Jonah Reading Plan | Week 6 – Day 3
Jonah Reading Plan | Week 6 – Day 3
Jonah 4:9 – 11 ESV
Jonah’s Anger and the Lord’s Compassion
9 But God said to Jonah, “Do you do well to be angry for the plant?” And he said, “Yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die.” 10 And the Lord said, “You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. 11 And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?”
(Jonah 4:9-11) God applies the object lesson.
a. Is it right for you to be angry about the plant: Jonah, in response to God’s question, felt totally justified in his anger about the sheltering plant’s destruction. This is considering that the plant was just a plant, and Jonah had no personal interest or investment in the plant except what it provided for him at the moment.
i. Jonah made three errors that angry people often make. Each of these things put Jonah in a worse place, not a better place.
- Jonah quit.
- Jonah separated himself from others.
- Jonah became a spectator.
b. It is right for me to be angry, even to death: These are the last words of Jonah recording in this book, but thankfully they are not the last words of the book. God’s mercy and compassion still worked with Jonah, teaching him and guiding him to God’s heart.
c. And should I not pity Nineveh: How much more should God be concerned about the destruction of persons — those made in His image, even if they are Assyrians. God’s response to Jonah showed the prophet that he really didn’t know God as well as he thought he did.
i. Those who cannot discern between their right hand and their left are those who are unable to make moral judgments.
ii. The lesson is clear: not only does God’s concern for people go beyond Israel, but He is totally justified in doing so. The lesson of Jonah reminds us that God is the God of all people.
iii. The lesson of Jonah is what he proclaimed before being freed from the great fish: Salvation is of the LORD (Jonah 2:9), and not of any race or nation or class. This is the same message God made clear to Peter in Acts 10:34-35: In truth I perceive that God shows no partiality. But in every nation whoever fears Him and works righteousness is accepted by Him.”
d. Should I not pity Nineveh, that great city: Jewish tradition says that after God said the words of Jonah 4:11, Jonah then fell on his face and said: “Govern your world according to the measure of mercy, as it is said, To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness.” (Daniel 9:9) We can only hope that Jonah — and we — would have such a humble response.
i. God showed His mercy to Jonah through a lot of preparation.
- The LORD prepared a great fish (Jonah 1:17).
- The LORD prepared a plant (Jonah 4:6).
- The LORD prepared a worm (Jonah 4:7).
- The LORD prepared a wind (Jonah 4:8).
ii. Nevertheless, the real work of preparation happened in Jonah. What God really prepared was a person, a prophet. “I would suggest to some of you here who have to bear double trouble that God may be preparing you for double usefulness, or he may be working out of you some unusual form of evil which might not be driven out of you unless his Holy Spirit had used these mysterious methods with you to teach you more fully his mind” (Spurgeon).