Jonah 4 vs 1-11

Chapter 4 Verses 1-2

•True colors! Here we have Jonah doing God’s work and a great ministry he has…yet a pouting baby he is…why? Because as we’ve observed him roller coaster in his walk with God…heard from God, ran…feared God in the storm…ran again from God…in the belly of the great fish for three days and three nights….called out to God in prayer….got upchucked onto the beach…heard from God and obeyed…and now here he is again complaining against God…and so while we’ve watched his yo-yo, inconsistent and troubling walk, we’ve seen him hear from God, disobey, hear from God, obey…and we’ve seen him sorrowful over his present pain…but understand…he had sorrow over his situation, his circumstance, his hardship but he had not yet dealt with his own heart and that is entirely evident in that here we see he has no sorrow over their situation, their circumstance, their hardship!
•We must deal with ourselves when we are offended by someone or in some sort of strife…because inevitably what will happen? It will stew. It will rear its ugly head again so better to just deal with it now and go on in peace than to find yourself back in diapers over and over and over again.

Chapter 4 Verses 3 - 4

•One of my all time favorite verses. Is it right for you to be angry? We are so prone to call out for equality…equality as we perceive it…is not due us. What is equality? True equality? Hell…condemnation and removal of mankind…but in us arises a generation, and today in our society we see arising a generation that says “It’s only fair that you provide for me…I mean sheesh, I’m a human being…I should get good things because I am good.” Oh no, see that is where we have gone sorely wrong. We are lost, busted sinners deserving of judgment and abandonment. But God in His rich mercy as adopted us again, begotten us again, through Jesus Christ and so equality…equality is to live life on our faces in the truth of God’s love and magnificence.
•We are so bent on crying out to get ours….truly we already have “ours” but we just want more. And when we are justified in our judgment…does that justification make it “right?” Jesus was justified to live His life. He was sinless, harmless, perfect…but He went to the cross. Was that right? YES! Full of right! We even penned a word for that…righteous! And man if we can get that, then everything changes…life springs up all around us…freedom, liberty, clarity, power, fulfillment, purpose…peace! We quit demanding the handout and we actually make something of this precious life that has been given back to us!
•But we stay on the milk bottle spiritually…needing that milk and never increasing our faith so that we may live a life unto God. THAT would be “fair.” Romans 12 says that is our “reasonable” service. And so that implies that when we are living and striving and complaining to increase our own luxuries, our own satisfactional equality…then we indeed are being entirely unreasonable.
•Well, many say, “so what, I’ll just be unreasonable then…you just don’t understand me.” Well look, I have news for you…40 days and Nineveh shall be overthrown…it doesn’t work. In your fight for you, you will lose you. Better to trust in God and understand that “fair” is a term coined by Satan, not by God. God desires for your joy to be full…God desires righteousness in your life…and that is entirely reasonable and the mark of a true father.
•The world however, just as Lucifer did, has issues with that. (screen on the receiver illustration)

Chapter 4 Verse 5

•It would appear that Jonah was still hopeful that God would destroy them…that maybe their repentance was lacking…and so he goes out of the city and sets up watch…to see what will come of it.

Chapter 4 Verse 6

•So just as God prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah, now He prepares a particular plant to shelter Jonah and notice, this is the first we read of Jonah being grateful…finally God is doing something for him…I like what Boice calls this…”petty.” Why was Jonah not rejoicing that the men on the ship were safe? Because he’s petty. Why was Jonah not rejoicing that the people of Nineveh were safe? Because he’s petty. And by petty I mean that his will is far from God’s and whenever that is the case…pettiness is the tattoo.

Chapter 4 Verses 7 – 8

•God is preparing Jonah for the lesson that he needs and so he appoints this great plant, then he prepares a worm to eat at it and because of that little worm, the plant fails. And then with the plant now useless, the hot sun beats down on Jonah and Jonah once again is miserable.
•So we’ve seen Jonah go from being grateful and now back to complaining as his outward circumstance and situation just rules him…which will always be marked with complaint. Complaining is a symptom…a symptom of a wisdomless heart…because if we knew what was done for us…all that we have been given in the eternal heavens by God…all things that pertain to life and godliness by the finished work on the cross…then we could blot the word “complaint” right out of the Webster dictionary.
•Spurgeon said it best, he said, “If, like Jonah, you want to complain, you will soon have something to complain of.”

Chapter 4 Verses 9 – 11

•So again, one of my favorite questions (actually one of the most painful questions) from God…”Is it right?” And Jonah responds back in anger…”yes and what of it?” And so we see that Jonah felt totally justified in his response but truthfully, he’s just angry. Angry that God would take away the plant that was providing him comfort and pleasure. But you know what this reveals…to us and to Jonah? That Jonah was just considering that plant a tool for his enjoyment…and Jonah had no personal interest or investment in the plant except what it provided for him at the moment.
•Just like those people in Nineveh. Maybe just like those people around you now…maybe they have just become toys for your enjoyment…and so when you are not appeased by them, pleased by them, frustration and confusion set it…and complaining and avoidance and back-biting happens. Or maybe you just ignore them…you know what the application of ignoring someone is? There’s a word for that…ignorance. Ignorant of God’s love for them! Ignorant of the precious price that was paid for them!
•And God says here…you pity this plant that I provided to you because when it perished so did your comfort…yet you are angry that I pity My children…even though they are so blind and futile in their own understanding that they cannot discern between their right hand and their left. Oh how hard your heart is Jonah…and it appears to me that Jonah was not sent to Nineveh to save them…but to save himself.
•Jewish tradition says that after God spoke this to Jonah, he fell on his face, having finally seen himself clearly for who he had become. I only pray that we also find ourselves on our faces before the Lord whenever He reveals to us how unlike Him we truly are and how hurt and harmful we truly are.
•All the circumstantial satisfaction, all the ups and downs of Jonah’s roller coaster walk with God, his inconsistency…what did it get him? Misery. You may be being used by God greatly, Jonah was…that doesn’t mean you’re mature in the Lord any more than a rock is mature in the Lord. Maturity in the Lord is one and one thing only. Having the mind of Christ. The mind of Christ is threefold. First, to reveal the Father…and what are the attributes of the Father? 1 John 4:8 > God is love. (1 Cor 13). Second, to serve and give His life for others. And third, to bring glory to God. (Philippians 2:5-8)
•That alone is the aim..works are secondary...ministry is a result.