Three weeks ago, we started a 4-week series on Jonah! This is a small book in the OT about a REBELLIOUS PROPHET and a RELENTLESS GOD. Here is the bottom line for this entire book:

God doesn’t just work THROUGH US, but IN US and ON US!

Aren’t you glad? If you are just joining us, let me catch you up on the first 3 chapters of Jonah in speedy fashion. Here are the cliff notes. Chapter 1 is the story of God calling Jonah, who was a prophet of God to go to the most evil and violent city on the planet at that time, Nineveh and preach to them. Jonah does not want to do that and RUNS. He gets on a boat headed to Tarshish, otherwise known as Timbuktu, in the opposite direction. God sends a storm, the sailors determine by lot that it’s Jonah’s fault, they throw him overboard, sea gets calm, Jonah gets swallowed by a great fish. In Chapter 2, Jonah PRAYS. He turns around and vows that he will obey. In Chapter 3, Jonah GOES to Nineveh, preaches the worst sermon in human history but because God was in it, He blessed it and it makes the greatest impact in human history. The whole city repents and turns to God.

And IF Jonah ended THERE, history would have portrayed Jonah as the greatest of the prophets. After all, preaching ONE message that motivated tens of thousands of people to repent and turn to God was INCREDIBLE. But the Lord doesn’t look on the outward things: He looks on the HEART. That is why chapter 4 was included in this book, for it reveals the THOUGHTS and INTENTS of Jonah’s HEART. Here is our bottom line for today:

The heart of the problem is the problem in the heart!

If you missed any message in this series, I really encourage you to go back and watch or listen. I think it will really be worth your time. You can find it on our Bridge Church WI app or YouTube channel or website.

In chapter 2, Jonah prayed his best prayer from the worst place, the belly of a giant fish! What we are going to find in chapter 4 is that Jonah prayed his worst prayer in the best place, in the middle of a revival in Nineveh!

· His first prayer came from a broken heart, but his second prayer came from an angry heart.
· In his first prayer, he thanked God for saving him, but in his second prayer, he asked God to take his life!

What could POSSIBLY make Jonah THAT angry? He was disappointed…in GOD! Ever experienced any of these emotions because of something God ALLOWED? Frustration, displeasure, anger, bitterness, fear, Disappointment? Ever been there?

· You were so excited to get pregnant, only to have a miscarriage. God WHY? Michelle and I have been there!
· You tried to put God first in everything you did, even in your business, and then your business went South and you seemed like you were losing…EVERYTHING. GOD WHY?
· You were finally getting better, healthier, stronger, then you had a major physical setback, you broke something, you hurt something, you got really sick…GOD WHY?
· You finally got the job you wanted and then COVID hit and the last hired was the first fired…God WHY!?!

Ever been disappointed…in God? If so, perhaps we can learn something from Jonah’s ending that will help us in our own struggle when God allows something in our life that disappoints us GREATLY!

The heart of the problem is the problem in the heart!

So, let’s go through chapter 4 little by little. However, before we do that, let’s pick up where we left off last week. In the last verse of chapter 3.

The Ninevites BELIEVED Jonah’s message, repented of their ways and turned to God. God gives them GRACE! This is every preachers dream! Everyone in the audience raises their hand, repents of their sin, prays the prayer! Jonah SHOULD have been on cloud 9! The worst sinners in the world were coming to God through Jonah’s ministry! You would think he was posting this on Insta! #theNineviterevival! But that wasn’t the case! Let’s get to chapter 4.

What a contrast between God’s nature and Jonah’s! God is merciful and slow to anger; Jonah is Bruce Banner turning into Hulk angry! He is MAD at God! The reaction is shocking and hard to understand. Do artists get angry when a prominent museum accepts their art for a showing? Do musicians get angry when they are given a standing ovation or asked for an encore? Why, then, when Jonah has just preached to the toughest audience of his life—and they have responded positively down to the last person—would he melt down in furious rage?

WHY? God changed His mind. “This change of plans…” What was the change of plans? Do you remember his short sermon?

Jonah 3:4 – NLT – “Forty days from now Nineveh will be destroyed!”

Jonah 3:10b – NLT – “When God saw…He changed His mind and did not carry out the destruction He had threatened.”

Jonah was like “It’s good that you are a God of mercy, but THIS time you’ve gone too far!”

Jonah appreciated God’s mercy when expressed TO HIM but NOT TO HIS ENEMIES!

Because God was merciful, the ‘threat’ Jonah had given wasn’t going to come true!

· Maybe Jonah was angry because HE was going to look foolish?
· Perhaps Jonah is angry because he knows some Jewish friends are going to be mad at him because the Ninevites repented as a result of his ministry. Or
· Maybe he was angry because of the prejudice he had in his heart and how he DID NOT want them to change because he WANTED them to suffer.

What a contrast to the heart of God! Have you noticed when you are angry, you are rarely angry about the right things?

· Ever gotten red-faced angry because someone didn’t immediately go when the light turned green…but were also ANGRY when someone else honked at you because you didn’t go?
· Ever gotten angry at someone for making a mistake…but were frustrated when someone else was angry at you for making a simple, little mistake?
· Ever gotten ANGRY or pouted or looked silly when you didn’t get your way…like a toddler?
· Yeah, me neither…
· Ever done something foolish, and had to experience the consequences of your own decision, but YOU were angry…AT GOD?

How often have you seen this Scripture fulfilled in people’s lives?

THAT was Jonah! Listen to why Jonah was ANGRY!

Jonah misquotes a very familiar passage to the Jews from Exodus 34:6. That last line should read, “slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love AND TRUTH!” I don’t think Jonah left that out on accident. He is leaving out the ‘truth’ about God’s character that runs from one end of Scripture to another, that He never becomes false to His nature. You and I do NOT get to decide what we WANT to be true about God in certain seasons or for only certain people. He stays steady and faithful and true whether it meets our approval or not.

Jonah is mad because God responded to repentance by showing mercy! But THAT is God’s heart. That is His nature.

When Jonah received mercy, he was delighted. When his enemies received mercy, he was disgusted.

WHAT you get MAD about says a lot about you! Priscilla Shrirer says:
“While we may be shocked by Jonah’s response, often we can harbor the same feelings. When the ex who betrayed us, the friend who deceived us, the parent who abused us, or the offender who committed a crime against us receives God’s forgiveness and even His favor, we can quickly fall into a pit of anger and frustration because we secretly longed for their demise.”
If you examine the times you get ANGRY, what do YOU get mad about? Ever gotten WAY too angry about something?

The heart of the problem is the problem in the heart!

BTW, if anger is a real problem for you, it’s time to go talk to someone about it. Our CR group on Wednesdays is awesome for ANY hurt, habit or hangup.

Now, let’s get to verse 3 and see how Jonah would recover from his anger.

If God wasn’t going to judge and kill THEM, then Jonah wanted God to kill HIM. He would rather die than to see his enemies saved! Do you think that is a bit of an overreaction Jonah? Have YOU ever overreacted? I would be embarrassed if there was a recording of every time I’ve gotten angry in my life. Some of my reactions were over the top. How about yours? Even in one of his lowest moments, God still speaks to Jonah. It’s gracious and merciful and corrective and unrushed. The Masoretic text includes a setmah after verse 3. That is a grammatical device that indicates a pause before verse 4.

“Just kill me now, Lord! I’d rather be dead than alive if what I predicted will not happen.” (PAUSE...)

I think God is telling Jonah:

Check yourself before you wreck yourself!

Do you REALLY think this reaction is RIGHT? THINK! If we are listening, God has a way of asking the right question. “Is it right for you to be angry about this?” Have you gotten angry in some situations that this question could have given you pause.

So, how does Jonah answer God? Vs. 5…

The heart of the problem is the problem in the heart!

Jonah IGNORES God’s question. He plays the quiet game. He takes his ball and goes home. Jonah is a bit of a man child here. And instead of going back into the city to teach and preach and help them to grow in their new faith and learn more about their new God, Jonah is really hoping that God changes His mind…again…This time, judging and destroying the city. So he sets up camp where he can watch it. Jonah was holding out hope that God might still let Nineveh have it. God doesn’t like being ignored so He reaches out to teach Jonah an incredible lesson through another avenue. Vs. 6

What a GIFT! SHADE! Happy Palm Sunday!
Remembering that Nineveh is in modern day Iraq, it wouldn’t be unusual for that part of the world to exceed 110-115 degrees in pure, blazing sunlight. Baghdad hit 125 degrees last July! It’s amazing the difference shade can make when it’s that sunny and hot!

And Jonah is OVER-the-Moon excited and thankful for this leafy cabana, this umbrella of shade.

The day AFTER he was elated over the shade, God ARRANGES for a hungry caterpillar to arrive and tear up that plant, taking away Jonah’s shade. Verse 8

Jonah 4:8a – NLT – “And as the sun grew hot, God ARRANGED for a scorching east wind to blow on Jonah.”

God is ARRANGING things for Jonah. He ARRANGED the PLANT, He ARRANGED the WORM, He ARRANGED for the oven-like heat to bake Jonah. He is setting things up FOR Jonah’s good…EVEN if it doesn’t FEEL like it to Jonah.

Jonah 4:8b – NLT – “The sun beat down on his head until he grew faint and wished to die. “Death is certainly better than living like this!” he exclaimed.”

Yet again, God was showing Jonah:

The heart of the problem is the problem in the heart!

God was wanting to do some heart surgery on Jonah. This is the second time in Jonah that he wished to die! And all because he was losing a creature comfort. He was HOT! We can be that way too, can’t we? Air on, heat up, our pillows fluffed just right, our favorite snacks in the pantry – it can often take a lot to keep us from getting grouchy. I CANNOT sleep if I am hot. If our A/C was to break down in mid summer, I might pout like Jonah. Sometimes, the way we react when some of our creature comforts are removed show that we have an inordinate amount of affection for those things.

How often do we show more passion over the crash of a hard drive or a crack in our cell phone or a scratch on our new car or a bad call in a sporting event… than over the souls of people?

Being self-absorbed in what WE want, can make us lose sight of what matters MOST to God…PEOPLE. God calls Jonah out on this again. V. 9

Jonah 4:9a – NLT – “Then God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry because the plant died?”

I think God was saying, “something isn’t RIGHT with your heart Jonah! It’s time for some self-examination” See,

The heart of the problem is the problem in the heart!

Recently, I have watched some of “Building Alaska”, a show about building houses in hard places, and one thing that is stressed over and over is the importance of getting the foundation RIGHT. They will dig a hole until they get through the frost layer and keep going until they reach bedrock. If they don’t get the house on a solid foundation, the piling would give way and the house would have problems.

Jonah’s heart was like that. The foundation wasn’t on bedrock. It wasn’t really ON GOD, it was on WHAT GOD DID FOR HIM. His faith was shook because God didn’t do what Jonah wanted Him to do. Jonah needed to get to a place where God, truly God, was the foundation of his life, not his preferred way for God to act. He needed to serve and love God not in order to get things from Him but just for Him, for His own sake, just for who He is, for the joy of knowing Him, delighting Him, and becoming like Him. That’s where we need to get too! But Jonah wasn’t THERE yet. The second part of verse 9, THIS time Jonah ANSWERED God’s question.

Jonah 4:9b – NLT – “Yes,” Jonah retorted, “even angry enough to die!”

Jonah’s heart is SO attached to something SO insignificant (a plant) in the eyes of eternity! YOU would NEVER let YOUR heart get SO attached to something SO eternally insignificant would you? (PAUSE) There is another example of a setmah, a pause for effect. Now, verse 10.

The word used in verses 10 and 11 for “feel sorry” is a word that means “compassion” or “to grieve over someone or something, to have your heart broken, to weep for it.” God says, “You feel sorry about the plant” (verse 10). That is, God says, “You wept over it, Jonah. Your heart became attached to it. When it died, it grieved you.” Then God says, in essence, “You weep over plants, but my compassion is for people.” God was showing Jonah the depth of his heart problem. That:

The heart of the problem is the problem in the heart!

Most of our deepest attachments as human beings are involuntary. Jonah did not look at this plant and say, “I’m going to attach my heart to you in affection.” No, it was just meeting a need he was feeling at the time, and he loved it. God, however, needs nothing. He is utterly and perfectly happy in Himself, and He doesn’t NEED us. So how could He get attached…TO US? TO Nineveh?

He voluntarily attaches His heart. God is saying to Jonah, “I am weeping and grieving over this city—why aren’t you? If you are my prophet, why don’t you have my compassion?” Jonah did not grieve over the city, but Jesus, the true and better prophet, did.

Jesus was riding into Jerusalem on the last week of his life. He knew He would suffer at the hands of the leaders and the mob of this city, but instead of being full of wrath or absorbed with self-pity, like Jonah, when JESUS “saw the city”, He grieved over it and said,

Luke 19:42, 44b – NLT - “How I wish today that you of all people would understand the way to peace. But now it’s too late… because you did not recognize it when God visited you.”

A little earlier, Jesus said:

Then, on the cross, Jesus cried out, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34). I think Jesus is saying, “Father, they are torturing and killing me. They are denying and betraying me. But none of them, not even the Pharisees, really completely understand what they are doing.”

We can only look in wonder on such a heart. He does not say they are not guilty of wrongdoing. They are—that is why they need forgiveness. Yet Jesus is also remembering that they are confused, somewhat clueless, and not really able to recognize the horror of what they are doing. Here is a perfect heart—perfect in generous love—not excusing, not harshly condemning. He is the weeping God of Jonah 4 in human form.

Jonah found himself face to face with the reality of God’s perspective:

Jonah cared about a plant. God cared about people!

God is saying “Jonah, you’re concerned about the wrong stuff. You’re concerned about you. Your concerns don’t reflect my concerns. Jonah, I’m concerned about the eternal destinations of 120,000 people, what are you concerned about?
Jonah: “I’m hot.”
God: Jonah, I’m concerned about the people I made who have lost their way, being brought back to me, what are you concerned about?
Jonah: “I want some shade.” I’m hot. I don’t like it here.
God: Jonah, I’m concerned about Nineveh.
Jonah: I’m not comfortable anymore.
Hey Todd, I’m concerned about this generation of people.
Me. My truck is starting to show lots of rust. I NEED a new one.
· What concerns you?
God says,
I’m concerned about people...
I’m concerned about the people you work with.
I’m concerned about the people in your neighborhood.
I’m concerned about your in-laws
I’m concerned about this generation of teenagers
I’m concerned about people who’ve drifted away from church and connection and God

And then without an answer, God drops the mic and the book ends! We are never told what Jonah’s response was. We feel that there must be a missing page somewhere. Why would the story end so abruptly?

One commentator, like many others, suggests: “[The book] forces us to contemplate our personal destiny. It remains unfinished in order that we may provide our own conclusion…. For YOU ARE Jonah; I am Jonah.” It is as if God shoots this arrow of a question at Jonah, but Jonah disappears, and we realize that the arrow is aimed at us.

See, with the final line of his story leaving us in mystery, and much of our own story still unknown to us, there’s one thing we can know for certain: yielded, obedient surrender will keep us right where God wants us. Have you fully surrendered to Him? Or are you hanging onto your plants?

If you are not a Christ follower, God is giving you the message through Jonah’s story, just how much God loves you and wants a relationship with you. And I just want to remind you that Jesus is the TRUE and WAY BETTER Jonah.
1. Jonah was asleep on the ship during a storm caused by his own disobedience (Jonah 1:4-12). Jesus slept on a boat during a storm, and “rebuked the wind and said to the waves, ‘Quiet! Be still!’
2. Jonah spent three days inside the belly of a great fish because of his own sinfulness and rebellion. Jesus spent three days inside the belly of the earth because of our sin and rebellion.
3. Jonah was angry enough to die because of God’s grace toward his enemies (Jonah 4:3). Jesus was compassionate enough to die because of His love for His enemies (Romans 5:10).

Have you made peace with God THROUGH Jesus?

If you are already following Jesus, the question for you is “Do you care about what God cares about?” Or are you distracted with things that are temporary? What or WHO do you care about? God wants you to care about the things that He cares about! Will you surrender to God and His plan for your life? Or will you continue to hang onto your plants?

When you think about Jonah’s story and how we came to know about it…How is it that we know Jonah was so clueless? How do we know that Jonah was so defiant. How do we know that he was so obstinate? How do we know that he made that unbelievable, “I hate that you’re so loving, God.” Speech? How do we know about his prayer inside the fish? The only way we could know is if Jonah told the story. And what kind of man would let the world see what a fool he has been? Could it be that Jonah was transformed, that he was the author and that he wrote it the way he did, so as NOT to be the hero, not to be the point of the story, but that God would be and OUR response to God’s question was more important than his? I think so.