Jonah 3+4

Introduction

We began a short, two-part series on the book of Jonah last week. And that means we’ll finish it this evening. It’s a two-part series because the book of Jonah can be divided into two parts: chapters 1 and 2; and chapters 3 and 4. Both parts follow the same pattern: they both begin with God and Jonah; then there’s Jonah and the gentiles; and then both parts end with God and Jonah again.

So, chapters 1 and 2 began with God and Jonah: God commanded Jonah to arise and go to Nineveh, but Jonah arose and fled towards Tarshish. Then we have Jonah and the gentiles: Jonah took a ship heading for Tarshish and, when God sent a storm on the sea, the gentile sailors confronted Jonah about what he had done and what they should do to him to stop the storm. And then, after the sailors threw Jonah overboard, we have God and Jonah again, because God sent a fish to swallow Jonah alive and to keep him from drowning; and from inside the fish, Jonah prayed to the Lord.

So, we had God and Jonah; Jonah and the gentiles; and God and Jonah again. The same pattern is in chapters 3 and 4. First, we have God and Jonah: God commanded Jonah to arise and go to Nineveh; and, this time, Jonah arose and went to Nineveh. Then we have Jonah and the gentiles: Jonah went through the city and proclaimed God’s word to the people; and the people repented. And then we have God and Jonah again: Jonah complained to God because of his mercy towards Nineveh and the Lord answered him.

So, both parts follow the same pattern. And what’s the point of the book? What is the book of Jonah about? What is its message? I said last week that when I’ve preached on Jonah before I interpreted it the way lots of preachers interpret it by saying that it’s a book about mission. People say it’s a book about mission because God commanded Jonah to go and preach his word to people in a foreign nation. At first Jonah was reluctant to go, but then he went and preached God’s word to them. And the result was that there was a kind of revival, because so many of the Ninevites believed God’s word and turned to him in repentance and faith. And God forgave them. And so, we must do likewise: we must go overseas — willingly, and not unwillingly like Jonah — or we must go to people who are not like ourselves and we must preach the gospel so that they too will repent and believe.

That’s what many preachers say about the book of Jonah and it’s what I’ve also said in the past. But I was never really happy with that interpretation, because, for instance, God didn’t send Jonah to Nineveh to preach the gospel to them. He sent Jonah to preach against the people. In other words, he sent Jonah to condemn them. And when Jonah arrived in the city, he announced a message of judgment, not a message of salvation. He said: ‘Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned.’ Preachers often say that he presumably said more to them than that. They say he presumably told the Ninevites that God is gracious and compassionate and willing to forgive us when we repent. However, the text doesn’t tell us if that’s what he said. All the text tells us is that he announced a message of judgment.

And did the people of Nineveh really turn to the Lord? The text says they believed God and put on sackcloth and that they turned from their evil ways. But it doesn’t say they gave up their false gods and worshipped the Lord alone. And the text doesn’t say anything about God forgiving them. It says God had compassion on them and he did not bring upon them the judgment he had threatened. However, it doesn’t say that he forgave them. He let them live a little longer, but it doesn’t say that he forgave them or that they received from him the hope of everlasting life.

And so, it’s not a book about mission. It’s a book about God’s mercy. God is merciful to all that he has made and he is good to all: the evil and the good; the righteous and the unrighteous. He was merciful to Jonah when Jonah disobeyed God; and he is merciful to the people of Nineveh. In fact, right at the end of the book, God refers to his concern, not only for the people of Nineveh, but for the animals in the city as well.

And though we all deserve to be destroyed by God for our sins and shortcomings, nevertheless God is merciful and kind and he withholds his judgment for the time-being and he preserves life on the earth instead of destroying it. Last week I referred to the promise he made after the flood in the days of Noah. In those days, God destroyed all of life on the earth, with the exception of those who were kept safe in the ark. But because God saw that the thoughts of our hearts was only evil all the time, he decided to destroyed all of life. But after the flood, he promised that he would never again cut off all of life from the earth with a flood. So, even though we’re sinners who deserve to be destroyed, God promised to preserve life on the earth and to sustain us and to uphold us instead of destroying us. And so, ever since that time, God is patient with us and he puts up with our sins and shortcomings and he allows sinners to rebel against him, without punishing them immediately. He is kind and good to all, despite our sins and shortcomings.

And because God is merciful, he also sent into the world a new and better Jonah. He sent his only Begotten Son into the world. And he sent him, not to condemn us, but to save us from our sin and misery and from the condemnation we deserve and to give us the hope of everlasting life in the new and better world to come. And whereas Jonah arose and fled, God’s only Begotten Son arose and came to earth in obedience to his Father and he gave up his life on the cross to pay for our sins and shortcomings; and he was raised to give us life.

The book of Jonah is not about mission. It’s about God’s mercy to us. Having said that, let’s turn to today’s passage which is chapters 3 and 4.

3:1–3a

The first three verses of chapter 3 are about God and Jonah.

And the opening two verses of chapter 3 are an almost exact repetition of the opening verses of chapter 1: the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time: ‘Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.’ So, it’s as if we’re back to square one and the story is starting over again. The commentators point out that words of the Lord are slightly different in chapter 3 compared to chapter 1. In chapter 1 he commanded Jonah to preach against the city; in chapter 3 he commanded Jonah to proclaim to it the message God gives him. So, in chapter 1, he told Jonah to condemn the city; in chapter 3 he tells Jonah to preach to it. The commentators wonder whether the change in wording reflects a change in God’s attitude towards Nineveh. Perhaps the Lord is less inclined to destroy the city in chapter 3 than he was in chapter 1? That, of course, is possible. However, the message Jonah proclaimed in Nineveh was still a message of condemnation and judgment. The message he proclaimed was still, ‘Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned.’ And so, I’m not inclined to make much of the change in wording. God was still sending Jonah to announce a message of judgment on Nineveh.

A more literal translation of the Lord’s word is that he told Jonah to arise and go to Nineveh. And a literal translation of verse 3 is that Jonah arose and went to Nineveh. So, this time he did what God told him to do. If it were not for chapter 4, we might be tempted to think that Jonah’s obedience was from the heart. We might be tempted to think that being saved by God from drowning had changed him and that he willingly obeyed the Lord’s command. However, as we’ll see when we get to chapter 4, Jonah still did not want to go to Nineveh. While he obeyed the Lord, he did so reluctantly.

3:3b–10

Our author now turns our attention to Nineveh. He tells us in the second half of verse 3 that it was a very important city. Or, as the ESV puts it, it was an exceedingly great city. And a visit required three days. We don’t think that means it took three days to travel from one side to the other. Nineveh may have been a big city in those days, but it was not that big. It’s more likely that the author means that Nineveh was such a big city that a visit required one day to arrive, another day for your business, and a third day to leave.

However, Jonah did delay or dilly-dally. Instead he got right to it and on the day he arrived he went straight into city to do what he had come to do, which was to proclaim the message: ‘Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned.’ Whether he said anything else, our author does not tell us. Instead he focuses on the fact that Jonah’s message to Nineveh was a message of judgment.

And verse 5 tells us that the Ninevites believed God. That is to say, they believed the message which God commanded Jonah to proclaim to them. Interestingly, the author says they believed ‘God’, and not that they believed the LORD. When LORD appears in our English Bibles in capital letters, it means that this is God’s special covenant name, which he revealed to his people and which speaks of God’s commitment to them. According to the covenant he made with his people, the Lord promised to be their God and to take care of them. But our author doesn’t use that name in verse 5 to describe the Ninevites’ reaction to the message they heard. He uses the general word for God. And I think that what our author is telling us is that while they believed God’s word, they didn’t really know him. He’s just God to them, and not the LORD. He’s a stranger to them, and not their covenant God. In the words of the Apostle Paul in Acts 17, he’s the unknown God. They don’t know him; they don’t know what he’s like. But they have heard his word; and they have believed what he has said, which is that he intends to overthrow their city in forty days.

And so, they declared a fast. And all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth as a sign of their contrition and sorrow.

The author then tells us that the news reached the king. And he got up from his throne, and he took of his royal robes and he too covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust. In other words, he humbled himself. He gave up his throne and robes, the signs of his royal status, and he humbled himself in the dust along with the rest of his people.

And he also issued a decree, commanding everyone and every animal as well to fast. So, don’t eat or drink anything. And he commanded everyone and every animal as well to put on sackcloth and to call on God. Notice that the king is using the general word for God. He doesn’t know God; God is still a stranger to him. He’s the unknown God. Nevertheless the king commands everyone to call on this unknown God. And he also commanded them to give up their evil ways and their violence. And who knows? Who knows? This unknown God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.

Some of the commentators suggest that he said ‘Who knows?’ because he doesn’t want to be presumptuous. He can’t presume that God will relent. But it seems to me that he said ‘Who knows?’ because they don’t know him. They don’t know the Lord. The Lord is a stranger to them. They don’t know whether he’s inclined to be merciful or not. He’s the unknown God.

I often quote or refer to the Dutch theologian Herman Bavinck who died about 100 years ago. He had a nephew called Johan Herman Bavinck, who was a pastor and missionary and theologian. And after studying all kinds of religions, he identified five of what he called magnetic points. These are fives religious ideas that all people everywhere are drawn to the way that a metal pin is drawn to a magnet. So, everyone is drawn to these ideas irresistibly. Everyone thinks about these things. I won’t mention all of them, but among the five is the idea of a higher power. There is something or someone who is over us and who is greater than us and who controls the world. Another of the five magnetic points is the idea of the norm or law. Everyone has this sense that we are under a law which has been imposed on us from outside ourselves and which we’re obligated to keep. And this norm or law judges us. And another of the five magnetic points is the idea of deliverance. People everywhere yearn for deliverance; they long to be delivered from whatever evils trouble them.

And we see these three magnetic points here in the response of the Ninevites. They, of course, had their own gods, as everyone did in those days. But it seems clear to them that there’s an even higher power over them; there’s this greater God over them and they are in his hands. They don’t know him as Jonah knows him, but they know that he is there.

And when they heard Jonah’s message, they decided to give up their evil ways. How did they know that their ways were evil? It’s because we all have this sense of a norm or a law which we’re obligated to keep and which judges us. And the Ninevites knew deep down inside that they had broken this law. They knew their ways were evil.

And they also believed that deliverance is possible. They believed that there was a way out and that they could be delivered from the judgment that was coming on them in forty days.

J.H. Bavinck suggests that everyone has a sense of these things. Everyone is drawn to these ideas and every religion in the world attempts to answer these questions in one way or another. He went on to say, of course, that these magnetics points are fulfilled by Christ, because Christ is the highest power who has come down to us; and he came down to us to keep the law perfectly on our behalf and to deliver us from our sin and misery in this life and to give us everlasting life in the new and better world to come.

However, the reason I mention the magnetic points here is to show you that what Jonah said to them was not completely strange to them. It didn’t seem like nonsense to them. It made sense to them because they knew they were in the hands of a great God; they knew they were guilty sinners; and they also hoped that deliverance was possible.

And look now at verse 10 where it says that when God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he had compassion on them and he did not bring upon them the destruction he had threatened. Notice it doesn’t say that God forgave them. It says he had compassion on them. More literally, he relented. Instead of destroying them, which is what they deserved, he let them go on living for a time. Because God is merciful, he postponed his judgment on them.

4:1–4

But Jonah was displeased. In fact, according to verse 1 of chapter 4, he was greatly displeased. And he became angry. What was he displeased about? What was it that made him angry? He was displeased because God relented from bringing on them the destruction he had threatened. That’s what displeased Jonah. That’s what angered him. Instead of rejoicing in God’s mercy, Jonah was displeased and angry. In fact, more literally it says that it infuriated him. It burned inside him. The same word was used in verse 9 of chapter 3 to refer to God’s fierce anger. So, Jonah burned with anger because God’s anger no longer burned against Nineveh.

And in verse 2, Jonah began to express his displeasure in a prayer to the Lord. And from his prayer, we learn that this is why he tried to flee to Tarshish in the first place. This is why he didn’t want to come to Nineveh. He didn’t want to come to Nineveh, because he knew that God is gracious and compassionate and slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He’s quoting from Exodus 34, isn’t he? After the Israelites worshipped the golden calf, God relented from destroying them, even though that’s what they deserved. And he revealed himself to Moses as one who is gracious and compassionate and who is slow to anger and who is abounding in steadfast love. That’s what the Lord revealed himself to be. And Jonah knew the Lord was like that. He knew the Lord is merciful. He knew that the Lord relents from sending calamity.

And here’s the thing: Jonah didn’t want the Lord to relent from sending calamity on the Ninevites. By all means, relent from sending calamity on your people who worship you. But don’t relent from sending calamity on these pagans who do not worship you. Instead of relenting, you should destroy them.

And Jonah’s anger is so fierce within him that he says in verse 3 that he’d rather die than live. He’d rather die than see the Ninevites go on living. He’d rather die than live in a world where God puts up with pagans. And the Lord responded to Jonah’s burning anger by asking him gently, ‘Have you any right to be angry?’

And in what follows afterwards, the Lord does two things with Jonah. Firstly, he tries to teach Jonah that life without mercy is unbearable. And secondly, the Lord makes clear to Jonah that just as Jonah cared about a vine that grew up over him, so the Lord cared about the city of Nineveh. Jonah wanted the vine to go on living; and the Lord wanted the people and animals in Nineveh to go on living. Rather than destroy their lives, he wanted to preserve their lives.

4:5–11

And so, let’s turn to verses 5 to 11 to see these two things.

The author tells us that Jonah went out and sat down at a place east of the city. It’s perhaps significant that he sat down to the east of the city, because going east in the Bible often signifies that someone is turning away from the Lord. For instance, after Cain killed Abel, he went out from the Lord’s presence and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden. The author may be telling us that Jonah was turning away from the Lord. In any case, he made himself a shelter and sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city. One of the commentators suggests that when Jonah said he would rather die than live he was giving the Lord an ultimatum: it’s either them or me, so either kill them or kill me. And so, the reason he went out to sit in the shade of his shelter and to wait to see what would become of the city is to see whether God would accept his ultimatum and kill the Ninevites instead of him. In other words, he was waiting to see whether God would change his mind again and go back to his original plan to destroy the Ninevites.

And that’s when the Lord provided a vine for Jonah and made the vine grow up over him to give him shade from the sun. The author refers to Jonah’s discomfort in verse 6. So, although he’d made a shelter for himself, it wasn’t very effective and it did not protect his head from the heat of the sun. But whereas Jonah’s shelter was ineffective, the Lord’s vine was very effective and it gave him the shade he needed to ease his discomfort. And therefore, Jonah was very happy about the vine. He was very displeased about Nineveh, but he was very happy about the vine.

But oh no! At dawn the very next day, God provided a worm. So, first he provided a vine for relief; now he provided a worm. And the worm chewed through the vine so that it withered. Then, when the sun rose, God provided something else: he provided a scorching east wind. And as well as the wind, the sun beat down on Jonah’s head, which was now exposed to the sun, because the vine had withered. Jonah grew faint and once again he wished he were dead. He would rather die than go on living in a world in such discomfort.

And God said to him, ‘Do you have a right to be angry about the vine?’ Interestingly, the author refers to ‘God’ and not to ‘the LORD’. The verse says: ‘God said to him: “Do you have a right to be angry about the vine?”‘ In fact, the author has been using the word ‘God’ throughout verses 7 and 8 and 9. So, God provided a worm; and God provided a scorching wind; and God asked, ‘Do you have a right to be angry about the vine?’

Why does the author refer in these verses to ‘God’ and not to ‘the LORD’? It seems to me that it’s as if the LORD has put a mask over his face so that Jonah can no longer recognise him. If Jonah were to look at him, he would no longer see the LORD’s smiling face. If Jonah were to look at him now, he would see a blank face or the face of someone who doesn’t care about Jonah. And as someone who doesn’t care about Jonah, God started to treat Jonah without mercy. When it was the LORD looking at him, the LORD cared for Jonah and was merciful to him: the LORD provided him with a vine to give him shade from the hot sun. But when it was the cold face of God looking at him, there was no mercy, no kindness, no help: there was only a worm to destroy the vine and a scorching wind and a hot sun to burn his head. And in this way, Jonah discovered that life without mercy is unbearable.

And I think that’s what God was trying to teach Jonah. He was trying to teach Jonah that life without mercy is unbearable. It’s as if the Lord was saying to Jonah: Jonah, you didn’t like it when I withheld my mercy from you. Well, come on now, let me show mercy to the people of Nineveh too. Let them benefit from my mercy, because, as you’ve discovered for yourself, life without mercy is unbearable.

And then, in verse 10, the author goes back to referring to the LORD. So, the LORD said to Jonah: ‘You have been concerned about this vine, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight.’ So, Jonah contributed nothing to the vine, because he didn’t plant it or look after it. And it didn’t last: it was here today and gone tomorrow. But Jonah was concerned about it. He cared for it. He was upset when it died. So, if we can care about a plant, which is here today and gone tomorrow, surely we can understand how God cares for a whole city full of men and women and children, which he made and which he has cared for for years and years and years.

When the Lord says about them that they don’t know their right hand from their left hand, he means they don’t know anything about God. They’re in the dark about him. But even though they don’t know anything about God, God still cares for them — and for the animals too.

And since God cares for them, he doesn’t want to destroy them. He wants to let them go on living. He wants to preserve and to sustain their life in this world. Jonah wanted the vine to live; and God wanted the people of Nineveh to live. And this is because God is merciful.

Application 1

There’s a question which theologians and philosophers think about. It’s called the problem of pain. They ask that if God is good and all-powerful, then why is there so much pain in the world? Why is there so much misery? After all, if God were good, you’d think he’d make his creatures perfectly happy. But since we’re not perfectly happy, then either God is not good or else he’s not able to make us happy. In other words, he either lacks goodness or he lacks power. So, which is it? Does God lack goodness or does he lack power? It’s the problem of pain.

However, a while ago I came across an article in which the author wrote that the real question for us to think about is not the problem of pain, but it’s the problem of pleasure. Since God is holy and just, why is there so much pleasure in this fallen world? Why is there so much happiness and joy? In our church’s Shorter Catechism, we say that, because of Adam’s sin in the beginning, we fell into a state of sin and misery; and because of Adam’s sin and because of our own sins we are all justly liable to all punishments in this life and the next. So, what we deserve for our sins and shortcomings is misery. What we deserve is punishment. What we deserve is to suffer for what we have done wrong. And yet, we experience so much joy and happiness and pleasure. How do we account for that?

And the answer is God’s mercy, his kindness, his goodness. Ever since the flood in the days of Noah, God has kept his promise to sustain life on the earth. And he does not treat us as our sins deserve, but he continually does good to all. He is kind to all: to the evil and the good; to the righteousness and unrighteous. He pours out his good gifts on us and he fills our lives with good things, even though what we deserve for our sins and shortcomings is his wrath and curse. But instead of punishing us in this life, he often withholds his wrath. He often tolerates our wrongdoing. He puts up with our sins and shortcomings. And he continually does us good.

From time to time we perhaps think like Jonah. Jonah was displeased because of God’s mercy to Nineveh. And from time to time we become like Jonah. We wonder why God won’t rise up and stop wicked men and women in the world. Why doesn’t God stop them? What doesn’t God give them what they deserve? Wouldn’t the world be a better place if God got rid of them? And we ask ourselves why it is that godless people are so often happy and successful, whereas God’s faithful people are so often poor and suffer? It’s not fair, we think. God should bless us and punish them.

But instead of being displeased, we should rejoice over God’s mercy towards the world. We should rejoice over his mercy to people who don’t deserve it. We should rejoice, because, just as God has treated them with mercy, so he has treated us with mercy. We too are sinners by birth and we disobey the Lord continually. And in a sense, our sins are worse than the sins of those who don’t know God, because we know better and we have God’s Spirit to help us. And yet we still sin against the Lord. And so, we should rejoice over God’s mercy, because we rely on it ourselves. And what we want for ourselves, we should want for everyone else.

And since God is merciful and patient, since he puts up with so much wickedness in the world, and since he does good to all, then we should remember to be merciful and patient like God and to put up with the wickedness we see all around us. God could wipe out all wickedness from the world in an instant. And one day he will, when the Lord Jesus returns to judge the living and the dead and to punish his enemies and to renew all things. One day he will punish and remove all wickedness. But for the time-being God puts up with it. And he gives people freedom to worship false gods and to do wicked things. He puts up with these things; and he expects his people to put up with these things and to endure patiently the sins of others and to do good to all, just as he does good to all. And as we put up with these things, he also expects us to bear witness to his kingdom by the things we say and do, in the hope that some will be convinced that there is a God in heaven above who intends to judge the world one day and who offers not only to postpone judgment, but to give complete forgiveness to all who believe in his Son.

Application 2

And the final thing to say is that once again, because God is merciful he sent us a new and better Jonah so that we might not only have life in this world, but everlasting life in the new and better world to come.

Jonah’s anger was so fierce within him that he said in verse 3 of chapter 4 that he’d rather die than live. He’d rather die that see the Ninevites go on living. He’d rather die than live in a world where God puts up with pagans. But Christ’s love for us was so fierce, so strong, that he was prepared to die so that we would live. He was prepared to give up his life on the cross so that we would enjoy everlasting life with God. And so, he gave up his life to pay for all that we have done wrong; and through faith in his name we receive forgiveness and peace with God and the sure and certain hope of the resurrection and everlasting life and everlasting peace and everlasting happiness in the presence of God, where we will see his glory in the face of Christ our Saviour.