Jonah 4 Embracing the Mission of God

This week our pastor Don Pilsack brings us a message out of a series entitled Embracing the Mission of God a study through the book of Jonah. We're coming to the conclusion of.

The book of Jonah this week I'm gonna be out for two weeks on vacation and then We're gonna dive back into the book of Acts. For a few weeks. So I'm hoping that you've caught some of the major themes of the book of Jonah as we've been going through it.

Have you have you been connecting with that? Is it has it been speaking to you have any of you kind of felt conviction from it or encouragement or been challenged as you've Been in encountering God's Word.

Good. That's that's certainly the point of studying coming together and studying God's Word is that we that that God speaks to us. And that we hear from him and that in the process of hearing from him from his word that we are Changed not that we just go.

Okay, that's cool. That's good. And then we go about doing the exact same things that we've always done, but that we are open to having God change us. So a couple of the major themes that kind of bubble to the surface that this final text that that Jonah chapter 4.

Addresses is.

God's relentless mercy towards humanity that's major theme number one that we're going to be wrapping up this week that God is a God of mercy and he is merciful and compassionate and slow to anger towards his people and then the second thing is Just quite directly our own stubborn self-centeredness so looking at God and contrasting God and his mercy and compassion with our stubborn self-centeredness and and that's the point of the Book of Jonah in the end.

We're going to see that as we wrap this up in verse chapter 4 but you see the fact of the matter is God is compassionate and We lack compassion. God is merciful and We lack mercy. God is a God who sees all people as valuable but we'd like to organize people into categories and build walls and caricatures and Stereotypes, would you agree with that?

That's what we do naturally. But he's a God who sees all people as valuable and so the the message Ultimately that everybody needs forgiveness. It's a song that we sing. I mean that there's going to be some lyrics that we sing here in a moment.

It's something that we need to hear would you agree that you need to be reminded of that? Everybody needs forgiveness.

Starting.

With us, right? Everybody needs forgiveness. The amazing thing about the book of Jonah is That it highlights That it is not just the wicked city of Nineveh that needs forgiveness. But so does Jonah. So does the prophet the one who is supposed to be God's man in the book and he needs forgiveness.

Even the one who is the spokesman for God there needs forgiveness. Maybe we could say and go so far as to say especially the prophet of God needs forgiveness. Because we're gonna see and as we see in the text, it's often those who think that they are God's favorites.

That really are just self-inflated and arrogant towards others. There's a tendency to think that we're God's favorites, but really it ends up being just our trying to put up a front in front of others.

So as we come to worship this morning, I would encourage everybody to rejoice that God has made a way for all. Whether we can relate more with Jonah or we can relate more with Nineveh. And what I mean by that is just think about your upbringing think about what the categories of religion in your life where you have Been in your history.

So can you relate more to Jonah the the kind of rigid rules based kind of upbringing where? Think about your parent your parents and how you were raised and what the church was like where you were raised in.

Were you more like Jonah in a rigid form or were you more like? Nineveh where anything goes was that what was it like in your household? Do you have that picture in your mind as some of your parents bought the booze for your parties?

Right others of you if they found out that you had touched alcohol. They were going to kill you. Right. So what was your upbringing like? I mean, where do you relate because everybody needs forgiveness regardless of where you're at on that scale regardless how self-righteous you are.

We all need forgiveness, right. We all need a Savior a merciful God who is gracious and compassionate. Slow to anger abounding in steadfast love as the text is going to tell us. Let's rejoice as the band comes to lead us.

That we serve a God who is Compassionate and gracious and willing to forgive. I want you to open your Bibles. We're gonna read this passage before the team comes. Jonah chapter 4 page 659 659 in the Bible that's in the seat back in front of you.

And again if you if you don't own a Bible or If you don't own an English Standard Version of the Bible, which is what I generally preach from. Then you can take that one with you. It's a free gift from us to you.

But 659 in that Bible Jonah chapter 4 follow along as I read. And we get a chance to see Jonah get all whiny and sassy. But it displeased Jonah exceedingly it being the mercy of God by the way. It displeased Jonah exceedingly and he was angry.

And he prayed to the Lord and said O Lord is not this 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 O 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 could see. Till he should see what would become of the city. Now the Lord God appointed a plan 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 in 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 plants? And he said yes, I do well to be angry angry enough to die and The Lord said you pity the plants for which you did not labor nor did you make it grow which came into being in a night and perished in the night and Should not I pity?

Nineveh that great city in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left and.

Also.

Much cattle. Let's pray the book of Jonah really as we dive into this passage it could have ended last week and we would have got like significant life lessons from it and it would have been pretty sweet and You kind of could look at chapter 4 and kind of wonder scratch your head.

Why tears matter of fact when I was talking with Dave and we were planning for the service. He's like I always when I read through the book of Jonah I always get like, you know chapter 1 great chapter 2 great chapter 3 great.

What in the world is chapter 4 like there's a plant and a worm and like things getting eaten and like what was? Scorching east wind. What is what's going on in chapter 4? Like what's that about? So if we were to put in perspective what we've heard so far in the book of Jonah and for those of you that haven't Been here for the whole series if they kind of catch you up.

God called this guy Jonah to preach to Nineveh. Nineveh was a violent and evil enemy city of Israel where Jonah was from and he's called to pick up his stuff and go to Nineveh and Proclaim judgment on them, but Jonah instead ran from God.

So God pursued him there was that whole stomach of a fish dealio that probably everybody's familiar with and then God gave him a second chance and called him again and said go to Nineveh. Jonah obeys the second time Nineveh repents of their evil and God shows mercy and he relents from destroying them.

You see how that could be the end of the story. See how things are it feels kind of like a pretty good story all the loose ends are sewn up. You know Jonah called to task check. Jonah completed his mission check.

Nineveh transformed changed repentant check. God demonstrates mercy. Check like all the all the components of a great story all rolled up in there, but that's not where it ends. We know we have chapter 4 here and chapter 4 exists.

If you if you ever reading a passage description, you're like I don't quite get it. Ask yourself this question and this will start to tease the reason that it's there. Why is it there ask that question?

What is it? What is it there to communicate? Why is it here? And I would propose to you that Jonah 4 exists to drive home the two primary themes of God's great mercy and Jonah's great lack of mercy. That we are basically getting an opportunity to look at a case study a contrast between two characters main characters in the story.

Jonah on the one hand who completely and utterly lacks mercy and God who is a god of compassion and mercy and the. The stage is set so that God shines greater in light of Jonah's ignorant lack of mercy.

Verse 1 begins with Jonah's response to the repentance of Nineveh. If you look at verse 1 it says but it displeased it. Well, what was whenever you see something? You don't know what that pronoun is. What is it?

You've got to go back in context and figure it out. And it's the repenting the turning of Nineveh and the relenting of God from the disaster that he said he was going to do. So it was exceedingly it displeased Jonah exceedingly.

He was utterly angry. This is gratuitous. Hardcore anger that we see in the text as a matter of fact, I think it would be more accurate. It'd be more accurate to translate this pissed off. Okay, and if that just shocked you when I just said that.

Then you get the force of what the text is supposed to be saying to us. I don't say that to be edgy. I see that to be academic like literally that is an academic statement about what Jonah is going through at this time and In this state of utter anger.

I mean he is hacked off and he offers a pretty funny prayer in context, so you look at this and It's funny from the outside, but man if you're in there and you're going through this and you're Jonah, I mean, this isn't funny.

But in this prayer, he's going to tell us for the first time in the entire book why he was running. Did you catch that? I've told you a couple of times because I know how the story ends, but we don't heard yet.

Why was he even running in the first place? He got you if you were to just sit down with Jonah for the first time. You've never read it before. Okay, and most of us are tainted because we heard it in Sunday school.

Or you heard it as a child or something if you were to sit down from beginning to end to just read it for the Very first time you don't know why he's running. Right until this verse until this passage right here, and he says why he's running.

He ultimately says God when I was back in Israel I knew this was going to happen when you called me and you told me to go to Nineveh. I already knew the end of the story and that's why I ran to Joppa and got on the boat to Tarshish because I know you because I know you God and I know what you're like and By the way between read between the lines.

I know you and I don't like you God. You're supposed to read that in here. I know you and I don't like you because here's what I know of you God. You're a gracious God. You're merciful. You're slow to anger.

You're abounding in steadfast. Love you relent from disaster.

What?

Are those bad things? Are those things worthy of being angry at God about. Something strange here. Anybody want to kind of say maybe Jonah's a little messed up. Little bit twisted in his priorities. Maybe just a little bit like us.

Oh. He's ticked he's ticked because God is merciful.

Think about that.

Sometimes I think people can be too critical of biblical characters. Sometimes we're a little too loose with them. Jonah gets off the hook a little too much sometimes I think. You see there's a whole whale thing that grabs our attention and sometimes we don't think deeply.

But you see what we're dealing with here is a prophet a man of God Jonah who understood God correctly and he didn't like him. He doesn't like what God is going to do here. Jonah knew correct things about God.

He had correct theology. He had a right understanding of the amazing glories of the Almighty God and he ran from him. You hearing what I'm saying. We can do the same. But I think it would be valuable for us to unpack a little bit of Jonah's accurate theology here because this is good.

He's he's on bedrock here. He's building a solid foundation of theology. Who is God? So we make some statements about him. He says God is gracious. Another way to just state that in common vernacular.

God is willing to cut people some slack. Do you think of God that way? Do we think of God as a God who's willing to cut us some slack? This is best seen in what a common theology about you know. One of the terms of theology is common grace that concept that he allows good things to happen to wicked and evil people.

Okay, any of you ever experienced some good things in life? Did you deserve those good things in life? No, it's just a gift from God. It's his outpouring of common grace. You see the answer the question why is there evil in the world and why is there good in the world are both kind of Similar answers.

So why is there evil in the world if we've got a gracious God? Well, it's because he's gracious because you see we broke the world. So that's the simple answer, right? Why is there evil in the world? We broke it.

Humanity broke the world. Oh, no, what am I going to do? You ever break a vase and your parents not you're kind of trying to hide the pieces. You can't hide the pieces from God, right? It's like we busted it.

Crud.

But you see God is gracious. Giving people time to repent and that's why we live in a broken fallen world. But there's still sin and there's still evil and there's bad things. If God were not gracious We would die when we sin.

Any of you glad that you don't die when you sin. That God doesn't just snuff you out the moment that you sin. We wouldn't hit we wouldn't be here. At one sin you're done we yeah. Not so good. But then you ask yourself why is there good in the world?

Because God is gracious in giving us moments of goodness even in this fallen creation. My wife and I are on our way out to maine. Actually, we leave this afternoon and hoping to enjoy some of the good creation, you know there's sunrises and sunsets and the beauty of the ocean and hoping to see some moose and Maybe a couple of whales when we go out whale watching and stuff and we're looking forward to this.

I mean that we're excited about getting a chance to kind of see God's good creation and there's moments of joy and blessing in this life. That's undeserved. Just god's grace. He is a gracious god. How did god's graciousness apply to nineveh?

He gave them time to repent. And then he accepted their repentance. The second thing that the text tells us that jonah tells us in his anger. That he spews out that is actually good truth about god is that god is merciful.

Another translation of that word translators kind of have their favorite english word what they want to do with that. Some say merciful some say compassionate. Same exact hebrew word can be translated either way.

But regardless of how you translate it that hebrew word is a mothering kind of word. It is a tender compassion. Soft and tender care for someone who is utterly dependent upon you. Can you picture that in your mind a mother caring for her baby?

Compassionate that is our god. Do you picture god compassionate that way tender care for those who are? Dependent upon him. The third thing that he says is god is slow to anger. I want to state that that is despite what many people think.

Would you agree with that? Many people see god as an angry wrathful vengeful god. Does he have wrath?

Yes.

But god is slow to anger. He will display his wrath. But think about it from this perspective. If he came back today to execute judgment on the world. How long has he endured the human race. The sinful human race.

How long has he endured with us and put up with our shenanigans? How long? I did. I said the word shenanigans. What I was what I was like. Our crud whatever. He has endured with us for centuries.

Right.

He's not looking for a quick chance to smoke us. Anybody who thinks that god is quick to anger and some of us in this room might harbor those that sense. That god is just over our shoulder looking for us to fail so he can just light us up.

If you're there. We need to rely realign our view of god with what he openly declares to be true about himself. Does god have a tipping point? Where his. Where his patience gives way? And eventually He moves into a a mode of discipline towards us.

Is there a tipping point for that? Yes, okay. All right. But his wrath is applied. Only after his immense patience is exhausted. Fourth god is abounding in love. See god is the source of what the hebrew language I haven't thrown out.

I've been really careful to not throw a lot of greek and hebrew at you. But this is a this is a hebrew word that I think is valuable for you to become familiar with it is has said. It is god's covenant.

Love his steadfast. Enduring love the hebrew word is has said. It's a covenant type of love that really if you think about it in human language the only thing that I could think of that would reflect a has said kind of love is a 75 year wedding anniversary.

Now I actually question whether to even put that down. Do people have 75 year wedding anniversaries like put the do the math is that. Does that really happen? So I actually did some research and I looked online and I got emotional reading some of these stories about 75 year wedding anniversaries.

It's amazing. A type of love how many of you know that if you've been married 75 years? It hasn't all been a bed of roses. Do you know what i'm saying? I mean, it's that kind of steadfast Rooted love that says i'm committed to you regardless of what happens in life.

You're going to go through some dark times in 75 years, right? For richer for poor for better for worse all of those things and it's all rolled up in this committed kind of love and it was just like wow to just read stories and quotes and.

Some people just saying well a lot of love and a little bit of luck and you know. Some of those kinds of things and stuff, um, but just to hear the quotes from these people. 75 year wedding anniversary.

And yet that kind of I mean, that's the best that we can imagine in regards to a long a longevity of love.

Uh.

And that pales in comparison To god's has said to his steadfast love towards those who come under his banner to those who come under his covenant love. And by the way, the only way in under that covenant love is through jesus christ.

That is the way that god has provided for us to come under that banner of his protection of his forgiveness of his love.

His has said.

And jonah identified identifies that god is abounding.

In has said Abounding and steadfast committed love.

And then lastly Our god is a god who loves to relent of disaster. He loves to turn from his wrath and particularly loves it when humans repent. Again, he's not eager to apply his discipline to us, but he is looking for excuses like repentance to avert his wrath.

You get that.

He's looking for opportunities he's looking for us to repent. He's eager for us to repent that he might turn his wrath away I guess best have evidence by the cross, right? That he would go to such extremes to relent of his Discipline towards us and provide a way out to come from under that.

All of these observations about god are found in so many passages in scripture That there are things that I would call foundational doctrines of theology. Jonah got them, right? He understood god.

And again.

He understood them understood these character traits and he did not like them. Do you believe god do you believe god to be these things. Like really really think about that. Are they and then ask yourself this are they true of you?

Because we're called to be christ-like to be like god. If you take them and turn them towards yourself for a moment. I think we begin to see what made jonah angry in these because jonah ultimately wanted god to be more like him.

And god was not like jonah. So turn them to yourself for a second. And I think we'll see some of the things that made jonah angry about god. Are are you gracious? Are you compassionate? Tenderly caring for those who are dependent upon you.

Are you slow to anger? Abounding in love. Relenting from devastating others. How many of you know that there are times in our lives where we hold other people in our hands? We have control over them. They've either either they've wronged us and they're coming to us for repentance and now we can crush them.

Do you know what i'm talking about? You have you ever experienced that where you had the opportunity in your life to devastate another human? Because they were at your mercy you've been there. Nobody else has been there just me.

Okay, some of you a couple of you had the opportunity to do that. But you know where you're there and you're and you're. Are you eager to relent from devastating others. Now as we go through when we think through that list surely you have a couple of those.

Hopefully you have a couple of those that maybe is your specialty like you're like, oh that's in my wheelhouse. I can handle that. But even then are you consistently applying that over? The course of all interactions with humans none of these we get consistent none of these are Really in our wheelhouse, right?

None of them we we hit out of the park every time consistently. But god is consistent in these things. You see jonah wanted god more like him. I'm glad that god is not more like jonah. Are you glad that god is not more like you?

I know i'm glad that he's not like me. Now I want to point out that I don't think jonah had in mind necessarily an anger that god was merciful as long as the mercy was applied to him. Do you see how there's a nuance in there?

He wanted the mercy for himself. He's like, oh, that's okay god. If you're that way, just just don't be that way towards others just towards me. So jonah asked god to take his life. Jonah is in a pitiful state in chapter four.

He doesn't want to serve a god who will not judge sinners like the ninovites. And and this is where we get to cut jonah some slack. So this is where a lot of commentaries a lot of people are going to cut him some slack.

And I think it's I think it's justified to give him a little wiggle room because of who we are got it. Cast judgment that wicked jonah. Oh boy. He's just evil. Look at ourselves for a second put yourself in perspective.

The ninovites were wicked. They were violent. They were aggressors. This isn't like god showing mercy to michigan state fans if you're a michigan fan. At least I hope you're not that hardcore if you are boy.

We need to have a talk. Put yourself put this perspective in your mind. Okay God calls you he says i've got a people group that I want you to reach. So i'm going to ask you to go to chicago for this one because you got to go to you got to get over to chicago.

And i'm going to ask you because there's a ring of sex traffickers over in chicago. Okay, and i'm not asking you to minister to the people that are victims i'm asking you to minister to the aggressors.

And in that process i'm going to ask you to call down god's judgment. I'm going to ask you to call my judgment down on them. God. I don't want to go. Right. How many how many signing up for that? Anybody signing up for that?

No, where are you going? Like spain portugal you're going like like as far away as you can get from chicago. Anybody else feeling like getting on a boat for tarshish?

Okay.

You're getting a little perspective on where jonah's coming from in this passage. Okay, all of a sudden he looks a little bit nicer and a little bit like you're getting where he's going. So then you go through the whale.

Whatever.

You finally say okay god. You're you're in charge. I'll go do what you want me to do. Heading over to chicago you get there.

And they repent.

And turn. And god says, okay, you're all right.

I'll be gracious to you. How are you feeling?

Anybody anybody struggling with that anybody all of a sudden like where jonah is in the passage? Anybody like kind of step down off the top tier of the ladder and kind of like, okay I guess we're maybe on the same Level now with jonah.

It's a hard thing, isn't it? You see jonah is angry because he perceives a significant injustice has been done. You see where jonah's coming from? Where according to human justice god has a different a different scale than us.

God asked jonah a probing question. Do you do well to be angry? They justify it in your anger. How's that working for you? Jonah? How's the anger working out? Jonah does not reply. He's so spitting angry.

Instead jonah heads out east of the city. What he does next is just kind of kind of humorous in itself. Heads out east of the city. His task is completed. He's gone through. Proclaimed the word of of uh judgment.

God has declared and openly said they're going to get. That they're going to be let go. So he builds himself a small inadequate lean to I say inadequate because we're going to see that. That there still needs to be a plant that comes up over him to shade him from the sun.

So it's but he builds this lean to he sits down. In the minimal shade to see what might happen to the city. God's already told him what's going to happen to the city. But he wants to see just in case.

Um, what is jonah out there east of the city waiting for?

Destruction.

He's not hoping to see the mercy of god displayed. He's not out there looking for a fireworks display. He's not out there looking for a celebration of the city waiting to hear the city cheer because they're not destroyed.

Jonah's sitting up on the hill in his lawn chair. Hoping to catch a glimpse of carnage and destruction. Just wants to see a little destruction. Nothing's going to make him more happy than the decimation of 120 000 minibites.

Do you get what he's hoping for here. You feel what he's hoping for here. He's a little twisted in his in his desire would you say. He's just a little twisted. God has already pledged his mercy. He's already said he's going to relent from disaster.

But jonah is just hoping beyond hope that maybe god will will relent from that decision. And go ahead and smoke him anyways, and he's hoping that women children Men and maybe even some of the cattle get destroyed.

He's this is what he's sitting out there in his lawn chair hoping for this. You getting that picture. That's what he wants. Did you know? That our human sense of justice Is not always fueled by godliness.

It is not always fueled by godliness. It is I mean how many of you ever think boy if I have a just thought maybe that comes from god because god is just. And maybe we overstep. And we want to judge where god wants to forgive.

Can you imagine a situation or a scenario like that in your life? If you ever had to forgive somebody that you didn't think deserved it. That's where the rubber meets the road and that is hard. That is so utterly difficult takes a supernatural work of god in your life to forgive like that.

Right.

Jonah's not getting it. We can become so out of touch With what we are and what we deserve and who god is. That we can actually believe that we deserve better than others. That we look at our sins as good and their sins as bad or at least our sins aren't as bad as theirs, right.

That's what god is trying to teach jonah here at the end of this book. Jonah has ultimately grown into a sense or degenerated into a sense of divine entitlement. God owes him. He says I deserve good things from god, but others deserve punishment.

So god Ironically is going to provide him a good thing to illustrate. It's going to make a plant grow. It says in the text that god appointed a plant. Now we've seen god appoint several things throughout the book of jonah.

That's a kind of a theme of god appointing things. He appointed a strong wind. To blow a storm up on the mediterranean. He appointed a great fish. Now we're going to see him appoint three things in chapter four he's going to appoint a plant a worm and an east wind.

And I want to point out that god graciously provides a plant applying that grace. He uh provides a plant for jonah. Just like the fish. We cannot determine with any kind of accuracy what kind of plant it was people banter back and forth about what it is.

But there's just like the fish remember there were only two things that really mattered about it. Anyways that we really needed to know. Number one is that god sent it and number two. It was for jonah's benefit.

So jonah is saved from the discomfort of a scorching desert heat. And he moves from exceeding anger to exceeding gladness. Okay, any of you relate to that on an emotional human level like moving from just being like spitting angry to like pretty good.

That's good. Anybody ever be able to do that in the course of a day? Or vice versa things are going really good and then boom just one thing hits and you're down. It's like jonah had a rough day at work, but came home to find that the broken air conditioner had been fixed and he's good.

And he was glad. The provision of the plant was miraculous. It grows overnight again. Just trying to figure that out. It's a miracle. We're probably not going to get our mind around what kind of plant this was or you know.

Try to find the one that grows the fastest and call it that I don't know.

Um.

But we know that it's a miracle it comes up overnight and then in the morning god's going to appoint something else. He appoints a worm now what kind of worm we don't know but just like the whale. We know two things just like the plant.

We know two things. The worm came from god and the worm is for jonah's benefit. I mean, you know, it's not going to feel like the worm is for jonah's benefit. He's not going to take it that way but it is it's part of the lesson that he needs to learn.

God also sends it says in his text a wind a scorching East wind and then the sun beats down on him and it's like jonah's getting ready to have a heat stroke. And he again asks god to just let him die.

He's miserable. He's not just miserable though. He's angry. He's focused on his own comfort. And I think it's fair to just call jonah a big hot mess of emotions. Like have any of you ever been there yourself.

Okay, that's where jonah is. And so god asked him again. It's almost like god is pushing his buttons just pushing him to the brink. He says Do you do well to be angry about the plants? How's that working for you?

You know, do you think it's reasonable? Is your anger justified?

Jonah.

Lashes out and. This is kind of like a sassy whiny statement. I just can't picture how he says this other than just like. Yeah, yeah. Ever have your kids do that to you? Yeah. Would you ever do that yourself?

Yes, I do well to be angry. Angry enough to die. Like what a pitiful statement Jonah attempts. Do you hear what he's trying to do? Do you see what he's trying to accomplish here? He's trying to convince the god of the universe that he is justified in his anger.

Yes, i'm justified. Yes, I do well to be angry. Thank you for asking. I think that we can tell god why we're angry. I think that's acceptable. I think that's understandable. I think that's reasonable and that's actually good practice.