"Is It Right For You To Be Angry?"

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Preacher: Greg Magazu Scripture: Jonah 4:1-11

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Well, good morning again, we good glorious All right.
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Well, we are once again in Jonah hoping to finish it out today The name of my sermon this morning is is it right for you to be angry?
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So there's been a couple of months since I preached Jonah 3 I'll start with a quick review of the first three chapters of the book of Jonah before we finish with chapter 4 in Chapter 1 we looked at the sovereign
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God of mercy God calls Jonah to preach to Nineveh a violent Gentile city, but Jonah flees in the opposite direction
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This is not mere fear as we will see today. It is rebellion Jonah doesn't want mercy for Nineveh God sends a great storm upon the sea to bring
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Jonah back to him in The middle of this we see that God uses even our sins for his good purposes in bringing salvation
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To a group of pagan mariners He also shows how even in the middle of apparent chaos
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It's not chaos to God as he controls everything perfectly to accomplish his will
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The mariners after doing everything they can to spare the life of Jonah this man who has put their lives in danger
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Commit their way to God and throw him overboard But God is not done with Jonah and he prepares a fish to swallow
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Jonah and through that ultimately preserves his life In chapter 2 we looked at the fact that salvation is of the
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Lord Jonah finds himself in the belly of a fish or as he calls it the belly of shale as he sinks further down in the ocean
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No hope apart from God of escaping with his life. He finally prays As we were viewed the structure of that prayer was like a psalm
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He cried to the Lord and the Lord heard him. I cried to the Lord because of my affliction and he answered me
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He confesses that God is sovereign and is the one who has done this for you cast me into the deep
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He places his trust in God yet. I will look again to your holy temple and He makes a great confession
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Salvation is of the Lord As a result of this God speaks to the fish and it vomits
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Jonah back to the back on the dry land And then in chapter 3 we looked at the fact that repentance is of the
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Lord Jonah in what appears to be newfound submission and obedience to the will of God goes to Nineveh In dramatic style
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Jonah is shown to be one of the most successful prophets God has ever had Jonah is not mocked or attacked or killed
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The whole city from the great king upon his throne down to the simplest person and even the animals are caught up in national repentance
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They cry to God put on sackcloth sit in ashes and proclaim a fast
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They submit to God's will for them They say who can tell if God will turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger so that we may not perish
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Then God who is rich in mercy Saw their works that they turned from their evil way and God Relented from the disaster that he has said he would bring upon them and he did not do it
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What a testimony of the power of the Spirit of God the goodness and grace of God The great and unbelievable mercy of God praise him praise his great name
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In Chapter 4 we read that Jonah rejoices in his God He stays many days in Nineveh teaching them the ways and the laws of God He returns to his own nation with a wonderful testimony of God's goodness and the people of Israel Rejoiced in their
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God praised him for his mercy and grace and many reformed their ways and turned their hearts back to God Gosh, don't you just love a happy ending?
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Unfortunately, that's not what happened When we came to chapter 3 the response of the
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Ninevites is meant to shock us it would have shocked Israel However, when we get to chapter 4 the real shock is waiting for us we see in chapter 4 the ultimate reason why
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God recorded the book of Jonah in Scripture and As we will see it is also why
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Jesus uses the sign of Jonah with the Pharisees in Israel specifically So let me read our text once more, but it displeased
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Jonah exceedingly and he became angry So he prayed to the Lord and said
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Oh Lord was not this what I said when I was still in my country There are for I fled previously to Tarshish for I know that you are a gracious and merciful
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God Slow to anger and abundant loving -kindness one who relents from doing harm
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Therefore now Oh Lord, please take my life from me for it is better for me to die than to live
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And the Lord said is it right for you to be angry? So Jonah went out of the city and sat on the east side of the city there he made himself a shelter and sat under it in the shade till he might see what would become of the city and The Lord God prepared a plant and made it come up over Jonah that it might be shade for his head to deliver him from his misery
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So Jonah was very grateful for the plant but as morning dawned the next day
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God prepared a worm and it so damaged the plant that it withered and It happened when the
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Sun arose that God prepared of the eminent east wind and the Sun beat on Jonah's head so that he grew faint
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Then he wished death for himself and said it is better for me to die than to live And then
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God said to Jonah, is it right for you to be angry about the plant? And he said it is right for me to be angry even a death but the
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Lord said You've had P on the plant for which you have not labored nor made it grow
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Which came up in a night and perished in a night and should I not pity Nineveh that great city in which are more than?
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120 ,000 persons who cannot discern between their right hand and their left and much livestock
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This final chapter is structured around three questions We'll break this chapter down around these three questions and then we'll finish our time in Jonah with five points of application
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The first one is here expressed after we learned Jonah's reaction to God's mercy to the
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Ninevites But it displeased Jonah exceedingly and he became angry Calvin shows how displeased
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Jonah is when he says the two verbs used here are evidently to be construed as impersonals
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The most little literal rendering would be thus and it was an evil to Jonah a great evil and Wrath was to him or he was wroth
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Daniel Timmer says this statement is so arrogant and blasphemous that it can hardly be understood
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Jonah the Israelite who benefits in countless ways from God's past mercy
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Towards and self -revelation to his people Who shows no awareness of in sin of his sin and does not repent even when faced with death
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Finds a way to condemn the very God who delights to show mercy to the undeserving in short
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Jonah stands in judgment over God and Irrigates to himself the right to decide who should and can fittingly receive divine mercy
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He may receive it and non -israelites may not and so once again we see
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Jonah praying The first time was in the fish's belly at the end of himself pleading with God for mercy
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Now he prays again and the true motor motive of Jonah's running from God is revealed he confesses that he knows
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God is merciful and even quotes God's words to Moses in Exodus 34 and The Lord passed before him and proclaimed the
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Lord the Lord God Merciful and gracious long -suffering and abounding in goodness and truth keeping mercy for thousands forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin
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He does cut his name short. However in leaves it Leaves out one who relieves it as one who relents from doing harm
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This is not how God declared his name to Moses God goes on to confirm to Moses that he by no means clears the guilty
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But here Jonah is creating a straw man as it were to knock down He doesn't want to acknowledge that God judges the guilty and is perfectly just and so any mercy
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He shows to Ninevites is ultimately, right? He only cares that God is merciful when it suits him and his nation
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But he is completely intolerant of God being merciful to anyone he does not think should be shown mercy
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He knows that God is righteous and will do right But what he wants is God to do what he thinks is right and he finishes his prayer with his melodramatic
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Therefore now Oh Lord, please take my life from me for it is better for me to die than to live
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Jonah is so distraught over God showing mercy that he would rather be dead than see
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God show mercy to those he counts as his enemies Now the great prophet
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Elijah Despaired of life and asked God to take it from him and he prayed that he might die and said it is enough now
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Lord take my life for I am no better than my father's 1st Corinthians 1st Kings 19
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In this instance, however Elijah was distraught that people were not coming to repentance and they were seeking his life
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He was zealous for the Lord God of hosts and wanted people to come to him Jonah is zealous for the nation of Israel and only wanted blessings for them.
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And so we get to this first question Then the Lord said is it right for you to be angry?
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Now, this is a rhetorical question Implying the response. No, it is not right
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See the incredible gentleness of God with a prophet Jonah here with his response is accusing
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God of wrongdoing by sparing the Ninevites He knows God can do what he wants.
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He's learned that from the storm and the fish But his anger shows that he thinks
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God is wrong Yet God does not rebuke him He does not say as he did with Job.
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Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Again Timmer says after these shockingly sinful responses the units last verse provides an equally surprising but radically pleasant turn of events
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True to his nature God gently cross -examines the prophet turned accuser God's patience and mercy truly know no bounds
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Let us see ourselves in Jonah. How often are we not happy with circumstances or how things are unfolding?
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We not we may not be as bold as Jonah with God But when we get angry with our circumstances, aren't we ultimately saying what are you doing here
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God? Some of you may remember that before I got laid off in March I was already in a job search because I was not happy with where my company was going.
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I Had one opportunity that was starting to shape up and looked like I could have a job offer the same week or the week after my last day
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The job looked great. I did several great interviews. It seemed like a job
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I could do and it was going to check all the boxes Just as my last day approached.
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I found out that I was not gonna get it. I Was not openly angry with God as Jonah was
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But I was definitely harboring a strong annoyance at God Since then
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God has shown me several things First of all, that job was not right for me as it turns out.
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I know the person who got the job She's a friend of mine and she's a rock star like two levels above my head if I had gotten that job
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I would have been completely out of my league God giving me that job
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Would have led to a tremendous amount of pride in myself and I was needing humbly not to be puffed up You see if I had gotten that job at that time
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I would have been walking around being like ha forget that company that laid me off. Look at me I got a job two seconds later
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How great am I and God has also used this season of employment to grow me and depending on him
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Waiting on him and he has shown me that he might have other plans for me and that I should start to pursue them
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In addition to that he has used it in our church and relationships that we have in this church in ways
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I never imagined you see
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Jonah cannot see God's larger purpose because he's consumed by his personal comforts
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Just like I was I cannot I could not see how
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God might use this season until at its end But I can tell you that in seeing this
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I praise and worship him all the more for what he has done I love him more.
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I trust him more I depend on him more than I would ever have if he had given me that perfect job six months ago
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Whenever we find ourselves angry about the things happening in our lives let us look to our God and wait patiently for his purposes and Learn afresh that his purposes are always better than ours
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Now as we start to move towards the second question in the chapter
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Let us zoom in on the events immediately following Nineveh's repentance and I'm gonna go through this verse by verse
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Verse 5 says so Jonah went out of the city and sat on the east side of the city There he made himself a shelter and sat under it in the shade till he might see what would happen become of the city
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Now it's a little hard to understand what Jonah's thought process was here But perhaps he and he interpreted
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God's question to him as is it right for you to be angry? I'm still planning to destroy them Most commentators talk about when
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Jonah left the city Did Jonah leave the city during the 40 days that he had declared to the
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Ninevites or afterwards and Why did he decide to make a shelter to see what would happen to the city?
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We can't know for sure, but clearly he was hoping that God would still bring judgment on the city we can also further see that Jonah had no desire at all for the
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Ninevites as He does not stay in the city to continue to teach and preach But as soon as his responsibility is complete he gets out of there
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He goes to the east side of the city Because it borders the Tigris on the west so going east would mean moving up above the city and would provide him the best view
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He also makes a shelter and sat under the shade of it Now this is interesting because the plant that God is going to grow cause to grow was foreshade
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This likely means that his shelter was not a very good one or was perhaps made of stones as the region is not known for Trees and those stones only afforded him shade when the
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Sun was low in the sky So Jonah waits to see what's going to happen in Verse 6 we read and the
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Lord God prepared a plant and made it come up over Jonah that it might be shade for his head To deliver him from his misery
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So Jonah was very grateful for the plant that very grateful there can be translated. So Jonah rejoiced greatly for the plant
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Finally a turn of good providence and you can almost hear Jonah saying finally something good from this whole ordeal.
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Thanks Lord Jonah may have also been grateful Because this good fortune from God may have signaled to Jonah that he had rightly discerned
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God's will and that he was still planning on judging the city In Hebrew the word used for this plant is
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Kiki on and some commentators believe this was a castor oil plant Some believe it was a gourd of some kind Ultimately this plant supernaturally grew up on Jonah's shelter in a matter of hours and provided him relief from the heat and Sun We also read that God prepared this plant
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Now its rate of growth would have indicated that it was God who did this but the text specifically says that God prepared it
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So we see God is teaching another lesson in verse 7
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God prepares a worm But as morning dawn the next day God prepared a worm and it's so damaged the plant that it withered
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In one night a plant grew and then in one night the plant died With the death of the plant comes also in verse 8 and it happened when the
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Sun arose that God prepared of the eminent East wind And the Sun beat on Jonah's head so that he grew faint
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God prepared a plant then he prepared a worm and then he prepared a wind
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I Would have us note the care and involvement of our God in his wayward prophet
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I would also have us notice the control and power of our God to accomplish his ends these things should cause us to both love and Fear our
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God all the more Love him because he loves us so much that he will not leave us in the state.
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We're in But fear him because he is all -powerful All -knowing and all -wise and will accomplish all his holy will in our lives whether we like it or not
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This brings us now to the final exchange between God and Jonah In this book it has a pattern of Jonah speaks then
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God then Jonah and then God with God getting the last word God pushes
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Jonah to the point where he wishes death for himself and says it is better for me to die than to live We once again see the prophet despairing over his situation to the point of desiring death
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Rather than to have things turn out in a way. He does not want This time he does not pray but he wishes for death
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Even though it can be said that he did not directly address God This time nevertheless
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God was listening as this is the interaction that he's been setting up for Jonah Then God said to Jonah.
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Is it right for you to be angry about the plant? Once again a rhetorical question meant to be answered.
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No, it is not right But Jonah does answer and he says it is right for me to be angry even to death
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One commentator says at this lowest of all the low points in the book of Jonah God comes to Jonah yet again
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With the intention of delivering of him, excuse me delivering him from his self -caused sin -riddled angst
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God's words echo His earlier question to Jonah in 4 .4. Is it good for you to be angry about the gourd?
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Incredibly and apparently with more belligerence than in 4 .5 when he simply walked away Jonah not only affirms to God that is that his anger is good
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But that it is so intense that it drives him to seek relief from it and death now this sets up two contrasts that we are meant to see here a contrast between Jonah and God in Nineveh and the plant
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But the Lord said you have had pity on the plant for which you have not labored nor made it grow
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Which came up at a night and perished in a night and should I not pity Nineveh that great city in which are more than?
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120 ,000 persons who cannot discern between their right hand and their left and much livestock
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God first speaks of the insignificance of the plant Plants are less important than animals and animals are less important than people
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Even more than that. He speaks to the fact that Jonah did not grow the plant Right a farmer has great care for the crop that he has invested his labor in but in this instance
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Jonah did not labor at all Ultimately what God is pointing at is that Jonah doesn't care about the plant.
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He cares about his own comfort He is angry about the plant because it was providing him shade
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The contrast here is with a great city of men that contains thousands of people and much livestock many commentators highlight that the phrase who cannot discern between their right hand and their left is
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Referring to young children likely seven and under They talk about if that is true
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Then the actual population of Nineveh was likely much larger than a hundred and twenty thousand perhaps over half a million
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So we have a contrast between a plant and a man feeling a little faint on the one hand in a city of hundreds of thousands and much livestock on the other
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The absurdity of the contrast is meant to strike us as absolutely ridiculous Calvin says of this
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Jonah grieved for the withering of the gourd because he was deprived of its shade and God does not create men in vain
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It is then no wonder that he wishes them to be saved We hence see that Jonah was not unsuitably taught by this representation
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How inhumanly he conducted himself towards the Ninevites? He was certain certainly but one individual since then he made such an account of himself in the gourd only
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How was it that he cast aside all care for so great and so populous a city?
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Ought not this have to come ought not this to have come to his mind That it was no wonder that God the
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Creator and Father had a care for so many thousands of men Though indeed the
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Ninevites were alienated from God yet as they were men God as he is the father of the whole human race
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Acknowledged them as his own at least to such an extent as to give them the common light of day in other blessings of earthly life and Then finally we're meant to see the contrast between Jonah and God God says and should
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I not penny Nineveh Before we think too harshly of Jonah remember who
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God is showing mercy to These are the Ninevites They have been called a terrorist state
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They don't just conquer people they torture them. They make spectacles of their suffering. They go out of their way to be cruel
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Aren't they only really repenting here to save their own skins? This is the mercy of God Lest we act like Jonah.
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Let us not too quickly make light of it It is why we are all here, isn't it?
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I'm reminded of Corrie ten Boom You guys know the story She was the Dutch Christian who was in prison for hiding
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Jews during World War two and was speaking at a church about God's forgiveness Afterwards a man came forward who she instantly recognized
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He had been one of the cruel guards at Ravensbrook concentration camp where her sister
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Betsy had died The man told her he had become a Christian He stretched out his hand and asked
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Will you forgive me? Corrie wrote that in that moment every part of her recoiled
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She thought of her sister's suffering and she said she felt like Jonah Looking at Nineveh angry at the thought of mercy for such a man
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But she prayed silently Jesus I cannot forgive him
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Give me your forgiveness She reached out her hand and as she did
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She felt the love of God flood her heart This is the mercy of God.
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I would imagine Erica Kirk probably felt this way this past week We are also to see this final question is left unanswered
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It is once again a rhetorical question begging the answer, of course, God should pity
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Nineveh The stole the whole story ends here with this final question It becomes clear that the question isn't just asked to Jonah But to all who read this story
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We can all stand in awe of God's mercy, but just like with Corrie God doesn't want us to intellectually understand his mercy.
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He wants us to know it This story is left with a cliffhanger
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Because we're meant to apply it to ourselves Who are the Ninevites in your life and what if God decides to show them mercy will you be like Jonah?
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Or like Jesus now, I want to conclude our time in the book with five points of application
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First of all the application of Jonah and what I mean by that is why did Jesus use it? The heart of Jonah and there
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I mean the heart of Jonah versus the heart of Jesus the plant of Jonah What plants do we have in our lives?
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the salvation of Jonah is Jonah truly saved and Then finally, we'll look at the
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God of Jonah And John Newton will help us with that Now, let's look at the application of Jonah and what
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I mean by that in Jesus use of this story in the Gospels We reviewed this as an application from chapter 2 looking at the sign of Jonah, but today
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I want to look at it at another angle Why Jonah? Why did the
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Lord decide to use the story of Jonah three different places in the Gospels? I?
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Think is because Jonah's heart is similar to Israel's heart in Jesus day Jonah resents mercy going to Nineveh.
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He wanted judgment not salvation for Israel's enemies The Jewish leaders in Jesus day had the same heart
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They resented Jesus mercy towards sinners tax collectors Gentiles and outsiders
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They wanted a Messiah of judgment not mercy Jonah sits outside the city angry at God's compassion
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The Pharisees stand outside Jesus table fellowship angry that he eats with sinners The Pharisees also want a political leader who will restore the glory of the nation of Israel They don't care about mercy or grace or the problem or our problem with sin.
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That is the true mission of the Messiah The pagans in the story of Jonah both the mariners and the
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Ninevites repent when faced with God and his message the Israelites in Jesus day
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Killed the Messiah It is not just that Jonah was three days and three nights in the fish's belly
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But it is the contrast that is shown between this Israelite prophet and the pagans
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Israel even in Jonah's day already cared more about the land and their nation than they did about God and his ways in Jesus day
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Israel and the leaders of Israel no longer care about God and his ways They care about their own comforts and exaltation
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God asked Jonah. Is it right for you to be angry? Jesus asked the Pharisees many good works.
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I have shown you from my father for which of these do you stone me? The book of Jonah highlights the mercy of God and the hardness of Israel towards those who are not like them
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These same things were true in Jesus day And so it is not just because Jonah spent three days and three nights in the fish
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But because Jonah represents all that Israel is and will do They are angry
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Unto death and seek to kill God. I think this book has application for us today as the church
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Have we forgotten Have we gotten so comfortable in our place as God's people that we're setting up idols as Jonah did
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Do we expect God to act towards others and us in the ways we expect and when he doesn't do we get angry?
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I wonder if we need to examine ourselves within the church as well So often the biggest judgments we make are against other
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Christians who are not acting as we think they should Let us remember the mercy of God and how gentle he is with even his wayward prophet
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So let's look at the heart of Jonah in contrast with the heart of Jesus Here we see this prophet who has experienced great success in Israel.
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He has preached during a time of relative peace and prosperity Israel has experienced kingdom advanced and the borders pushed back to the days of David He believes that the blessing of God was upon Israel because of these outward successes he loves his nation and believes that they are blessed of God because of who they are as descendants of Abraham and That because of that they are
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God's people Whether he would ever say it out loud To Jonah, it didn't matter what they did whether he would ever say it out loud
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To Jonah, it didn't matter what they did because God had set his love on them. And so in many ways had to bless them
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Yet as we have talked about in the past the true spiritual state of Israel was not good at all
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They worshiped the golden calves set up in Bethel and Dan They were living in a time less than a hundred years from Ahab the worst of the northern kingdom
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Kings Where the worship of Baal and Astra was rampant They were living in a time less than 50 years from when the northern kingdom would be destroyed by a
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Syria as judgment for their idolatry And even when we read in 2nd
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Kings for the Lord saw that the affliction of Israel was very bitter and Whether bond or free there was no helper for Israel and the
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Lord did not say he would blot out the name of Israel under Heaven, but he saved them by the hand of Jeroboam the son of Joash So here
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Israel is under affliction Because how they have turned away from God and yet even in that judgment
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God has mercy on them because of his love for them and he showed the mercy In the middle of that Israel and Jonah are swelled with pride because of this mercy
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Rather than turning to God and repentance. His mercy is taken for granted Now God goes to show that same sort of mercy to Nineveh and Jonah is furious
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How dare you show them mercy in the same way? You've shown us mercy the hilarious thing is
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Nineveh repents in the face of mercy while Israel took it for granted Now let's look at Jesus Unlike Jonah who leaves the city to get away from the
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Ninevites. Jesus moves towards us Matthew 9 36, but when he saw the multitudes
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He was moved with compassion for them because they were weary and scattered like sheep having no shepherd
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Matthew 11 28 says come to me all you who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest
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Luke 19 10 says for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost
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And in Matthew 23, we see the heart of Jesus when he says Oh Jerusalem Jerusalem the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her
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How often I wanted to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing
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Unlike Jonah who seeks for death when his comfort is removed. Jesus suffers for us to bring us to God Luke 23 34 says that Jesus said father forgive them.
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They do not know what they do as he hung on the cross Isaiah 53 declares he is despised and rejected by man a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief
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And then John 10 11, I am the Good Shepherd and the Good Shepherd gives his life for the sheep
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Unlike Jonah who considers his comfort to be of greater importance than lost sinners Jesus will give all that he has to save us
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Mark 10 45 for even the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many and In Philippians Paul writes and being found in appearance as a man
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He humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death even the death of the cross in my mind the biblical example that most highlights the heart of Jesus and the
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Contrast between his heart in the heart of Jonah is the parable of the prodigal son The Ninevites are like the younger son
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Despising their maker ignoring him and as a result using up his substance with terrible and violent living
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Yet when faced with judgment, they turn back to their maker and repentance willing to be a slave rather than a son
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God like the father in the parable forgives them and rejoices over those who repentant
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Jesus is the father in this parable running to the repentant embracing them willing to restore them at the first sight of repentance and Then Jonah is like the elder brother in the parable and like Israel in Jesus day
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Judging his younger brother and believing that he is not worthy of repentance Being angry towards God for showing mercy to those who he deems as not worthy as if they themselves are worthy of God's love
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Jonah is a story that is meant to show us not just that God is good and Loving and merciful and kind to all sending his reign on the just and the unjust
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It is meant to show us that in contrast to our hearts, which are hard Unmerciful unloving and unwilling to see
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God show mercy to those we have judged and upon those who have hurt us You see light is wonderful But it is dazzling dazzling when we compare it to the long darkness of night and Darkness can feel black and blinding but is so much more so when you see the brilliance of light
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The book of Jonah is meant to show us just how amazing The heart of Jesus is
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When compared to the heart of Jonah, which if we're being honest is our own hearts most of the time
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Now let's look at the plant of Jonah So Jonah was very grateful for the plant Jonah said to God that it is right for me to be angry even to death over this plant
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Why would Jonah be this upset over a plant that he had benefit for for one day It is because the plant represents something that Jonah has lost
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He has lost his comfortable existence where things make sense to him God blesses us and curses our enemies and I live in peace and prosperity
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How often do we find ourselves upset over something we have lost or a turn of circumstances that we just don't like We lose a job.
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We have a reputation take a hit We lose a status or our health is lost something that defines who we are changes and we get angry
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Martin Luther said in his larger catechism that upon which you set your heart and put your trust is properly your
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God He talks about how idolatry is not external but internal you can sit in church and sing hymns
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But if your heart clings to wealth reputation Control or comfort that is your
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God John Calvin says in his Institutes of the Christian religion that man's nature so to speak is a perpetual factory of idols
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Calvin saw that we don't need to be taught idolatry. We produce idols naturally constantly and endlessly
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For example, a farmer may idolize his crops a scholar his learning a parent their child
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None are evil in themselves, but the heart makes them ultimate So Joe Jonah may not have bowed down to the golden calves that Israel had set up in the northern kingdom
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But his personal comfort had become his God Jonah was grateful for the mercy from God that the plant represented
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But Jonah's heart turned that plant into an idol that when it was lost He had more grief for it than for all the people in that pagan city in This day and age.
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We don't tend to give too much thought to idolatry. Do we I Mean, I'm careful to have self -control with lust and anger.
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I'm careful not to lie or steal But I don't know about you but I don't often give too much thought to idols that I have
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Yet we like Jonah all have them and when they are threatened that is when we have the greatest potential to commit terrible sins against one another and The fact that we do have them is breaking the greatest commandment to love the
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Lord our God with all our hearts minds souls and strength So what are the plants in your life?
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If God were to place his hand on and take away might cause you to explode in anger or dissolve into depression and anxiety
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To our fourth application the salvation of Jonah One question that's often been asked is was
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Jonah saved When we look at him in an unfavorable light certainly an argument can be made that he was not
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In chapter 1 he runs from God He shows no regard for a situation that is endangering the lives of other people when he was asleep in the boat
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He does not confess his guilt until a lot falls upon him Finally someone could say that he didn't sacrifice himself for the mariners and throw himself into the sea but forced them to throw him in When we look when we come to chapter 2
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There's a lot to take heart in But some commentators look at verse 8 those who regard worthless idols forsake their own mercy and Make the argument that Jonah is still putting a difference between himself and pagans in a way that seems to say look at me
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I don't do this They argue that he's only repentant because of the desperate circumstances that he's in in chapter 3
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We see a newfound obedience But once again, is this obedience born out of a love for God or a resignation to the sentiment who can resist his will
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Kind of have no choice but to go to Nineveh or I'll kill me Once more some commentators argue that perhaps the message of God to the
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Ninevites was actually yet 40 days in Nineveh shall be overthrown So turn from your evil ways
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They say that perhaps Jonah left something like that out because he wanted the Ninevites to see their situation as hopeless
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The thinking here is that without that last part God would have been shown Showing Jonah to be a false prophet when he doesn't bring the disaster
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And so therefore the original message likely had something like that in there and Jonah left it out on purpose
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So if these things are true when we look at Jonah in this light and then we add the tantrum in the anger
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He has with God in chapter 4 it does seem like Jonah is more a prophet similar to Balaam the son of Baor who
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Moab hired to curse Israel and Was only out for his own interest rather than God's will is this a story of don't be like Jonah because he's actually an unbeliever
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No, I don't think so Certainly the points I mentioned do make a compelling argument against Jonah But there are two points.
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However that I think dictate another scenario The first is that based on the details in chapter 2 of being in the fish and the general tenor of the book
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This seems like Jonah is the likely author This book does not read like an allegory or a story made up for an effect
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It reads like actual history of events that really happened recorded by the Prophet after they occurred
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If that is true, it points to an eventual great humility in the Prophet The fact that he was willing to write this story in very unflattering terms for himself
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Shows that he likely came to repentance and right understanding of his sins It is frankly one of the things that speaks to the reliability of the
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Gospels, right? They were all written or guided by an Apostle and yet they paint the Apostles in a very unflattering light if they had been written by men with agendas the
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Apostles all would have come out looking like heroes and The second point is the sweetest one
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Look at the care that God takes with his wayward Prophet He shows the tender care of a father with a child
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He disciplines him but not unto death He is gentle and forgiving when repentance is shown even if that repentance is tainted and then when we get to chapter 4 you marvel at how
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God guides and instructs and creates a situation to teach a lesson if Jonah was retro bait you would expect
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God to deal with him as Jesus dealt with the Scribes and Pharisees What we are seeing is a picture of sanctification
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It is a picture of mercy not just to the mariners not just to the Ninevites but to Jonah in Jonah, we see how
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God deals with us Tim killer Tim Keller says of Jonah. We are never told how the
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Prophet responds to God's final appeal. I Propose however that we can make a reasonable guess about how
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Jonah ultimately responded to God How do we know Jonah was so recalcitrant recalcitrant defiant and clueless?
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How do we know that he made the unbelievable I hate the God of love speech How do we know about this his prayer inside the fish?
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The only way we could possibly know these things is if Jonah told others What kind of man would let the world see what a fool he was?
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Only someone who has become joyfully secure in God's love only someone who believed that he was simultaneously sinful but completely accepted in Short someone who was found in the gospel of grace the very power of God if it can change
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Jonah it can change anyone And it can change you and so finally
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Let's come back to the God of Jonah and ask the question. Is he your God? We spend our whole lives in rebellion to God until the day his mercy comes for us
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Now my favorite hymn of all time is amazing grace written by John Newton and Newton was somebody who illustrates whose life illustrates both this rebellion to God and his incredible mercy
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Amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I Once was lost but now and found was blind, but now
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I see John Newton was born in London in 1725 the son of a shipmaster
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He lost his mother at age six She had been a devout Christian who taught him scripture and hymns before her death
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He went to sea at age 11 Just for note Nathan is ten and a half and by his late teens was deeply involved in immorality and blasphemy
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At 19 he was pressed in the British Naval Service, but he hated the discipline and tried to desert
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But was caught and publicly flogged and demoted in front of 350 shipmates This humiliation hardened him even more against authority and the
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God who gives it to his grace that taught my heart to fear and Grace, my fears relieved
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How precious did that grace appear the hour? I first believed After being released from Navy Naval duty
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Newton joined slave trading voyages along the coast of Africa He described himself as an infidel and libertine who tried to corrupt everyone he met
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Newton once composed and sang a mocking song against Jesus during a drunken night with crewmates
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He later trembled to think of it amazed that God did not strike him dead on the spot He was even enslaved himself at one point in Sierra Leone and the
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Lord would use that to humble him And then in 1748 a violent storm struck his ship in the
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North Atlantic Newton was at the pumps all night convinced the ship would sink Through many dangers toils and snares
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I have already come Tis grace has brought me safe thus far and grace will lead me home
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At one point he cried out Lord have mercy upon us That cry marked the beginning of his conversion
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God used the fear of death to awaken him to grace Eventually, he became an outspoken opponent of slave slavery
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Supporting William Wilberforce in the abolition movement. The Lord has promised good to me his word my hope secures
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He will my shield and portion be as long as life endures
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Newton wrote amazing grace in 1772 for a New Year's Day service expressing his personal gratitude for God's mercy and Late in life.
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He was famous for saying my memory is nearly gone But I remember two things that I am a great sinner and Christ is a great
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Savior He died in 1807 the same year Parliament abolished the slave trade in Britain Yeah, when this flesh and heart shall fail and mortal life shall cease
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I Shall possess within the veil a life of joy and peace
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John Newton was a man like the Ninevites He was a violent belligerent blasphemer
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He hated God it was an absolute rebellion to him. He lived for himself and was not concerned about God in his ways
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Then one day God sent him a message of judgment and told him that lest he repent he will likewise perish
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This message of judgment was ultimately a message of mercy That God can show mercy even to a man as vile as John Newton He can also show mercy to a self -righteous hypocrite like Jonah an unbeliever
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If you sit here today and see yourself in the Ninevites or John Newton or Jonah won't you repent and cast yourself upon this
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God of mercy who stands ready to forgive and Relent of the judgment that you are facing
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Come to this God and sing with us When we've been there ten thousand years bright shining as the
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Sun We've no less days to sing God's praise than when we first begun
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Let's pray Heavenly Father Lord, we exalt your great name father.
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We thank you Lord for this great mercy that you show us Father you show it to us
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By giving us life You show it to us Lord by giving us a world full of wonder and treasures
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Lord you show it to us by giving your son to die for us to redeem us to you oh
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Lord when we were rebels and sinners and Haters of God in our own hearts
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Oh Lord you show us mercy as we walk with you in this life, even as your children
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Lord We are in such need of your mercy Father we need you to deal with us as you dealt so gently with Jonah To teach us the lessons of this life to show us your heart in comparison to our own
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And Lord to give us the grace through your spirit to walk with you and to love you and to love one another.
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Oh Lord help us to love one another Help us to love our brothers and sisters in this church
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Help us to love the loss that are on outside these doors Father help us even as as everybody is thinking about and everyone is focused on Lord with all that's been happening in this country
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Lord Help us truly to love our nation By being always ready to share the love of Christ Help us be ready
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Lord to show mercy to the one who needs mercy and Father when they come in Oh Lord for when your timing they will come in When they come in Lord may they see a people known for their love
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Known for showing mercy to one another because we desire to follow in the footsteps of our father
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Who is the most merciful of all? We love you
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Lord. We thank you for this day We thank you for the message of Jonah Please apply it to our hearts in Jesus name