Dr. Richard L. Strauss
September 4, 1960
One of the most comforting thoughts that I know is simply this: God is interested in individuals. I think of the many occasions when our Lord Jesus here on earth left the teaming multitudes to minister to the needs of one here, and one there. There was Zacchaeus up in the tree. There was the poor suffering woman with the issue of blood who touched the hem of His garment. There was the woman at the well. Nicodemus, a religious leader of the Jews. And countless others. Christ was interested in teaching the masses, yes, but He was always concerned with meeting the needs of individuals, for He knew that this is often the most profitable type of ministry.
The book of Jonah gives us the same picture. God was interested in the souls at Nineveh, but after that great evangelistic campaign, there is still an individual need to be met, an individual lesson to be learned. Hundreds of thousands turned to God, but the job was not finished. One man needed the personal counsel and instruction of the Lord, and He is right there to deal with the problem.
He's a big God, and there are a great many people to deal with in the world today, but God is still interested in your problem. He is still interested in you. No one person is too little for God's personal attention, and you are just as important to God as Jonah was when God dealt with him individually, reproving him, oh so gently and lovingly.
Let us see how it happens as we note Jonah's displeasure (Jonah 4:1-5), Jonah's discomfort (Jonah 4:6-8), and Jonah's discovery (Jonah 4:9-11).
Jonah's Displeasure (Jonah 4:1-5)
The word of God says, "But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry." The verse literally means, he was hard with anger. He was about to lose his temper and blow his top over this whole affair. He was extremely unhappy, despondent, dejected, depressed, and disgusted.
May I ask you, "What was Jonah's problem?" If anyone should have been happy, it was Jonah at this moment. God had turned a whole wicked city to Himself through Jonah’s ministry, and Jonah, instead of rejoicing in the Lord, was mad. How do you account for it? What was the matter? What was Jonah's problem?
Well, it can be wrapped up in one word: selfishness. The most probable explanation that I have seen is that he was concerned for his reputation as a prophet. Prophets were supposed to speak the truth, and what they said would happen was supposed to happen, and if it didn't they would be labeled as false prophets, and their ministry would be ended. As far as Jonah was concerned, his whole life was in danger, his future was in jeopardy, his reputation has been ruined, and it was all God's fault.
Let me point out something here, Jonah had obeyed the Lord, but Jonah has not fully reconciled himself to the will of God for his life, and there is a difference. Jonah had done what God wanted him to do, but he had not yet learned to trust the Lord fully for the outcome, and to be contented with whatever circumstances resulted. There can be no peace of heart in a situation like this.
Last week we learned that obeying the Lord brought joy. That is true, but obedience will bring joy only if we are reconciled totally to God's will. To say "Lord I’ll do this, but I hope such and such doesn't happen as a result," or "Well, I'll speak to that fellow at the shop about the Lord, but if he laughs at me, I'll never do it again." This is obedience with strings attached, and the strings are always the strings of selfishness. God is looking for obedience, total obedience that is according to His will, and leaves all the circumstances and results to Him. This is the kind of obedience that causes a young Muslim boy to go home and tell his parents that he has accepted Jesus Christ as his Savior, knowing full well it will mean a merciless beating, expulsion from his home, being disowned and disinherited. Modern Americans haven't learned what this means, and neither had Jonah, yet.
Jonah obeyed, but when it meant a loss of his dignity or a loss of his reputation, then he got mad at God. Jonah's obedience had the strings of selfishness attached. We’ll come to church, but if the preacher steps on our toes, or somebody hurts our feelings, or nobody pays any attention to us, then we'll stay home. We'll do that job for the Lord we were asked to do, but when everybody doesn't agree with us, and we can't have our way, then we'll quit.
Jonah had a long way to go, just like most of us do. We're still like children: selfish, immature, wanting just our own way, with no bumps, knocks, or difficulties of any kind. We don't know how to trust the Lord in every situation, thank Him for every difficulty, rest in Him no matter what kind of adversity comes our way. May I say, the Christians who are filled with the Spirit don't get mad, at the Lord or at each other, or at anyone else for that matter, because the moment they get mad, they aren't filled with the Spirit anymore, and they need to confess their impatience or anger to the Lord and be restored to fellowship with Him, and be filled with the Spirit again.
Oh, there is so much packed into Jonah 4:1 we might never exhaust it. What a sad commentary on a child of God, pouting, feeling sorry for himself, mad at the world, mad at God. May God reprove our Jonahs tonight, as He reproved the Jonah of His word.
But I can say one commendable thing about Jonah here. He at least had the courage to gripe to the Lord. He didn't go into Nineveh among those new converts and complain and gripe to them, stirring up a lot of trouble like some church members today. This is a sad prayer indeed. "I knew you would do this Lord. Now do You see why I tried to run the other way? I knew you would change Your mind and not destroy these people. Now look at me, I'm ruined. Life isn't worth living anymore. I might as will be dead; that would be far better than trying to face my friends who think I'm a true prophet." Jonah has joined the ranks of the very lowest (Jonah 4:3).
Maybe you remember our study of the life of Elijah. He came to this point to, and we mentioned that this is about the lowest anyone could go in their spiritual experience. "Take my life Lord, I've lost my reputation." Do you see how low preoccupation with self can bring you? To be concerned with God’s glory would be to ask, "All right Lord, what next?" Just like Elijah, this tremendous temptation comes after a great victory. With Elijah it was right after the trial on Mt. Carmel. With Jonah it came right after Nineveh. Watch out, friend. If you're on top today, the devil will take a good swing at you tomorrow. He wants God's people feeling sorry for themselves; they're absolutely helpless that way--useless to the Lord.
In Jonah 4:4, the Lord plants just a little seed for thought in Jonah’s mind. "Do you do well to be angry? Jonah, do you really think this kind of action is justified?" No answer is recorded at this point. Jonah was going to soak a while first. So he went outside the city and built himself a crude little lean-to out of branches that partially shaded him from the hot sun. He sat down under it to see what would happen to the city, even though he knew nothing would happen.
Jonah's Discomfort (Jonah 4:6-8)
From Jonah's displeasure, we move onto a section in which God teaches Jonah an important lesson by the use of a vivid and powerful object lesson, and we may well call it, Jonah's discomfort. This booth that Jonah had constructed evidently did not shelter him much from the sun, and it was getting quite hot sitting out there in the summer afternoon heat. I find very few people sitting out in their backyards in the middle of the afternoon in Texas, and this climate was probably hotter. But the Lord God prepared a gourd.
It is an interesting thing to note the things God prepared in the book of Jonah. In Jonah 1:17, the Lord prepared a great fish. In Jonah 4:6, He prepared a gourd. In Jonah 4:7, He prepared a worm. In Jonah 4:8, He prepared a vehement east wind. What a tremendous testimony to the power of God. Here are outstanding miracles in the book of Jonah, and miracles are miracles. Who is to say which is greater? A weed, a worm, or a wind-- it matters not for the Great Creator. All things are in His control. The word "prepare" does not mean to create out of nothing. It would indicate that God used natural phenomena in a supernatural way to accomplish His purposes with His sinning saint.
Well, God prepared a gourd, and you can picture the wide-leafed plant growing up and suspending itself over the prophet's head, casting its cool, refreshing shade upon him. And it made Jonah glad. In verse 1 he was mad. In verse 6 he is glad. And he gets mad again in verse 8.
Here's a revelation of the uncontrolled, selfish emotions of a man, the shallowness and foolishness, the childishness and immaturity of it all. Jonah didn't stay glad long, because God prepared two more things. He prepared a worm that began nibbling at the gourd plant, that finally caused it to wither and die. Then God prepared a vehement east wind to accompany that grueling heat of the sun, to torture poor old Jonah. Now, I must confess that I didn't know how torturous this could be before I came to Texas. The wind is always cooling in the north, but I have felt some winds here that just added to the misery of the heat. And that's what God sent Jonah. And Jonah decides again that he would be better off dead.
Jonah's Discovery (Jonah 4:9-11)
The object lesson was finished, and now God is going to make the application, and Jonah is about to make a great discovery. "And God said to Jonah, 'Do you do well to be angry?'" And he said, "I do well to be angry, even to death."
You have to say one thing for this fellow Jonah, he told God just what he thought. But oh how he must have wished later in life that he hadn't, after realizing the foolishness of selfishness.
Let's look at this for a minute. Before, Jonah was angry because of his reputation, his prestige. But now this self-pitying childishness has so run away with him that he's angry because a gourd plant died. Here is a vivid illustration how our emotions can so control us, that we lack any reasoning powers, once we allow them to go unchecked.
We see this every day in our relationships with other people. Little things begin to build up, and we get so wrapped up in pitying ourselves and finding fault with others that we don't even think straight. One lady came in to a marriage counselor complaining about her husband. She was so upset and disturbed and blurted out, "I can tell that he hates me just by the way he holds his coffee cup." Now that's ridiculous, and we know it, and we laugh, but every one of us at some time or other have probably thought something or said something like that, because we got preoccupied with self. If God has allowed some deep water to come into your life, just accept it from Him, ask Him for peace of heart, ask Him for wisdom as to what to do next. What if Jonah did lose his job as a prophet? If that is what God wanted, then it ought to be what Jonah wanted.
And now, in verse Jonah 4:10, the Lord is going to show him the sinfulness and foolishness of his selfishness. He doesn't waste any words. He is direct into the point. Nowhere does Jonah tell us his reaction to these words. Nowhere are we informed that Jonah was sorry for his actions and attitudes. The book ends with a question, quite abruptly and unexpectedly, and we are left to our own imagination as to how Jonah accepted God's reproval.
If he hadn't accepted it in sorrow and confession, I'm sure the book would never have been written. Jonah didn't need to add any clever conclusion drawing the moral principle for us, telling us of his marvelous restoration to God's fellowship. He stops with God's question, and it's like an arrow into his heart, and into ours by application.
Read Jonah 4:10-11. "You were concerned even to the point of death over one little gourd with which you had nothing to do. You didn't plant it, you didn't cultivate it, you didn't water it, you didn't hoe around it, you didn't make it grow. Should I not be concerned about Nineveh, in which there are 120,000 little children, and a vast number of harmless cattle? I made this. It's mine. Have I not the right to redeem it?"
Listen Christian, God made you, He saved you. Does He not have the right to do with you as He sees fit? What right have you to feel sorry for yourself because things didn't happen in just the way you thought they should?
I'm not a pessimist, I'm not a fatalist. I don't believe in sitting back in my arm chair and singing, "Whatever will be will be." But when I've done my best for God, when I've endeavored to please Him in my life, and serve Him the best way I know how, I have nothing left but to rest in Him for whatever results He wants to bring, and to be content and satisfied with them. What do I accomplish by becoming irritable, upset, self-pitying, discontented, mad at everyone? I simply make myself miserable, everyone around me miserable, and God sorely displeased. I'm not a fatalist, but I do believe in the sovereignty of God. And I think a great many Christians are going to answer to Him for the griping, complaining, murmuring, disputing, pouting, and sulking that rendered most of their lives ineffective for Him.
The lesson from Jonah chapter 4 is a reproval. And it's a lesson we’ve seen before in other parts of the Word of God. It's the pleading of a tender, loving God to grow up--to get our minds and our eyes off of ourselves, and on to Him. And we need the reproval, everyone of us needs it. May we accept it as we believe Jonah did, and allow the Spirit of God to control us, that we may spend the rest of our days as useful vessels, filled and overflowing with His love.