Bible Study - Book of Jonah Part 6 - Jonah 4:1-11

Last week, we heard how Jonah finally went to Nineveh and preached the message that God gave him, warning that Nineveh would be “overthrown” in 40 days. The Word of God worked and the people of the city repented of their “evil ways” and “violence” and cried out for God’s mercy. God gave His mercy to them and did not bring the disaster He had predicted through Jonah.

As Chapter 4 of Jonah begins, one would expect that Jonah would be very happy that the people listened to his message and that the city was spared. Instead, what happened “displeased Jonah exceedingly.” Literally, what God had done “became evil to Jonah as a great evil,” and “he was angry with God” (Jonah 4:1). Jonah admitted that this was what he had expected all along and why he had tried to run away from God and His will and ended up in the belly of the great fish, until God rescued him and gave him another chance to do His work.

Jonah also admitted that he knew that God “was a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster” (Jonah 4:2). It is the great Good News of the Bible, that God has mercy and forgives us sinful, struggling people in this world, ultimately through the saving work of Jesus our Savior. It is good news for us all. See these Scriptures as a small example of this expression of God’s mercy: Exodus 34:6, Psalm 86:15, Psalm 103:8-13, Psalm 145:8-9, Micah 7:18-19, Lamentations 3:31-33, Joel 2:13, etc. Even in the Old Testament, God showed that mercy to His own chosen people, but also to people like the Ninevites, through Jonah.

Jonah selfishly wanted that mercy from God for himself, to be rescued from the great fish. He wanted that mercy for his people of Israel, but he did not want that mercy to be given to non-Jews and especially not to the people of Nineveh. The Assyrians were an enemy of and a great threat to God’s people, Jonah thought. They did not deserve and should not have God’s mercy. That is why Jonah was so angry with God. God was doing the wrong thing, in his view.

In fact, Jonah wanted to die, rather than see God spare the city of Nineveh (Jonah 4:3). There were other examples of leaders of God’s people who wanted to die in times of great difficulty and when they felt they were failing in their ministry to God’s people. See Moses in Numbers 11:10-15, Elijah in 1 Kings 19:1-18, and Jeremiah in Jeremiah 15:10, 20:14-18. In contrast, as the commentator Roehrs says, “Jonah wanted to die because his mission had been successful, against his own expectations and desires.”

God needed to wake up Jonah to his wrong thinking, though, and asked him very bluntly, “Do you do well to be angry” (Jonah 4:4)? Jonah remained angry, though, and went out of Nineveh and built a makeshift booth for himself, to see what would happen, likely hoping that God would change His mind and still destroy the city. It was hot, though, and God in His mercy, as he had “appointed” the great fish, now “appointed a plant” to grow up quickly and provide shade and a little comfort for Jonah. This is the only time in the whole Book of Jonah where Jonah was happy and “rejoiced with great joy” (Jonah 4:5-6).

Jonah’s attitude was still so wrong that the next morning, God “appointed a worm” to attack and wither the plant, and He “appointed a scorching east wind” and hot sun to make Jonah feel faint, so that again he wanted to die. This time, Roehrs says, Jonah was angry because God was “not gracious enough to him. In overwhelming self-pity,” he felt that God had been unfair in taking away his “sunshade” (Jonah 4:7-8). “Sirocco” hot east winds were also used at other times by the Lord as discipline and to wake people up to their wrongdoing. See Isaiah 27:8, Jeremiah 4:11, Ezekiel 17:10, and Hosea 13:15 as examples.

Again, God needed to ask Jonah very bluntly, “Do you do well to be angry for the plant?” And again, Jonah thought he was “doing well” to be so angry, angry enough to die. God reminded him that he cared so much for and “pitied” the plant, though he did not labor for it or make it grow and it only lasted one day. Why then, God said, should I not have pity on the 120,000 human beings and their animals and cattle in Nineveh and help them to repent and and be spared and know of My love and care (Jonah 4:9-11)?

Jonah could be hard-hearted, in his sins and weakness, though he should not have been, but the Lord God could not, especially as He thought of these misguided people of Nineveh, “who did not know their right hand from their left.” God’s plan had always been to work through Abraham and the Jewish nation to bring in the Lord Jesus, who would be a Savior for all nations - even those who were so far from God that they did not know their right hand from their left. Israel had the Word of God and knew to go that way only and not to wander off to the left or right. (See these passages, continually calling God’s people to go the way of the Lord: Deuteronomy 5:32-33, Deuteronomy 17:20, Joshua 1:7, Joshua 23:6, and Proverbs 4:27, etc.)

God’s heart loved His people and He did keep showing them mercy, even when they strayed. God is God and not a man like Jonah. See Hosea 11:8-9. But God’s love is also for the whole world (John 3:16). He could not push the Ninevites aside, though Jonah was willing to do so. (We hope, of course, that eventually, Jonah also repented and returned to God’s love and willingness to share that love with all around him.

Lest we be too hard on Jonah, though, remember the message of Jesus in Luke 15 for us, too. Jesus was being strongly criticized for associating with “tax collectors and sinners” who were despised by most people. Jesus then taught about His mission to reach out to the lost and straying, with stories about lost sheep and lost coins.

He also told the story of two sons. One was a prodigal who left home and wasted his money and his life and finally came home in sorrow and repentance and received a joyous welcome from his father. The other son had stayed home and faithfully worked with his father. When the prodigal son came home and was treated so well, the other son was very angry, just like Jonah. He felt that the prodigal son did not deserve such honor, and selfishly felt that he had been disrespected by what the father did. Only he was really worthy, he thought, and certainly not the bad brother. The father, who is a symbol of our Heavenly Father, still loved both sons, even with their weaknesses, and helped them both to know His great love and forgiveness, which could rescue and restore them both. Don’t we too often act like one or the other of these sons and need God’s forgiving love, too?

One last thought.  When we see the terrible things being done in Ukraine by the Russians (and historically, the people of the Assyrian empire were very similar in their ruthless conquests of other nations, at times) it is easy and proper to condemn what is happening. But how quickly and easily could we forgive the Russians and forget - even if they backed off and were truly repentant? It would be very hard, wouldn’t it, as it was for Jonah? Remember also the words of Romans 5:6-11, when we hear how bad things were for us when Christ died for us and for the world. God is truly gracious and merciful to us all, in Jesus.

Next week we will have some final thought on the Book of Jonah and look especially at what Jesus said about this Scripture.