Jonah 4

Hey, hey. Good morning. Good morning. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions. This morning we are at Jonah chapter 4. Jonah chapter 4. We're going to find out Jonah is an interesting prophet. The dude didn't want to go to Nineveh, and now he's kind of, well, we'll find out how he responds to the people fasting and praying and repenting and stuff like that.
So if you've seen the Jonah movie, maybe this isn't so new to you. But anyways, we're going to go ahead and look. And by the way, we're almost done with the year, just two more videos left. And so we're going to be done with the J's. What do you want to do next? I think I'm inclined a certain direction, but I want to hear from you. Feel free to send me a text message or an email and let me know what would you like to do next in Coffee and Devotions.
Let's have some coffee. We'll pray and we'll get into God's Word. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for this day. We thank you for your word and we thank you for the blessing it is to get to hear from you. Lord, we pray that you would please help us to understand your word. We pray that it would be applied to our lives well and that we would follow after you with all of our hearts. Lord, we're fickle and sometimes we're Our minds just wander, and our hearts are hard to get under control. So we need your spirit to help us. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.
Here we go. Jonah, chapter 4. But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he became angry. So he prayed to the Lord and said, ah, Lord, was not this 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 loving kindness, one who relents from doing harm. Therefore now, oh Lord, please take my life from me. For it is better for me to die than to live.
And the Lord said to him, is it right for you to be angry? So Jonah went out of the city and sat on the east side of the city. There he made himself a shelter and sat under it in the shade, so he might see what would become of the city. And the Lord God prepared a plant and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be a shade for his head to deliver him from his misery. So Jonah was very grateful for the plant.
But as morning dawned, the next day God prepared a worm, and it so damaged the plant that it withered. And it happened when the sun arose that God prepared a vehement east wind that the sun beat on Jonah's head so that he grew faint. Then he wished death for himself and said, it is better for me to die than to live. Then God said to Jonah, is it right for you to be angry about the plant? And he said, it is right for me to be angry even to death.
But the Lord said, you have had pity on the plant for which you have not labored, nor made it grow, which came up in a night and perished in a night. And should I not pity Nineveh, that great city, in which are more than 120,000 persons who cannot discern between their right hand and their left, and much livestock?
Well, we need to ask ourselves our three questions. A, what's this about? B, what's the best verse to summarize this? And C, what are we called to do from these words?
So A, what is this about? Well, Jonah has preached, the people have repented, even to the king. They even put sackcloth on the animals. And Jonah is wroth. He's mad, right? Isn't this what I said when I was in my own country, when I was in Jerusalem? That's why I went on the ship to Tarshish. I didn't want to preach to these people, because I knew that they would repent. And I know that you're a gracious and merciful God, and you would just let them go.
There are enemies. There are arch enemies. We hate them. And so God gives them an object lesson. Sits him down, hot, just hot, hot, hot. And he's waiting for the anger of the Lord, the judgment fire and brimstone to come down. And as he's there waiting for it, God graciously lets the plant grow up, some type of gourd plant maybe, and it grows up and it shades over him and he gets relief from the sun.
Oh man, it says in the New King James, it says that he was grateful for the plant, right? Oh man, this is so good, thank you God for the shade. And then the next morning, he's sitting there, he's anticipating the shade, it's gonna be good. And what happens? Well, a worm has come, it's eaten at the stalk or something and the plant dies. And he is mad. And God says, why are you mad? You didn't work for it. You didn't do nothing for it. You didn't create it. You didn't tend to it. You didn't do anything. And it died. But you're mad about the plant dying, that you didn't do anything to produce, to care for, to give it life. But yet you don't have compassion on all those people and livestock in Nineveh.
He's giving an object lesson of God's patience and mercy. That's what this is about. That God is patient and merciful. He is the one who created us, body and soul. He's the one who has made us, given us our souls. He's the one who has given us life and breath and all things. And it's that God who, in his mercy, saves people who don't deserve it. even those Assyrians.
So, what's this passage about? Jonah needed to learn the hard way of God's mercy and compassion and who it was for. to the Jew and also to the Gentile. What's the best verse to summarize this? Well, I actually really like in verse 2, Therefore I fled previously to Tarshish, for I know that you are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant to lovingkindness, one who relents from doing harm. I love that. It's almost like what God reveals to Moses when he passes by him. The Lord, merciful and gracious, abounding in loving kindness. He almost quotes it, not for me, but really close. I think this is what Jonah is getting at, what he doesn't like. And then I also like maybe underlying at the very bottom end, verse 10 and 11, that object lesson where God is explaining to him, I created them. Of course I'm going to care for them. So that's what I think is the best verse. I would underline verse two and verse 10 and 11.
Let's talk about C, calling. Who are the people in your life that you think there's just no way God could ever save? Who is it that you don't want to talk to? Who is it that you think, man, I'm not ever going to talk to that person because they wear X clothes or they do those things or they're engaged in those types of activities. They have those types of orientations and they associate with those types of people and they're into all these wicked and horrible and wrong things.
To be honest with us, sometimes we're just as judgmental as Jonah. Sometimes we find ourselves as the older brothers, unwilling to believe that a prodigal could actually come back. I wondered about that recently when I was thinking about my own conversion. I was thinking about the ways that I had gone far away from the paths that my parents had taught me. I wasn't a Christian. I didn't believe the Holy Spirit hadn't regenerated me. I wasn't born again. And I wonder how many Christians looked at me in my drunkenness and in my stupidity and just shook their heads. He's never going to change.
And I owe my eternal soul to one man. who saw through all my hypocrisy and stupidity, my worldliness, my drunkenness, my sensuality, my debauchery, and cared enough about me to share the gospel. He's not a perfect man, but I thank God regularly for someone who would be willing to cross over that barrier Somebody who would be willing to tell me the good news of Jesus Christ.
They may not always believe. They may not always repent. But when they do, do we rejoice?
Let's pray. God, the year is coming to a close. But your mercies are new every morning. Your compassions do not fail. You are a wonderful God, merciful and abounding in love and kindness. You show pity and compassion to those who do not deserve it, because you are gracious. Lord, you know what we owe or what we deserve. We know what the wages of our sins deserve, and yet you give us life.
God, please give us strength. to not be judgmental about others or count others too far gone or too far our enemies, to not want to go share the good news with them. Lord, please give us hearts of compassion. Let us so abide in Jesus that we would also share that same type of love for others. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
May the Lord bless you. May you walk in the joy of Jesus Christ. May the Lord bring somebody into your path in the upcoming days and weeks that you may be able to tell about the hope you have in Jesus and the merciful and gracious and wonderful God you serve.
I'll see you next time. Bye.