Jonah 3

4:21How can he forgive people and yet say that he is holding people to account for their sins? Abraham around the D. Year 2000, if you remember your fuzzy dates. Abraham, around the year 2000, believed and it was counted to him as righteousness. So we've already been introduced to this idea. Moses, around the year 1500, heard God's name that we read just 20 minutes ago. He heard God's name, that God is merciful and gracious, abounding in steadfast love, and yet doesn't overlook sins.

5:00David, around the year 1000, said, Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven. So in each of these big markers that we discussed last week, we have them talking about these men of God talking about how God does forgive people. He is merciful, he is gracious, but he also is still just. And even Jonah in chapter 2 last week was cherishing this mercy, saying, Salvation belongs to the Lord. So that's our first question that is getting answered in Jonah. Another question that Jonah is dealing with is: How do we reconcile God's choice of Israel and God's election of Israel as God's chosen people with the fact that God also loves the nations?

5:53What does it look like for him to have a chosen nation and yet still love other nations? Last time, this showed up in the way that Jonah, one of God's people, disobeyed God's command and yet still found mercy by the end of chapter two and still expected to go back to his temple where God's chosen people worship him. And then, in contrast, we have the Gentiles who are fearing the Lord, not necessarily knowing all that Jonah knows about the temple. They just fear his wrath. They respond to the truth and they repent. So those are two questions to keep rattling around in your mind.

6:38How do we reconcile God's mercy with God's justice? And how do we reconcile the fact that God has a chosen people with the fact that God also has a plan for the nations and can have mercy on whoever he wants? So pray with me as we begin. Father, we pray that you'd bless our time. We pray that you'd help us understand this passage. We pray that you'd help us apply these things to our hearts. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Last time we talked about how this book is split up into two halves, chapter one and two, and then chapter three and four. And at the beginning of chapter three, you'll see again, it says, Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you. And so we really have a restart in the book of Jonah. And our outline today is going to be almost the exact same outline as last time. Last time it was Jonah disobeys God's command, the Gentiles fear God's wrath, and Jonah cherishes God's mercy. This time it's going to be that Jonah obeys God's command. That was a slight change, right? The Gentiles still fear God's wrath. The Gentiles fear God's wrath. And then lastly, Jonah despises God's mercy instead of cherishing it. So in this first part, Jonah obeys God's command. God tells him almost the same thing. Verse 2: Up, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you. So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh according to the word of the Lord. Now, Nineveh was an exceedingly great city.

8:23Three days' journey in breadth. So God is bringing up the point that this is a great city, that phrase, exceedingly great city, is it's a great city to God. So either it is, it's a genuinely, even in God's sight, this is a great city, or it's a great city under God's dominion, or something like that. But this is truly a great city. It takes three days to get across it. And Jonah arose just like God said, and went to Nineveh according to the word of the Lord. Verse 4. Jonah began to go into the city, going a day's journey, and he called out, yet 40 days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.

9:11That's our first section: that Jonah obeys this command from the Lord. God said, Go. Last time he didn't, and this time he does. Now, we don't know if this is necessarily with a happy heart. In fact, it's probably not, right? As we'll see later in the book, that Jonah is obeying, but he's not probably not obeying with the right attitude. But still, he does obey, and that's just like last time. That's an application that we can take out of it. We can obey, even when we don't feel like it. But Jonah does obey. And I think that it's important for us to take away a lesson that God does have patience with his servants. You know, sometimes you'll hear about this book that this is the book of second chances or something like that, that God loves to give his people a second chance. And I don't know if Jonah is the best poster boy for getting a second chance, because this is almost as much of a correction or a discipline to him than it is a wonderful second chance. You know, this is the very thing that Jonah doesn't want. To do, and he still doesn't want to do it. He would rather die than go and preach to these people, but he still obeys. But we can still take the lesson that God is working in the life of his servant, that God is bringing Jonah through these experiences and is patient enough to get the work done through Jonah, and even patient enough to teach him a lesson all the way through the end of this book.

10:58So, Jonah obeys God's commands. The next section is a little bit bigger. Verses 5 through 10: Gentiles fear God's wrath. Verse 5: And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest of them to the least of them. It's pretty abrupt. Jonah seems to preach this message that at the very least contain the message, yet 40 days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. Maybe he also told them about why it's going to be overthrown or who's going to overthrow it, because the people seem to understand this is coming, a message from God saying, I'm going to overthrow it because of your wickedness. And so the people believed God. It just says it abruptly. It seems quickly. The people of Nineveh believed God. You get the sense of right away. The people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast. Put on sackcloth from the greatest of them to the least of them. So, this is not just a message that went out to the poorest of the poor and those who were oppressed by a society, and they were happy to hear a message about another God that was going to come and redeem them or something or overthrow the wicked ones in the city. No, this was a message that went out to everyone in the city, and everyone responded. Not just the poor, but even the rich, from the greatest of them to the least of them. Everyone in the city was cut to the heart. They believed God. God told them something, and they believed Him.

12:37They didn't scoff. They didn't cling to their sin. Instead, they called for a fast and put on sackcloth. It gets even more amazing. Verse 6: The word reached the king of Nineveh, the ruler of this great city. The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. So even the king, the greatest of these people, even he hears this message, believes the words of God, and immediately gets up and puts on sackcloth and ashes. Verse 7, and he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles.

13:31Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water. The king has seen the repentance of the people, and he hears the message as well. He has that same repentance, and so he sends out a message to everybody in the whole kingdom that they should all do this same thing: decree a fast. Let neither man nor beast, herd, nor flock taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water. Now, I don't know about you, but one of the first questions that pops into my mind is: what do the animals have to do with this? The people have sinned, but why can't the animals eat? Let neither man nor beast, herd, nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water. And of course, we don't know, but it seems to be this idea that their sin in Nineveh was so pervasive, it covered everything and all of society. That they were such a sinful society, just like probably Jonah knows and despises. They were such a sinful society that they just wanted to put everything to rest. And even the animals weren't to eat. And so the shepherds or the people who take care of the livestock, they couldn't say that they were an essential service.

15:00Anymore. They also had to proclaim this fast and stop. They didn't need to feed their animals. They didn't have to do anything. They just sit and repent and fast. Verse 8. But let the man and the beast be covered with sackcloth and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. So this immediate response goes out through the king to all the people that every single person and beast are to participate in this national repentance for this great city.

15:42Citywide repentance, I should say. Everyone is involved. Everyone pauses during this. It is such a serious event that there is this rule from the king that everyone has to stop what they're doing, stop their jobs, fast, and turn from their evil ways, from the violence that is in his hands. So we know from history that the Ninevites were particularly violent throughout their history. And this is something that the king recognizes even here. He says, we need to repent from this violence, turn from the evil way, turn from the violence that is in his hands. But look at verse 9.

16:24This is one of the most interesting verses. The king says, Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger so that we may not perish. Do you see the attitude there? We need to do this right away. Verse 9: Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger so that we may not perish. I think that is the perfect attitude of what true repentance looks like, of true brokenness over our sin. I think that sometimes as believers, we can be quick to jump right to almost this exchange because we know the promises in Scripture, and this isn't a wrong thing to do, but we can jump right to the exchange where we can say, I know that since God has said it, that if I repent, he will forgive me.

17:36And so we repent immediately because we're chasing this end. And this is a little bit different, isn't it? They're just repenting. They've realized they're wicked. They've realized that they deserve to be overthrown. But they're just going to stop everything just in the slightest hope that God would forgive them. And I've heard people say things like, Like, you know, God could never forgive me, anyways. I've done too many bad things. And so, what they're telling you, if you're talking to them, is that they're not going to come to God. They're not going to ask for forgiveness because they're just assuming God wouldn't forgive them, anyways. And really, what's behind that is this idea of, I don't think it's worth it to repent if I can't be forgiven, anyways. You see how that's the opposite idea? Instead, there should be this idea of, well, I'm going to repent anyways. It's the right thing to do. I have been wicked. I'm going to run to God and repent and believe His words. And who knows, God may turn and relent and turn from His fierce anger so that we may not perish. I just love that attitude from the king and from the people. Verse 10: When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that He had said he would do to them, and He did not do it. When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that He had said he would do to them, and He did not do it. So God proclaimed that He was going to destroy them because of their wickedness. They immediately repented. Citywide, even the king, everybody from the greatest to least, repented in a desperate hope that God might forgive them. And of course, We know God's character that he does every time. And here, God relented of the disaster that he said he would do to them, and he did not do it. One interesting thing on this verse that kind of ties back into that question of this chosen nation versus God's love for all the nations is that this phrase is almost exactly the phrase that God uses when he forgives his people after the golden calf incident. I don't know if you remember that story, but the Israelites, while Moses is up on the mountain, worship the golden calf, and God is going to destroy them. And Moses pleads with the Lord, and he says, Remember Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. These are your people, and do not destroy them. And in response, this is Exodus 32, 14, it says, The Lord relented from the disaster that he had spoken of bringing on his people. The Lord relented from the disaster that he had spoken of bringing on his people. And so this is a cherished idea that God cares so much about his people, the children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that even after the golden calf, God would relent.

20:49And yet that same sentence is used here, except instead of his people, it just says to them, God relented of the disaster that he said he would do to them. And he did not do it. It's just one more lesson that God shows mercy to whoever he wants to show mercy to. Yes, God has this special relationship with his people. And yes, in that golden calf incident, God showed mercy to them because they were his people. He makes that very clear. But that doesn't mean that God can't show mercy to other people. God can show mercy to whoever he wants to show mercy to. It's part of his character that he's merciful. And so anyone who comes to him and repents and believes, he accepts and forgives and relents.

22:01So the Gentiles fear God's wrath. Jonah obeys God's command. The Gentiles fear God's wrath. And now, the most sad part of the book is that Jonah despises God's mercy. The same mercy that we saw in chapter 2 that Jonah cherished, now he's going to despise this mercy. Chapter 4, verse 1. But it displeased Jonah exceedingly. And he was angry. This was exceedingly evil to Jonah, and he was angry. Jonah hated the fact that this enemy of Israel was being forgiven by the God of Israel.

22:54Verse 2, and he prayed to the Lord, and he said, O Lord, is this not this what I said when I was yet in my country? This is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish. For I knew that you are a God, a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster. Jonah knew this was God's character. From the book of Exodus, like we read earlier, this is the name that God has proclaimed for himself, that he is this God who is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love.

23:40That's who he is. And we see that name in almost every single book of Scripture. We see that theme showing up over and over and over that God is merciful, that he does forgive. And Jonah knows this about God. And Jonah, when he gets the command to go to Nineveh. He doesn't want to. That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish, because I knew who you were. I knew you are this merciful God. And filling in the blanks, Jonah didn't want to be part of this mercy. He's going to go the total opposite direction. He knows God is merciful. He knows he can show mercy even on the Ninevites. And Jonah doesn't want any part of it. Verse 3: Therefore, now, O Lord, please take my life from me.

24:37For it is better for me to die than to live. This theme showing up all over this book that Jonah would rather die. At least he thinks he would rather die. Whenever he got close in the ocean, he called out to the Lord and the Lord saved him. But in his heart, he thinks he would rather die than see the Lord show mercy on the Ninevites. Please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.

25:16We can pause for just a moment and remember a lesson. The lesson that this passage is teaching us is that the Lord's character is the same always. And just like in the last section, when we saw that the Lord shows mercy on whom He is mercy, He'll show mercy, that he gets to decide, that salvation, just like Jonah prayed, salvation does belong to the Lord. Even so, that his name, his character, that he is a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and relenting from disaster, that that goes for anyone who comes to him and not just the Jew. And it's a fact that Jonah can't stand.

26:03Verse 4: The Lord said, Do you do well to be angry? Jonah went out of the city and sat east of the city and made a booth for himself there. He sat under it in the shade till he should see what would become of the city. So maybe he thought his prayer or something, now that he's prayed to God and told God he really wishes God would have just destroyed Nineveh and he hates that he didn't. Maybe now he thinks God's going to respond to that prayer and actually destroy the city, or maybe he's just sitting around waiting till they do something wicked again so that they can get destroyed. We don't know. But he goes out of the city, sat to the east of the city, made a booth for himself, like a tent or a shelter for himself. He sat under it in the shade till he should see what would become of the city.

26:59With the Lord. Lord's lesson ringing in his ears. Do you do well to be angry? Of course, the answer is no. But verse 6, this is how the Lord is going to show him the answer is no. Now the Lord God appointed a plant and made it come up over Jonah that it might be a shade over his head to save him from his discomfort. So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the plant. So just a little while ago, he was exceedingly angry because God showed mercy on a group of people. But now he's got a plant and he is exceedingly glad about this plant. It's the only time the word glad is used in this book. Now Jonah is really, really happy because this plant has come up because God appointed it to.

27:57I don't know if you remember last week, but Jonah in this book, over and over, will have these repeated words or themes. You remember God said, up, go to Nineveh, and then the author kept saying Jonah went down to Joppa, down to a boat, down to the bottom of the boat, and of course, down into the sea. You have several ideas like that in Jonah, but one of them that's carried throughout this whole book is there's this Hebrew word, ra'ah, and it means, it can mean evil, like sin, sinful, wicked. Evil, but it's also the word for calamity or disaster or things like that. And it's been used throughout this book to speak of the evil that the Ninevites have been doing, the evil, the sinful evil that they've been doing, but also the evil that's going to come upon them from the Lord, the calamity that's going to come upon them. Well, now in verse 6, it says, Now the Lord, God, appointed a plant and made it come up over Jonah that it might be a shade over his head to save him from his, and then it's the same word. It's translated in most of our translations as discomfort, but that's the same thing, to save him from his evil or his calamity, from his discomfort.

29:14So God, so Jonah really didn't like it when God saved the Ninevites from their calamity. But now that he's been saved from his calamity, he is exceedingly happy. He is very happy because of this plant. Verse 7. But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm. Same idea again. He appointed the fish. He appointed the plant. He appointed a worm that attacked the plant so that it withered. So God caused this plant to grow quickly, provide a lot of shade for Jonah. But then this worm comes and attacks the plant so that it withers. Verse 8, when the sun rose, God appointed the air. Pointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint. And he asked that he might die and said, It is better for me to die than to live. So again, you get this, woe is me that Jonah is wishing he could just die. He already hates what's happened with the Ninevites, and now his plant is gone that he loves so much, that he was so glad about.

30:31Verse 9. But God said to Jonah, Do you do well to be angry for the plant? It's the same question he asked him in verse 4. Do you do well to be angry for the plant? And he said, Yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die. And the Lord said, You pity the plant for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night.

31:16Should I not pity Nineveh, that great city in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also Much cattle. God caused this plant to rise up in a night. God says, Do you do well to be angry? And Jonah goes and sits down. God causes this plant to come up. And Jonah is exceedingly happy because of this plant. But then the next day the plant is gone. And Jonah pities this plant. He wishes this didn't happen. He hates that this happened to the plant, that the plant has been destroyed. He really liked this plant.

32:11And God, with kind of a hanging question, asks, shouldn't I really like this city full of people? Isn't that way more important than a plant? So many people and cattle. Doesn't that outweigh a plant? You have this pity for a plant. Shouldn't I pity this city? You pity the plant for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left and also much cattle? In verse 11, some people think that knowing the right hand from the left could be the He's saying that there's 120,000 kids that literally don't know the right hand from their left. So it's such a huge city that there's this many little kids that are so young. Shouldn't I pity those children if you're going to pity this plant? Or others, and I think this might be more likely. He's saying these people don't have the law. If the law is the way that the Jew was supposed to walk down this path and not stray to the right or the left, this idea that these Ninevites don't know what's the right and the left. But the moment they heard God say, You're being wicked, I'm going to overthrow you, they repented right away.

33:44Shouldn't I have pity on them who do not know their right hand from their left and also much cattle? God is patiently working with Jonah and patiently teaching him that it's God's prerogative and it's God's decision who he will have mercy on. Yes, God has a chosen people that he has made promises to, that he has sworn to defend and prosper when they're doing well. He has sworn to their fathers that he would love them. Love them forever, that they would be a means of blessing for the entire earth.

34:37But just because that's true, that doesn't mean that God then hates all the nations. Instead, God can have mercy on whoever he wants. Salvation does belong to the Lord, just like Jonah prayed. And Jonah needs to get over the fact that these people can be shown the mercy of God. As we consider God's character, I think it's important for us to remember that idea that we see in this passage: that God is so consistent for his people as well as for the nations, that those who repented, God forgave. He had mercy. That's what he does. He has mercy.

35:27That's part of his character. I think that we can be amazed at the amazing mercy of the Lord. That even people like this, that were so violent, and from what we know in history, it is one of the worst societies, that even they, even the king of this nation, could be shown mercy when they repented. And just remember the great mercy that the Lord shows. I think we're going to remember that God carefully works on his servants. I think that Jonah, of course we don't know. The book doesn't tell us at the end, but I think that Jonah ended up getting this lesson and writing this book to show this idea that God can have mercy on anyone. And you remember last week we looked back at the passage where it mentions Jonah in 2 Kings and talks about how he does the same thing for when they were wicked, God still prospered them.

36:36So I think the Lord is teaching Noah, I mean teaching Jonah, that he can have mercy on anybody. So let's not forget that this is part of God's character. It's his decision. And he's always consistent in his character. And as we seek to apply this, let's remember to be obedient like Jonah, but also, hopefully, even more than Jonah, even in our hearts, to love what God loves, to love the mercy that God loves, to not be reluctantly obedient as we come to the scriptures and we read commands from Genesis to Revelation, but instead to love, to seek what God wants with a loving heart, to want to follow those commands and truly obey. Let's remember to be like these Ninevites who feared the Lord, who realized they were being wicked, feared the Lord greatly, and it says they believed God. They took God at his word. God gave them a message of judgment, and they believed him right away.

37:48Let's remember to copy the attitude of this king who says, who knows? Maybe God will relent. And he doesn't seem to know a lot about the Lord. But what he does know is that he needs to repent now, repent first, believe the Lord first, and then worry about himself later on. And if anyone is hearing this and you think that you are too far from the Lord, you think you can't be forgiven, or maybe you haven't trusted in him, or you haven't come to him and really humbled yourself before him, admitted that you're a sinner, and asked for his forgiveness, I want to challenge you that that might be because you're so prideful.

38:40It might be because you're so arrogant that you think that your sin is greater than what the Lord can forgive. And so there's no way you're going to repent or change anything about your life if you think it's not going to lead to your forgiveness or something like that. Instead, I challenge you to have the attitude. Of, no, I am going to come and repent and believe God no matter what, because it's the right thing to do. I'm going to take him at his word. And then, of course, remember the promise that he has said that anyone who comes to him will not be cast out.

39:20Try to copy the attitude of this king of Nineveh. And another application. Try to avoid the attitude of Jonah. Try to have this opposite attitude, the same attitude as God that loves to show mercy, to reach out to people, even our own enemies, that would love for our enemies or people that we don't like, that would love to pray for them, would love to talk with them, love to be patient with them and share the love of Christ, an opportunity for forgiveness, to remember that our God is the God that's gracious and merciful and slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and to want other people to hear that.

40:07Let's try and make that our attitude as well. Pray with me. Father, we do see your character on display in this passage. We do see that you are this God who is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love. Your character never changes. And yes, you treat your people like this. In the Old Testament, because it's who you are, it's what your character is, but it's also how you treated some other people in the Old Testament, and it's also how you've treated us even today with mercy and grace.

40:47So, Father, help us love your mercy, help us fear you, help us come to you and repent of our sins, and take you at your word and believe what you've said. But also, help us love your mercy, help us be people who are cheering on as more people come to the faith, even our enemies. Help us be people who rejoice at seeing people turn to you, even from a long life of sin. Help us be servants that are willing to share that word of forgiveness instead of so begrudging and hating of this idea that you love to show mercy.

41:53Help us instead be people that think like you think about others. Help us be people that love your mercy and your grace and are grateful for it. In Jesus' name, amen.