Runaway – Part 4 – The Lesson from the Plant
This chapter picks up right after the people of Nineveh Repent – the last verse of chapter 3 says, “When God saw what they [The people of Nineveh] 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.” (Jonah 3:10)
Text:
“But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry.
- We see here in the text Jonah is not only angry – but that he is EXCEEDINGLY angry – he is LIVID – he is furious that the Lord forgives and shows compassion on these people.
- that he would dare forgive THEM –
- and he tells us why –
And he prayed to the Lord and said, ‘O Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you were a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster. Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.’ And the Lord said, ‘Do you do well to be angry?”
He says – didn’t I tell you that this would happen? Isn’t this why I said “no” to coming here?
- See Jonah – Has a remarkable theology and understanding of who God is – and what God is like – but he has a selfish – self-righteous heart that’s driving his actions –
- but now when it comes to other people that he deems worse than himself he gets angry when God offers them the same thing –
“Jonah wanted grace for himself – and judgment for them.”
Phil. 3
“If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless.”
- He says I had all of my worth bound up in what I did – this is why I felt like I deserved grace –
“But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith”
- Paul has this epiphany that all of these things that he trusted in – even though some of them were good things – were nothing compared with walking and knowing Jesus not on the basis of something he had earned but out of the something that Christ had earned.
- and this perspective shift changed everything – he no longer walked as though God owed him – but that God had freely forgiven him because that is God’s heart toward sinners – and that allowed Paul to start seeing people in that same way – that God wanted to forgive them – and use Paul as a vessel to communicate that message to people!
“Jonah went out of the city and sat to the 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 Jonah leaves the city and he goes a certain distance away and he builds himself a small booth – or a small makeshift shelter so that he could watch this city.
Most commentators believe that what Jonah is doing here is that he wanted to be far enough away from the city so that if God changed his mind and sent destruction on the city – that he could be far enough away from the shrapnel – but close enough to see it happening.
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.” (Jonah 4:5-6)
- And while Jonah is waiting – the text says here that God appoints a plant to grow over him so that he could be covered in some shade so that he wouldn’t be so uncomfortable in the hot sun – and the text says that he is EXCEEDINGLY glad – so we see him EXCEEDINGLY sad that the people repented – now he is EXCEEDINGLY glad because he has some shade
“But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant, so that it withered. When the sun rose, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint.
- We see that the next morning – God appoints a worm – to eat the plant so that it dies. So Jonah’s shade is gone –
Then to make matters worse – he says that when the sun rises – God appointed a scorching east wind – or a wind that is going to be blowing directly in his face.j
And he asked that he might die and said, ‘ It is better for me to die than to live.’ But God said to Jonah, ‘Do you do well to be angry for the plant?’ And he said, ‘Yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die.’
- Jonah has a temper tantrum over a plant – and God uses it to go for the kill here –
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. And should I not 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?” (Jonah 4:7-11)