TEXT: Jonah 4

SUBJECT: Exposition of Jonah #5: A Contrast

This chapter is a study in contrast. Two characters appear--as different as they can be. One is Jonah, the other is God. One is unhappy with the salvation of Nineveh; the other is elated. How can they be so unlike each other? Didn't Jonah speak for God in Nineveh? Yes he did. But he didn't fully represent Him. Only God's Son--our Lord--does that.

But this doesn't absolve Jonah. He was obliged to "think God's thoughts after Him". So are we. God help us to do so, for Christ's sake. Amen.

The chapter begins with a sulking prophet. He is "displeased...exceedingly". The word means "broken" or "shattered". Jonah has "gone to pieces". Distress takes many forms: grief, fear, and regret, for example. But Jonah's not heartsick, scared, or sorry--He's enraged!

How mad is he? Mad enough to die--"Oh LORD, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live!" In times of pain or loss, we've all said things we didn't mean. But Jonah is serious. Three times he begs for death; even demands it! Job had cursed the day of his birth, but in God's Presence, he repented of his folly. But not Jonah! It was to God that he made his demand! And more: Justified it.

Like a undisciplined child, Jonah is throwing a temper tantrum. But unlike the child, his will last for more than forty days! This is "the mother of all fits".

What got him into such a lather? We needn't guess. V.2 makes it clear: "Ah, LORD, was this not what I said when I was still in my country? Therefore, I fled previously to Tarshish; for I know that You are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, One who relents from doing harm".

Jonah was mad because God was gracious. That's what He was afraid of in the first place--not that Nineveh wouldn't listen to him, but that they would--and that God would spare the Assyrian capital.

Jonah resented God's grace. That's almost it, but not quite. It isn't Divine grace that he dislikes so much, but its misuse!.

No one admired grace more than Jonah; no one wanted it more. He wanted it for himself (see chapter 2); he wanted it for his people. But he didn't want it for Assyrians. That's what made him so mad--that God's grace was not subject to Jonah's will or to the standards of human justice. He couldn't stomach the sovereignty of grace.

Does Jonah remind you of anyone in the Bible? He ought to: Jonah is the Pharisee who despised the welcome our Lord gave to publicans, harlots, and other scum. He is the Prodigal's brother who resents the Father's goodness. He is the Farmhand who gripes about the Boss's generosity.

Does Jonah remind you of anyone outside of the Bible? Maybe so. When Revival comes to one part of God's Church, many others will be eager to find fault and to deny its authenticity. "How can they have revival? They're not even Reformed!"

In fact, there's a little bit of Jonah in each of us. We pray "It is time for You, O LORD, to work". But we don't mention the other part (but it's often there) "...in the way we think best".

How did Jonah get in such a bad way?

Firstly, he didn't approve of God's whole character. He rather liked His justice and wrath, but he didn't care so much for His mercy and grace. Most people I've met make the opposite mistake. They agree that "God is love", but "God is light"? That, they can do without. Our temptation is to react to them--to overreact, really--and to end up thinking as Jonah did.

To ignore God's wrath is a serious offense. But downplaying His love is too. I've often joked (though seriously) that many Calvinists have reversed the saying "God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life" into "God hates you and has a terrible plan for your life". Both distort the character of God and His Gospel. Equally!

Our theology and message must do equal justice to God's wrath and His love. We must tell sinners that God is a Judge, ready to punish them and a Father, anxious to receive them. How these things can be squared, I do not know; I do know, however, that both are true and perfectly reconciled in God. Our business is not to solve every Divine mystery but to proclaim God as He is. In whole!

Secondly, Jonah forgot that he was no less dependent on the grace of God than Nineveh was. Hadn't he gotten out of the fish's belly--by grace? Wasn't it grace that caused the gourd to grow up and to give him the shade he needed so badly? He had no more right to God's grace than Nineveh had. Nor did Nineveh have less a claim on it than he. Jonah, in short, is raging against the very grace that sustains him! He had recalled his own unworthiness, he wouldn't have resented Nineveh's salvation.

Thirdly, Jonah forgot that people matter to God. Why was he so mad about the withering of the gourd? Because it mattered to him. That gourd was important! If the gourd mattered to Jonah, doesn't a huge city matter to God? "One hundred and twenty thousand persons who don't know their right hands from their left?"

Of course people matter to God! All people--Assyrians no less than Israelites!

"Red and yellow, black and white,

They are precious in His sight".

And just for good measure, He adds: "And also much cattle". God spared Nineveh because He loved its people--and even its livestock!

This is how Jonah got into such a mess. He forgot the LORD and his calling in life, which is to imitate Him.

The LORD.

This is Jonah's portrait. A less flattering one would be hard to paint. If only it were his only. But Jonah is not the main character of his prophecy or of this chapter. Who is? The LORD! How does He come off in it?

He comes off as supremely gracious to sinners. It is Nineveh, after all, that He saved. The city was built by Nimrod, whose very name stands for pride and rebellion. It was full of Assyrians, a vicious people who would one day occupy Israel and scatter its people to the four winds. "Sin abounded". But "Grace abounded much more". This is the LORD! "Savior of the world!" Finding a people who did not seek Him; answering a people who did not call.

What we see of Him in Nineveh, we see fully in Jesus Christ. "This Man receives sinners!" Of what kind? The worst: "Bring in the poor, the maimed, the lame, and the blind. Compel them to come in that My house may be full!"

"But God demonstrated His love for us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us". Not after we believed or repented or reformed or promised to do better, but when we were at the height of our rebellion, Christ dies to save us!

The second thing we learn about Christ from this chapter is this: He is supremely gracious to His people. Nineveh was not the only recipient of God's grace. So was Jonah. He was in the belly of a fish; he was scorched by the sun. But are these favors? They don't seem to be, but they are. "For whom the Lord loves, He chastens and scourges every son He receives". The calamities that befell Jonah were for His good. They taught Him God's ways more clearly and brought him into a closer fellowship. What could be better than these? What could be more gracious? And who ever deserved it less than Jonah? Thus, the whole of salvation, is by grace. Why? Jonah knows, because:

"Salvation is of the LORD".