Word of Salvation – Vol. 49 No.1 – January 2004

 

The Pouting Prophet

 

Sermon by Rev J Haverland

on Jonah 4:1-4

Scripture Readings:  Jonah 4; James 1:12-27

 

Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ.

In this sermon we see that in his prayer Jonah is angry at God and sorry for himself because God spared Nineveh. And the purpose for preaching on this text is to expose our sins of anger, self-justification and exclusivism in contrast to God's love.

There are times when reading the Bible can make you feel very uncomfortable. James tells us that the Bible can act like a mirror - it shows us what we look like, it exposes us, showing us our faults and failings. Paul tells us that "through the law we become conscious of sin" (Rom 3:20). This also happens as we examine some of the people in the Bible.

We read about some of these people and we think, "What a nasty fellow! Fancy saying that! Look at what she did!" And then we realise that we are the same. We do that. We say those things. We have that character. That is disturbing, disquieting, disconcerting. But it can also be very good for us, because it wakes us up and makes us aware of our sins and allows the Holy Spirit to work in us to change us and correct us.

In this passage the Holy Spirit is giving us a close view of Jonah. What we see is not pleasant, not nice. We see raw sin, exposed, red and ugly. We see anger, pride and arrogance, self-justification, and a narrow minded, mean-spirited exclusivism. Here is sin exposed, laid open for all to see. But it allows us to examine ourselves and to see what we are like. It allows us to see God's attitude to such sin and His response to it. So today we are going to examine Jonah's sins and God's response.

1. Jonah's Sins

After his preaching tour of Nineveh, Jonah would have had every reason to be happy! He should have been thankful, elated, grateful, rejoicing! He had preached for three days and an entire city had turned to the Lord in repentance. Not many preachers see such a great response to their preaching. The Lord Jesus tells us that "there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents" (Lk 15:10).

But Jonah wasn't rejoicing, he was sulking. He wasn't happy, he was resentful. He was "greatly displeased and became angry." He had been surprised by God's grace to the city of Nineveh and he resented it. He responded with a childish sulk and allowed bitterness to take a hold of him.

There is a righteous anger, a good anger; but there is also a sinful anger that arises out of selfishness and self-centredness when I don't get my way. Anger like this is a symptom of deeper problems. It is a warning bell that you need to take note of. Anger like this leads to other sins. It led Jonah to pride. "He prayed to the Lord, 'O Lord, is this not what I said when I was still at home?' "

This is the second time Jonah has prayed. The first time was in the fish, the second is in Nineveh. In his first prayer he was crying out to God, in his second he is angry with God. While in the fish he was humble and sorry, now he is proud and arrogant. The first time he prayed he was empty of himself, now he is full of himself.

He believes he knows better than God. "Is this not what I said when I was still at home?" Literally it reads, "Was this not my word when I was still at home?" That is a contrast with chapter 1:1, "The Word of the Lord came to Jonah." Jonah compares his word with God's Word and claims that his word was right. "I told you so!", he says to God. "See, I was right!"

Here is Jonah, the disobedient run-away prophet, telling God what to do, lecturing the Lord. Here is this puny prophet presuming to be wiser than the Lord Almighty. Things have not gone according to his plan and so he charges God with injustice; like a cricket player challenging a decision of the umpire; "You made a bad decision; that was a wrong call."

Many of us fall into this trap of thinking we know better than God; thinking we have a better plan, that we could improve on what God is doing. Remember Martha, accusing Jesus at the grave of Lazarus; "Lord, if you had been here my brother would not have died."

We do this too. "Lord, why did you let that happen?!" "If she hadn't said that, then I wouldn't have lost my temper." "If you had kept me healthy, then none of this would have happened." We fall into the same attitude as Jonah. We think we know better than God and we blame Him for what has gone wrong and we presume to tell Him what to do. In our pride we dispute with God. We are arrogant enough to think that we could have done it better.

Sometimes we tell a person, "Quit while you're ahead." Jonah should have done this. Because as he kept talking he dug himself deeper and deeper into a hole. The sins of anger and pride lead Jonah into further sin - the sin of justifying himself. "That is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish" (vs 2).

Here he goes back to his sin of disobedience to God when he refused to go to Nineveh and went off in the opposite direction. He justifies himself and says, "See, I was right after all! This is why I did it."

How like us. Think of a husband who has spoken harshly to his wife and mistreated her and then apologies for what he has done. They keep talking, and then he says, "You see, that's the reason; that's why I did it!" He goes back to the sin that he confessed and he justifies it. He explains it away; he rationalises it. We all tend to do this - and it is wrong.

You might be surprised at Jonah. He seems to have gone back to square one. In fact, he seems to be in a worse state than before. He is dark, gloomy, resentful, bitter and angry. He blames God and justifies himself. Was he really sorry for disobeying God? Did he truly regret running away from his task? Did he mean what he said when he prayed inside the fish?

We have to give him the benefit of the doubt. Yes, he was sincere. He meant what he said. But he has lapsed, fallen back.

Don't be too surprised at him. All of us have done this at some time or other. We have all lapsed back into sin. We have all said sorry for something we have said or done, and then gone back to that sin to justify ourselves. Or we have even repeated that sin a short time later. All of us have nursed secret sins deep in our hearts: pride, jealousy, irritation, resentment, covetousness, dissatisfaction. Don't be too hard on Jonah because none of us are any better.

But now we come to the sin that lay behind all these others: A narrow exclusivism.

In verse 2 he explains his theology - what he knew about God: "I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity." There was nothing wrong with that statement. That is an accurate description of the attributes and character of God.

Jonah knew God well. He had been well taught. He was an Israelite. He had been learning about the Lord for a long time. He had been well instructed in his home and in the schools of the prophets. This was an orthodox confession about God. There was nothing wrong with his theology.

His problem lay in application. He knew his theology all right, but he didn't apply it correctly. He knew that God was gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love. He knew that from the Scriptures and from the history of Israel and from his own experience. In Chapter 2 he had prayed for God's mercy and received it; he had asked for God's grace and been given it. He was happy to receive this for Israel and for himself, but he could not apply this to the people in Nineveh.

This is because he thought God's love was for Israel alone. After all, they were God's chosen race; God had separated them from the other nations of the world; they were His particular people. All that was true. But they took those truths and extended them to make this an exclusive love, an exclusive relationship.

Think of how children are with friendships. One little girl might say to another, "You are my best friend." Little girls tend to see this in exclusive terms: "You are my only friend." She doesn't want to share the friendship with others; she wants her friend all for herself. This is not hard to understand because adults too can be jealous in friendships.

This is how the Jews felt about God's love. They believed it was just for them. They resented sharing God's love with others, and especially their enemies. They despised the Gentiles, those dogs, especially those Assyrians living in Nineveh who had been so cruel and heartless to them. They could not, should not, would not share in God's love! The Jews had become bigoted nationalists, mean-spirited and narrow in their understanding of God's love, small-minded in their appreciation of his mercy.

Jonah's attitude illustrates the general view of the people of Israel. It betrays a basic misunderstanding of God's love and mercy and of the role of Israel among the nations. Their grasp of God's grace was very small in comparison to the reality of what God could do and would do for the peoples of the world.

So when God rebuked Jonah, it was recorded as a rebuke to all the people of Israel who felt the same way. It is also a rebuke to us who are inclined to be exclusive. And, let's be honest, we all fall into this sin. We are like little children who have been given a gift and who are unwilling to share it. We want to keep it all for ourselves! "It's mine!" Too often we are tight-fisted with the mercy of God.

We don't want others to join the church for fear that it might disrupt our friendships and our cosy circle; that it might take away some of our time with our family; that it might force us out beyond where we are comfortable. We recognise our privileges but we want to keep these for ourselves.

The lesson of this chapter is that God's mercy and grace are much bigger than we imagine. God's plan is larger than just us. God wanted Israel to be a light to the nations. The Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of all peoples, all races, all nations and all types of people, regardless of social standing, wealth or position.

And the Father and the Son sent the Holy Spirit at Pentecost to take the good news into the whole world, proclaiming it into all languages, inviting all into the kingdom of God.

Let's be careful not to narrow the grace of God to just ourselves or to exclude anyone for reasons of race or culture or economic standing. "God so loved the world that he gave his One and Only Son" (John 3:16).

Jonah could not - did not - see this. His sins of anger, pride, self-justification and exclusivism led him to the sin of self-pity. "Now, O Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live" (vs 3).

The writer intends us to see a parallel with Elijah who ran away from Jezebel after that great victory on Mt Carmel over the prophets of Baal. Elijah thought he was the only one left and asked the Lord to take his life. Jonah asks for the same thing. But this comparison with the giant prophet Elijah only makes Jonah look more pitiful and wretched, whimpering in self-pity.

He was feeling sorry for himself. All his focus is on himself and his feelings. The word 'I' occurs nine times in the Hebrew version of his prayer. And he is overly dramatic. "Take away my life". It's like a teenager who has had something go wrong and sobs, "I wish I was dead". Tragically, some take that so seriously that they do kill themselves. Jonah wasn't as far as that, but he did ask God to take his life.

One writer observes that this is an adult version of a child's cry, "I'm not playing with you any more! If we can't do it my way then I'm not playing! I'm going home!"

Again, let's remember the times we have lapsed into a solitary 'pity-party'. A 'poor me' mentality. Where we have allowed bitterness to creep in and felt sorry for ourselves because we are unappreciated, unloved, not cared for or unsuccessful.

2. God's Response

It comes as a rebuke to Jonah, and to us: "Have you any right to be angry?"

The Lord could have thrown the book at this whingeing prophet! He could have blown him out of the water! He could have read him the riot act! But he didn't. The Lord was patient with him. He simply asked him this question. It was rhetorical.

The Lord expects the answer, "No, of course not. I'm being foolish and selfish. You have spared Israel over and over - why not these Ninevites? You spared my life - why not these people?" But the prophet doesn't say anything. He is not ready to confess his sin. He is not ready to acknowledge his wrong. He maintains his sulky silence.

But the Lord's question still stands.

The Lord asks this of you, too:

Have you any right to be angry?

Do you have a right to be proud?

Are you doing right to justify yourself?

Are you right to restrict God's love for yourself?

Have you any right to wallow in self-pity?

Think about these questions. Be thankful that the Lord is patient enough to put them to you and to listen to your reply. Be thankful that God was prepared to show us the extent of His mercy by sending His Son, the Lord Jesus, so that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Be sure to respond in confession, in faith, in love, in service.

Amen.