JONAH 4:1-3 - JONAH DESPAIRED BECAUSE NINEVEH WAS SPARED

JONAH 4:1-3

JONAH DESPAIRED

BECAUSE NINEVEH WAS SPARED

Jonah 4:1 But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry.

Susie: Why was Jonah excessively angry?

Susan: Jonah was seething with anger because God forgave the Ninevites, the arch enemy of the Israelites, His people, the crown jewel of His heart.

Jonah 4:2 And he prayed unto the Lord, and said, I pray thee, O Lord, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore, I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil.

Susie: Jonah prayed, but it was more like he yelled at God! It was the Lord’s actions that upset him, and he had the audacity to be angry with God. In fact, The Message paraphrase renders Jonah’s prayer like this:

Jonah 4:2 (MSG) He yelled at God, “God! I knew it—when I was back home, I knew this was going to happen! That’s why I ran off to Tarshish! I knew you were sheer grace and mercy, not easily angered, rich in love, and ready at the drop of a hat to turn your plans of punishment into a program of forgiveness!

Susan: Jonah displayed the height of arrogance in his prayer. Back in the belly of the smelly fish, Jonah hoped and prayed he would receive mercy and grace from God. However, he now admitted that he did not want the evil-doers of Nineveh to have that same opportunity to repent and receive mercy extended to them. Jonah was so mad I’m surprised God did not see smoke wafting out of his every orifice!

Susie: In fact, in his anger he got very real with the Lord and admitted the reason he ran away to Tarshish in the first place—to avoid giving the Ninevites God’s message because he was afraid they would repent and God would not destroy them.

Susan: Jonah did not believe the fierce enemies of Israel deserved the opportunity for repentance. He was putting himself in the place of God, as if Jonah had the authority to decide who deserved mercy and who did not, a right reserved for God and God alone.

Susie: Jonah reveals that he had a clear understanding of the nature of his God. However, he did not seem to think God should display these same attributes with Gentiles.

Susan: God, in His very essence, is love.

1 John 4:7-8 Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.

Susan: He restrains His anger rather than squashing us like bugs or vaporizing us the first time we disobey. Praise the Lord!

Susie: Even when God is angry, He is righteous and just:

Jeremiah 9:23-24 (ESV) Thus says the Lord: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord.”

Susan: God’s grace, mercy, and forgiveness extend to all who believe and trust in Him, Jew or Gentile, man or woman, slave or free.

Galatians 3:28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.

Susie: Yes, in chapter three, we saw that the Ninevites believed God. It does not say they believed Jonah but that they discerned that God’s words through Jonah were true. They demonstrated their belief by outward acts that represented their inward repentance.

Susan: The Ninevites’ acts of contrition demonstrated a change of heart towards the one, true God. God responded to their repentance with mercy and grace.

Susie: The psalmist expressed God’s gracious, merciful, forgiving nature well:

Psalm 103:8-14 The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him. For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust.

Jonah 4:3 Therefore now, O Lord, take, I beseech thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live.

Susan: God had delivered Jonah from death by providing the two-ton fish to swallow him and then spew him out on the shore. Jonah repented and did what God had asked him to do in the first place. Why on earth would Jonah ask God to kill him now? It makes my head go tilt because it is ten ways of wrong.

Susie: I believe Jonah would rather die than see his enemies forgiven. He was rooting for their demise.

Susan: It seems the Ninevites truly had a heart adjustment and that Jonah was in need of a heart tune-up himself.

Susie: In the next lesson, we will see God begin to illustrate for Jonah how absolutely absurd his attitude really was.

QUESTIONS

1.        Why was Jonah so angry?

2.        Why had Jonah fled toward Tarshish?

3.        What do we learn about the nature of God from Jonah’s prayer/rant?

4.        What right was Jonah trying to usurp from God?

5.        Jonah did not approve of God’s mercy to the Ninevite Gentiles. List at least 2 scripture verses that show that Gentiles are included in God’s grace.

      6.   In verse 3, what does Jonah ask God to               do? Did God honor his request?