(Study No. 5) Chapter 4
The Displeasure of God’s Prophet
(Vs.1) “But Jonah was greatly displeased and became angry.
Jonah had obeyed the LORD and as a result the whole city repented and changed their ways. God’s Word never returns to Him void or without having accomplished the purpose for which it was sent. As He says through the prophet Isaiah; “so shall My Word be that goes out from My mouth; it shall not return to Me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it” (Isaiah 55:11). He also says through the prophet Isaiah; “Remember what happened long ago, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me. I declare the end from the beginning, and ancient times from what is still to come. I say, ‘My purpose will stand, and all My good pleasure I will accomplish.’ I summon a bird of prey from the east, a man for My purpose from a far-off land. Truly I have spoken, and truly I will bring it to pass. I have planned it, and I will surely do it” (Isaiah 46:9-11).
Now Jonah was greatly displeased because he wanted to see the destruction of Nineveh being the capital city of the Assyrian Empire. He was angry and began to pray but in reality he was complaining to the LORD because he wanted God to do to the Ninevites what the Assyrians had done to Israel. God did not do what Jonah wanted. Obedience to God’s Will is what is important. What God does, and how He does it, and through whom He does it, is His business alone. As we read; “Shall not the judge of all the earth do right”(Genesis 18:25).
Often when God does not answer of prayers in the way we think He should, we complain especially when we are asking God to deal with our enemies and nothing seems to happen, or when He deals with them in mercy and not in judgement. We do not see the bigger picture which God always sees. Jonah had spiritual short sightedness. Now he did pray and yet struggled with that fact that God wanted to have mercy on Israel’s enemies and that He had ordained Jonah to bring them His message. Let’s look at what Jonah actually prayed…
(Vs.2) “He prayed to the LORD, “O LORD , is this not what I said when I was still at home? That is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish. I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.”
Jonah already knew that God was a gracious and compassionate God who was slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity and it was somewhat distasteful to Jonah that God chose him to take His message to Israel’s implacable enemies the Assyrians. It was too much for Jonah to bear so in a hasty emotional fit he had taken off for Tarshish to escape doing what God had told him to do. For him he was ‘done and dusted’ with what God was asking Him to do. Sometimes God will ask us to say or to do something we would not naturally choose to do. In Jonah’s mindset he was thinking that the Ninevites might repent and not be destroyed. Jonah was glad that God was who He is, and Jonah wanted His grace and compassion for Israel, the God who is slow to anger abounding in love and withholds judgement, but Jonah did not want to see this expressed towards Nineveh.
At one time during the ministry of the Messiah our Lord Jesus when He had set His face resolutely to go to Jerusalem to die for the sins of man, He sent some messengers ahead of Him to go to a Samaritan village to get things ready for Him when He arrived there, but the people did not welcome Him because He was going up to Jerusalem. When the disciples James and John (The Greek meaning “sons of thunder”) saw this rejection they asked the LORD if they could call down fire from heaven to destroy the Samaritan village however the Lord Jesus rebuked them. See (Luke 9:51-56).
In those days the Jews did not like the Samaritans at all because they were the offspring of Jewish and Assyrian marriages which were unacceptable to Torah Law. This had come about when, after the Assyrians invaded the Northern Kingdom of the Holy Land, many of the Jews remaining in the land had inter-married with the Assyrians. Now the Lord Jesus wanted His disciples to understand that He was going to Jerusalem to pay for the sins of the whole world, not just for Israel’s sins. In many ways James and John were very much like Jonah in their reluctance to see Gentiles saved.
Jonah personified Israel in that as a nation they were called by God to take His light of His Word and salvation to the unsaved Gentile nations but Israel failed to do this. Even to this day in Israel the Ultra- Orthodox religious Jews do not like to think that God loves the Gentiles as much as He loves the Jews. Even after Pentecost the Messianic Jewish assembly at Jerusalem had some difficulty in accepting that God wanted to be gracious and compassionate to all men whether they by Jewish or Gentile.
Later they came to see that God wanted to save all men and see them come to the knowledge of the truth and to be saved and spiritually grafted into the Olive Tree, being the Commonwealth of Israel. Well Jonah was depressed about God showing mercy to the wicked and violent Ninevites, Israel’s enemies that had repented and were not destroyed. Hence Jonah wanted to physically die because he did not see God do what he thought God should do. And so we read what Jonah continued to pray…
(Vs.3) “Now, O LORD, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.”
It must have been really distasteful for Jonah to see Israel’s enemies experience the gracious compassion of God towards them as a Gentile pagan nation that repented and found God’s favour. What Jonah did not see that God knows all things being perfect in knowledge, wisdom and insight and has a purpose for every person on the planet. Not all of course will be saved or even hear the message of Salvation, however men and women will be judged according to the light they have received whether Jew or Gentile (Romans 1:18-2:29). Jonah’s depression over what God did was so severe that he wanted to die.
Just like Jonah we are so quick to forget God’s lessons in the past that He has been teaching us to bring us closer to Him, to love Him more and to appreciate Him for who He is. Jonah needed to remember the darkness in the belly of the fish, the water swirling around him, the seaweed wrapped around his face and body and ultimately experiencing no fellowship with God in Sheol. Now he wanted to die rather than keep serving the LORD.
When depression comes in and we feel the anxiety of it we need to remember what God has done for us in the past in those times of the dark night of the soul where God stepped in to adverse situations and rescued us out of them every time. Jonah had forgotten his great deliverance from the belly of the fish and more so for the deliverance of his spirit and soul by God from Sheol. Now God did not get angry with Jonah as He already knew what was in the prophet’s mind concerning Assyria’s treatment of Israel. God asked Jonah a question, not to afflict or to condemn him, but to deal further with him concerning his attitude towards Israel’s enemies. And so He said to Jonah…
(Vs.4) “But the LORD replied, “Have you any right to be angry?”
Notice that Jonah did not respond to the LORD. Jonah must have been very angry with God for the mercy shown to the wicked and violent Ninevites who had repented and been saved from destruction. Jonah was being driven by his feelings rather than seeing by faith God at work even in the situation with the Ninevites. Jonah had not seen, or most likely did not want to see that God is sovereign in every situation and that He does what He wants, when He wants, in the way He wants, and with whomsoever He wants and asks no man’s permission. In reality Jonah was driven by his feelings rather than by the Spirit of God and there was bitterness ruling on the inside of him and even somewhat of a rebellious spirit still residing on the inside of God’s chosen and called prophet. And then we read what Jonah did next…
(Vs.5) “Jonah went out and sat down at a place east of the city. There he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city.”
Jonah had ‘a pity party.’ Nineveh had experienced God’s power, grace and compassion that had resulted in a spiritual revolution and transformation that had radically changed their lives. They were now known to God as His own people and they in turn knew Him. These were the people that had brought great bloodshed to whatever country they occupied. The lesson that God wanted Jonah to understand was that God forgives all those who repent by turning from their evil ways and seek God. If we have been forgiven then we should also forgive others. The Messiah our Lord Jesus said concerning this matter of forgiveness; “For if you forgive others for their sins, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your sins” (Matthew 6:14-15).
Forgiveness was a bitter pill for Jonah to swallow but the LORD was seeking to teach His prophet to forgive those who had been enemies of Israel. If He as God was willing to forgive the people of the city then who was Jonah not to forgive the Ninevites? So Jonah made himself a shelter (a booth), sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city. Jonah was waiting for God’s judgment to fall but nothing was happening. The booth Jonah made was obviously not sufficient to protect him from the sun rays of the desert heat. And then we read…
(Vs.6) “Then the LORD God provided a vine and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the vine.”
God provided mercy to Jonah and caused a vine to grow supernaturally over Jonah to give shade to his head to ease his discomfort and Jonah was very happy about the vine. It brought relief from the intense heat of the desert. If God could show mercy to Jonah in the heat of the desert then He was able to show Nineveh mercy. Jonah rejoiced in God’s provision for himself but not for Nineveh. Jonah was missing out of the greater work of God, not just the reprieve from destruction He gave the Ninevites, but that they had repented from their sinful and rebellious lives and turned back to Him in repentance and faith. It was a supernatural work of God. All spiritual revivals are God’s work and can only be brought about by the Spirit of God.
In his somewhat bitterness of spirit Jonah had missed out perceiving the greater work of God, namely the circumcision of the heart by the Spirit which is the distinctive mark of all who are spiritually reborn from above and whose praise is from God and not from man (Romans 2:28-29) (John 3:3). Until we realise that God’s forgiveness and mercy is for others as well as for ourselves we will miss out in His greater work and His will. One who really experiences the forgiveness of God will be burdened for others who need to be forgiven. In fact if we have experienced God’s forgiveness for our sins then we will be able to comfort others with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.
As Rabbi the apostle Paul wrote; “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus the Messiah, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God” (2 Corinthians 1:3-4). God’s grace brings about change and even the small vine growing over Jonah to shade him from the burning rays of the sun was God’s grace, something Jonah had not earned or even merited or understood where God’s desire to show His grace to Nineveh was concerned, yet God provided for Jonah according to His grace and mercy. If God could do this for Jonah then He could also do this for the people of Nineveh because “what is impossible with man is possible with God…for with God nothing is impossible.”(Luke 8:27) (Luke 1:37). So it seemed Jonah had a reasonable and comfortable night and happy to have God’s provision. But then we read…
(Vs.7) “But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the vine so that it withered.”
God had not finished teaching Jonah. There were still lessons to be learnt in this situation. Jonah most likely thought that his job was done and that he would see God’s judgement fall upon the city of Nineveh but it did not happen. To add to Jonah’s agitation God who provided the vine also provided a worm to chew the vine so it withered. God uses all things, even a small vine to give shade and a worm to eat the vine. He will always have His own way where His children are concerned, not of course to afflict them, but to teach them about His grace and their need to completely rely upon Him in all the changing circumstances of our life, both in the great and small things that we experience (Romans 8:28). The LORD was trying to teach Jonah to appreciate His grace and compassion for others ‘scorched’ by ‘the heat’ of sin and heading for impending judgment if they refuse to repent and turn to Him for mercy and forgiveness. Well at sunrise Jonah’s rather comfort zone was removed.
(Vs.8) “When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die, and said, “It would be better for me to die than to live.”
In the Bible, the east wind is frequently associated with judgment and divine intervention, often carrying destruction and calamity. This association stems from the biblical understanding of cosmic geography, where moving eastwards symbolically represents moving away from God. It is a scorching wind of the LORD’s divine displeasure and judgment. The east wind is portrayed as a destructive force, bringing plagues, famine, and destruction. For example, the plague of locusts is brought by an east wind. It also describes a tool of God’s judgment and discipline, bringing hardship and suffering to those who have strayed from God’s path.
The east wind is mentioned in Job 1:19, where it destroys Job’s houses. In Exodus 14:21, the east wind is used to part the Red Sea, leading to the destruction of the Egyptian army. The east wind is associated with the destruction of the ships of Tarshish in Psalm 48:7. The east wind was most probably the same wind that brought the severe storm against the ship that Jonah was in when he was fleeing from God (Jonah 1:4).
The scorching east wind was related to judgment and Jonah was having a small taste of this judgment so that he might experience to a degree what it would be like for the Ninevites once God sent His scorching east wind against the city. Once again deep depression swept over Jonah so that he wished to die, so great was his discomfort and affliction which metaphorically can represent the burden of sin and rebellion against God with its bitter consequences in Hell at the end of one’s life enslaved to it. The pleasures of sin only last for a season (Hebrews 11:25). It is also written; “There is a way that seems right to a man, but the end of it leads to death” (Proverbs 14:12). When the Bible speaks of the death of an unsaved person it not only refers to their physical death but also to their spiritual death which is not a state where they cease to exist, but a place they go to called Hell where they are incarcerated in torment that is tangible (Luke 16:23) (Hebrews 9:27).
Now God understood the character of Jonah and that although he had a rebellious and disobedient attitude God knew Jonah’s heart and the cause of this rebellious attitude but did not except it as an excuse, but God also knew that in the end He would be able to get this man to do what He wanted. He would put His man through a very traumatic experience to bring him to the place where God could use him to fulfil His will. Once God had him where he wanted him to be, even though Jonah was far from perfect, God used him to bring about the awesome spiritual revival of the whole city of Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian Empire which was vast indeed! God brought Jonah to the place where he knew his need of his entire dependency upon God.
All of us who are God’s servants need to practice repentance. Not that we sin and repent of the same sin over and over again, but that when sin does occur we are quick to repent of it before God and by calling upon the power of the blood of Messiah and the help of the Holy Spirit lay it aside and run away from it. If we have been born again then we have a covenant with God in the blood of the Messiah our Lord Jesus, and by that blood we not only have redemption and forgiveness of sin according to the richness of God’s grace but through that same blood have the power to overcome Satan and all that he throws our way in life (Ephesians 1:7) (Revelation 12:11).
The blood of Messiah will always cleanse us from all sin when we confess it with a desire to forsake it (1 John 1:9) (Isaiah 55:6-8). God knows our human frailty as scripture says; “As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him; for he knows how we are formed, He remembers that we are dust” (Psalm 103:13-14). As it is also written; “A bruised reed He will not break and a smouldering wick He will not extinguish” (Isaiah 42:3). Jonah was at the end of his tether and ready to give everything up and die so great was his weariness because the destruction he wanted to see on Nineveh was reversed by God and did not happen because they had repented. Jonah was so tired and dispirited because of the anger that still festered in his heart towards the Ninevites. God in His graceful compassion for His prophet spoke to him, not in an angry voice, but in a rather logical manner that was aimed at Jonah’s reasoning powers rather than aimed at his ferrel emotional state. However we then read…But…
(Vs.9-10) “But God said to Jonah, “Do you have a right to be angry about the vine?” “I do,” he said. “I am angry enough to die. But the LORD said, “You have been concerned about this vine, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight.”
Jonah did not see things from God’s perspective and it is hard to be rational when one’s emotions are all over the place. Jonah was angry because the vine had died. He was so angry that he wished to die. Whether he really wanted to die could be debatable as ones emotions can affect the intellect to think rationally. In Jonah’s case though it would seem he really wanted to die. He had expected a different outcome than the one that happened.
The LORD said to Jonah that he had pity over the vine that was withering and died but even in his concern for it Jonah did not tend it or make it grow. It was here for one day and then it perished. Jonah was so upset that God had spared Nineveh, a city that God was going to destroy if it’s inhabitants did not turn away from their wickedness and violence. Jonah was concerned over this small vine but was he concerned over the people of Nineveh as God was? Jonah, while grieving the destruction of the vine, was shown to be more concerned with his personal comfort than with God’s broader plan of salvation for the city of Nineveh. The vine was a temporary relief for Jonah, however, God’s mercy would be the source of an eternal relief for the people of Nineveh that God in His foreknowledge knew would repent after they had received His message from Jonah.
In our service and ministry God knows how things will turn out in the end. Whatever the final outcome we must still endeavour to do His will faithfully using the gifts He has given to us even if the results we want to see do not happen in the way we think they should happen. As it is written; “Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labour in vain; unless the LORD protects the city, its watchmen stand guard in vain” (Psalm 127:1). It is futile exercise to be labouring for a goal that God has not set.
Jonah ended up serving God and doing His will but things did not turn out as Jonah expected they would. In the end God’s will prevailed even though Jonah was angry because what he wanted to see did not happen. As it is written; “Many plans are in a man’s heart, but the purpose of the LORD will prevail” (Proverbs 19:21). While we can make numerous plans and have many ideas and strategies for ministry and service within the Body of Messiah, and plans or programs for Church growth or certain directions for ministry, ultimately, the outcome is determined by God’s will.
We do not bend God to our wills but bend our wills to God, to follow His Word. God’s Word is His will, as it is written; “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (Psalm 119:105). We might ask God for guidance but if we are not seeking to be guided by what He has already revealed in his Word, then why should we expect any further guidance from Him? The problem for Jonah was not that he did not do what God wanted him to do because he did God’s will in the end, but that the results turned out differently than Jonah expected they would. All of us are responsible before the LORD to do His will but we must always keep in mind that the results are His responsibility, not ours. One initially sows the seed of God’s Word in evangelism while another waters it in teaching and discipleship but it is God who causes it to grow and to bear spiritual fruit.
For example in 1 Corinthians 3:6-7 Paul may have planted the seed of God’s Word and Apollos watered it with teaching, but it was God who gave the increase, yet Paul stresses in his letter that neither the planter nor the waterer is anything, but God who makes it grow. What was the vine compared to the citizens of that enormous city of Nineveh. God’s plan was much broader and greater than Jonah could even come to terms with in his spiritual short-sightedness concerning the big picture from God’s perspective. And finally we read what God had to say to His prophet…
(Vs.11) “But Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about that great city?”
What was the small vine to a hundred and twenty thousand people about to be hit with the scorching east wind of divine judgment ending in the destruction of man and beast in the city? Jonah needed to have his spiritual perspective adjusted by God to see things as God saw them. We are not told what happened to Jonah or whether he ever overcame his anger, however, we do know in the end that he fulfilled God’s will. He did what God asked him to do. As for Israel they failed to take the light of God’s Word concerning salvation to the Gentile nations, however, in the Messianic Millennial Kingdom they will fulfil their God ordained purpose because “God’s gifts and His call are irrevocable” (Romans 11:29).
Epilogue:
We must not think that God cannot use someone ever so evil to accomplish His will and purposes. Jonah of course was not an evil man but he could not see how God could change a whole city from its wickedness and violence to a city where justice and righteousness would prevail at every level of society. God today is looking for faithful ‘Jonahs’ who are not afraid to proclaim God’s judgement fused with His mercy.
Many today within wider Christendom within the Body of Messiah have itching ears to hear what they want to hear and heap around themselves teachers who will scratch the itch with soft selling seeker sensitive, watered down sermons and prophecies of one sort or another that emphasize love but minimize or even ignore God’s judgments. In many pulpits even within evangelical and Charismatic circles it is no longer fashionable to preach about hell, judgement, sin, holy living and the Second Coming of the Messiah our Lord Jesus not only as the saviour but also as the judge. God always warns people before He brings judgment. We see this pattern throughout the whole Bible from Genesis to Revelation. Judgement and coming wrath is preached to bring about change. Judgement makes people think about how they are living their lives and the ultimate consequences they will receive by not responding appropriately to the message of judgement.
Today in light of what we are seeing happening around the world in the nations infested with violence, sodomy, injustice, pride, arrogance, selfish ambition, adultery, immorality, murder, and rampant nontherapeutic abortion on demand and widespread apostasy, the whole world is over ripe for judgement. While the gospel of the kingdom is going into the nations by and large when the final judgement and wrath of God is poured out the majority of mankind will perish. We know from God’s Word that multitudes in every nation will repent and like the people of Nineveh did change their ways to escape the judgment and wrath of God. However, without a message of judgment people will not repent. Yes most certainly people want to hear about the love of God but do not want to her about His judgements. If we do not proclaim judgment then we invalidate the Bible. Judgment is rapidly approaching.
When we see judgment we also see the value of the cross where “mercy and truth are met together and where righteousness and peace have kissed each other” (Psalm 85:10). Once the unsaved have been confronted with the Law of God and its dire consequences for those who violate it they also need to be confronted with the cross where the Messiah our Lord Jesus shed His pure and untainted blood, to atone for sin, and to redeem the penitent who want to turn away from their life of sin and turn to a new life in Him, which will end in eternal bliss and into an everlasting inheritance beyond anyone can imagine of think.
Someone has said that heaven is better than anyone can imagine and hell is worse than anyone can imagine. The message of the cross is salvation from sin and its power and being protected from the coming judgment. God is a holy God who does punish sin and wickedness. All of us need to cultivate a righteous fear of God. This is not a fear of approaching Him but a sense of reverence for Him when approaching Him. Of course He wants us as His blood redeemed, blood justified, blood cleansed children to approach Him with the boldness of faith but do it with a reverence for who He is and to keep in mind that it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the Living God, and if judgment begins in the House of God what will what will the outcome be for those who disobey the gospel of God? And, “If it is hard for the righteous to be saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?”(1 Peter 4:17-18).
We need to develop and cultivate a righteous fear where we begin to listen to God, to obey His Word and to be quick to do His will whatever He has ordained for us from all of eternity. We are to focus on things pertaining to the Kingdom of God and not on what we want. As Rabbi the apostle Paul wrote; “Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day, for our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:16-18). God’s kingdom is coming but for it to come judgement must come first. The only answer for sin is the power of the Messiah’s blood received by repentance towards God and by turning to faith in Him to justify us before God, and to rescue us from the wrath to come (Romans 5:9).
If Jonah had not proclaimed judgement then the people and animals of Nineveh would have been overthrown and destroyed. When the Gospel of the Kingdom is preached Biblically there must first be the proclamation of judgment, followed by the proclamation for the need of repentence, followed by the need to exercise saving faith in the Messiah our Lord Jesus as our sin bearer and whose blood has atoned for one’s sin, that can cleanse from all sin, and that will also protect them from the coming wrath of God.
To sum up, the central message of the Book of Jonah is that God’s love and compassion extend even to His enemies and that He is willing to forgive and offer mercy to all those who repent whether Jew or Gentile. God’s mercy was a surprise to Jonah who thought the city would be destroyed with a pre-conceived mindset as to how God might act. The message of the Book of Jonah highlights the importance of repentance and forgiveness, revealing how God’s love can change individuals and communities whether they are Jew or Gentile and that He has no respecter of persons nor does He show partiality in His work of salvation.
Jonah was Jewish and through him God wanted to reach a Gentile nation. The Jewish nation was God’s people through whom He wanted to save the Gentile nations but they failed as a nation because of their partiality and because they, by and large, rejected the Messiah and did not recognise from the prophets in the Old Testament scriptures that God wanted to bring the Gentiles into salvation by faith, and spiritually graft them into the Commonwealth of Israel (Amos 9:11-12) (Acts 15:12-18).
In the Millennial Messianic Kingdom the law (Torah) will go out from Zion and the Word of the LORD from Jerusalem… For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea (Isaiah 2:3b, 14), However, for the kingdom of God to come to earth in these last of the last days, judgement and wrath must be proclaimed first, followed by the proclamation of mercy and grace. This is the basic message of the Book of Jonah even though he did not preach repentance, but repentance followed his message of impending judgment. To conclude let us all hear the prophet Habakkuk plead with God; “O LORD…in Your wrath, remember mercy!” (Habakkuk 3:2).
