October 2, 2022
Jonah 4
“God’s Frustrating Compassion”
Service Overview: In this last chapter of Jonah, God’s forgiveness of the Ninevites doesn’t sit well with Jonah, and Jonah gets ticked over God’s “cheap grace”. But God demonstrates to Jonah his right to do what he wants in light of the fact that he is, well, the God of the Universe.
Memory Verse for the Week:
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9 (NIV)
Background & Technical Information:
- There were around five times as many people living there as lived in Jerusalem. A more impressive city could not be found. From God’s perspective she was also great in wickedness. It was this which literally came up before his face. The God who sees all, hears all and understands all, also smells all. And Nineveh stank. (Paul Mackrell, Opening Up Jonah, 19)
- Nineveh was great in sin, for the Assyrians were known far and wide for their violence, showing no mercy to their enemies. They impaled live victims on sharp poles, leaving them to roast to death in the desert sun; they beheaded people by the thousands and stacked their skulls up in piles by the city gates; and they even skinned people alive. They respected neither age nor sex and followed a policy of killing babies and young children so they wouldn’t have to care for them (Nah. 3:10). (Warren Wiersbe, Be Amazed, 96)
- We cannot avoid the impression that Jonah just could not believe that God could ever bless such wicked people as these Assyrians. They were, to Israel, the ‘evil empire’ of that day, to use U.S. President Reagan’s celebrated description of the U.S.S.R. (Gordon, Keddie, Jonah: Preacher on the Run, 111)
- Traveling and preaching usually posed no problem for prophets. That was their job. But in this case, something churned Jonah’s stomach—Nineveh. The very sound of it sickened him, because it was the capital of the vicious and godless Assyrians, Israel’s arch-enemy. In every city they conquered, the Assyrians built a pyramid of human skulls. That was the brutal business card they left behind, and that was why Jonah responded as he did. (85)
- After walking out on the job, Jonah returns to God with a repentant heart and is given a second chance. He embarks on the single greatest missionary effort of all time. Physically, the journey was difficult. Jonah’s trek from the eastern shore of the Mediterranean to Nineveh spanned approximately five hundred miles. (92)
- It is not just a little irritation that Jonah feels—it is absolute fury. Literally ‘it was evil to Jonah a great evil’. These are shocking words. It is one thing when people rail against God for troubles and calamities in life. Jonah’s fury is different. He is enraged that there is no calamity. He looks at the kindness and mercy of the Lord and calls it evil. For him, Nineveh had got away with it too easily. (Paul Mackrell, Opening Up Jonah, 87)
The question to answer…
How is it Jonah could fall so quickly from where he seemed to be in chapters two and three?
Answer…
The best of men can have the worst of lapses. And Jonah’s unresolved sentiments were quick to take over when confronted with the reality of the radical grace of God.
What’s vital to recognize and process in this final chapter of Jonah?
- God’s right to do as he pleases.
(vv. 4, 6-9 | Job 23:13; 38:4; Psalm 115:3; 135:6; Prov. 19:21; Is. 40:22-24; 1 Cor. 1:25-29)
It was an act of compassion for the Lord to provide the covering protection for Jonah, but when his heart went after it, it was an even greater act of kindness for the Lord to remove it. In kindness the Lord may allow us our toys, but he can remove them at a stroke to teach us that our joy should be in him alone. (Paul Mackrell, Opening Up Jonah, 96)
- God’s approach in addressing Jonah’s tantrum.
(vv. 4, 6-9 | Exodus 34:6; Psalm 86:15; 103:13; Proverbs 3:11-12; Hebrews 12:11; Rev. 3:19)
Notice carefully how God deals with the pouting prophet. No sermon. No rebuke. No argument. Just the barbed question that hung like a fishhook in his heart: “Do you have good reason to be angry?” It is possible to have all the right theology while having a totally wrong heart. Notice how accurate, how biblical Jonah’s theology is: “I knew that Thou art a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, and one who relents concerning calamity” (v. 2b). Notice also his anger (v. 1). Right words, wrong heart. (Charles R. Swindoll, Old Testament Characters: Jonah, 95)
- God’s heart for people.
(vv. 10-11 | Mark 1:41; John 3:16-17; 15:13; Rom. 5:6-9; Eph. 2:4-5; 2 Pet. 3:9; 1 John 4:19)
We are a lot worse than we think we are, and God’s grace is a lot bigger than we think it is. (Steve Brown, A Scandalous Freedom, 157)
The juxtaposition of the anger of Jonah and the abounding love of God brings together the ugliness of sin and the loveliness of the Saviour and sets them in the context of an unparalleled (for the Old Testament period) outpouring of God’s free, sovereign and saving grace upon the ‘nations’ (i.e. Gentiles). (Gordon Keddie, Jonah: Preacher on the Run, 105)
Conclusion… How does a text like this challenge a follower of Jesus today? Ask yourself…
A. Does my attitude toward others more reflect God’s compassion or Jonah’s frustration?
(Micah 6:8; Matthew 7:1-2, 12; 14:14; Luke 6:36; Colossians 3:12-13; 1 John 3:17)
Do we love men and women and want them to come to Christ and join with us in the fellowship of his believing people, the church? Or, like Jonah, do we pick and choose whom we want — and whom we do not want — to receive God’s saving grace? (Gordon Keddie, Jonah: Preacher on the Run, 114)
B. What emotions quickly surface when God exercises his sovereignty over my life?
(Job 23:13; Psalm 62:8; 115:3; 135:6; Mat. 10:29–31; 11:28-29; Rom. 8:28; Col. 1:16–17)
People who demand the freedom to define reality on their own terms have little use for a divinely ordained perspective on their existence. (Phillip Graham Ryken, City on a Hill, 57)
The real challenge of Christian living is not to eliminate every uncomfortable circumstance from our lives, but to trust our sovereign, wise, good, and powerful God in the midst of every situation. Things that might trouble us such as the way we look, the way others treat us, or where we live or work can actually be sources of strength, not weakness. (John MacArthur, Anxious for Nothing, 34)
Persons of strong passions are apt to be cast down with any trifle that crosses them, or to be lifted up with a trifle that pleases them. (Matthew Henry, Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible, 841)
If, dear friends, like Jonah, you want to complain, you will soon have something to complain of. People who are resolved to fret, generally make for themselves causes for fretfulness. (Charles Spurgeon, Commentary on Jonah, Kindle Edition)
C. How does my life reflect the mission Jesus gave in sharing his grace and goodness with others?
(Mat. 28:19-20; Mark 16:15; Acts 1:8; Rom. 10:10-17; 1 Cor. 9:22; Col. 4:2-6; 1 Pet. 3:15)
How can we, who have received such undeserved love in abundance, not love men and women with that love that wants to see them share all the blessings of God that we have come to know in Jesus Christ? (Gordon Keddie, Jonah: Preacher on the Run, 115)
When reputation is more important than character, and pleasing ourselves and our friends is more important than pleasing God, then we’re in danger of becoming like Jonah and living to defend our prejudices instead of fulfilling our spiritual responsibilities. (Warren Wiersbe, Be Amazed, 101)
Gospel Application…
Jesus came to seek and save anyone willing to turn to him.
(Luke 19:10; John 3:16, 36; 14:6; Acts 4:12; Romans 10:9; Ephesians 2:8; 2 Peter 3:9)
Jonah’s wretched attitude to God’s goodness to ‘other people’ rebukes the hardness that clings to many a Christian’s heart today. God’s loving pardon of the Ninevites points the way to the Christian gospel that we have been given to believe and to declare to our own generation. It also points to the abundance of spiritual life and blessing that the Lord will bring to the world through the witness of his church. (Gordon Keddie, Jonah: Preacher on the Run, 105)
Spiritual Challenge Questions…
Reflect on these questions in your time with the Lord this week, or discuss with a Christian family member or Life Group.
- Like God, do you have compassion for those who are lost? How can Jesus’ followers demonstrate this kind of compassion?
- Even in Jonah’s rebellion, God never deserts him. What evidence of this level of care have you personally witnessed or experienced? What comfort is it for you?
- When you sin, how do you feel in God’s presence? How do you respond to God’s new beginning for you: (a) readily accept it and are thankful, (b) tend to take it for granted, (c) feel guilty, or (d) can’t really believe it but want to. Explain.
- Like preaching to the Ninevites, what ministry situations look ridiculous or impossible to you from your human perspective?
- Is there anybody toward whom you have a bad attitude, as Jonah did? How does it affect you to think of God using you for good in that person’s (or those people’s) life?
Quotes to note…
We are never told if Jonah had a change of heart. We have every reason to trust that the Lord brought him to see his foolishness and ungraciousness and restored him to reconciled fellowship with himself. What is important is not that we know what subsequently happened to Jonah, but that we learn what the Lord is teaching us through his dealings with the prophet. (Keddie, Jonah, 114)
Do I well to be angry at the mercy of God to repenting sinners? That was Jonah’s crime. Do we do well to be angry at that which is for the glory of God, and the advancement of his kingdom? Let the conversion of sinners, which is the joy of heaven, be our joy, and never our grief. (Matthew Henry, Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible, 840)
Everything that lives should be the object of our care for the sake of him who gave them life; and if he has given us to have dominion over all sheep and oxen, and the birds of the air, and so forth, let not our dominion be that of a tyrant, but that of a kind and gentle prince who seeks the good of that which is under his power. (Charles Spurgeon, Commentary on Jonah, Kindle Edition)
Jesus is greater than Jonah, and because He is, we must give greater heed to what He says to us. Those who reject Him will face greater judgment because the greater the light, the greater the responsibility. (Warren Wiersbe, Be Amazed, 105)
Do we wonder at the forbearance of God towards his perverse servant? Let us study our own hearts and ways; let us not forget our own ingratitude and obstinacy; and let us be astonished at God’s patience towards us. (Henry, 841)
God loves men even when they hate him! Jesus prayed for their forgiveness even as they crucified him! (Luke 23:34.) Out of the perfection of his eternal love, God loves his enemies. Therefore, argued Jesus, so should we love our enemies, that we ‘may be sons of [our] Father in heaven’. This is the essential quality of Christian love. (Gordon, Keddie, Jonah: Preacher on the Run, 117)
Like the elder brother in the parable, he wouldn’t go in and enjoy the feast (Luke 15:28). He could have taught the Ninevites so much about the true God of Israel, but he preferred to have his own way. What a tragedy it is when God’s servants are a means of blessing to others but miss the blessing themselves! (Warren Wiersbe, Be Amazed, 102)
We are saved by God’s grace when we believe in Jesus and put our faith in him, but biblical belief is more than something we confess with our mouths; it’s something we confess with our lives. (Kyle Idleman, Not A Fan, 104)
It is very easy to avoid prayer with the excuse that we need to wait until we feel more in the mood for it. But sometimes it is the very mood itself that needs to be brought before the Lord. There are many instances in Scripture where people are rebuked for their approach to the Lord, but it is usually because of self-righteousness and hypocrisy. We do not find those who genuinely wish to engage with God being turned away. We may cringe at the intemperateness of Jonah’s outburst, but God himself seems perfectly at ease with it. (Paul Mackrell, Opening Up Jonah, 88)