TEXT: Jonah 4:1-6 (CSB) – “Jonah was greatly displeased and became furious. He prayed to the Lord, “Please, Lord, isn’t this what I said while I was still in my own country? That’s why I fled toward Tarshish in the first place. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger, abounding in faithful love, and one who relents from sending disaster. And now, Lord, take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” The Lord asked, “Is it right for you to be angry?” Jonah left the city and found a place east of it. He made himself a shelter there and sat in its shade to see what would happen to the city. Then the Lord God appointed a plant, and it grew over Jonah to provide shade for his head to rescue him from his trouble.[a] Jonah was greatly pleased with the plant.
Picking up where we left off yesterday with Jonah, we need to ask, “Why is he so concerned?”
Because he knows that back home in Israel they will be angry with him for helping their enemy ... and he had enjoyed great popularity with Israel because of his prophecies on Israel's growth and newfound strength and prosperity!
He was jealous too; God in savings the Ninevites was like saying: “the whole WORLD IS SPECIAL TO ME, NOT JUST ISRAEL!" They liked being the "special" people. Jonah enjoyed being the "special prophet" to the "special people." Do we as Christians today take “joy” when sinners have bad things happen to them? If so, are we any better than Jonah was in his day?
Jonah knew this could mean being stripped of the Prophet's status with his own people! Why? According to the Old Testament if a prophet spoke and the thing did NOT come to pass they were to be treated as a false prophet! What had Jonah preached in Nineveh? "In 40 days you all are going to fry!" (Loose paraphrase!)
Since God decided NOT to kill them but turn from His anger toward Nineveh it would look like Jonah was a false prophet to those back home! After all, God didn't destroy them in 40 days, which was the message Jonah had delivered! Jonah's concern was the loss of his prestige and position ... all for a bunch of horrible Gentiles who were many times more evil than Israel!
· He felt cheated by God.
· He felt used by God
· He thought only of his own reputation and lifestyle.
· He felt betrayed for being obedient without much choice; remember the fishing trip was still fresh in his mind!
· He was so good at seeing the sins of the Ninevites that he didn’t notice his own!
He was angry that God could and would love others too, especially these people!
· "HOW CAN GOD BLESS SO AND SO?"
· "They don't appreciate me at all..."
· "I'm just used..."
· "Everything is unfair..."
· At the moment he was acting like a NON-PROPHET! HE WAS JUST LIVING AS A POUTING NUMBSKULL!
Jonah ignored his brethren and the newfound believers; self-pity drove him out of fellowship with everyone, to throw his own self-pity party ... NO VISITORS WELCOMED! He simply goes outside the city alone and sits down east of the city from a distance and watches, probably with the hope that God might yet destroy them after He thinks about it longer. He waits to see what will happen to the city for a while. Self-pity operates this way! It drives you out of fellowship, and anger keeps you there! We imprison yourself in despair!
He refuses to see the whole picture and the great God he had the privilege to serve; in fact, that's exactly what he lost sight of SERVICE! Failure to see clearly can be costly!
· He wanted God to do things HIS way!
· He didn't appreciate the FORCED obedience knowing that God would do what he didn't want to see happen ... hundreds of thousands of Gentiles getting saved!
So what does he do? HE GOES OFF ALONE AND POUTS! While pouting, and not thinking through his numskull's brain how wonderful this ought to have been, he makes himself a shelter to shade himself from the heat of the sun! So much for the verbal threats of "I want to die!" For a guy that wanted to die, he sure went to great lengths to make himself comfortable! This was just more drama emotionally! After all, no sense to die from heat exhaustion! Yet, HE IS DYING OF THE HEAT OF ANGER ... he needed something to cool that down!
Stubbornness shows itself now ... he had to have sat there pouting for at least a month or more if he was waiting for the 40 days to go by! He accomplished nothing else except to feed his own self-pity! He may have hoped God would take his advice and fry the whole nation of Assyria! So much for the love of this shepherd! Stubbornness marks itself in the life of the self-pity ... usually nothing gets accomplished except feeding the frenzy of emotions of anger, bitterness, jealousy, rebellion, and isolation!
Ironically, the God whom Jonah complains to about being patient with wicked people is being patient enough with Jonah to try and nudge him into a better mood! He now becomes the recipient of God's "SLOW TO ANGER, ABOUNDING IN COMPASSION, A GOD WHO IS GRACIOUS!"
AND HE DIDN'T DESERVE IT ... JUST LIKE THE N1NEVITES, but God is patient with Him and provides a "SHADY" deal for Jonah! Reason had failed ... in verse 4 God had asked him if he had a reason for his anger ... he had refused comment and instead chose to pout!
Now God would try a different tactic! God would do the same for HIM that He did for Nineveh; give Him grace when he didn't deserve it! Notice how happy Jonah became for this “shady” deal! Evidently he had done such a poor job with his temporary hut that he needed something more to block the hot sun!
That's another symptom of self-pity -- poor quality work, the heart just not in it! And it causes us to see only our own needs and not those of others. God remedies the heat problem by providing this vine! The abrupt extreme of happiness over something for himself demonstrates the attitude Jonah had about others ... as long as it was for HIM he was happy, but NOT FOR OTHERS! (Selfishness is another symptom of self-pity)
These extreme swings indicate a fragile emotional makeup, to be so angry over a great thing God did for others, and so happy over a small thing for himself! As we will see, this doesn't last long; it usually doesn't for self-pity type of people! As soon as his need is not met anymore he resorts to complaining again! Once God sent the worm to eat the vine He had given Jonah earlier for shade Jonah once again became angry and depressed.
So, how does this end – tune in tomorrow – same place, same story -----
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