Jonah 4

We’ve seen that when we run, God chases, when we pray, God answers, when we repent, God forgives, in chapter 4 we see what God does when we sulk. When God does something that we don’t understand, or that we don’t like, how does God respond to us? Chapter 4 breaks up into two parts. We find Jonah’s angry prayer in v1-4, and God’s lesson to Jonah in v5-11. Verses 5-11 are the climax of the whole book. Everything else in Jonah happens twice. He is sent in ch1 and ch3, he sees pagans come to know God at the end of ch1 and the end of ch3, and he prays in ch2 and ch4. But the end of the book is the only time that God challenges Jonah about his attitude.

Let’s look at Jonah’s prayer:
V1. He’s angry that God has saved the people of Nineveh. If you don’t understand this point of view, that’s a good thing! Jonah is an anti-example.

V2-3. Like he’s telling the Lord, ‘I told you so!’ This is why I ran the other way, I knew you were gracious, and I knew they’d repent. Jonah is so angry with the Lord for saving the Ninivites that he’d rather be dead than see them worship the Lord.

V4. God has a gracious but challenging answer…’do you do well to be angry?’ Is it a good thing to disagree with the Lord? Is it good that you think you know better than me, the Lord asks. This is the essence of all sin isn’t it? Whether it’s racism and pride as here, or lust, or materialism or laziness or whatever. The root is thinking you know better than God.

In verses 5-11 God teaches Jonah a gracious, fatherly lesson.

V5-6. Jonah sits outside the city to see what will become of it. It’s hot in the desert, so the Lord appoints a plant to come over him and give him some shade. Jonah was in discomfort because of the heat of the sun, the same sort of discomfort he was in when God showed mercy to Nineveh. He was comforted by the plant that gave him shade.
V7-8. Again, Jonah does not come off well here, something that adds to the authenticity of the book. God sends a worm, it destroys the plant, Jonah gets too hot and wants to die! Wants to die! He’s so angry again.

V9-11. Here’s the lesson for Jonah. He pities the plant. Shouldn’t God pity Nineveh. Jonah didn’t make the plant, but God made Nineveh. The plant ‘came into being in a night and perished in a night,’ but there are more than 120,00 people in Nineveh. Shouldn’t God feel compassion on them, if you feel compassion on a plant?

We never learn Jonah’s answer. It’s like he turns round and looks at us. What about us? Where do our sympathies lie? With the unsaved, or with our own comforts? Are our priorities God’s priorities? What does God do when we sulk? He lovingly, but firmly challenges our priorities.