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Bro. Bill Nichols
We are going to finish the book of Jonah today, but before we do that, let's pray. Most gracious Heavenly Father, we thank you for giving us this time and place that we may gather together and study your holy word and to worship you.
We thank you for the word, both the written word and Jesus Christ, the living word. And we thank you for the Holy Spirit that you gave us to help us better understand the written word. We thank you for setting us aside to do the work that you have for us.
Help us to embrace that assignment, whatever it is. Protect us, strengthen us, nurture us. In the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, we pray. Amen. Okay, had the book of Jonah ended after chapter three, it would have been a gripping story, a story of a reluctant preacher who became the agent of what must have been the world's greatest revival.
J. Bernard McGee had this to say, Jonah had a most remarkable experience. He experienced what no man ever has from the very beginning. From Noah's preaching down to the preaching of Billy Graham, no one has ever seen 100 saturation of the word of God bring 100 conversion.
But this man saw it. Jonah had the experience of seeing an entire city turn to God. But there's one chapter remaining, chapter four, and that changes everything. It changes the whole idea of what the book is about.
One would have thought that Jonah would have been elated and might have rushed to claim at least a little credit for the revival. But that's not at all what happened. Back to J. Bernard McGee, he said, now if you and I had that experience, I think we would go down to Western Union and send a wire back to Jerusalem.
That kind of dates Bernard McGee, doesn't it? Nowadays we would say, we'd send an email, or the less savvy would send a text message. But no, J. Bernard McGee sends a wire back to Jerusalem. And the wire says, rejoice with me, the revival is here.
It's broken out in the city of Nineveh. He goes on to say, you'd think Jonah would have done something like that, but no. Chapter four opens with a startling statement, and to me, and this is J. Bernard McGee talking, this to me is the strangest part of the book of Jonah.
Verse one, chapter four. But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry. Jonah was not just angry. He was very angry, and the question I've got for you is, why was he angry? He was very much like Paul on the way to Damascus.
He was not at all like Paul on the way back, or the rest of the way, the last few feet into the city. Jonah knew exactly what God would do. God did exactly what Jonah knew he would do. Jonah just didn't like it.
That's why he was angry, not because God did something he didn't expect him to do. He did what he expected him to do, and it made him mad. I mean, after all, I am Jonah. I understand what should be done better than God does.
And he prayed unto the Lord. This is back to verse two. And he prayed unto the Lord and said, I pray thee, O Lord, was this not my saying when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish.
The first time you called, I didn't go there. I went to Tarshish, because I knew what you were going to do. For I knew that thou art a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil.
The evil that Jonah is referring to is the evil that he, Jonah, said that God would do. What did he say? Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. That's what he told him. And he said, now, I knew that you weren't going to do it, and you should have.
From the very beginning, Jonah should have and probably did clearly understand the gracious character of God. After all, Jonah had the account of Abraham and his attempt to persuade God to spare Sodom and Gomorrah.
We're going to go there for a minute. That's Genesis chapter 18, verse 14. And Jesus, in his pre-incarnate form, has already visited and chatted with Abraham and told Abraham and Sarah that they're indeed going to have a son.
And Sarah laughs at him. And from that, we get the name of Isaac, laughter. But now they're getting ready to leave. So the men, and that included Jesus, arose from the fence and looked toward Sodom. And Abraham went with them to bring them on the way.
So he's going to go with them a little ways. And the Lord said, shall I hide from Abraham the thing which I do, seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him.
I'm going to read that little phrase again, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him. Now, he didn't say every member of every nation of the earth would be blessed, but he says there'll be blessings to all the nations.
For I know him, Abraham, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment, that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken.
Now, keep the way of the Lord. Keeping the way of the Lord includes sharing the blessings given to Abraham and his descendants with all the nations, and that, of course, would include Nineveh. But that's something that Jonah did not want to happen, and he was not alone.
The general consensus among the Jews of the time was Gentiles were dogs. They were filthy beasts. Not worthy of the blessings given to Abraham and his descendants. You know what's ironic? What the Jews failed to recognize?
They recognized that the Gentiles were not worthy of the blessings given to Abraham, but what they didn't realize is they weren't worthy either, nor was even Abraham. And the Lord said, because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous, I will go down now and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which has come unto me.
And if not, I will know. And the men turned their faces from Vince and went toward Sodom. The men talked about there are the two angels. They're heading to Sodom, and we know all the events that happened to them when they were there.
But Abraham stood yet before the Lord. And Abraham drew near and said, Will thou also destroy the righteous from the wicked? Peradventure they be fifty righteous within the city. Will thou also destroy and not spare the place for the fifty righteous that are therein?
That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked, and that the righteous should be as the wicked. That be far from thee. Shall not the judge of all the earth do right?
Now the Lord didn't scold Abraham for being presumptuous. All he did was say, If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare all of the place for their sakes. Had he found fifty righteous, had there been fifty righteous in the city of Sodom, he would have spared the whole place, Sodom, Gomorrah, and all of the five cities around, just for the sake of the fifty.
But Abraham's not through. Abraham answers and said, Behold, now I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, which am but dust and ashes. Peradventure there should be a lack of five of the fifty righteous.
Will thou destroy all the city for the lack of five? And God said, If I find there forty and five, I will not destroy it. That would have been God in the form of Jesus. If I find there forty and five, I will not destroy it.
And he spake unto him yet again and said, Peradventure there shall be forty found there. And he, Jesus, said, I will not do it for forty's sake. And he said unto him, O let not the Lord be angry. He's beginning to get a little nervous, but he's also beginning to get a little bit bold.
O let the Lord not be angry, and I will speak. Peradventure there shall be thirty found there. Now you notice he's now a little bolder. He started off knocking off five at a time, and now he's doing ten at a time.
And he said, I will not do it if I find thirty there. And he said, Peradventure I have taken it upon me to speak to the Lord. Peradventure there shall be twenty found there. And he said, I will not destroy it for twenty's sake.
And he said, O let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak yet but this once. Peradventure ten shall be found there. And he said, I will not destroy it for the ten's sake. So had the Lord found ten righteous people in the city of Sodom, the whole city of Sodom, Gomorrah, and the five surrounding cities, none of it would have been destroyed.
Now, Brother Dave Huber, how many did he find? Not ten, how many? That's not fair, I set that question up on purpose so I could say this. None, zero, not even lot. Abraham was thinking, he's gonna say, what if I don't find any?
And the angels are already on the way. I mean, the angels are not waiting for him. Now, the angels could not destroy the city with lot remaining there. Not because lot was righteous, but only because the Lord chose to save him anyhow.
Not even lot, even though he was spared. He wasn't righteous, but he was spared. Now, does God the Father see lot as righteous? Now, I'm gonna go with you. He will see lot as righteous, why? Because he sees lot now, the same as he sees his son.
His son paid lots price, and the Father sees lot as Jesus. How did Jesus see lot? As a filthy beast that he's gonna save anyhow. That's how Jesus saw lot. The Father saw lot as righteous. That's why I felt guilty about pointing you out.
Now, in case you are not fully on board, and which I think everybody is here, but I've got, I had this for in case we had visitors. Romans 3, 10 tells us, As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one.
There is none that understandeth. There is none that seeketh after God. That's the standard of righteousness, to understand and to seek God. If you understand and seek God, then that's righteous. How many do that?
Paul goes on to say, they are all gone out of the way. They are together become unprofitable. There is none that doeth good, no, not one. Now, he said it as it is written. Well, one place it's written is in Psalms 14, beginning at verse 1.
Psalms 14, beginning at verse 1. The fool has said in his heart, there is no God. They are corrupt. They have done abominable works. There is none that doeth good. The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any that didn't understand and seek God.
Again, that's the standard of righteousness. And what did he say? What did he see? They're all gone aside. They're all together become filthy. There is none that doeth good. No, not one. Well, there's another Psalms that says essentially the same thing.
And in fact, when I start reading it, you're going to think I'm reading the same one. Psalms 53. And it's going to be a lot the same. The fool has said in his heart, there is no God. Corrupt are they and have done abominable iniquity.
There is none that doeth good. The Lord, God looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any that did understand and did seek God. Those would be righteous people. If there was somebody that understood and was seeking God, they would be righteous.
If there was somebody that was seeking God and didn't understand, they would not be righteous. And if there's someone that understood and was not seeking God, they would be worse than the other. But were there any that did understand and seek God?
And here's the psalmist's answer. Every one of them has gone back. They are all together become filthy. There is none that doeth good. No, not one. So how many righteous were there in Sodom? None. But God chose to spare some anyway.
So now we're back to Genesis. You don't need to go there. It's only one verse. And the Lord went his way as soon as he had left communing with Abraham, and Abraham returned to his place. Now, that was not a secret to Jonah.
Jonah knew that story. And he was afraid that God might spare none of them, as he spared Lot. Lot had received God's mercy. Jonah had received God's mercy. Jonah had received God's mercy on at least four occasions.
I'm sure there's more than that. One, God sent a great fish to retrieve Jonah's body. Two, he brought Jonah back to life. Three, he caused the fish to deposit Jonah on dry land. And four, he gave Jonah a second chance to become obedient.
So that's at least four, and there's, I'm sure, more. But Jonah didn't want Nineveh to share in God's mercy. He was afraid that God might show the same mercy to Nineveh that he had shown him, and he had shown Lot.
And he didn't like it. Now, we have this from the New Testament, from Peter and from Paul, each of whom received a measure of mercy from God. Peter, after he had denied the Lord three times, during the crucifixion scene, and Paul, in the time he was before the road to Damascus was completed.
Here's what Peter said,. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness, but is longsuffering to usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
And Timothy, 1 Timothy 2, 3, Paul says,. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who will have all men to be saved, and come unto the knowledge of the truth. Well, we talked about that many times, and we all understand that the all are all of the all that he has selected, all of the all that he has chosen, not all of the all that he didn't choose.
They won't come to salvation, they won't repent, and they will not, and they will perish. So now we're back to Jonah, verse 3. Therefore now, Lord, take I beseech thee my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.
There are commentators who believe Jonah was expressing his concern, his understanding of the seriousness of breaking his vow to God. And he did make some sort of vow, we know that. In Ecclesiastes 5, verse 1, Solomon says,.
Keep thy foot when thou goest into the house of God, and be more ready to hear than to give sacrifice to fools. For they consider not that they do evil. Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter anything before God.
For God is in heaven, and thou upon the earth. Therefore let thy words be few. For a dream cometh through the multitude of business, and a fool's voice is known by the multitude of words. When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it, for he hath no pleasure in fools.
Pay that which thou hast vowed. Better it is that thou shouldest not vow, than thou shouldest vow and not pay. Now that's what Solomon had to say about offering a vow before the Lord. If you're gonna make it, keep it.
If you're not gonna keep it, don't make it. It's better not to vow than to vow and not pay. And it's certainly possible that Jonah now recognized the seriousness of breaking whatever vows he had made.
And he had made some vows. We just don't know exactly what vows he made. In chapter two, he said, when my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came unto thee and thy holy temple.
They that observe lying vanities forsake thine own mercy, but I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving, and I will pay that I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord. Now that's, a lot of commentators think that at this point, Jonah is concerning, expressing his understanding that the vow that he would break if he didn't do what the Lord asked him to do was a serious thing.
I don't think that's where he's going at all. I don't see any significant difference in his attitude here and his attitude at the beginning when he ran away to Tarsus. He was just convinced by now that running away would not take him anywhere else.
But I do see the significance of this statement. Salvation is of the Lord. It wasn't of him and it was not of the works that he did. Salvation is of the Lord. If the Lord chooses to give you salvation, you'll have it.
And if he doesn't, you won't. Verse four, then said the Lord, dost thou will to be angry? Well, we don't hear Jonah's answer. Instead, what we do is we see Jonah leave the city. Verse five, so Jonah went out of the city and set on the east side of the city and there made him a booth and set under it in the shadow till he might see what would become of the city.
Apparently, Jonah thought that the Lord might relent and might still destroy Nineveh. And he wanted to be close enough to see the destruction and yet far enough away to be safe himself. So he's sitting on a hill outside the city waiting for the Lord to destroy the city.
And the Lord prepared a gourd and made it to come up over Jonah that it might be a shadow over his head to deliver him from his grief. Just as God prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah, he now prepares this vine to shelter him even as he waited hoping that the city would be destroyed.
So Jonah was exceedingly glad of the gourd. This is the first time in the book that we're told that Jonah is happy. James Montgomery Boyce said this, Jonah was pleased at last. After all the compassion of God for other people, God was finally doing something for Jonah.
Selfish? Of course it was. And petty too. Now, in case you don't know who James Boyce is, he was an American reformed Christian theologian. He was a Bible teacher and an author. He was a speaker known for his writing on the authority of scripture and in defense of the inerrancy of the Bible.
So he's a good guy. He was also a senior minister of the 10th Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia from 1968 until he died in 2000. But I have one issue with Boyce. God was finally doing something for Jonah.
Finally? Baby Boyce forgot the other four things that he has done already for Jonah. He has scooped him up from the ocean after the sailors threw him into the ocean and he drowned. He brought him back to life.
He put him on dry land and he gave him a second chance. That's at least four things that he has done to show his compassion for Jonah. But all of the things and many more that the Lord did for Jonah were not enough to make Jonah happy.
Not a single thing at the end of the day, Jonah says, now I am happy. When he was brought up from the sea and put in the belly of the whale and brought back to life, he didn't say I'm happy. When he was spit up on dry land, he didn't say I'm happy.
When he was given a second chance to go to Nineveh, he didn't say I'm happy, but he did go. That's the one difference that I do see. All of this was not enough to make Jonah happy and the Gord was, but Jonah won't be happy long.
Verse seven, but God prepared a worm. A worm, when the morning rose the next day and it smoked the Gord that it withered. Now, let's take a moment to consider another man and another set of circumstances.
Job, you don't need to go there. I'm just gonna tell you a little of the story and his reaction to the situation that he found himself in. All of his children are dead. His property has all been stolen or destroyed.
He is ravaged with boils and all of his friends that showed up to give him comfort, gave him discomfort. They proved to be false friends. He's left with only his wife and I say only his wife because this wife tells him something really weird.
Dost thou still retain thine integrity? Curse God and die. That's not such good advice and Job scolds her for that and what was his attitude in the midst of all this? Here's what he said. The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away.
Blessed be the name of the Lord. Now, that's Job and his hardship and his reaction to it. An incredible man with an incredible understanding of God. Now, let's consider Jonah and his great hardship. Not being cast into the ocean, not being dead, not having to walk to Nineveh, sitting under a shade provided by a gourd that he had nothing to do with and the gourd dies.
That's his great hardship. What's his attitude? He wished in himself to die and he said, it is better for me to die than to live. And it came to pass when the sun did rise that God prepared a vehement wind and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah that he fainted and he wished in himself to die and he said, it is better for me to die than to live.
So his happiness didn't last long. He's now again, just half a day later, wishing himself dead. And God said to Jonah, does thou well to be angry for the gourd? And he said, I do well to be angry, even unto death.
These are the last words of Jonah recorded in the book. But thankfully, they're not the last words in the book. I hope and I believe that God's mercy and his compassion are still working on Jonah, but I don't know that.
Teaching him and guiding him to God's heart. Here's what the Lord said. Then saith the Lord, thou hast had pity on the gourd for which thou hast not labored, neither makest it to grow, which came up in a night and perished in a night.
I've heard people talk about that and say, well, Jonah was carrying water from the river up to the vine and watering it, but I don't see anywhere in the scripture that it says that. For which thou hast not labored and neither madest thou it grow.
So he hasn't done anything for that vine. He's just sitting there under the shade of it, taking solace in the vine. Thou had pity on the gourd, for which thou hast not labored, neither makest it to grow, which came up in a night and perished in a night.
And I should not spare Nineveh, that great city wherein are more than six score thousand persons who cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand and also much cattle. That's 120 ,000 children.
If you kind of extrapolate what that means, it's more than a half a million inhabitants. So it'd be a city larger than Austin. How much more should God be concerned about the destruction of people, those made in his image, even if they are Assyrians?
God's response to Jonah showed that the prophet didn't really know God as well as he thought he did. And that's what brother David said at the very beginning. Jonah didn't really understand the grace of God.
Jonah kind of thought he had earned it. Jewish tradition says that after God said the words of Jonah 411, that Jonah fell on his face and said this, govern your world according to the measure of your mercy as it is said in Daniel 9 .9, to the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness.
And all I've got to say is we can only hope that Jonah and we would have such a humble response in the same condition. Any questions or comments? And he couldn't find that many. And I think really, even though I kind of chided Dave Huber and said there were none righteous, I think that the Lord would have counted Lot as righteous.
But in reality, he wasn't really, he just had the righteousness that would become to him from Jesus Christ on him. But if he'd have found 10, he would have spared the whole city. And that was like, okay, there's nine of us in here.
I counted. And I saw two more walk through. So we've got 11 in here. And there's also a couple back there. So we've got more than 10. And if we were in Austin, the whole city to be spared because of the presence of 10, he would have done it for 10.
He said he would. And yes, he has put a hedge of protection around us and a hedge of protection around the whole country. And I know that that was one of the punchlines of the comedy thing that you attended.
I had a warning. But yes, there is a hedge of protection around the US. Anything else? Most gracious heavenly Father, thank you for this day. And thank you for all our many blessings. Bless us and keep us and protect us.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen.