Jonah 4

“Man, did we travel far in this book!” Fronk exclaimed. “One tiny little book with many life lessons for us to learn from. It’s an amazing little book, isn’t it? And you’ve all put up with me for the entire series on Jonah so far, and for that, I’m grateful. But alas…it is time to get out our tissues, blow our noses, wipe our eyes and come to the realization that…sniffle…that we are at the last chapter. Driving along Route 66, we’ve turned onto Route 32...and that route is reaching it’s last rest area. We will stop there and bid our final adieu’s and move on to another route.” He took out a handkerchief from his back pocket, blew his nose loudly, and then put the handkerchief back. He held up his hands. “No, no. Don’t worry about me. I’m fine. I’ll be okay. It’s just…a very sentimental moment for me.”

Lenox shook his head. “Are we getting to the fourth chapter, Bill?”

“Oh, absolutely! And, my good man, what is the final and fourth chapter of Jonah? Hmm? Do you even have the slightest idea? Well, do you, man?”

He shrugged. “Jonah chapter 4 is…the final and fourth chapter.”

“Wrong! Wrong, sair! You are absolutely and fundamentally wrong! This is not just the fourth and final chapter of a great little book! But it is also an addendum to the entire Book of Jonah! And why is that, my friend? Because at the end of chapter 3, the mission Jonah had set out to finally do is accomplished. He did what God had commanded him to do! Since you were wrong, sair, we shall review our journey through the first chapters of Jonah. Now…what can we say happened in the first chapter? Someone, speak up!”

“Jonah left the northern kingdom of Israel,” Fuller replied.

Staci nodded. “Yes, and it took him three chapters to get to Nineveh.”

“That is the shortest review I have ever heard,” Fronk commented. “But, yes, yes! You’re all correct…or at least the both of you are since you are the only two who spoke up. So what happens then?”

“It’s as you said,” Barrington replied. “Jonah accomplished his mission, and the entire city of Nineveh turned to God.”

“Precisely! Now, it would seem that the book should just end right there, but now the problem - for there is a problem - is no longer with Nineveh. No, no. Tsk, tsk. The problem is now with Jonah himself! You see, Jonah is much like I was…a problem child. God had more trouble with this backsliding prophet than He had with an entire city of brutal, cruel, pagan sinners! Listen, if I had had the privilege of being the one who brought God’s message to Nineveh and had seen the result that Jonah saw, I believe that I would have gone down to the Western Union office and sent a telegram back to my hometown, man! Wouldn’t you? I would want to tell people what had happened and cause them to praise and thank God for what had been accomplished. I would rejoice in it, but that is because of where I am and because I am under altogether different circumstances. ‘Cause the truth is, if I had been in Jonah’s shoes, if I had been in Jonah’s fish, I might have had the same feeling that he did. Yet his reaction is something that seems unbelievable. In fact, I have no problem with the fish, but I have a lot of problems with this man Jonah. At the very beginning, he was called to go in one direction, and he headed in the other direction. I don’t understand that…until I look closely at my own heart and see that I have headed in the wrong direction several times when it was very clear that God wanted me to go in the opposite direction. I think we can all say that we’ve been there.”

Shiva nodded his head. “Amen, brother. Man, you’re on a roll.”

“Well…Jonah now has a new destination. He is going to leave Nineveh, and he’s glad to get out of town. His destination now is a gourd vine or, as I would like to imagine, a trailer court outside the city.”

Staci regarded him closely. “A trailer court?”

Fronk nodded. “Yes…because Jonah goes out of the city and finds himself a little spot where he can park his camper for awhile. As he leaves Nineveh, his destination is a little spot outside the city, and he’s going to arrive in the heart of God. I don’t know of a better place for anybody to arrive than in the heart of God, and that is where this prophet is going to arrive.”

“But…from a trailer park?”

“It’s just a picture lesson. In other words, he’s getting into his camper and he’s going to park far away from the others, at the farthest part of the camp as he can. He wants to be alone and sulk, you see.”

“Okay.”

“God is going to seek to win Jonah over to His viewpoint, and this chapter will demonstrate to us the fact that God will never interfere with your free will. He isn’t going to force us on any issue whatsoever, because we are a free moral agent. God has actually moved heaven and hell and has come to us through the way of a cross to knock at our heart’s door. Isn’t that cool?! But what is the truth of that whole matter, hmm?”

King nodded knowingly. “But He will not come any farther than that until the door is opened, and it must be opened from the inside. He will never crash the door of our hearts. He will never push it in. He will never come in uninvited.”

Fronk nodded. “Precisely. But God is now going to have to deal with a backsliding prophet who has a pretty strong will and who hates Ninevites, man. He is going to try to win Jonah over to His viewpoint. Now…we only have two passages left, so…I would like you, Erin, and you, Staci, to read these two passages. Erin…you may begin!”

Erin read Jonah 4:1 - 3. “‘But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry. 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. Therefore now, O LORD, take, I beseech thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live.’ ”

“Wow,” Shiva said, shaking his head in wonder. “He really didn’t want God to save the Ninevites.”

Fronk agreed. “No, he didn’t. You see, it didn’t just simply displease Jonah a little bit. It displeased him…exceedingly. He wasn’t just a little bit angry. Man, he was very angry! What is this man so angry about?”

“He’s angry,” Barrington said, “because the city of Nineveh turned to God, and he didn’t like that one little bit.”

Fronk nodded. “You know, the last time Jonah prayed, he was inside the fish. Here he is outside of Nineveh, with his camper parked up there in a little trailer court - far away from the others! - and as he sits in the shade of it, he prays. Well, he whines! He’s very unhappy. In fact, he’s downright miserable! Wawa! Wawa! Now you may have felt that I was inaccurate in the introduction of this book when I said that Jonah had hatred and bitterness in his heart against the Ninevites, that he probably had justification for it, and that it was one of the reasons he didn’t want to go to Nineveh. But listen to him now…‘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.’ ”

“Some people,” King began, “actually believe that Jonah’s problem was that he did not know God. The problem with that kind of belief is, of course, wrong. It is very clear that Jonah did know God and that he knew Him very well. Jonah says to God, ‘I knew You were gracious, I knew You were merciful, I knew You were slow to anger, and I knew You were of great kindness. And I knew that although You said You would destroy Nineveh in forty days, if Nineveh would turn to You, You would save them because that’s what You always do.’ Jonah knew God and, knowing God, he said, ‘I hate Ninevites. I don’t want them saved. I want God to judge them.’ So he had headed in the opposite direction from Nineveh. Jonah said, ‘If those Ninevites would turn to God, God would save them, and you just can’t depend on Ninevites. They might put up a good front. They might say that they’ve turned to God.’ Jonah should have known that God knew their hearts and knew whether they were genuine or not. But Jonah did know how merciful and good and gracious God is.”

“Yet at this point, Jonah is in great bitterness and anger. Sulking at his camper!”

“Two of the great prophets of Scripture said the same thing,” Fuller added. “That they wanted God to take their lives. In other words, they were actually on the verge of suicide. When the prophet Elijah ran from Jezebel - another man running away, and it was unlike him - he went all the way to Beer-sheba, which was the jumping-off place for the Sinai Peninsula. Elijah left his servant there and kept on going as long as he could. When he was out of breath, he crawled up under a juniper tree and he said, ‘Oh, Lord, let me die!’ When God’s man does that, that man is exhausted and drained physically, mentally, psychologically, and spiritually. Every drop is drained out of him. That was true of Elijah. He had been busy, and I mean busy! He had withstood the prophets of Baal way up at Mount Carmel. He had been before the public. Although Elijah loved the spectacular and he loved the dramatic, it drained him after awhile. So when he heard that Jezebel was after him, he simply took out for the far country.”

“Well, Skipper, Jonah has really been through the mill, too! In fact, he’s been through a fish. He had quite an experience. And then he came into the city of Nineveh, he gave out God’s Word faithfully, and the city turned to God. This man is now overwrought, overstimulated. Man, he is exhausted, absolutely drained…and he wants to die.”

“Haven’t we reached that point ourselves?” King asked. “Especially in these past few years when the Antichrist has risen in power and the entire world is against us? I know that we get to the place where we feel like saying, ‘This is it. I give up. I quit. I don’t want to go any farther.’ It’s because we’re tired, too. We’re exhausted. But to wish that you were dead is just about as foolish a thing as you can possibly do. As far as I know, no one has ever died by wishing. People die of cancer, of heart trouble, and of all kinds of things, but they just don’t die of wishing to be dead. Jonah is wasting his time.”

“And that, my brother, brings us to the next passage.” Fronk turned to Staci. “You may continue with the last passage…”

2
The Rebuke of Jonah By God
(Jonah 4:4 - 11)

Staci read Jonah 4:4 - 11. “‘Then said the LORD, Doest thou well to be angry? So Jonah went out of the city, and sat on the east side of the city, and there made him a booth, and sat under it in the shadow, till he might see what would become of the city. And the LORD God prepared a gourd, and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shadow over his head, to deliver him from his grief. So Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd. But God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd that it withered. And it came to pass, when the sun did arise, that God prepared a vehement east wind; and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted, and wished in himself to die, and said, It is better for me to die than to live. And God said to Jonah, Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd? And he said, I do well to be angry, even unto death. Then said the LORD, Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not laboured, neither madest it grow; which came up in a night, and perished in a night: And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?’ ”

“And can you believe it?” Fronk inquired. “That is the end. This little book ends with a question. But did you also notice how gracious God was with Jonah?”

King nodded. “Absolutely. In a sense, what God was actually asking Jonah was, ‘Is doing good displeasing to you?’ That is what God meant when He asked if it was well to be angry. God was saying to Jonah, ‘Jonah, I have saved Nineveh because I’m in the saving business and I save sinners. I wanted you to bring them the message of judgment to see whether or not they would turn to Me. If they turned to Me, I would save them. They did turn to Me, and I have saved them.’ Now just imagine…if there is joy in heaven over one sinner turning to God, then those angels must have had a real big time up there when all of the people in Nineveh turned to God. God asks Jonah, ‘Is this displeasing to you that I have saved these Ninevites?’ And how does Jonah respond?”

“Jonah just pouts,” Staci said.

“Wawa!” Fronk exclaimed, mimicking wiping at his eyes. “Yes, he pouts. He goes out of the city, goes up to the east side over by the Jeffersons, and there he sits.”

“I think he was waiting for God to carry out His judgments against the city,” Lenox replied. “He was still angry about having to bring these people the message and even though they repented, I believe he was hanging onto some hope that God would still destroy them anyway.”

“So he was up there waiting to see the city destroyed?” Staci asked.

“I believe so.”

“He really did hate them, didn’t he?”

“Well, he got a good seat,” Fuller added. “The east side of the city was up in the hill country. It was up at an elevation. Jonah got himself a good spot where he could look out over the city and I imagine he was even envisioning in his mind just how the destruction of the city of Nineveh was going to happen. Imagine his disappointment when God stayed His hand.”

Barrington shook his head. “You know, I don’t think he actually believed that Nineveh fully repented and that they would stick by their conversion. I think he was doubtful of their confession of faith, and maybe he was even counting on that. Because he went up there to wait for the fire of God’s judgment to fall on them, but that didn’t happen.”

“No, it did not,” King agreed. “And as Jonah is up there, this is where God comes to him to deal with him directly and personally. It’s what I love about God. God is a personal God and He knew what Jonah was going through. I believe God was very compassionate toward Jonah, and even though He had to deal with him, He was also trying to get Jonah to realize that His ways are not our ways. His mercy is not our mercy. The truth is, we’re all going to have to answer the question that is so often asked…Do we have to love people before we can go to them as a missionary?”

“But we’re not missionaries,” Erin replied.

“Yes, we are. It does not matter where we are. The truth is we are missionaries for God right where we’re at. We don’t have to go to another country to be a missionary. But in answering the question, all we need to do is look at Jonah’s life. He certainly had no love for the Ninevites, did he? He did not love them, but he brought them the message.” He turned to Fronk. “Do you have anything about the gourd, my brother?”

Fronk nodded. “Coitenly! Nyuck, nyuck! Well, now if you all were to take a look at the gourd, you would discover that it was prepared in the same way that God had prepared the fish. God caused it to be a shadow over Jonah’s head, man! He offered him a shade. So Jonah is made happy at last by this little green gourd growing up behind him. So Jonah sat under the shade of this gourd - just outside his camper - and became quite attached to it.”

“You and your camper analogy,” Staci said, shaking her head as she smiled wryly. Then, she said, “But I feel sad for Jonah, ‘cause he’s all alone.”

“Well, Doc, he has no friends, he doesn’t like Ninevites, and there’s not a single person in that city whom he cares about visiting. Yes, he’s alone, and the sad fact of the matter is that he’s also out of fellowship with God - and God is the One who gave him the gourd! Do you know what God does?”

Shiva nodded. “Sure. He lets Jonah get attached to that gourd.”

Fronk looked at him. “Now how did you know that?”

“Because the Bible says that God prepared the gourd to offer him relief. It was intentional. And maybe God was also using the gourd to show Jonah a truth, so I think He allowed him to become attached to it.”

“Well, I believe that, too…” Fronk paused. “But wait a minute! Would you look at the trend here? God prepares a fish. God prepares a gourd. God prepares an east wind. God prepares a…worm! Man, a worm! And this worm kills the gourd, can you believe that?! It cuts the vine down. It eats it from the inside. And Jonah’s little attachment suddenly becomes unattached! And now what does the poor boy do by his camper?”

“He wishes to die,” Barrington said. “Oh, woe is me.”

Fronk pointed to him. “But that doesn’t do him any good, does it?”

“Of course not. It’s just wishful thinking on his part.”

“But it is just a gourd,” Lenox said. “I think that’s what God was showing Jonah here. The gourd is nothing compared to a living, breathing soul. The Ninevites were people who needed the message. The gourd was a thing that was just there. It couldn’t be saved. God was telling Jonah that He loved the Ninevites. It didn’t matter if Jonah loved them or not…but God loved them. He showed them mercy. So Jonah had to go to give that message whether he loved them or not.”

King nodded. “So even today, the message to us is…whether we love the lost or not, God wants us to give them the message. It is up to Him to love them, although we should love them, too. If we do not love them, then we need to examine ourselves and to see why we don’t love them. Is there something in the way? Is there a gourd in our own lives that we are clinging to rather than what God wants us to cling to?”

“We should just cling to God,” Staci replied.

“Yes, we should, my sister.” He turned to Fronk. “This has been a wonderful study, William. You have proven to be a wise teacher.”

“Oh, shucks! I’m not wise.” He paused. “But I would like to close this study before we travel further along Route 66. I think it is reasonable to say that after this experience, Jonah left the dead gourd vine and went down to where the living were. And he walked the streets of Nineveh, and I think that he rejoiced with them - finally rejoiced with them - that they had come to a saving knowledge of God. What a message this is! Why don’t we get involved in getting the Word of God out to people? Especially since we are living in the End Times. We can’t wait for some great feeling to sweep over our souls, man. We can’t wait to be moved by a little picture of children. There are so many people waiting to be motivated by things that are emotional. We need to take the Word of God to them because God loves them, and if we’ll do that, I will guarantee that we will learn to love them also.”