Jonah’s God (8)
[Jonah 4:1-11]
The theologian and humanist, Dallas Willard, gives us words that make us think about "spiritual development and emotions" in his book “Renovation of the Heart”. Among them I would like to share with you three precious lessons and applicable words: (1) ‘We should listen to the words of reason even when we express emotions or are caught up in emotions.’ Our lives must be driven by the facts rather than feelings, We must live the Word-driven life. Here, the Word-driven life is being led by the Word and is living by faith. (2) ‘Self-control refers to the continuing ability to control self in order to accomplish the actions and personality that one chooses or decides, even if he doesn’t feel that way. Self-control is we do things that we need to do even though we don’t want to and we don’t do things because we are not supposed do them. For those who don’t have solid character, emotions can be deadly to their self-control. What do you think about the phrase ‘emotion can be deadly to their self-control’? If we aren’t led by the Word and obey the Word, then we will live under the control of emotions (that is, lose control) and do what we do not want to do. Look at Romans 7:19 – “For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want.” (3) ‘Today Satan captures us through emotions. He makes emotions more important than ever in our lives, and provokes a sense of guilty about having or not having certain feelings.’ What Satan pursues is to maximize the role of emotions so that emotions are based on our actions or character changes even though that basis or foundation is the insights, understandings, and convictions about the truth. For instance, Satan is making us to devote ourselves to the feelings of need, rather than having us to be led by the Word of God to serve the Lord’s church.
In Jonah 4:1-11, we see angry Jonah (v. 1) who is led by his emotion rather than the Word of God: “Therefore now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for death is better to me than life” (v. 3), “… he became faint and begged with all his soul to die, saying, "Death is better to me than life” (v. 8). How did God respond to Jonah, who is so angry enough to ask God to die? Look at Jonah 4:4, 9: “The LORD said, ‘Do you have good reason to be angry?’” (v. 4), “Then God said to Jonah, ‘Do you have good reason to be angry about the plant?’ …” (v. 9). Today I would like to think of three things about God who said to Jonah “Do you have good reason to be angry?” under the heading “Jonah’s God (8)”. I hope and pray that we may have the grace of God in our meditation of His Word.
First, Jonah’s God is God who turns (Jonah 4:1-4).
In Jonah chapter 3, when the word of God came to Jonah the second time, Jonah obeyed God's word and went to Nineveh and cried out to the people of Nineveh, " Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown" (3:4). The responses of the Ninevites were believing in God, fasting and repentance (v. 5). This was the thought of the king of Nineveh: “"Who knows, God may turn and relent and withdraw His burning anger so that we will not perish” (v. 9). As he thought, God saw the people of Nineveh repented and turn away from the wicked ways, and didn’t bring down the calamity which He had declared He would bring upon them (v. 10). What was Jonah's reaction then?
Look at Jonah 4:1 – “But it greatly displeased Jonah and he became angry.” Jonah was very displeased and angry. We don’t understand why Jonah responded this way. If the Ninevites, who don’t believe in God, hear the words which Jonah proclaimed and believe in God and repented, shouldn’t Jonah rejoice and be happy? How could he be greatly displeased and be angry? It seems that Jonah wanted Nineveh to be overthrown as he proclaimed to the Ninevites (3:4). But Jonah was angry because Nineveh wasn’t overthrown, but the Ninevites believed in God and repented their sins and God didn’t bring calamity to Nineveh. How should we understand this? There is a historical reason for this. Jonah was fulfilling his prophetic mission during the time of Jeroboham II (782/781-753 BC). During that time the Israelites had to offer money to the great nation Assyria because Israel was a servant country to Assyria. And especially when Jonah was doing his prophetic mission, it was a time of great rebellion against Assyria. So I am sure Jonah really wanted to see Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, to be destroyed. But God didn’t destroy the city of Nineveh. That was why Jonah was greatly displeased and very angry. Surprisingly, Jonah prayed to God even in this angry state. Look at Jonah 4:2 – “Please LORD, was not this what I said while I was still in my own country? Therefore in order to forestall this I fled to Tarshish, for I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, and one who relents concerning calamity.” In this Jonah’s prayer, Jonah said to God why he disobeyed God’s command of “Arise, go to Nineveh the great city and cry against it …” (1:2). And the reason was because he knew that God was the God who turned His will. Does this make sense? Does it make sense that Jonah knew that God would turn his will to the people of Nineveh, and that was why he disobeyed the God's command and ran away? Jonah didn’t end here. He prayed to God like this: “Therefore now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for death is better to me than life” (4:3). I don’t understand how he could pray like that. It seem like Jonah really hated the people of Nineveh, the enemies of the Israelites, even to the point of death.
I compared the Jonah’s prayer of Jonah 4:2 with the one in Jonah chapter 2. When I did so, I found something interesting. Although Jonah had experienced God's salvation (2:9-10) after he repented his sin (vv. 2-7), he was greatly displeased and angry by the fact that God relented concerning the calamity upon the Ninevites because they repented and turned from their wicked way (v. 10). At least if Jonah who had repented and experienced the salvation of God, he shouldn’t have offered the prayer to God in anger because of no calamity on the Ninevites who repented and turned from their evil ways. To such Jonah, God said: “Do you have good reason to be angry?” (4:4). Is Jonah's anger worthy of God's sight? If Jonah truly knew God as he said in Jonah 4:2, and if Jonah had truly experienced God's grace, mercy, great love, how could he ask God for him to die? In other words, if Jonah truly experienced gracious and compassionate God, who is slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, and One who relents concerning calamity (v. 2) in the stomach of the great fish (ch. 2), then how could Jonah be angry enough to ask God for him to die? I think Jonah knew God only by his head. In other words, it seems that Jonah didn’t know God with his heart. If he knew, he would never have been angry with God and prayed when like that in 4:2 when he saw the Ninevites repented and turned away from their evil ways and thus God turned his will to bring calamity upon them (vv. 5-10). In a word, Jonah was a prophet who didn’t have God's heart. And that’s why he couldn’t express God’s heart. Rather, he desperately wanted his will to be done - the destruction of Nineveh despite the repentance of the people of Nineveh. Aren’t we like Jonah?
Our God is the God who turns His will. Although his servant Prophet Jonah didn’t turn his own will of destruction of Nineveh, the God of Jonah saw that the Ninevites believed in God, repented and turned away from evil ways, didn’t bring upon them the calamity which He had declared. Here, what does it mean by God turned or relented His will? This is what Pastor James Packer said in his book “Knowing God” (Ch. 7: ‘Unchanging God’) about God's immutability: ‘God's life doesn’t change (Ps. 102:26-27). God's character doesn’t change (Jam. 1:17). The truth of God also doesn’t change (Isa. 40:6-8). And the ways of God don’t change. God's goals and the principles of action are consistent. At any time, God doesn’t act out of His character. God's purposes don’t change (Num. 23:19). But we see in the Scriptures that God ‘turned’ or ‘regretted’ not only in Jonah 3:10 (“then God relented concerning the calamity”) but also in Genesis 6:6-7 (“And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth”), 1 Samuel 15:11 (“I regret that I have made Saul king”), 2 Samuel 24:16 (“the LORD relented from the calamity”) and Joel 2:13-14 (“And rend your heart and not your garments " Now return to the LORD your God, For He is gracious and compassionate, Slow to anger, abounding in lovingkindness And relenting of evil. Who knows whether He will not turn and relent And leave a blessing behind Him”). How should we look at these verses?
There are two cases where we may change God’s mind and His plans: (1) lack of foresight to predict everything, or (2) lack of foresight to enforce them. But our God, who is the omniscient God, has foresighted so neither he changes his mind nor he overturns his plans. Although it seems to us that God’s purpose was to Nineveh was to overthrow the city as Jonah’s proclaimed but He foresighted that they would repent. That was why God relented concerning the calamity. This is how great God's will is. Look at Joel 2:13 – “And rend your heart and not your garments " Now return to the LORD your God, For He is gracious and compassionate, Slow to anger, abounding in lovingkindness And relenting of evil.” This fact should makes to repent more. Even when we are wandering like a prodigal, if we repent and return to Father God, our God will love us and forgive us. Look at Ezekiel 36:37 – “This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Once again I will yield to the plea of the house of Israel and do this for them ….” God accomplishes His great will through our prayers. God, who makes us to repent, does not punish us through our repentance prayer (God’s holy will), but forgives and receives us (God’s loving will) (Packer). Shouldn’t we repent and turn back to God who forgives us and who doesn’t punish us? In doing so, God will turn His will and will not bring calamity on us.
Second, Jonah’s God is the God who prepares (Jonah 4:5-8).
When Jonah saw that God relented and didn’t bring calamity on Nineveh, he prayed to God in anger and went out from the city and sat east of it. There he made a shelter for himself (Jonah 4:5). When God gave Jonah the second opportunity to go to Nineveh, he obeyed God and entered the great city of Nineveh through the west side of Nineveh. However, when he made the shelter at the east side of Nineveh, I think this means that he didn’t plan to go back to his house at all. Why didn’t he build the shelter on the east side of Nineveh for himself? The reason is that Jonah sat under the shelter in the shade in order to see what would happen in the city of Nineveh (v. 5). How angry did Jonah was that he went out of Nineveh and build the shelter to see what would happen to the city of Nineveh? To this Jonah who prepared the shelter for himself, God prepared three things:
(1) The first was a vine.
Look at Jonah 4:6 – “Then the LORD God provided a vine and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the vine.” Why did God provide Jonah the vine? The reason is to ease Jonah’s discomfort (v. 6). How angry Jonah was that he prepared the shelter on the east of the Nineveh city when the sun was shining that brought him discomfort. To this Jonah, God prepared the vine so that it could give shade to Jonah for his head to ease his discomfort. This is the love of God. I imagined what the heart of God would be to prepare Jonah the vine who didn’t even acknowledge his sin but who sat down in the shade of the shelter and was waiting to see what would happen to the city. Was God’s heart comfortable? Or, when God saw Jonah who has heart opposite to God's heart, I wonder if God suffered. Without knowing and not even caring about God’s heart, Jonah was very happy about the vine because it gave him comfort (v. 6). Isn’t this strange? Shouldn’t Jonah very happy because the people of Nineveh believed in God and repent their sins after listening to Jonah’s proclamation? How could he be very happy because pf the vine that God provided? If things worked out according to his will, Jonah was happy. But if it didn’t, he was greatly displeased and angry. Isn’t this our image?
(2) The second was a worm.
Look at Jonah 4:7 – “But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the vine so that it withered.” There was a professor named Van Engen at Fuller Seminary that I attended. I took his class once and he introduced a book to the students, saying that there was a book he loved after the Bible. And the book was "Jonah & The Worm" by Jill Briscoe. In this book, the author gives us some valuable lessons through an obedient worm, in contrast to the disobedient Jonah. For example, God's command to the worm was to chew on the vine that God prepared for Jonah, who made the shelter on the east side of the city of Nineveh. The worm’s obedience to God and its slow footsteps to Nineveh gave me the impression that it was in contrast to Jonah's action of running away to the opposite direction from Nineveh, that is Tarshish. God, who had prepared the vine for Jonah, prepared the worm so that it could chew the vine. As a result, the vine withered (v. 7). The fact that the vine was withered tells us that the shadow (comfort for Jonah) is gone and the suffering had begun.
(3) The third was a scorching east wind.
Look at Jonah 4:8 – “When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah's head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die, and said, "It would be better for me to die than to live.” Jonah would have been in agony because the shelter was gone. God made the worm to chew it. But now the scorching east wind was blowing. As a result, the sun blazed on Jonah’s head and he grew faint. It is interesting to note that in Jonah 1:4, God prepared the great storm for disobedient Jonah and thus the ship that he was aboard was about to break and in Jonah 4:8, the sun blazed on Jonah's head and he grew faint to the point where Jonah wanted to die. One thing we must notice here is the fact that when the worm chewed the shelter, the word "chewed" (v. 7) and “blazed” (v. 8) are the same Hebrew word. What does this mean? Both the worm and the east scorching wind didn’t happen by accident, but in the plan of God, God disciplined his servant Jonah. As Ezekiel 7:9 said, our God is God who smiting his disobedient children. In the end, when God smite Jonah, this was what Jonah asked God: “It would be better for me to die than to live” (Jonah 4:8).
Third and last, Jonah’s God is the God who has compassion (Jonah 4:9-11).
How did God respond to Jonah, who asked for himself to die? Look at Jonah 4:9 – “Then God said to Jonah, ‘Do you have good reason to be angry about the plant?’ …” To this Word of God, Jonah’s reply was this: “… I have good reason to be angry, even to death” (v. 9). Jonah was so angry that he said to God “I have a good reason to be angry, even to death” (v. 9). But what was Jonah’s “good reason” to be angry? Why was he so angry? It was because of “a plant” (v. 6) that withered (v. 7). Isn’t it funny that Jonah, who was “extremely happy about the plant” (v. 6), was so angry because the plant withered (v. 9)? What did God said to Jonah who was so angry, even to death because of the plant he had compassion on? Look at Jonah 4:10-11: “Then the LORD said, "You had compassion on the plant for which you did not work and which you did not cause to grow, which came up overnight and perished overnight.” Here God contrasted with the plant that Jonah had compassion on with the more than 120,000 persons of Nineveh whom God had compassion on. While Jonah “had compassion on the plant for which he did not work and which he did not cause to grow, which came up overnight and perished overnight” (v. 10), God had compassion on the Ninevites whom he cultivated and whose souls were eternal (v. 11). Although Jonah was very angry because the plant withered, God told Jonah “Should I not have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know the difference between their right and left hand, as well as many animals?” (v. 11) And this is how the book of Jonah ends.
When I look at the book of Jonah from chapter one to chapter 4, the book ends with no mention of Jonah being changed. The book ends with the fact that Jonah’s heart didn’t resemble God’s heart. It ends with Jonah being still angry at God even to death. I cannot find in the book of Jonah that Jonah, who was angry enough to die because of the plant, was obedient to God's will. In fact, he was disobedient to God even to the end. I cannot find anywhere else the image of Jonah, the servant of God, who is persuaded by the Word of God and had compassion on the people of Nineveh, whom God loves. Do you think God had compassion on such servant like Jonah?
Every time when I personally meditate on Jonah, I often have a question that is thrown into my heart: 'Did God love the Ninevites who were more than 120,000 person or did he love his servant Jonah more?' Did God love the Ninevites who repented their sins as they fasted and who turned from their evil ways or Jonah who seemed like repented his sins but actually didn’t, who was so angry enough to die and who didn’t have God’ heart toward the Ninevites? I personally think that God loved his foolish and disobedient servant Jonah more than 120,000 people of Nineveh. The reason is that Jonah was a covenant people of God and a chosen servant of God. Even though Jonah was senseless and foolish, who disobeyed the command of God, and that we cannot see God’s heart of loving his enemies, God sent Jesus to this earth and die of the cross for such sinner like Jonah. Although Jonah disobeyed the command of God, Jesus obeyed the will of God the Father until the death on the cross (Phil. 2:8). Although God turned His will of bringing the calamity on Nineveh, God did not turn His will on Jesus to die on the cross. Even though Father God heard his one and only Son Jesus cried on the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mt. 27:46), God didn’t relent His will on Jesus. Rather, God poured our all his wrath to His only begotten Son Jesus. What God had prepared for Jesus was the cursed cross (Deut. 21:23; Gal. 3:13). Why did God prepare the cross for Jesus? It was because God prepared eternal life for us. God gave His only begotten Son Jesus to die on the cross. Why did God do that? It was because God had compassion on us. It was because God loves us. He loves us so much that He didn’t even spare His own Son Jesus to die on the cross. Does God love His only begotten Son Jesus more or us?