God's Concern for Nineveh (1987)

Jonah 4 Exposition
by Ajith Fernando

"Will you be an agent of God's concern for the lost? Will you give your life for it? If so, you will begin to share God's concern. And when you share God's concern, your heart begins to beat with the heartbeat of God."

In Jonah 3 we saw the Great Revival in Ninevah. Revivals are a time of rejoicing. Psalm 85:6 says, "Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you?" If God uses a preacher as an instrument of revival, the preacher is usually the one who is most elated. It brings a person deep joy to be the chosen instrument of God for a special task.

Chapter 4 begins with one of the most profound words in the Bible: "But." But always introduces a change in direction. It indicates that something unexpected has happened. There are glorious buts in Scripture, but this is an inglorious but. Verse 1 says, "But Jonah was greatly displeased and became angry." God has miraculously worked, but the instrument of God's action is angry.

Verse 2 continues, "He prayed to the LORD." What follows doesn't sound like a prayer. It's actually a complaint. But it's a complaint which takes the form of a prayer. In the Bible we often find great servants of God complaining directly to God. The Bible never glorifies these complaints nor even justifies them. In fact, the complainer is often rebuked, although the rebuke is sometimes very gentle.

It is foolish to doubt God's wisdom and his sovereignty. But if we do doubt God's ways, it is best to face up to the reality of that doubt and go directly to God with our problem. That's what Jonah did. When we go to God with our anger, we give him an opportunity to respond to our questions.

God responded to Moses when he complained about the burdens of leadership (Num 11). He responded to Jeremiah when he complained about his loneliness Oer 15). He responded to the psalmist Asaph when he complained about the prosperity of the wicked in contrast to his own failures (Ps 73). He responded to Jonah when he complained about his theological problem. Each of these responses gives us deep insights into the ways of God, because God answers their complaints. So while we can fault Jonah for his attitude, we can at least commend him for his honesty and for expressing his doubt.

Some orthodox people are afraid to be honest about their doubts. They won't grapple with their doubts. They just suppress them. But when you suppress your doubts, you often become intellectually defensive, stiff, superficial. Often you become unreal.
Jonah was honest about his doubts, and because God is supreme, he was not intimidated by Jonah's doubt. In fact, God gave Jonah an answer that was a deep revelation of truth. The doubt opened the way to deeper knowledge.

A deep experience of God often comes from struggle. The reason there are so many shallow people today is because they have avoided struggle. They have opted for quick solutions. And because they have opted for quick solutions, they never find the deep truths of God. Those who face up to their doubts, who go to God with those doubts and who wrestle with him about them will emerge with a deeper and surer faith.

Rejecting God's Mercy

Notice Jonah's prayer in verse 2: "Oh LORD, is this not what I said when I was still at home? That is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish." Finally we discover the reason for Jonah's disobedience in chapter one. Why did he flee to Tarshish? Why is he angry now? "I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity." Jonah was revolting against God extending his mercy to Gentiles.

Jonah's prayer is based on a common Jewish creed which is often quoted in the Old Testament. (For example, it is found in Exodus 34:6-7.) The key phrase in the creed is "abounding in love." The Revised Standard Version translates it as "steadfast love." The New American Standard renders it as "loving kindness." This is one of the most beautiful words in the whole Bible.

The Hebrew word is hesed, which is often used to describe God's covenant love with Israel. The word emphasizes God's loyalty to Israel. It stresses that he will be faithful to his covenant. But many Jews regarded hesed as a privilege reserved only for them. They did not want God to extend it to others. When God asked Jonah to go to Nineveh, he suddenly realized that God intended to show his hesed to the Gentiles. Jonah thought that hesed should only be given to those who deserve it. And the Jews, according to Jonah's way of thinking, deserved this loyal love of God.

But in the Bible the word hesed is very closely linked with mercy. In fact, the King James Version translates hesed as "mercy" most of the time. Because God is merciful, he extends his covenant love to Israel. They don't deserve it. They don't merit salvation. God in his mercy has reached out to them. But when God reaches out to the Ninevites, Jonah revolts.

He is guilty of theological racism. I come from a country tom by racism, and I have observed that racism is one of the last areas the process of sanctification touches in many people's lives. It is shocking to see how many evangelical believers who say they're not racist have feelings of ill will toward those of other races and view them as inferior. That is racism.

What was the reason for Jonah's theological racism? He had forgotten mercy. He had forgotten that he did not deserve salvation. Ephesians 2:8 puts this beautifully. "It is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God." In Romans and Galatians, Paul is at pains to show that even in the Old Testament salvation was by grace. Nobody deserved salvation. Grace is God's free gift, and faith is acceptance of that gift. We don't have to do anything for our salvation except to repent and accept him as Savior and Lord. So often people claim that other things are necessary for salvation - baptism or circumcision or whatever. But they are misinterpreting the Scriptures.

Jonah thought that the Jews deserved their salvation and the Ninevites did not. But Paul goes on to say in Ephesians 2:9 that it is "not by works, so that no one can boast." When people try to earn their salvation, they have an occasion for boasting. They think they are more deserving than others. So when so-called terrible sinners receive salvation, they say, "That's not fair!" That is how the elder brother responded to the prodigal son. He was angry like Jonah was angry. When the father questioned him about his anger, he said: "All these years I've been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders" (Lk 15:29). His was a works-righteousness. He didn't know the joy of sonship. All he knew was the drudgery of slavery. People like that are very insecure about their salvation because deep down they know they can't save themselves. They have to keep comparing themselves with others to feel that they are all right.

So someone who understands grace is not like that. He says, "I don't deserve to be saved, but God showed me mercy. Praise God!" That's how Paul felt. In I Timothy 1: 15-16 he says, "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners-of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy." After contemplating God's mercy, Paul gets so excited that he bursts forth into praise to God: "To the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen." He was so thrilled that Jesus had showed him mercy!

When we understand grace, our hearts overflow with thanksgiving. Grace also results in the love of God flooding into our hearts. This combination of thanksgiving and love flooding into our hearts bursts forth in evangelism. We are so grateful that we want others to know about God. Christ's love In us drives us and compels us to tell others about the salvation we have.

Billy Bray was a great Methodist lay preacher in England. As a non-Christian, he had no illusions of being a great person who merited salvation. In fact, he was a drunkard who lived a dissipated life. Then he was converted while reading John Bunyan.

After his conversion, his life was completely transformed. He remained poor and worked among his fellow miners, enduring much hardship. These miners were violent, sinful people, but they could not resist the power of his preaching and his concern for them. Many were converted through his ministry.

Billy Bray was a huge brute of a man. Sometimes he would go to a home and find out that someone in that home had been converted. He would get so excited that he would take the person, put him on his shoulder, go outside the house and run around praising God. Now we might find that to be a little unusual, but he was a miner. And there's nothing in the Bible that says a miner must give up his mining culture when he comes to Christ. He knew that he did not merit salvation, but he received it because of mercy. So when somebody else came to Christ, he was thrilled.

Now Jonah was wrong in thinking the Jews merited salvation. But he was also wrong in thinking that the Ninevites did not deserve God's mercy. This attitude is common even today. Often we regard people we dislike as unworthy of salvation. In our Youth for Christ ministry in Sri Lanka, much of our work has been with poor people, The hardest group we have tried to reach is the urban slum dwellers. These people have a lot of common vices, so they are disdained by society. (The vices of the rich are far more subtle, but they are just as abhorrent to God.) It has been very hard working with these people. We've seen a lot of failure, disappointment, heartaches, betrayal and dishonesty. Many people have told us that these are dishonorable people, and it's no use working with them. The implication is that they don't deserve salvation.

I believe there is a similar problem among those working with the urban poor in this country. A Christian leader once told me he can't get money from certain foundations for work they do with the urban poor. He found it was easier to get funds for work with middle-class or rich people. The implication is that the urban poor are not worth spending so much money and energy on. You get quicker results with middle-class people.

The best answer we can give to that attitude is found in Romans 5:8, "God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." God didn't wait until we became worthy of salvation, because he knew that we didn't have the ability to become worthy. So Christ died for us so that we might be saved. Now that we have experienced salvation, we refuse to say that anyone is beyond salvation, whether they are rich or poor, black or white, yellow or brown. Whether they live in a mansion or in a ghetto, whether their lifestyle is that of a socialite or a violent criminal, they are all within the reach of grace. All can be saved, because grace comes through mercy. Such thinking was foreign to Jonah, so he complained about God showing mercy to the wicked Ninevites.

Jonah Wants to Die

Jonah's statement in verse 3 gives us a bigger shock. He prays, Now, O LORD, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live."

He wants to die. This is the despair of a person whose theology is correct or orthodox, but whose personal desires clash with what he knows to be the will of God. In Hebrew, the words I, me and my appear nine times in verses 2 and 3. Jonah had the right theology, but he was self-centered. His selfishness caused his attitudes to be warped. His heart and his head were at loggerheads. His heart said, "I and my people are better than other people because we deserve to be saved." His head said, "Salvation is an unmerited gift given because of God's mercy, and so the Ninevites need to hear it just like the Israelites."

There was a conflict within him. He had lost his peace, that shalom which the Bible presents as the glorious heritage of those who belong to God. When those who are orthodox disobey God, they are sometimes more miserable than those who don't know the truth. The orthodox know how powerful God is. They know they can't fight him, but in their heart they don't want to follow his ways.

What a desperate situation to be in - to know the truth and still not want to follow it, to know the terrible danger of being opposed to God and still not want to agree with him. Such a conflict sometimes becomes so unbearable you come to the point where you think it would be better to die than to live. You become suicidal. And suicide is the ultimate expression of despair.
The Lord replies to Jonah, "Have you any right to be angry?" The word translated as right is closely related to the word better in verse 3. Both words have the idea of "good." Jonah says, "it is good for me to die." The Lord replies, "is it good for you to be angry?". Of course, neither is good. In a gentle way, the Lord questions and condemns Jonah's attitude.

The Growth and Destruction of the Vine

Verse 5 says, "Jonah went out and sat down at a point east of the city. There he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city." This shelter must have been a temporary shelter, probably made out of branches and leaves that Jonah found there. It was obviously inadequate, because he was quite unhappy until God provided him with a vine.

We are told that Jonah sat and waited to see what would happen to the city. Why does he do this7 Was he still hoping that God would judge and destroy Nineveh? Was he still waiting for some action from God which would explain his ways more clearly? We are not told the answers to those questions.

Verse 6 tells us that "the LORD God provided a vine and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade to his head to ease his discomfort." The word provided appears many times in this book. It's the same word which is found in 1:17, which says that God provided a fish to save Jonah. Now he provides a vine to make him comfortable.

What is this plant? Verse 10 says it sprang up overnight. This may be literally true, in which case a miracle has taken place. Or the mention of it springing up overnight may be the figure of speech we call a hyperbole. If so, it is a way of describing rapid growth. Some have identified this vine as a Ricinus communis, the castor oil plant which grows very fast - but we can't be sure.
Verse 6 tells us that "Jonah was very happy about the vine." This is a very strong response. The NIV is a bit mild here. Leslie Allen translates it as "terribly pleased." The NASB has "extremely happy."

In Hebrew the same adverb is used here as in verse one. So in verse 1 Jonah is "terribly upset." In verse 6 he is "terribly pleased." Jonah is having a roller-coaster type of emotional response. He is terribly upset when the Gentiles are saved and terribly pleased when he is looked after.

Why such extreme reactions? My beloved teacher, Daniel Fuller, said: "Jonah regarded [the vine] as an acknowledgment of his inherent worth." When the vine came up, Jonah seemed to say. "I deserve God's help. Here is the evidence that God loves me. This is the way he should treat me." But those trusting in themselves, who think they have inherent worth, are trusting in something very insecure. When they feel affirmed, they respond with great joy. But when they see others affirmed, they cry out "Not fair!" like the brother of the prodigal son.

Two girls were walking along the street one day, and someone met them on the way, coming from the opposite direction. The person looked at one of the girls and said, "You look very beautiful today." The other girl was immediately baptized with a lemon-juice smile. For the rest of the day she was a sourpuss because her friend was affirmed and she was not.

Jonah's extreme reactions show the insecurity of one whose confidence and trust is in himself and not God. Those who trust in God have a quiet confidence, for their hope is not based on their abilities but on God's mercy and care. Isaiah 26:3-4 says, "You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you. Trust in the Lord forever, for the LORD, the LORD, is the Rock eternal."

Jonah's joy is short-lived. Verse 7 says that at dawn the next day God provided a worm that chewed the vine so that it withered. What is happening here? Suddenly a vine comes up, and suddenly it withers. God is using a method called the acted parable to get through to Jonah. Sometimes people are so hardened to truth that God can only get through to them by an unusual means.

God did this often in the Old Testament. Once he got a prophet to take a pot and walk around the city. The people thought this was very strange, so they all followed him. When the crowd had all gathered around him, they would not listen to his preaching, so the Lord asked the prophet to take the pot and throw it to the ground. He did so and said, "That's what God is going to do if you don't repent." They would not listen, and so God had to use an acted parable.

Again we find this same word provide in verse 7. In 1:17 God provided a fish to save Jonah. In 4:6 God provided a vine to shelter Jonah. Now God provides a worm to discipline Jonah and to teach him a lesson through the extreme discomfort he will shortly have to endure.

These uses of the word provide are related to a key theme of this book - God's holy love. God is both loving and holy. He not only blesses people with what they regard as good things. Sometimes God blesses people with chastisement or discipline. He allows us to experience discomfort, pain or heartache to teach us a lesson or to burn off impurities in our lives. Discipline is one of the clearest examples of Gods holy love. Proverbs 3:12 says, "The LORD disciplines those he loves, as a father the son he delights in." Hebrews 12:6 also quotes that verse with approval. First John 4:8 says, "God is love." But this love is not a weak, sentimental, soft love. It is holy love, tough love. Verse 8 presents God's discipline of Jonah at its peak when it says, "When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind" - again the word provided - "a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah's head so that he grew faint."

A recently published book called The World of the Bible describes what this scorching east wind is like. It is a dry, hot, desert wind called a sirocco that usually lasts for three to seven days. Normally the humidity of the Middle East is very, very low - forty to seventy-five per cent. During a sirocco, it can drop a further thirty per cent, so it becomes extremely dry. With that drop in humidity also comes a rise in temperature. The air is full of fine dust which blurs the sun, and the dryness makes it wearisome and unbearable. Dennis Bailey says, "It is very trying to the temper and tends to make even the mildest of people irritable and fretful and ready to snap at one another for apparently no reason at all." This is what Jonah had to encounter.

Normally when a sirocco comes people run for shelter. But Jonah's shelter is gone. The only place he could go was back to Nineveh - but he was not about to return there! His situation is desperate. He gets very weak, and we are told that he grows faint. In verse 8 we read that Jonah "wanted to die, and said, 'It would be better for me to die than to live.'" He is totally defeated. Earlier he wanted to die because God had treated Gentiles the way he expected God to treat the Israelites. Now he wants to die because God is treating him the way he expects God to treat the Gentiles. You can imagine Jonah's frustration! He has a stubborn heart, and God is trying to reach out to him. Jonah is brought to the end of himself before he is taught the great lesson of this book.

God Expresses Concern for Nineveh

God questions Jonah again, as he did in verse 4: "But God said to Jonah, 'Do you have a right to be angry about the vine?' 'I do.' he said. 'I'm angry enough to die.' " Jonah is snapping back at God. But God's answer is so typical of God. He does not rebuke the prophet for his attitude. He knows how much Jonah can handle. So instead of rebuking him, he gently but firmly begins to reason with Jonah.

This gentle firmness is seen very often in the Bible when God speaks to his discouraged servants. We see it in God's dealings with Moses, Jeremiah and Elijah when they complained. God disciplines us, but he does so wisely. He knows how much we can take and what's best for us. He never lowers his standards with us. But he varies his tone without varying his demands. In verse 10 the Lord says, "You have been concerned about this vine, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight" God wants to stress to Jonah that he had no deep tie with the vine which withered. He did nothing for it. "He had no investment" in it, as Kohlenberger says. It came up suddenly and died suddenly. Yet Jonah seems to be concerned for this vine.

God then goes on to say that his relationship with Nineveh is far more serious than Jonah's relationship with the vine: "But Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about that great city?" God describes the Ninevites as a people in need. They cannot tell their right hand from their left. That is, they don't know the truth. They don't know where to go. They are not innocent, but they are ignorant. God is concerned for them, not because of their inherent worth but because of their need.

Because they are needy people, God responds with concern and asks, "Should I not be concerned about that great city?" The word that the NIV translates as "concerned" has the idea of compassion or pity. The emphasis is on the helplessness of the Ninevites.

This brings us to the heart of the gospel. We are helpless, under the power of sin. We have no hope, no ability to save ourselves. But God looked down on us in mercy and provided a way for our salvation.

Have you been saved? Then you know God is a compassionate God. If God is compassionate, there is hope for everyone. And if there is hope for everyone, you should be involved in proclaiming the gospel to those who don't know about it. God is a missionary God. His followers, therefore, must be missionary people.

This is one of the great arguments for missions. Robert E. Speer, the great lay missionary leader of the Presbyterian church in this country, said: "The supreme arguments for missions are not found in specific words. It is in the very being and character of God that the deepest ground of the missionary enterprise is to be found. We cannot think of God except in terms which necessitate the missionary idea." God is concerned for the lost. People are in need, and we are God's instruments. We must flesh out God's concern by our own involvement.

Henry Martyn, who is one of my heroes, put it beautifully. "The spirit of Christ is the spirit of missions. The nearer we get to him the more intensely missionary we must become."

The Book of Jonah ends without telling us Jonah's response to God's teaching. That is an approprate way to end this series of studies. You, too, have been faced with the missionary challenge. Will you be an agent of God's concern for the lost? Will you give your life for it? If so, you will begin to share God's concern. And when you share God's concern, your heart begins to beat with the heartbeat of God.

NOTES

Ajith Fernando, author, national director of Youth for Christ in Sri Lanka and a member of the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization, has an international expository ministry.

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