The Anger Of Jonah

"The Anger Of Jonah" – Jonah 4:1-11 “Doest thou well to be angry?” Nineveh was no ordinary city: it was a metropolis of more than a hundred and twenty thousand inhabitants, three days’ journey across on foot, full of sin and known for its bloodshed. And when Jonah preaches and Nineveh repents, instead of rejoicing his anger grows, because in his judgment they did not deserve the opportunity. The study compares that heart to the spark that fans a fire, and to the river of lava which, while it cools on its way to the sea, destroys everything in its path: so the wrath of man drags marriages, children, relationships, and jobs along with it, and by the time it finally settles, the disaster is already done. At the same time it shows the patience of God: the three days in the fish were mercy upon mercy, the very mercy Jonah was denying Nineveh. It walks through the question of verse 4, the booth, the gourd —the only thing Jonah rejoiced over in the whole book—, the worm, the vehement east wind, and the closing question: you had pity on a plant you did not plant, and should I not have pity on Nineveh? It ends with self-examination —a glass roof over our own heads— and the warning not to decide for ourselves who deserves to be told about Christ.

I. The city of Nineveh and the hardest conversation.

A. Nineveh was one of the greatest capitals of its time: three days on foot to cross it.

1. More than a hundred and twenty thousand people: for the villages of those times, it was enormous.

2. It was a bloody city; every kind of evil that existed in that time was in Nineveh.

3. Nineveh was no ordinary city: it was the metropolis, full of sin and full of evil.

B. Jonah was not speaking with just anyone: he was speaking with the God of heaven.

1. Great arrogance and great anger, which he has had since chapter 1.

2. One can criticize Jonah all one likes; but we all have a glass roof over our heads.

II. Jonah’s heart: the spark and the volcano.

A. His anger grows because Nineveh is converted.

1. They began to hear the message and to come to repentance, and that angered Jonah all the more.

2. From his point of view, they did not deserve that opportunity.

3. As if Jonah had the capacity to decide who deserves what: neither do we.

B. His heart was like a fire at its height, throwing off sparks.

1. Those sparks fall on another dry place and make more fire.

2. Sometimes our heart is just the same: more hidden, less intense, better disguised.

C. So is the wrath of man: like the lava that destroys whatever lies in its path.

1. As it cools, it drags along family, children, jobs, relationships.

2. Everything settles, but the disaster left behind is great.

3. God did not want Jonah going from Nineveh to another place with that same anger.

4. It may have happened only once, yet caused damage enough to last a lifetime.

III. The stubbornness of man and the mercy of God.

A. Being near Nineveh, he went to Tarshish: to the farthest place.

1. We want to learn things the hardest way, when our knees are so near for asking forgiveness.

2. God wants to lead us one way and we are stubborn, or we say, “that was not for me.”

3. You can say it to men; but not to God, because God knows what is in the heart.

B. From the moment he decided to disobey, what God showed him was mercy upon mercy.

1. Who lives three days inside a fish? It was God keeping him and being patient with him.

2. God could have said “be gone”; but He showed him love, just as He did Nineveh.

3. While he spoke with such anger, God came to Jonah with such tenderness.

4. Jonah could not see that God had toward him the very mercy he denied Nineveh.

C. His impatience led him to quarrel with God Himself.

1. Let us take care not to bring our quarrels to God: we are the ones who lose.

2. Attitudes so small they seem not to matter: coming to church, or hearing the word, with an attitude.

3. God is merciful, but we do not know which will be the last opportunity He gives us.

IV. The miracle Jonah did not enjoy.

A. There was a wonder of divine grace in the repentance and reformation of Nineveh.

1. That this man entered with such an attitude and the city was converted was one of the great miracles of the age.

2. That was the time of those inhabitants, for repentance and salvation.

3. Later, in Nahum and Zephaniah, God foretells Nineveh’s total destruction; but in that moment He wanted to save it.

B. Jonah had so much anger that he could not enjoy the miracle.

1. He did not enjoy having been God’s instrument; he made himself blind, deaf and mute to what was happening.

2. When we take such attitudes before the Father, we miss what God is doing.

3. If we come with any attitude other than one of receiving, we are the ones who lose.

4. The One Jonah is speaking with is no different God from the One before whom you bend your knees.

C. Deuteronomy 18:22 and the fear of looking like one who was not sent.

1. “I preach, no one repents, and I will look as though the Lord did not send me.” Whom was he thinking of? Himself.

2. Since when does God send someone to do something so that nothing happens? God has a purpose in moving.

3. All things work together for good to them that love God: what was for ruin, God turns into blessing.

V. “Doest thou well to be angry?” (Jonah 4:4).

A. His sin lay in his disagreement with God’s will concerning the salvation of the Ninevites.

1. He disagreed with God about who ought to be saved and who ought not.

2. The Bible must be read with the heart, not with human reasoning.

B. Look at the simplicity of the question: is this right, what you are doing? What is wrong with you?

1. Perhaps we have all known someone who wounded us and left deep marks.

2. When you see how much good God does in your life, you say: it is not worth being so angry.

3. There are people who never come out of their anger; and the one who profits there is Satan.

C. What is in the heart melts, and words come out of the mouth like sparks of fire.

1. We say our anger is with a person, but perhaps the anger is really with God.

2. “Why did God allow this?” And sometimes you do not notice against whom you raise your fist.

3. Sarcasm wounds: a child to a parent, a parent to a child; how deeply that marks them.

4. Salvation is individual: each one deals with God and decides, seated in that chair.

VI. The gourd, the worm and the east wind (Jonah 4:5-9).

A. He went out of the city, camped on the east side and made a booth; he answered God nothing.

1. God prepared a gourd to shade him, and Jonah was exceeding glad of it.

2. He was not glad that God had mercy and had not finished with him: he was glad of the plant.

3. It is the only time in the four chapters that Jonah rejoices in anything: he goes about embittered.

4. Becoming bitter is up to us: we decide whether to live embittered or to let God lift us day by day.

B. When the morning rose, God prepared a worm, and the gourd withered.

1. The only thing that had given him joy, the Lord dried up the next day; and there was no thanksgiving.

2. God also prepared a vehement east wind, and the sun beat upon Jonah’s head.

3. He is taking Jonah through a process: I am God, I am dealing with you; how do I make you understand?

4. “It is better for me to die than to live”: his anger reached a point of no return.

C. That is the danger of anger: it begins with a small annoyance and grows.

1. “The tone of your voice annoys me”; and before long, having the person beside you annoys you.

2. If we do not put a stop to it, it destroys marriages, children, relationships and jobs.

3. God wants to keep forming us: the church of the Lord must be loving, helpful and joyful.

VII. “And should not I spare Nineveh?” (Jonah 4:11).

A. Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for which thou hast not labored, neither madest it grow.

1. He wept over a plant and did not weep over the Ninevites; and he was a prophet of the Lord.

2. They were evil; but God chose to show His mercy to men, women and children in that moment.

3. Jonah missed it all, because he could never see the mercies of the Lord.

B. Let us take care not to have the same attitude.

1. Perhaps there is someone you think does not deserve to be told about Christ.

2. You and I do not know who will be saved: we have no mark we can check.

3. As God told Moses: I have taught you this far; the rest is Mine.

4. God may have put that person in your path so that you would be the one to insist.

C. Jonah was sent to do good; and the church is likewise sent to do good.

1. It is not ours to judge whether the person deserves it: it is simply to give.

2. This gospel was given to us freely, like the gourd: we contributed nothing; Jesus placed it on the cross.

3. At verse 11 it ends: no one can say what became of Jonah afterward.

4. May we not end like Jonah, but all be caught up together when Christ comes.