God had done a miracle. He's saved the hard hearted Jonah and made him do the job that he had tried so hard to avoid. But what will happen when things go exactly how Jonah thought they would?

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Welcome back to Stories of a Faithful God. Dave Whittingham here, your host.

In the last episode we began looking at what God was doing through Jonah. Like we will in every episode we saw how God is the hero.

We saw his power… power over the wind and waves… power over a giant fish… power to stop Jonah in his tracks even as he’s trying to get away.

And we saw his compassion. Compassion on the sailors… who started the story as idol worshippers who’d never even considered God… God had compassion on them by revealing himself to them… showing them his power and authority… and accepting their new worship of him.

He also had compassion on Jonah. Instead of destroying him… he gave him time… he gave him a taste of what its like being away from God… until finally Jonah realised what he’d given up. He realised how foolish it is to run from the saviour God… the powerful God… the compassionate God. And so he turned back to God… and God saved him. Not because Jonah deserved it… but because God loves to save people who come back to him.

I said at the start of the last episode that Jonah is a dangerous book. We can laugh at Jonah… we can shake our heads at him… he really is a useless prophet. But we need to be careful… because just when we’re laughing hardest… that’s when we realise that the joke is actually on us.

And that’s what we’ll see in episode 4… of Stories of a Faithful God.

MUSIC

Jonah chapter 3 starts in almost exactly the same way as Jonah chapter 1. God speaks to Jonah and gives him a job. Jonah chapter 3 verse 1 says:

The word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time: “Get up! Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach the message that I tell you.”

On the one hand it might be depressing. You might think… here we go again. But actually… what’s happened in between chapter 1 verse 1 and chapter 3 verse 1? God’s happened. God’s intervened. Through God’s power and compassion… Jonah’s become obedient. He listens… he obeys God’s word. So verse 3 says:

Jonah got up and went to Nineveh according to the LORD’s command.

How different is that to chapter 1? God’s worked a miracle in Jonah.

Now just take a moment to remember what Nineveh is. It’s one of the chief cities of the Assyrian empire. An empire that conquered and ruled through fear. They loved producing propaganda showing how cruel they’d been to anyone who stood against them. If you were sent as an ambassador to Nineveh… trying to get some kind of peace deal or treaty… As you went into the king you’d have to walk past artwork… showing the terrible torture that’d been given to your enemies. Just think about what that does to your mindset before you even sit down at the bargaining table.

That’s at a really big level. But the evil of the city extends to everyone there. They’ve all sinned… they’re all guilty.

God’s seen their evil… And now he’s saying… its time for justice. Its time to announce judgement on Nineveh. And he sends Jonah to do just that.

The passage highlights the size of the city. Its huge… it would take three days to walk all through it. Just remember in ancient times… most cities you could walk through in an afternoon… so this is huge.

Jonah starts his journey through the city… its day one. The message he has to give isn’t a message of hope or happiness… It’s a message of disaster. He’s walking through the city yelling out:

“In forty days Nineveh will be demolished!”

You’re probably not going to find that message in a list of how to make friends and influence people.

And yet…

And yet its effect… is remarkable. As people hear this message… as they hear the word of God… the powerful word of the God who has power over the land and the sea and the animals… a miracle happens. Not a slow burn miracle… an instant one.

Jonah doesn’t make it the three days through the city. On the very first day… as Jonah’s giving this depressing message… “In forty days Nineveh will be demolished!”… verse 5 tells us:

Then the people of Nineveh believed God.

Isn’t that… amazing. Nineveh was the strongest superpower around. There was no-one who could realistically stand against them. The idea that in 40 days they’ll be wiped out seems ludicrous… But when they hear the powerful word of God… God makes them believe.

And true belief is always followed up by actions. They do the things that are associated with sadness and mourning. They all call for a fast… they’re not going to eat anything. And they take off their normal or fancy clothes… and put on sackcloth. And it isn’t just the poor people doing this… its everyone. The great and powerful and the beggars in the street. The rich and the poor. The powerful and the weak. They all humble themselves before God. Even the king himself. The great ruler of the vast empire. Who would sit in glory and be marvelled at by the surrounding nations. This is what verse 6 tells us:

When word reached the king of Nineveh, he got up from his throne, took off his royal robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.

There’s no glory in that position. In that moment there aren’t any nobles or peasants or kings or slaves in Nineveh. There are just people… humbling themselves before the powerful God who’s greater than all of them.

And then the king issues a decree. He formalises what everyone’s been calling for and doing… he proclaims a fast. No one can eat. But it isn’t just the people. He says even the animals can’t eat or drink. The king recognises that every single living thing in Nineveh… human and animal… has a stake in what happens to Ninevah. Together, they’re all creatures who need to bow before the creator. And so the animals join in the fast.

They join in wearing sackcloth as well. Imagine walking through this vast city and everywhere you look… every class of society… every creature both human and beast… is showing this great display of grief.

Again this is a remarkable demonstration of the power of the word of God… bringing this evil city… these evil people to their knees. And the king says that every single person needs to turn form their evil ways… stop being wicked. They need to repent. Turn away from the bad and towards the good.

And its really interesting to hear what the king hopes for in this. In Jonah’s message there’s no bright side. There’s no glimmer of hope or ray of light. It’s a completely negative message. “In forty days Nineveh will be demolished!”. Full stop. The end.

The only hope the king can see… is to throw himself on the mercy… on the compassion of God. Here’s his decree to the people from verse 7. He says:

By order of the king and his nobles: No person or animal, herd or flock, is to taste anything at all. They must not eat or drink water. 8 Furthermore, both people and animals must be covered with sackcloth, and everyone must call out earnestly to God. Each must turn from his evil ways and from his wrongdoing. 9 Who knows? God may turn and relent; he may turn from his burning anger so that we will not perish.

Notice what he doesn’t say. He doesn’t say… “This is so unfair.” He doesn’t say… “we’re not that bad… we’re just trying to make our way in the world. How dare God judge us.” He doesn’t say… “maybe we can reason with God and show him all the good things we do”. No, he acknowledges their evil… he’s saying… “we have been bad… we do deserve this. We need to stop straight away.” And all he can hope… is that God’s compassionate. That he’ll stop being angry at them… not because they deserve to be saved… but simply because he chooses to save them.

And that’s exactly what he does. Verse 10 says:

God saw their actions—that they had turned from their evil ways—so God relented from the disaster he had threatened them with. And he did not do it.

What? Why would God do that? Has he forgotten their evil? Does he just not care anymore?

No. God always cares about evil. He cares about justice. So what’s going on?

In another part of the Bible… in Ezekiel chapter 33 verse 11… God talks about what makes him happy. What he loves. What gives him pleasure. He says:

‘As I live—this is the declaration of the Lord GOD—I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked person should turn from his way and live.

In other words… if the wicked don’t turn away from their evil… then God will do what needs to be done. Justice demands it.

He doesn’t enjoy doing that though. What he loves… what fills him with pleasure… is when they repent, and say… I don’t want to live that way anymore. I want to live your way God. God loves that! He loves it so much that he’ll do whatever it takes to make sure they can be forgiven… without letting go of justice.

That’s why in the last episode we talked about Jesus’ death and resurrection… where Jesus took the punishment of everyone who repents… justice is done… he absorbs all our guilt so that people can be saved. Its an enormous cost… but because compassion is so integral to God’s character… he pays that cost.

God looks at the Ninevites who’ve humbled themselves… from the least to the greatest… they’ve turned away from their evil… and God is so happy. Because he gets to forgive them. He gets to have compassion on them. He gets to save them.

Jonah, though… is NOT happy. In fact… he’s furious.

And we’ll see why in the second half.

MUSIC

Welcome back.

I said at the end of the first half that Jonah’s furious. He’s really angry that God’s decided not to destroy Nineveh after all.

He prays to God… and in his prayer we find out what’s been bothering Jonah this whole time. Remember… when the Lord first sent him to Nineveh… he ran away. He didn’t run away from Nineveh. Its not that Nineveh was too scary or powerful. No, he ran away from the Lord. We talked about how that was the reason he was going to Tarshish… it was thought to be a place where no-one knew about the LORD.

Its still ridiculous, because God’s everywhere.

But there’s something in God… some characteristic of God that was so shocking… so appalling to Jonah… that he felt he had to get away.

And you know what that thing is? What so disgusted Jonah?

Its God’s… compassion. His kindness. His mercy and love.

Centuries before… at Mt Sinai… God had made his glory pass in front of Moses. And as he did, he announced what was most glorious about his character. I’ll read it to you. Its from Exodus 34, verses 6 and 7. God announced:

The LORD—the LORD is a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in faithful love and truth, maintaining faithful love to a thousand generations, forgiving iniquity, rebellion, and sin. But he will not leave the guilty unpunished, bringing the consequences of the fathers’ iniquity on the children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generation.

God cares about justice… and that’s so good… if you’ve ever been seriously wronged by someone who got away with it, you know intense that longing for justice is… God is the God of justice… but he prefers to have mercy.

And Jonah says… I knew it! I knew you were gonna do this. This is what you always do.

We haven’t talked much about the faithfulness of God in this series… we’ve focussed on his power and compassion. But God’s faithfulness is at the heart of Jonah’s frustration. God said those words about himself about 700 years before Jonah. And those 700 years have shown time and time again that… they’re not just empty words. God faithfully sticks to those words. They’re at the core of his being. He never changes.

Just think about it. The evil of Nineveh’s come up to God. He’s decided enough’s enough. They need to be destroyed… Why doesn’t he just do it? You wake up one morning and Nineveh’s gone. Why send Jonah?

The only reason to send Jonah… is to give them one last chance to repent. One last chance to turn away from their evil and throw themselves on God mercy. And Jonah’s like… if I go and tell them what’s about to happen… and they repent… one thing you can be absolutely sure of is that God’ll forgive them. And he hates that idea. He wants them wiped from the face of the planet. He doesn’t want them to get mercy. He wants them to get justice.

And so he prays this in verse 2 of chapter 4:

He prayed to the LORD, “Please, LORD, isn’t this what I said while I was still in my own country? That’s why I fled toward Tarshish in the first place. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger, abounding in faithful love, and one who relents from sending disaster. 3 And now, LORD, take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.”

This is so ridiculous its almost funny, isn’t it? “O God… how can I live in a world where you’re so kind and gracious and compassionate. This is so awful. I just need to die.”

Its crazy talk. It’s a joke. You can laugh at it.

Until you remember just how dark and hypocritical it is.

Because these same characteristics of God that Jonah’s complaining about… are the very reason he’s still alive. Remember… God compassionately gave him time to repent. He let him run to Joppa… waiting for him to repent. He sent the storm but didn’t sink the boat… giving him more time to repent. Even when he was thrown into the sea… he didn’t die straight away. God kept him alive to give him more time.

He was dying though, because of his sin. The fish was taking him down into the suffocating depths of the sea. And in that moment Jonah didn’t want to die. As he stared into the abyss and saw the full consequences of his sin in front of him… he did exactly what the Ninevites had done. He cried out to the LORD. And because God’s faithful… because his character never changes… because he loves to show compassion… he showed compassion to Jonah.

And Jonah was so happy. Remember his song of joy:

Those who cherish worthless idols

abandon their faithful love,

9 but as for me, I will sacrifice to you

with a voice of thanksgiving.

I will fulfill what I have vowed.

Salvation belongs to the LORD.

He wasn’t grumpy about God showing compassion to him. But he’s furious when God shows exactly the same compassion to his enemies.

And God asks him the key question. In verse 4 he asks:

“Is it right for you to be angry?”

To which Jonah replied… nothing. There is no good answer. I don’t know if you’ve ever done this. I certainly have. When you’re really angry and worked up but you don’t have a good reason for it and someone asks… “why? What’s the problem.” And there’s no good answer and so you just storm off.

That’s exactly what Jonah does.

He storms out of the city, and on the east side of the city he finds a good spot with a view. He makes himself a sort of temporary shelter to keep the sun off… And then he sits… And waits… to see what’ll happen to the city.

He’s like a protester forming a one man picket line.

“What do I want?”

“Burning fire and destruction!”

“When do I want it?”

“Now!”

This is an ugly scene. Jonah’s so out of step with God here. As the people of God, the Israelites were meant to show God’s love to the world. They were meant to display God’s character. Jonah couldn’t be further from that than he is at this point right here.

God could, of course… just let Jonah die. He certainly doesn’t deserve… even what he’s already received from God, let alone more compassion.

But… God’s faithful to his character… and so he decides to teach Jonah… a little lesson.

Again we get to see God’s remarkable power over his creation. We read in verse 6:

Then the LORD God appointed a plant, and it grew over Jonah to provide shade for his head to rescue him from his trouble.

There’s something subtle here. Because Jonah’s already built himself a shelter… but… its kind of implied that… it isn’t very good. Because we’re told that Jonah was greatly pleased with the plant. It seems like Jonah is just as bad at shelter building as he is at being a prophet. And, just like God had rescued him before in a big way… now it says here God rescued him from his discomfort. God saved him. That’s nice.

God’s not done though.

The next day, just like God had appointed the plant, he now appoints a worm. It’s a good day for this worm. God’s chosen him to attack the plant. You can just imagine him smacking his little wormy lips together… Yum Yum! He goes at it with gusto, and before you know it, the plant’s withered. And I presume the worm goes off for a lie down with an enormous belly… a bit like you might do after a Christmas feast.

God’s not done though.

After appointing the plant and then the worm… God appoints a scorching east wind.

Not out of the worm, though it may be having some wind problems after its feast.

No, imagine a hot… dry… desert wind that tears the moisture from your body. Your mouth is dry, your skin feels like its been sand blasted… What you really want at that point is a really good shelter. Oh yeah… Jonah’s plant shelter’s just been destroyed by the worm. You can hear it in the distance giving off the occasional belch from its little wormy bed.

So in verse 8 we’re told:

As the sun was rising, God appointed a scorching east wind. The sun beat down on Jonah’s head so much that he almost fainted, and he wanted to die. He said, “It’s better for me to die than to live.”

This seems to be a common theme for Jonah. He’s like a moody child, stamping his foot and saying… “I’m going to hold my breath until I get what I want. If I die, so be it.”

In verse 9 God asks Jonah, “Aaaah Jonah,

“Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?”

“Yes, it’s right!” he replied. “I’m angry enough to die!”

Wow. Ummmm… ok Jonah.

Well now its time for the lesson. And… its not just the lesson for this chapter. Its actually the lesson for the whole book. This is what its all been leading up to.

God calls out Jonah’s hypocritical love. His selfish love. He loves compassion when its directed towards him. He loves a plant when its providing him shade. Here’s what God says in verse 10:

And the LORD said, “You cared about the plant, which you did not labor over and did not grow. It appeared in a night and perished in a night.

Do you hear how silly it sounds? What commitment did Jonah have towards this plant. What had he invested in it? What had he given up for it? He’s not like a farmer who plants seed… waters it, fertilisers it, protects it, and then finally gets some fruit from it after all that effort. No, Jonah did nothing for the plant. Not a single thing. So why does he care so much about it?

Because of what it gave him.

And when its taken away from him… when he misses out on the benefits of this tiny thing… he’s so angry he wants to die.

Compare Jonah’s relationship to the plant… with God’s relationship with this world.

God formed and fashioned this world with love. He lovingly crafted every molecule… every detail. He decided how far the earth is from the sun, and when the moon appears and is dark. He designed trees to draw water up through their roots to their tallest leaf. He lovingly crafted dogs in all their variety… He watches over every single bird that flies in the field, providing food at the right time. He follows the path of the earthworm as it burrows through the ground. He decided which cattle would be wild and which cattle would be good for milking.

Before the beginning of time he knew the name of every human who ever would live. He knew the numbers of hairs on our heads and the length of our toenails, because he decided it. He provided oxygen and plants and water and mud and timber and metals and gems and gravity. He made humans all the same in equality and in the enormous privilege of being made in his image… and he made us all different with different personalities and skills and likes and hair colour and skin colour… because he loves us all… and he loves each one of us.

He's continued to provide for the world even as we’ve turned our back on him. He’s shown his faithful love time and time and time again, to us as a human race who’re so blind to our own evil… wandering around thinking we’re good people, because just like Jonah… exactly like Jonah… we’re so good at seeing the sin in other people, the evil in other people, in demanding justice for other people… but we’re so bad at wanting that for ourselves. We’re so bad at seeing the evil in ourselves.

And yet God keeps loving. Even here, as he talks to Jonah… who should be blasted with a thunderbolt… who should’ve been left in the fish to die… he’s still trying to love him and care for him and show him a better way than his sinful heart of hatred.

So God asks in verse 10:

And the LORD said, “You cared about the plant, which you did not labor over and did not grow. It appeared in a night and perished in a night. 11 So may I not care about the great city of Nineveh, which has more than a hundred twenty thousand people who cannot distinguish between their right and their left, as well as many animals?”

And then the book ends. We have no idea how Jonah responds.

And that’s really deliberate from the author. Because it means that the only people left to respond are… us.

What do you think? Should God care what happens to this city with 120,000 people in it? Should he care about this city that has so many animals in it. Its interesting how many animals are in this small book. The fish. The worm. The cattle who shared in the repentance of the city. All the animals of the city. God cares for every part of his creation.

The end of this book forces me to ask… who am I tempted to think… “they’re not worthy of salvation. I hope they rot in hell. I hope they get everything they deserve.”

I mean… how wonderful is it… if you’ve turned from the life of sin and accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour… how wonderful is it that God hasn’t said that about you. Because… no-one’s worthy of salvation. No-one deserves God’s love. Romans 3:23 says that ALL… not some or most… all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

And just like Jonah we can show love that’s selfish love. I love getting things that benefit me. I love helping people who help me.

God’s done so much to help people who’ve hated him.

In order to forgive the Ninevites AND Jonah AND us… in order to save the Ninevites AND Jonah AND us… someone had to take the consequence of our sin. Who? Who would do that for such evil people. Only the faithful, powerful, loving, compassionate God. God the Son entered the world to save the very people who rejected him.

If you’re not yet a believer… Don’t miss out on the goodness and wonder and blessing of this faithful God.

If you are a believer… Don’t be like Jonah… who was happy to be saved but saw others as enemies.

Be like God. Have his love and compassion for lost people. Pray that your heart would be like his and not like Jonah’s. If you think that’s too hard… that your heart is so filled with pain and anger and hatred and grief towards a person or people… Remember that God’s the powerful God. He can send and stop a storm. He can turn the hearts of the Ninevites. And he can fill your heart with compassion.