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When someone has done us a great wrong or when we are in a great conflict with someone, it is easy to look at them only from that perspective. When we do, it is comforting to know that God is dealing with people. He will right all wrongs. He will bring justice. He will restore what was lost. That’s the lesson we learned from the book of Obadiah. We can give up revenge and leave room for God’s wrath. “Vengeance is mine,” says the Lord.
However, it would be very wrong for us to think that this is the only perspective from which God views such people, as if He had no interest in them apart from us and our conflict with them. It would be wrong to completely identify our perspective with God’s. That’s the lesson that Jonah learned that he records in his book.
Jonah is one of the most famous characters in the Bible. He was told to preach to Nineveh, and he refused to go. A great storm came up on the sea, and Jonah told the sailors to throw him overboard to stop the storm. They were hesitant, but they were so scared that they did so. When he landed in the water, he was swallowed by a huge fish or whale. From there, he cried to God. God heard him in the depths and delivered Jonah. Then, God sent him back to Nineveh. That’s what I want us to think about this morning from chapters 3 and 4 of this prophecy. We will see Jonah’s preaching, Jonah’s complaint, and Jonah’s correction. This consideration will lead us to some important lessons as we think about God and the world..
Jonah’s Preaching
Once Jonah got back on land, God sent him a second time to the city of Nineveh, the capitol of Assyria. Assyria was the first of a series of land empires in the Middle East: Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece, and then Rome. Learning these empires is really crucial to understanding much of the Bible after the period of King David. The Assyrians were the first, and they were the most brutal. They did not live in a place of great security, so they built security by centralizing the state and making the military the first priority. They dealt with their neighbors by conquering them and brutally subjugating them. If you think of toxic masculinity, these guys would probably be the poster boys for it and proud of it. So, the nations around them did not like them at all but also feared them. Note: this is in contrast to the later empires who used carrots as well as sticks to keep people in line. Assyria basically just used sticks.
So, Jonah was going to walk into the capitol city of this nation and tell them that God was going to overthrow their nation in 40 days. So, that’s what Jonah did. It was a huge city. You can’t walk through it in one day. So, he went to the center of it and then began to preach. “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown” (Jonah 3:4).
And what happened? To Jonah’s utter shock and amazement, “The Ninevites believed God. A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth” (Jonah 3:5). Even the king was convicted. He proclaimed a fast and told everyone to repent before the Lord.
The result was that God decided not to bring His judgment down and to have mercy on them instead. “When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened” (Jonah 3:10).
Jonah’s Complaint
Now, Jonah did not like this at all. He was mad! Why? Because He wanted God to take out Assyria. He couldn’t stand them, and He wanted God to deal with them. So, Jonah complained to God. “Isn’t this what I said, Lord, when I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity” (Jonah 4:2). A couple of interesting things here. First, most people think that Jonah did not want to go to Nineveh because he was scared. This would be understandable. The Ninevites were scary! However, that is not the reason why Jonah said he did not want to go preach to them. The reason was that he knew that God was a gracious God and that if the Assyrians repented, then God would not bring the hammer down on them. He wanted them to be crushed! So, He was mad that it worked out this way.
The other thing I want you to notice is how Jonah thinks of God. The phrase that Jonah uses is taken from Exodus 34:6–7 when the Lord passed in front of Moses:
The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.
This was a key revelation of who God is. It is worth memorizing. It shaped the minds and hearts of the people of Israel as they thought about God, and this terminology is used constantly in the prophets. We will encounter it again as we work our way through the prophets.
At any rate, Jonah was so angry. And what do we do when we are angry? We say stupid things. “Now, Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live” (Jonah 4:3). This is dumb, but there is something right about it. What does Jonah do when he is upset? He goes to God. That’s what we should do. Read the Psalms. The psalmists are always extremely open with God. They take their anger and frustrations to God. That’s what we should do with them. We often need a place to go with our fears, our anxieties, and our anger. We have a place. We have a refuge, and that is God Himself. “Trust in him at all times, you people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge” (Psalm 62:8). We have a refuge.
So, what will God say? He will teach Jonah a lesson about himself that is very important for us to learn.
Jonah’s Correction
After preaching, Jonah went outside the city to watch and see what would happen to Nineveh. At that point, God caused a leafy plant to grow up that gave Jonah shade. The next day, a worm chewed on the plant which caused it to wither. Then, an east wind blew that was really hot. The sun arose, and there was Jonah in the midst of the heat. I’m sure that none of you when you were really bothered and frustrated have ever said anything like what Jonah said next: “It would be better for me to die than to live” (Jonah 4:8).
Then, God came to Jonah and said to him, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?” (Jonah 4:9a).
Jonah replied, “It is . . . and I’m so angry I wish I were dead” (Jonah 4:9b).
After this, the Lord replied with this amazing statement:
You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?
In spite of the sin of Assyria, God was still concerned about it. He was not just concerned about Israel and Jerusalem. He was concerned about Assyria. Note especially that he took interest in the fact that it is a city. He had an interest in the city itself and not just the people. He was also concerned about more than just the people. He is also concerned about the animals! Why? Because He created them! He is the Creator and Lord of the whole earth, and He is concerned about all of it.
This is a real revelation of the goodness of the Lord. It’s something we could have deduced based on God’s compassion and the fact that He is the Creator, but this helps us assure us of it and flesh out who God is. He is the gracious and compassionate God who is concerned about all. His mercy fills the earth.
What a contrast between Obadiah and Jonah! On the one hand, the God who rights all wrongs. On the other hand, the God who is concerned about Edom and Assyria and the cattle! This is the God of the prophets! He is the God of Jonah and the God of Obadiah! Keep thinking about this, and remember: the God of the prophets reveals Himself as the God of justice and the God of compassion on the cross of Christ. Christ is the answer and final revelation to all the questions the prophets raise. In the cross, mercy and truth kiss one another.
I want to bring out several aspects of this lesson that God taught Jonah.
First, it should encourage us. God is our Creator, and when we sin, we should recognize that God is gracious and compassionate. Remember how evil Assyria was, and God forgave them when they repented and humbled themselves before Him. He will certainly do so for us!
Second, it should challenge us. When we are in conflict, we tend to see only the conflict. We see only one of us wins and one of us loses. When someone does us wrong, we tend to only see the wrong. We need to learn a lesson from this. We need to extend our imagination beyond just the conflict. There are other perspectives from which we can view our persecutors, opponents, or even tormentors. They may be in the wrong, but they are also created by God. They also are potentially redeemed by Christ. Also, they are trying to overcome real problems that we also face. They may be doing it in the wrong way, but they are dealing with real anxieties that are common to us all. Sin is complicated. It involves anxiety and pride. The pride in sin calls for condemnation. The anxiety in sin calls for us compassion. In short, on both sides, there is a lot of room to view things from a different perspective rather than just opponents.
Third, we should seek to imitate our father. Do people know us as those who are gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness? These are all ways we can reflect the glory of our heavenly Father and should.
Fourth, we should not write people off. Who do we think is not going to be interested in God and turn to Him? This passage teaches us that we should not write off anyone. We do not know how God is working, but we do know He is working with all people. We do not know how God will use us. We do not know who may be ready to repent. So, let us not be so fearful about speaking to people about the God who created them and can redeem them through Christ. We should remember in the midst of all this July 4th busy-ness and traffic that the God of Jonah is the God who is concerned about every person we will meet and drive by today, and all the animals as well. Amen.