Jonah 3:10-4:11
Intro
As soon as the name Jonah is mentioned in circles of faith people immediately start to think of the whale. Jonah, for better or for worse, has been tied to this giant fish, and in many ways, is thought of more as a Pinocchio-like character then a prophet of God, sent to the people of Nineveh to deliver a message that destruction was coming if repentance was not made. As many of us remember, this was not a mission that Jonah really took a liking to. In fact, he ran away, hopped aboard a boat and tried to pretend that he could outrun God. He couldn’t. God sends a storm to batter the boat to the point that the sailors, despite their best efforts, were fearful that they would die as their ship sunk. Jonah gives them as option. He says, "throw me into the sea; then the sea will quiet down for you; for I know that it is because of me that this great storm has come upon you." Eventually they do; but instead of Jonah dying he is swallowed up by a giant fish for three days and three nights.
The thing is, much like Pinocchio, the story does not end with our main character inside the belly of the fish. After lifting a prayer of confession and commitment, Jonah gets "spewed out upon the dry land" and is told, for a second time, to head to Nineveh and proclaim that message of repentance. The amazing this is, they do. They listen to Jonah and revert from their sin filled ways.
What we are about to hear is, as Paul Harvey likes to call it, the rest of the story. Beyond the fish and the proclamation lies a tale that is hard to believe. The thought that I would like you to ask yourselves as you hear this passage is this: does Jonah have sound footing for being as upset as he is? The scripture reads this way.
Jonah 3:10-4:11
10
When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them; and he did not do it.4 But this was very displeasing to Jonah, and he became angry. 2 He prayed to the Lord and said, "O Lord! Is not this what I said while I was still in my own country? That is why I fled to Tarshish at the beginning; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing. 3 And now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live." 4 And the Lord said, "Is it right for you to be angry?" 5 Then Jonah went out of the city and sat down east of the city, and made a booth for himself there. He sat under it in the shade, waiting to see what would become of the city.
6
The Lord God appointed a bush, and made it come up over Jonah, to give shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort; so Jonah was very happy about the bush. 7 But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the bush, so that it withered. 8 When the sun rose, God prepared a sultry east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint and asked that he might die. He said, "It is better for me to die than to live."9
But God said to Jonah, "Is it right for you to be angry about the bush?" And he said, "Yes, angry enough to die." 10 Then the Lord said, "You are concerned about the bush, for which you did not labor and which you did not grow; it came into being in a night and perished in a night. 11 And should I not be concerned about 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 many animals?""Throw the Box Out"
Have you ever run into that person who is very good at what they do for a living, but absolutely hates what they are doing? For example, this person is able to sell the most product of anyone in their region, they get all the accolades of their superiors that are available, move up the economic ladder, but then goes home at night dreading the idea of going to work the next day. Maybe they were directed down this path because that’s what their folks wanted them to do. Maybe they ended up there because it was the job that was easy to get. Whatever the case may be, they are now doing something that they hate. They feel like they are trapped.
If you haven’t, then you need look no further then our main character for the scripture lesson this morning, Jonah. Jonah, as is described in one of the commentaries that I use, is the "most successful missionary of all time." As inconceivable as this might sound (especially when consider that he is being compared to the likes of Isaiah, Jeremiah, or even Daniel), think of what he was able to accomplish. He walked into a city that was going to be destroyed in forty days, told them that if they didn’t repent and begin to follow the ways of God that they were all going to be "overthrown". In terms of the scripture itself, this is all we are told he said.
Now while we can safely assume that the city of Nineveh, which took three days to walk across, had to have heard quite a bit more than eight words, it seems quite obvious that the city took to his call to repentance very quickly. Within days the king called for the city to acknowledge its sinfulness and follow the ways of the Lord. At the conclusion of the passage we are told that over 120 thousand individuals were saved because they listened to God’s word through Jonah. Now that’s getting something done. His life was not threatened, he was not thrown into prison, he was not chased out of the city as was the treatment toward so many other prophets. No, instead, the people simply listened. You’d think that he would be happy. You’d think that Jonah would be overjoyed at the work that had been done, and done so easily.
However, he isn’t. In fact, we are told that he is incredibly "displeased" and that he becomes "angry". As an outside observer this is shocking. How could he ever be upset at such a miracle?
Here’s why: the book of Jonah was written in a time when the people of Israel had a very narrow view of how God worked in the world. Depending on who you read this could either mean that the book was written in a period of strength, when Israel was the dominant military and economic force in the region, or a time when the people of Israel were looking to overthrow the authority that ruled over them. In either case, the generally accepted thought of the day was that there was no way that God should love, care for, and support anyone but the chosen who were called our of Egypt. Therefore, the city of Nineveh represents a gentile society that is either the whipping boy of the Israelites, or the societal heavy who is leaning on ‘God’s chosen’. In either case, the Israelites do not like this Gentile society; they feel that they are the only ones worthy of the Almighty’s divine blessing and forgiveness (which they have received countless times); and are looking to make sure that the Gentiles get absolutely no breaks.
This is the ideology that Jonah represents. This is why when he is called to Nineveh he tries to run away. He knows that God is merciful and will forgive. He knows this because throughout the generations the people of Israel have wandered from the path of righteousness and time, after time, after time, after time, they are welcomed back into the eternal fellowship. Jonah knows that if the people of Nineveh repent, that they will receive similar treatment, that they too will be forgiven. This is not because of anything that the Ninevites have done; it is because it is part of the very nature of God.
Jonah does not want this forgiveness to be granted. He wants the people of Nineveh to be crushed. So when they do repent, he is "displeased" and "angered" because his point of view, his limited mindset, has not been followed. In a whole lot of ways, Jonah is acting like a child who says, "if you’re not going to play the way that I want to, then I’m going to take my ball and go home". And in terms of the scripture for this morning, that’s exactly what he does.
It is after making the statement, "O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live", that Jonah proceeds to go out beyond the city walls and sit there. Jonah starts to get hot, which is not a big surprise considering that he is sitting in what is modern day Iraq: it gets hot in Iraq. It is in this setting that God decides to teach Jonah another lesson (as if the fish wasn’t enough). God causes a bush to grow overnight and shade Jonah from the heat and discomfort of the beating sun. For obvious reasons, Jonah appreciates this development. The next day, besides inflicting Jonah with a hot and humid breeze from the east, God causes that same bush to die, allowing the sun to beat down upon Jonah’s head. Jonah returns to a familiar refrain and says, "It is better for me to die than to live." Basically, Jonah is sorry that the bush has died. Yes, he is sorry because its death means he gets cooked in the midday sun, but the fact still remains that he is sorry that the bush has died.
God’s response to this feeling is quick and pointed, "Jonah, look if you are concerned about a 24-hour bush, for which you did not labor and which you did not grow, shouldn’t I be even more concerned about Nineveh, a city with over 120 thousand residents (not to mention the animals) of which I am responsible for the creation of every single one? The people of Nineveh are my creation and I will care for them as I have cared for you and your people. This is my nature and regardless of how you may view the world, my love for the world will not change."
What the author of this story is trying to get across to the Israelites, but also to us today, is that the limited way that we like to view God is not correct. The box that we try and place the Almighty into will not be able to contain the glory that is about to be revealed. Basically, think bigger, or, thinking of it another way, throw your box out!. If you think that God only cares for the people of a certain race, you’re wrong. Think bigger. If you think that God only cares for the people of a certain country, you’re wrong. Think bigger. If you think that God only cares for the people of a certain religion (which is one of the presuppositions that the mindset that Jonah represents believes), you’re wrong. Think bigger.
Through the events that took place at Nineveh, God forced Jonah to think bigger. Whether or not he actually decided to acknowledge the truth that was before him, we are never told, but his story grants us the opportunity to examine our own life and ask the question, are we be allowing God to be God, or are we trying to mold God into a deity that is palatable for our likes and dislikes, or our own personal biases (whether or not we recognize them as such)?
Unfortunately, too often, and as we have heard with Jonah, the answer fits into the latter categories. I pray that as we head into this new program year, that we, as a community of faith, might grow beyond these self-imposed limitations and begin to think bigger. As we do, not only will our faith begin to grow in some wonderful ways, but we will begin to understand, in new ways, just how great this God whom we worship truly is.
After Sermon Prayer
O holy God, we thank You for the story of Your prophet Jonah and pray that the shortcomings that he so clearly exhibited might not be lived out in us. Allow us to grow beyond our shortsightedness into the amazing glory that can be found in Your passion for the whole of creation. Help us to spread this message so that all people might come to recognize the truth that is found in You. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.