Can you be angry at God for being too merciful? In Jonah 4:1-11, the prophet is furious — not because God judged a city, but because God spared one. In this study, Dr. Toby Holt closes the book of Jonah with its searching final question about grace.

Jonah had finally preached to Nineveh, and the whole city repented. But instead of rejoicing, Jonah sulks, angry that God showed mercy to his enemies. God gives him an object lesson with a plant that grows and then withers, exposing that Jonah cared more about his own comfort than about 120,000 lost people. Dr. Holt shows how the plant pictures Christ, our covering from God’s judgment, and how the book ends with an unanswered question aimed straight at the reader: will we withhold the grace we ourselves have received?

Questions this study answers:

1. Why was Jonah angry that Nineveh was spared? Because he wanted his cruel enemies destroyed, not forgiven. He resented God’s mercy toward people he thought deserved judgment.

2. What was the point of the plant, the worm, and the wind? They were an object lesson. Jonah grieved over a withered plant but not over a city of lost people, exposing his hard heart.

3. What is the unanswered question at the end of Jonah? God asks whether He should not pity a great city of lost people. The book leaves us to answer whether we will share His heart for the lost. “I know that You are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, One who relents from doing harm.” — Jonah 4:2 (NKJV)

Speaker: Dr. Toby Holt is the President of New Geneva Theological Seminary, a Reformed seminary in Colorado Springs. He is known for clear, down-to-earth Bible teaching, and his sermons have been downloaded more than 1.9 million times on SermonAudio. Listen and go deeper: This sermon is part of the Jonah Explained study from New Geneva Theological Seminary. Find more verse-by-verse teaching across the Bible at newgeneva.org. To support this teaching ministry, visit newgeneva.org/give.

A number of years back, on my first day of seminary classes, there was a wise, older professor,

2

and he wrote one sentence on the chalkboard.

3

The start of the class, it was a systematics class, he wrote one sentence on the chalkboard,

4

and he said that this sentence is the foundation upon which all good theology must be based.

5

And what he wrote on the chalkboard were these words,

6

There is a God, and you are not him.

7

There is a God.

8

There is a God who has made everything around us.

9

There is a God, and his will transcends my will.

10

His will transcends your will.

11

Furthermore, what this God does does not require your approval or your validation or your vindication,

12

as Jonah sought to withhold in today's text.

13

There is a God, and he does what's right even when you don't like it, even when you don't understand it.

14

This is theology 101.

15

god is sovereign there is a god you are not him and you will not fully comprehend his ways with

16

that said in today's text we're seeing a prophet a man of god a man named jonah who i think on some

17

level knew that god is sovereign and control and yet he would take that theology he would take

18

theology 101 and he would throw it out the window the minute god did something that jonah didn't

19

like that Jonah didn't agree with. We see an argument in today's text. Jonah, is it right

20

for you to be angry? Yes, God, it is right. We see a conflict of two wills in today's text. Now,

21

as I said a few minutes ago, when chapter three ended, it ended on one of the highest notes that

22

any chapter ever has in the whole of scripture. This one wayward, reluctant prophet who didn't

23

even want to go to the city he went to, who went to a city that didn't want him to be there, preached

24

one sermon, five words long in Hebrew, eight words long in English. It had the greatest effect of any

25

sermon ever preached in terms of the number who responded. That should be the high note of just

26

about any chapter in scripture, and it should have been the high note in the apex of Jonah's own life.

27

And yet the response of the Ninevites to these words was not the response that Jonah wanted.

28

And so he grew angry.

29

From the king on down, we saw last week, the people in Nineveh,

30

the people who you would think would be like the least likely candidates,

31

A, for grace, and B, to respond to that grace, did exactly that.

32

They responded from the king on down.

33

Not just a few scrubs on the periphery of the city.

34

From the king on down, the guy who took off his robe,

35

he put on sackcloth, wore ashes, the people followed suit.

36

They acknowledged what they'd done was wrong.

37

They acknowledged they were sinners before God.

38

And they fell before that God and asked for his mercy.

39

They said, who knows?

40

If we change our ways, maybe God will be merciful.

41

Now, what do you think happened next?

42

Well, we know what happened next because chapter 3 concluded with these words.

43

It said this.

44

It said, when God saw how the Ninevites responded

45

and how they turned from their evil ways,

46

God relented of the disaster that he was to bring upon them, and he did not do it.

47

By any stretch of the imagination, this is incredibly good news.

48

By any stretch of the imagination, this is something to be excited about.

49

Over 100,000 people, at least, over 100,000 people have been spared from God's wrath.

50

Over 100,000 people have repented of their sins, asked for forgiveness.

51

I tell you now, I would trade my life for that outcome.

52

Jonah turned his back on her.

53

In Luke 15, Jesus said this.

54

He said, you know what?

55

There's more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents

56

than 99 who need no repentance.

57

Over one sinner, there's more joy in heaven

58

than over 100 who don't need any repentance.

59

Well, this wasn't just one.

60

This was 100,000 plus at least, probably far more.

61

what a day what a party there must have been in heaven on this day and yet Jonah saw it not

62

yet Jonah had the exact opposite reaction of what all of heaven was doing at this moment to Jonah

63

this was nothing good to Jonah this was no miracle this isn't a miracle in the least this was a

64

miscarriage of justice to Jonah this was not a miracle it was a miscarriage of justice God it

65

It is not right what you have done.

66

He doesn't merely assert that he didn't like what God did.

67

He said, this is not right.

68

I am right to be angry about an action you have taken.

69

Dear Jonah, there is a God.

70

You are not him.

71

Let's see how that plays out in the verses to come.

72

Let's reread verses 1 through 4 and then work our way through the balance.

73

Verse 1.

74

But this displeased Jonah exceedingly.

75

What displeased him?

76

The repentance of the people and the fact that God withheld his wrath.

77

So this displeased Jonah exceedingly.

78

The text actually implies that Jonah saw this as a great evil.

79

It displeased Jonah exceedingly.

80

He became angry.

81

And so he prayed to the Lord.

82

And he said, Oh, Lord, wasn't this what I told you you would do?

83

Oh, Lord, was this not what I said when I was still in my country?

84

That's why I fled previously to Tarshish, because I know you're gracious.

85

I know you're merciful.

86

I know you're slow to anger, abundant in love and kindness, one who relents from doing harm.

87

Therefore now, oh Lord, please take my life from me.

88

It's better for me to die than to live.

89

Then the Lord said, is it right for you to be angry?

90

You know, of all the people in the book of Jonah, the only one who's ever depicted as angry is Jonah.

91

With that said, if anyone had a right to be angry, it was God.

92

Clearly, God had a right to be angry at the Ninevites.

93

The Ninevites, in a world filled with pagan people, in a world filled with wickedness,

94

in some way that we can't even calibrate, in chapter 1, verse 2, God said this,

95

the wickedness of this one city the wickedness of this city is unique in such a way that it is more

96

wicked than all the other cities which are plenty wicked and of themselves we see in chapter one

97

that he has every reason to be angry at none of us god had reasons to be angry at these people

98

they were terrible terrible people beyond that he could have been angry at the sailors who went with

99

jonah chapter one because when the storm came up on the waters what did they do well they began to

100

prayed to all their own fake false gods we see that they prayed all sorts of different things

101

asking for help God could have been angry at them and of course God had plenty of reasons to be

102

angry at Jonah given his disobedience God says arise go to Nineveh that great city Jonah goes

103

down to Joppa goes out to Tarshish goes down to the bottom of the boat and goes to sleep

104

God had every right to be angry at Jonah given that Jonah was shirking his prophetic duties

105

and fled to avoid doing them.

106

However, although God had a right to be angry

107

to all the people, all y'all in this text,

108

although God had a right to be angry to them,

109

instead, what do you see time and time again from God?

110

You see compassion.

111

You see grace.

112

God has a right to be angry at Nineveh,

113

and yet he has grace on Nineveh,

114

and he sends him a prophet to bring them to repentance.

115

God had a right to be angry at the Phoenician sailors

116

praying to idols of stone and marble,

117

and yet God has grace, saves them from the storm,

118

shows him his true power.

119

God had a right to be angry at Jonah

120

for not doing what he ought to do

121

and for being so hard-hearted towards the people

122

made in God's own image.

123

And yet God consistently shows Jonah grace

124

from one end of the book to the other.

125

You would have thought that somewhere along the line,

126

that grace and compassion that God was showing

127

everyone in the book would have rubbed off on Jonah.

128

You would have thought by the time you get to chapter four,

129

right, his heart would have softened a bit.

130

That's not what happens.

131

We see that he's even more angry and more bitter as this chapter unfolds.

132

And so God just stops the presses and asks him the most pressing question.

133

Jonah, Jonah, is it right for you to be angry?

134

God is suggesting to Jonah, if he'll just take the hint,

135

that Jonah's anger is unfounded, that it's not appropriate.

136

But Jonah's not going to get that.

137

He's not going to take this hint, and he's going to say,

138

I'd rather die than live another day with this injustice going on.

139

And the next few verses, he's going to double down on that statement.

140

Let's look at verses 5 through 8.

141

So Jonah went out of the city, and he sat on the east side of the city.

142

There he made himself a shelter, and he sat in the shade,

143

till he might see what would become of the city.

144

And Lord God prepared a plant and made it come up over Jonah,

145

that it might be shade for his head to deliver him from his misery.

146

So Jonah was very grateful for the plant.

147

It was morning dawn the next day.

148

God prepared a worm, and it damaged the plant so that it withered.

149

And it happened that when the sun rose, that God prepared a vehement east wind.

150

The sun beat on Jonah's head, so they grew faint.

151

And then he wished death for himself and said,

152

It's better for me to die than to live.

153

All right.

154

After leaving Nineveh, what does Jonah do?

155

Well, we see Jonah goes out of the city.

156

You can just picture him just kicking the dirt off his shoes, wiping his hands.

157

he just goes out of the city goes up towards the east sat down in order scripture says to see what

158

would become of the city now what was he expecting what was expecting would happen well honestly it's

159

hard to know for sure in part because we don't know how many days had gone by at this point was

160

it 40 days which is the three days we don't really know but from the context it would seem he was

161

holding out some sort of hope that if he just went out on the eastern hills looking down at the city

162

that something would happen to the city maybe he could self-actualize its doom maybe he could look

163

upon this city and something would happen some cataclysm would occur maybe god would finally

164

respond maybe god would do what he should have done all along in jonah's mind so he sat there

165

and he watched the city and he waited waited for something to happen as a side note what a weird

166

conflicted mindset this is you send a prophet to the city to preach repentance the people repent

167

and the guy who preached the sermon sits back and says to himself i wish it never happened

168

and furthermore as he looks on the people he had just preached to he desired not their good as a

169

man of god should but he desired their pain their suffering instead of trying to distribute god's

170

grace and salvation and forgiveness to others, he wanted to hoard it to himself or to those that he

171

thought were worthy. As believers, we don't do that, and yet Jonah did. You know, in our own lives, we

172

encounter people that maybe they're not the Ninevites, but you can go to Walmart or Target

173

or down the beach or what have you, and you can walk down an aisle and you can see someone who

174

you see is just as lost as lost can be, acting, talking, dressing in ways that you say, that's just

175

a heathen. Maybe they say something or do something that really offends you, and your mindset is they

176

deserve what's coming. That's not the right response. The right response is to look at such

177

one and say, there but for the grace of God go I. Apart from God's grace on me, I would be no

178

different than they, justly deserving God's displeasure. That may not be theology 101, but

179

at least theology 102 it's a very straightforward presentation of the gospel it's a very

180

straightforward presentation of grace and yet again jonah didn't get it so he sits down this

181

prophet sits down to watch the city burn he sits down again as if to try to bring about an outcome

182

that god had no intention of bringing to pass and in verse 6 it suggests that jonah had picked i

183

guess a hot day to sit in the sun the wind especially on day two would come from the eastward

184

plains not from the west you know where the waters were and such but out from the eastward plains

185

and so he's sitting there and he's baking and as watching and nothing's happening is well i gotta

186

do something and so he made himself a booth a little tent so to speak out of i don't know twigs

187

and sagebrush and whatever he could find you know as a side note in the midst of july in south

188

mississippi if you try to cover yourself with twigs and sagebrush is that going to keep you cool

189

no, not in the least. Well, it wouldn't keep you cool here either, outside Nineveh. And verse 6

190

says that everything was miserable. The heat was miserable. The wind was miserable. The sun was

191

miserable. Jonah was miserable. Now, let me ask you a question, a thinking question here. So Jonah's

192

sitting up there, right? He's sitting up there and he's baking. He's got his twigs and his shrubs

193

trying to cover himself to keep himself a little bit cool. Was there any source, as Jonah looked

194

around him, was there any source of escape from the heat? What do you think? Well, I got one.

195

Nineveh. God didn't tell him to go up in the hillside. There was nothing stopping Jonah from

196

going back into Nineveh and sitting down with those who repented and being the man of God he

197

was called to be and teaching them about Jehovah. He didn't have to sit up there and bake all by

198

himself he could have gone right back into the city and taught and shared and been cool or at

199

least cooler than than he otherwise would and yet he says no the minute he's done preaching he gets

200

out of dodge he's a mercenary in his approach to god he leaves the city and do his own thing

201

and he sat up there on the hillside on the off chance that god would change his mind once again

202

and bring in the angelic artillery to finish off the Ninevites.

203

So he waits, and he watches, and he waits some more, and nothing happens.

204

It's not entirely true, though.

205

Something does happen, we see in verse 6.

206

We see that in the midst of all this heat, in the midst of his suffering,

207

in the midst of all his sin, God yet prepares a plant that comes up over Jonah.

208

In his moment of need, God provided shade for the prophet's head.

209

And we see in verse 6 that Jonah was very grateful for that.

210

He had a lot of sin issues, but he was right about this.

211

He was grateful.

212

He was grateful because this came from the hand of God.

213

He was grateful.

214

At least for this day, he'd be protected from the sun's scorching rays.

215

Now, with that said, what do you think Jonah would do if God took the plant away?

216

Well, we're going to find out here.

217

In verse 7, we don't have to wait very long because the next morning,

218

The next morning, God withers the plant, brings it a word, kills the plant,

219

and he allows, God allows Jonah to be exposed to the sun's raging heat.

220

He even brings up what's called a Sirocco, an east wind that comes in

221

and really starts baking things.

222

And in verse 8, we read that Jonah just longs for death.

223

Now, up until that point, Jonah's fate on the hillsides was contingent on one thing.

224

As he sat there on the first day, his ability to survive the first day

225

was contingent on one thing.

226

on the covering of the plant between him and the sun's rays

227

that otherwise would have baked him,

228

on the intercession, so to speak, of the plant between him

229

that would have otherwise just cooked him where he sat.

230

Apart from that intercession on page 2, Jonah knew he was doomed.

231

Apart from some sort of covering that protected him

232

from being cooked to death where he sat, Jonah was doomed.

233

Now, as you can probably guess, there is a gospel-themed object lesson in this.

234

Let's pretend for the moment that this scorching, fiery sun represents God's wrath against sin.

235

Let's pretend that the sun's burning rays typifies God's anger,

236

the brightness and fury of his anger against man's sinfulness.

237

If the sun represents God's wrath, then doesn't Jonah, as a sinner, need some sort of covering?

238

Well, yes.

239

And if that covering were to be removed, would he be doomed?

240

Well, yes, if Jonah was not to be covered

241

from the wrath of God due to his sins,

242

how in the world could he hope to survive it?

243

The short answer is that he couldn't.

244

Neither could you or I.

245

Every last man, woman, and child in this room,

246

every last man, woman, and child in the world

247

will one day face the brightness of a thousand suns

248

directed towards us and the sins that cover us.

249

And if we were to face the brightness of that fury,

250

the brightness of those rays from the throne of God himself

251

and the one who sits there, we would surely burn.

252

We would surely die.

253

But the good news of the gospel is this, that we have a covering,

254

that we have shade, so to speak, from that outcome,

255

that we have intercession, not through some plant,

256

but through the personal work of Jesus.

257

On the great day that is yet to come, you and I will be protected and preserved

258

because we are covered in the atoning blood of the Lamb.

259

The Lamb who has paid the penalty due to our sins.

260

on the day when God's judgment is poured out upon the nations,

261

if you were trying to stand before him on that day yet to come,

262

if you were trying to stand before him,

263

apart from any covering, apart from any shade,

264

apart from any intercession,

265

if you were trying to stand before God on the day yet to come,

266

clad only in your self-styled righteousness,

267

on that great day, when the wrath of God is unleashed upon sin,

268

you will melt before him like a wax figurine in front of a blast furnace.

269

You need cover. You need shade. You need

270

intercession. And that's

271

what we have through Christ.

272

With that in mind, what do you think the plant typifies

273

in Jonah 4? It typifies

274

Christ. It typifies

275

Christ. There's an object lesson

276

here for Jonah if he were to receive it.

277

However, he was in no mood

278

for an object lesson.

279

When God caused the plant to wither over Jonah's

280

head, all Jonah could see was his own

281

suffering. He didn't learn any lessons at all.

282

So how does he respond to the loss of the plant?

283

What does he say to God?

284

Well, let's look at verse 9 to find out.

285

Then Jonah said to God, remember, God's teaching Jonah through this.

286

God does the one thing, and then he changes it up the next day in order to teach Jonah

287

something about grace and repentance and intercession and the like.

288

So then in verse 9, God says to Jonah, as Jonah's sitting there suffering,

289

God says, all right, is it right for you to be angry about the plant?

290

Is it right?

291

Now, what's Jonah going to say?

292

Is Jonah going to say, you know what, God, I've thought about it.

293

You're right. It's not appropriate. I'm sorry.

294

Is that what he's going to say? Well, no. In verse 9, he says this.

295

He says, yes, it's right for me to be angry, even to death.

296

That's like doubling down on your statement.

297

Yes, God, it is right for me to be angry.

298

He's superimposing his view of what's right over God's view.

299

And he says, yes, it's right. Of course it's right.

300

Even unto death.

301

Again, I want you to notice, God didn't ask Jonah if it was understandable that he was angry.

302

God didn't ask if Jonah's anger was understandable.

303

I think we can all understand an overheated guy being frustrated and talking loud here.

304

I think we can understand that, but that's not what God said.

305

God didn't say, is this understandable that you're upset as you're baking in the sun?

306

He says, is it right that you're angry about the plant?

307

There's theological implications here when God says to a man,

308

is it right for you to be angry about something I have done?

309

not understandable, but is it right? Jonah didn't take the time to think through the theological

310

considerations there. He just says, yes, yes, thousand times yes, it's right for me to be angry.

311

You did something, God, that was wrong. You did something. First, it was the Ninevites.

312

Dear heavens, you shouldn't have gone done that. You sent me there to give grace to these people

313

who don't deserve it. These enemies are your people. These enemies are your own throne.

314

Yes, I deserve to be angry about that.

315

Yeah, it's right and appropriate for me to be angry.

316

In that moment, Jonah's forgetting theology 101.

317

There is a God.

318

You're not him.

319

Jonah was superimposing his view of right.

320

He was making a righteous judgment and saying,

321

my view of what's right is above yours.

322

How often do we do that?

323

How often does something come into our life that we don't like?

324

And we question God or doubt God or get angry at God.

325

It's one thing to have something come in your life that you don't like

326

and you just sit down and cry about it.

327

all the prophets did that. It's one thing to be frustrated and hurt by it because we don't

328

understand it. God comes alongside us and holds us in those times. He understands our emotions.

329

He truly does. It's one thing to be frustrated and hurt by things that we don't like. It's an

330

entirely different thing to tell God, you were wrong. You blew it. You made the wrong call.

331

In verse 9, Jonah is suggesting something, and this is the second time he did it. God drew this

332

response out of him more than once this isn't just he used the wrong word one time he did it

333

multiple times in verse 9 jonah claimed that his response to what god did was morally ethically

334

spiritually appropriate given the circumstances jonah was asserting his own righteous judgment

335

to jonah god had erred first with nineveh and then with the plant and that had legitimatized

336

his anger jonah felt valid legitimatized and doing what he was doing and that's why he repeatedly

337

said, yes, it is right. Not just understandable, but right. Now this was an implicit challenge to

338

the authority of God, and it would have been somewhat understandable if the only fire and

339

brimstone that fell near Nineveh that day fell on Jonah. It would have been understandable.

340

The Ninevites said and did all the right things upon hearing the word of God. Jonah has God talk

341

directly to him, directly to him, and Jonah's response is meh. It would have been understandable

342

if he was smited right then and there.

343

But again, that's not what God does.

344

As he did from chapter 1 to chapter 2

345

to chapter 3 to chapter 4,

346

God gives grace upon grace upon grace.

347

All right, let's look ahead here

348

at our remaining verses, verses 10 and 11.

349

Verse 10.

350

But the Lord said,

351

You have had pity on the plant

352

for which you have not labored,

353

nor made it grow,

354

which came up in a night and perished in a night.

355

Should I not pity Nineveh, that great city,

356

in which are more than 120,000 persons who cannot discern between their right hand and their left.

357

What's God saying in these verses?

358

Well, in essence, God is reminding Jonah that the prophet had shed more tears

359

and was far more concerned over some material thing, just a plant.

360

He's reminding Jonah, Jonah, you are more bent out of shape about the fate of this plant

361

then you are all those people. Jonah, you had pity on a plant. Dear heavens, don't you think I

362

should have pity on a city of over 120,000 people that don't know the right hand from their left?

363

Jonah, Jonah, Jonah. God is so gentle, trying to show him, trying to shake him by the lapel to see,

364

Jonah, you got this all wrong. Your priorities are all messed up. Jonah expended more emotions

365

on the plant than he did on all those people

366

who are made in the image of God.

367

Sinners in danger of hellfire.

368

Eternal hellfire.

369

And yet he had more

370

concern over the loss of this one plant.

371

You know, all these

372

years later, from our comfy

373

comfy chairs,

374

it's easy for us to just

375

say, shame, Jonah.

376

Shame.

377

Wow, Jonah, how could you be

378

so callous? How could

379

you be so hard-hearted? However,

380

we need to be careful. See, for many of us, it's possible. For many of us, it's possible. We too

381

have spent more time lamenting the loss of material things in our own lives than we've

382

ever spent crying over the condemnation of our neighbors. When something that provides our

383

material comfort is removed from us, let me just ask you, does it make you more emotional and

384

consternated than if someone down the street dies and goes to hell? If we were to lose even a, I

385

don't know, a tenth, a tenth of our salary or our possessions overnight, would we lament that loss

386

to a greater degree than we mourn over the loss of our neighbors? If we lose even a small portion

387

of that which it provides for us, some portion of our material wealth or material goods or

388

possessions, if we were to lose some small portion of that, would we grieve that loss more than the

389

potential eternal loss of our neighbor to condemnation. I ask this not to judge, but to

390

nudge. Jonah certainly needed nudging here. As fallen men and women, our priorities are often

391

misplaced. Jonah's were. This is a prophet. This is a man of God. This guy's got a book in the Bible

392

named after him. If it could happen to him, it can happen to us. Our priorities can go topsy-turvy.

393

We can get more focused on things and material wealth and possessions and such to the point that

394

if it's taken away like the plant, we can lament its loss more than we care about the people who

395

are dying, going to hell to our left and to our right. With that said, God's eyes, if they're on

396

the sparrow, then they're on the Ninevite. If they're on the sparrow, then they're on your

397

neighbor. If they're on the sparrow, then they're on you. Furthermore, God's not insensitive to the

398

mandates of his own judgment, which the Ninevites were in danger of paying. God is not insensitive

399

to what it means for sinners to die and go to hell,

400

which is why he sent his son to rescue

401

and to redeem, to save a large portion of these individuals.

402

And God reminds Jonah of his own mission,

403

his own mandate, the mission that his son

404

would come to pursue in verse 11 when he says this,

405

Jonah, shouldn't I pity Nineveh?

406

Should I not pity Nineveh?

407

These are people made in my own image.

408

Should I not pity Nineveh?

409

This great city, this expansive city,

410

The text suggests 120,000 who don't know the right hand from their left.

411

That might be just a reference to kids, children, infants who don't know it.

412

If that's the case, then this is a huge city.

413

If that's the case, then the estimates are over 600,000 people.

414

And God says, shouldn't I pity them?

415

That great city in which are more than 120,000 persons

416

who cannot discern between their left and their right hand.

417

There was a lot of people in Nineveh, no matter how you count them,

418

that were lost and going to hell.

419

And God, while we're yet sinners,

420

God, out of his love for those who are enemies of his throne,

421

God, out of his love for those who rejected his laws and commandments

422

and were pursuing their own will and wants and desires,

423

God desired to pursue them, to save them.

424

And he sent Jonah to be a means by which this was accomplished.

425

Later, he would send his son.

426

This morning, as we look to wrap up, let me offer this observation in closing.

427

There was a time in your life and mine

428

when we were in the exact same boat as the Ninevites.

429

We might not have done the exact same things that they did, but our hearts were just as dead.

430

We were just as spiritually flatlining as those in this case.

431

We were in the same boat.

432

There was a time in our lives where we didn't have the spiritual discernment to judge between our right and our left hand, so to speak.

433

There was a time.

434

And the only thing that has changed since that time is that God has shown his grace to you.

435

God has shown his grace to we who did not deserve it.

436

And what an exciting thing that God doesn't wait until we've earned that grace.

437

If he did, it wouldn't be grace.

438

Remember how Jonah chapter 1 verse 2 starts?

439

God looks down and talks about Nineveh as that wicked city.

440

They didn't earn anything.

441

They didn't merit grace.

442

They didn't deserve grace.

443

They weren't looking for grace.

444

They were going the exact opposite direction.

445

And yet God pursued them.

446

And God gave them grace.

447

And he sent them his word.

448

And he sent them a prophet.

449

God doesn't wait until you clean up your lives.

450

And get right with God before he offers his mercy.

451

Instead, as we'll see in a few moments, while we're yet sinners.

452

While we're yet sinners.

453

While we're enemies of the cross and the throne, Christ died for us.

454

That's what grace is.

455

Unearned yet given.

456

Unmerited yet poured out.

457

It was by grace that anyone in Nineveh had hope for the future.

458

It was by grace that you and I have any hope for the future.

459

And if that's true, if it's by grace that Jonah had any hope

460

to pen this chapter later on,

461

write it, and go on to live a better, more sanctified

462

life. If there was any chance that was going to happen, it was going to be

463

only by grace. If that is true, then

464

how dare he, how dare we

465

withhold that grace

466

from anyone else? In effect,

467

that's the question that closes chapter 4.

468

In effect, that's the question that closes

469

this whole book. How would Jonah

470

ultimately answer it? We don't know.

471

Because the book ends there.

472

But what we can answer is this.

473

How will you and I respond?

474

How will you and I respond to our divine calling and appointment

475

to serve as his ambassadors into a fallen kingdom

476

to bring his gospel to those who are in dire need of it?

477

This day, how will we respond?

478

Let's pray for the grace to respond well.