Verse 1
God saw their repentance and he was merciful. Jonah saw their repentance and he was angry. Chapter 3:10 and 4:1 captures the conflict of this book—the conflict between the holy character of God and the selfish nature of man.
The reason why grace and mercy can be so difficult for us is because we want people to deserve grace and mercy—we want people to earn it. And the reason why is in our selfishness we want people to earn it is because we believe we have earned. If we are working hard over here to earn God’s mercy (and we are putting lots of energy into doing all the right things and saying all the right words) and then someone over here who has spent all of their life in rebellion against God and then they suddenly they turn from their disobedience and repent before God and God is merciful toward them—our response can be wait a minute, “that is not fair!”
Why do they get God’s mercy? God, do you know all the horrible things they have done in their past? God, do you know what they did to me? Do you know how they hurt me? If they are going to receive your mercy I think they need to earn it, deserve, pay their dues.
The problem with that argument is thinking that there is a connection between our good works and God’s mercy. That there is a connection between moral behavior and God’s grace. And if that is our basis for understanding God’s mercy then yes, God, forgiving someone who has been wicked and rebellious most of their life wouldn’t seem fair. But God’s grace and mercy is not dependent on us—it is solely dependent on God’s love for us.
But in chapter 4:1, Jonah is standing in a position where he believes HE has earned God’s blessing and HE believes Nineveh has not and so when Nineveh receives God’s mercy it angers him.
Jonah isn’t just angry because God gave Nineveh His mercy, Jonah is angry because he knew God would be merciful which is why he never wanted to be a part of this assignment in the first place—he didn’t want his enemies forgiven.
Verse 2-3
Jonah’s argument to God on why he didn’t want to go to Nineveh was because Jonah knew that God might soften their hearts and they might repent and that God might relent from bringing destruction. And why did Jonah think this? Because Jonah knew the character of God. He had seen it lived out in God’s relationship with Israel.
It is interesting that one of the great descriptions of God’s character that describes his grace and mercy comes from the very angry and bitter and unforgiving words of Jonah.
Even in his anger and selfishness, he recognizes the grace and mercy of God. But he just doesn’t want his enemies to experience it. That is the selfishness of sin—that we can actually stand before God and say, “God, give me your love but don’t give it to them.” That is the arrogance of sin. The pride of sin. The twistedness of sin.
Romans 3:23 tells us that every single one of us has sinned. No one can stand before God on their own merit and claim to be righteous before God.
If you were to think of the most moral person you know (someone who is as good and as pure as it comes) and then you were to think of the most wicked person you know (someone who represents evil)—we need to understand that both of those people are in need of the grace of God. Both of those people, apart from Jesus Christ, are condemned to eternal separation from God.
The moment we start pointing fingers saying, “I am better than you.” It is like a person standing in a mud pit covered with mud telling someone else they are more muddier than you. We are all covered with mud. We are all sinful people in desperate need of the grace of God.
Jonah was angry. Angry because wicked people received God’s mercy. Jonah was struggling with that fact that wicked people could be forgiven. He was so angry about this that even asked God to take His life.
If you struggle with the idea that people who have done wicked and evil things can be being forgiven by God then you need to know that heaven is going to be filled with people who had been wicked and evil before God.—(you don’t go to heaven because you are a good person or because you have lived a moral life)–heaven will be filled with those who were former enemies of God who have been saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.
Heaven will be filled people who were sinners—people who were murders, liars, cheaters, adulterers and I am just thinking of those from the Bible—King David, Abraham, Jacob. Whether your sin is a white lie or a brutal murder, both of those sins declare you wicked before a holy God. It is only through Jesus Christ that we can be declared righteous before God.
God responds to Jonah’s anger in verse 4
Verse 4
In this verse God is saying to Jonah, “Do you have a right to be angry? What right do you have to sit in the position of judgment?” In other words, what right do you have as someone covered in mud to declare someone more muddier than you? We are all sinners in need of a Savior.
When we really recognize that we are all sinners in need of a Savior we will no longer be judging other people because of their sin but longing that they experience the grace of God because of their sin. I think historically the Christian community has too often loved to judge other people’s wickedness rather than looking for opportunities to enter into their lives so that they may experience the grace and mercy of God.
A cancer survivor understands what it is like to have cancer. They understand that moment when the doctor tells them they have cancer. A cancer survivor understands the physical, emotional and spiritual journey of being treated for cancer. The cancer survivor also understands that moment when the doctor says you are free of cancer.
And so when a cancer survivor meets someone who just learned that they have cancer—they don’t judge that person, rebuke that person, condemn that person for having cancer but they can relate to that person, they can empathize with that person. And they understand the journey that they are about to go on and as a cancer survivor they can give them hope that they have been where they are now and they have survived.
As believers in Jesus Christ, when we meet someone who is lost, who does not know God, who is living in wickedness and rebellion towards God, our response isn’t to judge that person but we should have compassion for that person because we have all been in that place in which we were lost, separated from God.
And we have all been in that place in which we experienced the joy of being forgiven of our sins and the joy of now being in a right relationship with the living God.
We are all sinners in need of God’ grace.
Verses 5-9
In a book full of strange and peculiar moments, here is one more strange moment in the life of Jonah. Jonah leaves the city and finds a place where he can sit and watch to see if God is going to destroy the city. As he is sitting there watching in the heat of the day, God causes a plant to grow up over him. And this pleased Jonah or as verse 6 says he was “exceedingly glad.” But then the next morning God brought a worm to attack the plant and it withered. Then God brought a scorching wind on Jonah and the sun was beating down on him and once again Jonah declares, “It is better for me to die than to live.”
And God responds to Jonah and says, “do you have a right to be angry because the plant died?” And Jonah responds, “Yes, I have a right to be angry. Angry enough to die!”
Jonah was a man who was swimming in selfishness. Jonah was a man who was focused only on himself. That is what pride does. It makes us arrogant. It makes us judgmental. It can us leads us to a place where we say, “well, if I don’t get what I want, I would rather die” Pride brings us to a place where we think this world is all about us, and our desires, our wishes, our comfort—and if we can’t have life like we want life than we would rather not live in this life.
And the amazing thing is Jonah felt like he was in the right. Jonah was saying that this was a right way for him to feel. It is right for me to be angry! He believed he was right. And in his pride he had deceived himself. Putting himself in opposition to the heart and desires of God.
Verses 10-11
God is saying, “you are so upset over a plant, that you had nothing to do with its planting or its growing and you are angry because it died. You are angry because your needs and your desires have not been met. And yet you have no compassion for an entire city of people who are lost. You would have no problem if they perished. Jonah was angry that his plant died but he had no problem if 100,000 people died.
Verse 11 ends with God asking a question, “Should I not pity Nineveh?” And that question from God to Jonah is the ending to the book.
And we can find ourselves looking for a chapter 5 but there is no chapter 5. God’s words to Jonah sit there hanging over us. They are left unresolved. A question unanswered.
“Do you care more about a plant then a city? Do you care more about your own comfort then the salvation of these people? Should I not be compassion towards those who do not know me?”
I think there is purpose in God leaving that question unanswered. I think there is purpose in leaving it unresolved. Because that unanswered question now becomes our question.
It is a question that if we are willing to wrestle with, it is a question that will challenge us and convict us.
- Do we care more about our comfort then the salvation of people?
- Do we care more about our own world then then the salvation of the community around us.
- Are we so full of judgment against the wickedness of people that we have forgotten to love people with the grace of God?
- Have we become so inwardly focused that we no longer see the hurting lives all around us.
Those are the questions that will challenge us and convict us.
When we walk in God’s grace and mercy, it moves us from being inward focused to outward focused.
When we walk in God’s grace and mercy, we begin to think beyond ourselves
When we walk in God’s grace and mercy, we stop judging the sins of people and begin to love people toward Jesus Christ.
When we walk in grace and mercy, our heart begins to reflect God’s heart.
When we walk in grace and mercy, we begin to love like God loves.
