, judgment, mercy, they all come back and they come to a head. All of those themes are magnified and brought up and brought to their most intense point.
Let's start here. Jonah's turn for the worse. Jonah had just had the most dramatic success any prophet, at least up to that time, had ever known. Without a doubt, he went to Nineveh, part of the infamously wicked and violent Assyria, a nation that attacked and threatened Israel over and over. Jonah had a message from God, and at hearing that message, the whole city repented. A hundred and twenty thousand people. They believed God. Their king and their political leaders joined in, even issuing a proclamation for everyone, everyone to repent, to turn to God and turn away from their violence and their evil.
Imagine a locality in America, with a hundred and twenty thousand people in it, where this happened, that was led by the government officials. Government officials were saying, everyone turn from wickedness, injustice, violence against your neighbor. Turn and repent and turn to God. Call out to him for mercy. How exciting would that be? That would be amazing, right?
But it displeased Jonah exceedingly. Sometimes counselors will give their clients a feelings wheel. You can look it up if you want to. It helps them find words for their emotions, if they're having trouble saying what is in their heart. Jonah didn't need a feelings wheel. He was angry. Not just angry like losing his temper.
That would be one thing. Jonah was offended. If the phrase, it displeased Jonah exceedingly, were translated literally, it would read, it was evil to Jonah with great evil.
It was evil to Jonah with great evil. Why in the world would he be angry when he has experienced so much personal success and witnessed the Lord using him? Well, to put it bluntly, he's angry about God's character in what might be the cringiest moment of the entire book. He says, I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love. This phrase is found throughout the Old Testament. The first time it's uttered, God is telling it to Moses when Moses asks to see God more fully.
God passes by and he says this to Moses, the Lord, the Lord, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He reveals his character to Moses and it becomes a praise for God's people. You can find it in the Psalms. God's people praising his name with these words.
Jonah has turned it into a bitter, accusing complaint against God. I knew you were like this, God, gracious and merciful, and I hate it because you did it for them.
The truth comes out. This is why he ran away in the first place. It wasn't because he feared for his safety. It wasn't because he feared for his reputation. It wasn't because he was afraid he might die. It was because he didn't want those awful people, those savages, those enemies, to have any opportunity to receive forgiveness. And wouldn't you know it, that's exactly what they got. And Jonah's like, I knew it. I knew this would happen.
Listen, once we think of some person or some group as an enemy, next thing you know, you start thinking that God wouldn't do anything good for them. And what comes after that is you think God shouldn't do anything good for them.
Jonah's bitter about God's grace. There's no other way to put it. He had seen God work, but turns out he didn't really like how God worked. Now, if you're honest, if I'm honest, you can see yourself in Jonah here. Come on, be honest. We all kind of think, deep down in our hearts, that we kind of do deserve God's love and attention just a little bit more than that other person, that other group of people.
Sometimes people get offended at the notion that God doesn't just accept everyone, that he requires repentance and faith in order to have a reconciled relationship to him. But does this idea, does this fact offend you, that God forgives anyone, anyone who truly repents and puts their faith in him, God forgives them, anyone.
Does that question, does that idea offend you? At some level, it offends all of us, at least a little bit, because we want to be better. We want to have earned it, even just a little bit. I don't have to earn it this much, God, but just a little bit. Let me earn it. And that other person over there, they didn't earn it.
Jonah is so consumed with bitterness, he asks God to take his life. I don't want to live in a world where they get forgiveness instead of judgment. If you're going to spare them, then kill me.
But God loves him too much to give him what he foolishly requests. I want you to see that. God loves him too much to say yes to what he asked for. Instead, he moves towards him with a gentle question. Do you do well to be angry?
Jonah doesn't respond, but instead, true to his character, he runs away. He turns around. He leaves the city to the east. He sets up a booth to sit down and watch what will happen to the city. God wanted him to examine himself, but instead, he's examining the city. He's looking outward.
He thinks, I made my point. It was pretty good. Surely God will listen and overthrow Nineveh after all. He's probably up there changing his mind right now.
He's sitting in his homemade box seat waiting to watch something. He's acting like it's a meteor shower or a football game, but it's the destruction of 120,000 people.
This is truly shocking and sad. Jonah is at his absolute worst. It would be so understandable, so justifiable for God to give up on him right now. Wouldn't it? He's taken the praiseworthy character of God, who God is in his magnificence and his glory, and he's turned that back on God like it's an insult. He ran away from God a second time. Now he's acting like a city being destroyed is his own personal entertainment.
He's callous, inhumane, brutal, and he doesn't see any of it. He's just like the Ninevites were. The situation is just thick with irony. The one looking for judgment is the one who actually deserves it.
And the very character traits of God that he complained about are about to be turned around and applied to him again. Look at this. God's loving pursuit.
When God wants to get someone's attention, he does. Oftentimes, he uses our surroundings to do it. Think back to chapter 1. God hurled the storm to chase Jonah and stop him in his tracks and make him own up to his disobedience. Then he appointed a fish to be a hospital where Jonah stayed and God worked on his heart and helped him to see things rightly. In chapter 4, God once again directs the natural world. The phrase, God appointed, it appears three times, once in verses 6, 7, and 8.
In verse 6, he appoints a plant to grow. Based on the Hebrew word and the native species, it's probably a castor oil plant. Here's a picture of it. You can see how big the leaves are, as big as the top of this podium.
It provides shade for Jonah. And Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the plant. Ah, Jonah thinks, finally, something's going my way for a change. But the next day, the plant is strangely withering. Just as quickly as it came, it was gone. And why? Because God appointed a worm that attacked the plant. It's probably a castor semilooper caterpillar like this one. These are known to invade and eat castor oil plants.
Jonah probably didn't notice at first, but then the sun rose higher and higher, and then God appointed a scorching east wind. This is a well-known weather pattern in the region. It's called Sirocco or Hampson. Here's a picture of Jerusalem on a clear day, and then next to it is the same scene but during a storm, a Sirocco storm.
It's notoriously hot and dusty. It's brutal. Imagine heat and sand and wind all just beating down on you. Jonah doesn't realize it yet, but we can see what's going on. He thinks, I should have known that plant wouldn't live. Nothing ever goes right for me. But God is moving towards him, reaching him. God's movement towards his people is always, always in love. But sometimes it feels awful.
When this has happened to me, God has reached me with a scorching east wind. All I can focus on is the situation. God, just make it stop. Make it stop. Every time. Eventually, God taps me on the shoulder and he says, I'm here in the midst of this. I have not left you. Rather than demand your circumstances change, will you embrace the work that I'm trying to do in you?
Jesus said, every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes that it may bear more fruit. I've never been a plant, but I can imagine that it doesn't feel good to be pruned.
When Jonah was in the fish, he said, God, it was you that cast me into the sea. Those were your waves. He said that in Thanksgiving because he knew that God was bringing him back, but he's forgotten all of that now. He's hot, he's exhausted, he's angry, and again, he asks to die.
Jonah and God responds with another gentle, loving question. Do you do well to be angry for the plant? Jonah is not yielding. He doubles down. I do well to be angry, angry enough to die. It's getting a little childish, isn't it?
And he is. No offense, children. Remember, all the adults in the room have been children at one time. We've acted like this too. Sometimes we've acted like this as adults. Maybe we should say it's adultish of Jonah to act this way.
Now, this response does not surprise God at all. He knows that Jonah's heart is like this and he's holding a mirror up to Jonah. Here's what he's saying to Jonah. Jonah, look at yourself. Look at yourself. You loved that plant. Not because of what you did for it, but because of what it did for you. It was useful to you, so it deserved to live. And when you look at Nineveh, you think that they've done nothing deserving of life.
To Jonah, it was all about merit, all about earning life and blessing from God. There are those who deserve God's goodness and blessing and those who don't.
But God says, that is not who I am and that's not how I work. Rather than resist it, I want you to embrace it, Jonah. Jonah, you look at Nineveh and you see enemies, but I see people in need of deliverance. You look at Israel's borders and you see limits around my mercy, but I see a world full of people in need of salvation. You think people should get what they deserve, but Jonah, that's not grace at all. You say, I'm a gracious God, but you don't even know what grace is, but I want to show you.
I want to teach you. I want to change you. In fact, Jonah, that's why I brought you here, so that I could teach you in direct experience about my mercy and see that anyone who repents and turns to me in faith will be forgiven. even those Ninevites and yes, Jonah, even you, even you.
And this is why I love the book of Jonah so much, because it preaches the gospel so clearly, so emphatically, so tenderly. Let's talk about the gospel according to Jonah.
This chapter highlights and underlines and magnifies what the whole book has been all about, God's persistent grace. Think about this. If the book ended at chapter three with the Ninevites repenting, it would still be valuable, but it would be a different story.
Jonah's disobedience would be an interesting little subplot on the way to the big story, the forgiveness of Nineveh, God's mercy to this big important city.
But chapter four comes along, one of the most surprising, strange, and captivating chapters in the whole Bible. When chapter four comes along now, Nineveh's deliverance, that's like a subplot in the whole book. When we look at all four chapters, we see that most of the book is about God's movement towards Jonah.
One guy who makes mistake after mistake after mistake. One guy who just doesn't get it. God speaks the most in chapter four. He takes the most action in chapter four, and it's all for the sake of one stubborn, wayward man who doesn't even look to us like, God, why are you even bothering? Jonah's heart is laid bare in this chapter. It makes us cringe, and it makes us shake our heads, but it doesn't make God do that. He doesn't turn away from Jonah.
Church, we might scorn the Jonah of chapter four, but the God of chapter four still loves him. And in that love, God goes after him. God has been going after him this whole time. God intrudes upon Jonah again and again, but it's to bring him to himself.
He goes to great lengths to redeem Jonah, to save Jonah. Not from physical danger, but from spiritual danger. And that's when you realize why chapter four is here, to tell us that it's not just the great cities that he's concerned about, but he's concerned about the one sinner who is off in the far country, that he goes out time and again proclaiming his grace and mercy to them in personal experience so that they will see who he is and love it.
He pursues stubborn people like me, stubborn people like you, for our good to deliver us from our own hard-heartedness. And there is nowhere else that God's persistent grace is clearer than in Jesus.
He didn't come looking for people who were good enough. He came to die for enemies, for rebels, to redeem them by his atoning sacrifice and to make them brothers and sisters and friends.
If your faith is in Jesus, please remember, look at Jonah 4 and remember, God will not give up on you. He will pursue you even when you're at your worst. When you're having a Jonah 4 day, week, month, year, remember the God of Jonah 4, that he comes after the sinner with his grace and his mercy, calling them to him to embrace him. It might feel like a storm or like the belly of a fish or a scorching wind, but it's always his loving kindness and his faithfulness to us, bringing to completion the work that he began in us.
The book ends with a cliffhanger. There's only two books in the Bible that end with a question and only one of them ends with a question that God asks and it's Jonah.
We don't know for sure how Jonah responded, but remember, we do have the book of Jonah. So I believe that his heart was softened by God's love, eventually. I believe that his complaint turned to praise and he said with joy, God, you are gracious and merciful and you did it for me. When I was up on that hill waiting for a city to be destroyed, hard-hearted, brutal, mean, you did it for me. I believe you went back home to Israel with a testimony of God's grace, a testimony that he shared and was recorded for us here.
But the ending, it's a question because it's putting the question God is pursuing you with his persistent grace. How are you going to respond? Let's pray.
God, your mercy and your grace towards Jonah is overwhelming. We look at Jonah and we think, why would you even bother? But that's not the way you thought about it.
And when we stop and think, God, that's exactly how you approach us. We haven't done anything deserving of your love, your care, your attention, your power, your salvation, and yet, Lord, you offer it to us in Christ, a gracious salvation. Lord, will you help us not just to accept it but to live in it, to live as people of grace, wash away bitterness when we see your grace working.
And, Lord, help us to see your hand at work even when our circumstances, our life feels like a scorching east wind. Help us to see what happened to Jonah and to see that you are a God with loving kindness that pursues people, even us.
Jesus, we love you and we give you praise and glory for you are gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. I pray this in your name.