“You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight.11 And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh.”
Jonah 4:10-11
Here we are at the end of Jonah – the final chapter. We might all be forgiven for thinking that the climax of the book was surely at the end of chapter 3.
After all, didn’t Jonah obey and go to Nineveh as God had instructed? And didn’t the people of Nineveh hear God’s message of destruction and at it repent in dust and ashes? And did not God hear their cry for mercy and relent from sending the destruction on them he had warned of? The answer is yes.
So, what more is there to say? Well, actually a whole chapter of things, and none of it is superfluous. All of it is climatic and foundational and vital for our consideration.
Jonah’s Odd Response
I said at the end of the message last week that there’s a twist in the story. Just as we think everything has worked out well, we find Jonah complaining.
Verse 1 says, ‘to Jonah this [namely God’s mercy on the Ninevites] seemed very wrong’. These words from Jonah seem out of place because of the transformation that we’ve seen take place in Jonah over the course of the first three chapters of the book.
Remember, Jonah started out in disobedience; he ran away from God when God told him to go to Nineveh and proclaim his message of destruction to the Ninevites. Jonah ran down to Joppa, got on a ship heading for the far distant Mediterranean outpost of Tarshish in order to distance himself from God as far as possible.
But on his way, God intercepted him and brought a terrible storm to bear upon the ship to the point that every sailor was in fear of their lives. The sailors threw Jonah overboard and God stilled the storm, but Jonah sank down into the depths of the sea. And, in his moment of greatest desperation he cried out to God for help and God heard him. God sent a huge fish to swallow Jonah whole and preserve his life.
Jonah was in the belly of that fish for 3 days and 3 nights and whilst he was in there he came to his senses; he owned his sin; he acknowledged his need of the Lord. God commanded the fish and it vomited Jonah on to dry land and Jonah went to the temple and offered thanks to God.
Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time, go to Nineveh and preach my message to the Ninevites - 40 days and I will destroy this city. And this time Jonah went in obedience to God’s command.
So, we see how far Jonah has come - from disobedience to obedience, and decisively because God pursued Jonah and brought him back to Himself.
But the reason for chapter 4 is that Jonah’s lesson is not complete. Jonah has learnt to obey out of duty, but cold-hearted duty is not the essence of what God is looking for. God is surely looking for obedience fueled by love. Love that starts with God and bends out into the world to meet the needs of others.
That’s what this chapter is all about. God is going to show Jonah what love looks like.
Jonah’s Anger
In the chapter there are two things that Jonah is angry about. He’s angry that God showed mercy to Nineveh by not destroying them. And he’s angry about that because he knows that God has decreed to use Assyria - of which Nineveh is the capital city - to conquer his own country Israel and take them into captivity.
Jonah loves his own people and his nation and he does not want God’s plan to come to fruition, so his hope all along has been that in some way God would see fit to destroy Nineveh and so save his own people. But that’s not what’s transpired.
The Ninevites are saved as we come into chapter 4, and Jonah is very angry about that. Verse 2, ‘Isn’t this what I said Lord when I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that you are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. Now Lord take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live’.
So that’s the first thing he’s angry about - and his anger is really aimed at God. He doesn’t like the way the Lord’s sovereign purposes have panned out. He sees that the Lord has done all this. God brought his messenger to the city. God put it into the hearts of the Ninevites to repent in dust and ashes. God saw the city-wide repentance and had compassion on them. And God relented in sending disaster.
The second thing he’s angry about is a plant. After Jonah saw the Lord’s deliverance of the city he took himself off to a place east of the city, he built himself a shelter to sit in and waited to see what would happen to the city (verse 5).
Back in chapter 3 the Ninevites sat down in dust and ashes and waited to see if the Lord would relent. Now Jonah sits down is his shelter and waits to see if God will come to his senses and destroy the city in accordance with his anger. And we’re told in verse 6 that God provided - that means spontaneously created - a leafy plant and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade to his head from the relentless sun which was causing Jonah discomfort.
In other words, God had compassion on Jonah. He saw his discomfort and provided for his need with a supernatural sovereign intervention on his behalf. And Jonah was really pleased with the plant because it made his life more comfortable.
But at dawn the next day, verse 8 says, God provided - that means God sovereignly intervened again - God provided a worm to chew the plant so that the plant withered.
And with the plant, Jonah’s comfort withered too. But that’s not all. On top of the plant withering, God provided - another sovereign intervention on God’s part - God provided a scorching east wind and the sun blazed on Jonah’s head to the point that he grew faint.
So that’s why Jonah is angry for the second time in this chapter. Verse 9, ‘God said to Jonah, “Is right for you to be angry about the plant?” “It is”, he said. “And I am so angry I wish I were dead”’.
Jonah is Pleased with a Plant, God with a People
Now consider this: God made the people of the city of Nineveh, just as he made the plant that gave Jonah shade. Jonah is angry about God’s mercy to the Ninevites, but he’s happy about God’s mercy to him.
And, Jonah’s angry that God didn’t destroy the city but he’s also angry that he did destroy the plant. And, Jonah is more concerned about a plant, than he is about a city of 120,000 people. And Jonah’s angry that God is more concerned about the people of Nineveh than He is about a plant.
In all of Jonah’s anger there is just one thing he is happy about and that’s the comfort the plant gives him. But what about God? What delights him in this story? Here Jesus helps us out. Jesus said, ‘I tell you that in the same way, there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who do not need to repent’ (Luke 15:7)
And the Apostle Peter said this, ‘The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance’ (2 Peter 3:9).
So, we know with certainty: God loves a repentant sinner. God loves someone who turns to him and says ‘I am lost without you. O my God have mercy on me a sinner’. And when someone comes with a repentant heart like that, he delights to save them. He delights to give them eyes of faith to trust in his merciful provision for them. He delights to cause them, by the power of His Spirit, to receive Jesus as their personal Saviour, who alone can take away the wrath of God and put them into right relationship with Him.
In the case of Nineveh, 120,000 people had repented in dust and ashes before God, so undoubtedly God was very pleased. There must have been a lot of rejoicing in heaven over the repentance of Nineveh!
Out of God’s abundance of love he saved the underserving Ninevites and he was very pleased with their salvation.
Jonah on the other hand was not pleased with their repentance, but he was pleased with a plant that gave him comfort. And what God is showing Jonah is that Jonah needs to come to share His concern for the Ninevites; that Jonah needs to come to share His love for the Ninevites; that Jonah needs to come to share His delight in salvation.
Sincere Love
In 2 Corinthians 8, the Apostle Paul writes to the Christians in Corinth because he wants them to share in giving gladly to meet the needs of others. In order to show them what that looks like, the Apostle gives them an example.
He tells them about some Christians in Macedonia who, whilst in the middle of a very severe trial in which they were genuinely poverty stricken, gave as much - and even beyond - what they could. Paul calls this in verse 8, ‘sincere love’. Not manufactured love, but sincere love.
In other words, however they ended up giving in that way, it was not out of cold-hearted duty, it was out of sincere love. They were obedient to the call to give, but they excelled in the giving because they were whole hearted in it. So how did their sincere love come about?
In verse 1, Paul says God gave the Macedonians grace. In the case of Jonah, we have seen that Jonah has received grace at the hands of the Lord also. Did he deserve to be saved from the bottom of the sea? No. He had turned his back on God, yet God was gracious to him.
And yet here we don’t see him living in the light of that grace. He’s happy to have been the recipient of God’s grace, but he’s not happy that these Ninevites should be the recipients of God’s grace.
The second thing that the Macedonians had was joy in the grace they had received. So even though they were undergoing great trials and poverty, yet their joy was overflowing verse 2 says.
Their joy wasn’t overflowing because of their earthly circumstances – those were dire. Their joy was overflowing in spite of their circumstances. Their joy was a joy in something that transcended their earthly circumstances. Their joy was in God and no amount of poverty or trial could steel that joy away from them. God had been gracious to them, what more could they ask for? They lived every day in the light of that grace, with joy in their God.
But Jonah is not living in the light of the grace God has bestowed upon him. Jonah is angry; and joyless; and even wishing himself dead. He has forgotten God’s good grace to him.
Now the effect of that daily joy in Jesus that the Macedonians had, was that their joy welled up like a fountain – verse 2 – and expressed itself in rich generosity. Verses 3 & 4 say the Macedonians gave as much as they could, they gave of their own accord, and they pleaded for the opportunity to be able to give to meet the needs of others. Here though, we find Jonah sitting in his shelter hoping that destruction and not good will come on his enemies.
The Macedonians example is Paul’s definition of sincere love. If Jonah had loved these Ninevites he would have remembered the grace God had shown him – grace he did not deserve; and then out of the joy welling up in him - because of God’s grace to him - he would have delighted to see God’s grace poured out on others – even his enemies. This is what it is to live in the light of the gospel.
Verse 9 of 2 Corinthians 8 goes like this: ‘You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich’.
God is not content that Jonah merely obey the word He had given him. In light of the grace God had shown to Jonah, he’s looking for joy that overflows in gladness when God meets the needs of others in grace also.
The Apostle Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians told them that even if he were to give all he possessed to the poor and give over his body to hardship, but have not love, he would gain nothing.
Jonah had given of his time and his energies in obedience to God, but he did not have love for the Ninevites, and now he was sitting there wishing he was dead.
God was Right to Save
So now we see the purpose of the plant. The plant exposes Jonah’s heartlessness. It exposes his lack of love. It exposes the fact that his obedience had been cold, not heartfelt.
So now God gets to grips with Jonah’s heart and he does it by asking a question, and he asks it twice. The first time he asks Jonah is in verse 4 when Jonah is angry about Nineveh: ‘But the Lord replied, Is it right for you to be angry?’ To which Jonah doesn’t respond.
The second time God asks him the question is in verse 9, when Jonah is angry about the plant. This time Jonah does respond: ‘God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?” “It is,” he said. “And I am so angry I wish I were dead.”’ Well that response is not much better than first!
The reason it’s a lousy answer is because his anger is a lousy attitude. Jonah’s got no rightful reason to be angry, and that’s why he can’t answer God’s question either time.
What about God? Can he prove that his actions were right when he met the needs of the Ninevites with grace? He can. Verses 10 & 11.
The key word is ‘concern’. The Macedonians were concerned for the needs of their fellow believers. God was concerned for the needs of 120,000 Ninevites who’s sins had brought them to the edge of destruction. And Jonah was concerned about a plant which God had provided for him - to comfort him.
God was showing Jonah that even something as small as a plant could be the concern of a human being like Jonah; even though Jonah did not make the plant grow up for himself.
And God’s point is that if Jonah could be so concerned about a little plant which is fairly insignificant and which he didn’t even make, then why shouldn’t God be concerned about 120,000 people who he did make?
The reason Jonah is concerned about the plant is because the plant provides him with happiness. The plant provides shade and shade makes life in the desert better and ‘better’ makes him happy. That’s how we are all wired to live.
God made the Ninevites for his himself. He made them that they might bring glory and honour to his name. That’s the same reason he made all people (Isaiah 43:7). It’s the reason he made you.
God is concerned for the Ninevites because their rejection of Him will inevitably lead to his eternal wrath and punishment falling on them. So, he goes out of his way to save them and restore them to their original purpose.
And yet Jonah is angry with Him for this. By virtue of the plant, God has exposed Jonah’s hypocrisy. He cares for the plant the same way God cares for the people. Yet Jonah is angry about the death of the plant but desires the death of the people.
Hearts Exposed
Jonah’s heart is exposed. God is so good at exposing hearts. Jonah and we need to learn this lesson: Every day, live in the light of the grace God has bestowed upon you. Every day, meditate on that grace until the joy of it abides in you. And every day, allow that joy to well up in your heart so that it overflows in gladly meeting the needs of others.
If that happens, we’ll be the kind of people who love our enemies and seek to do good them. We’ll be the kind of people who don’t look first to ourselves, but the needs of others. We’ll be the kind of people who wonder how we can carry the burdens of others today. We’ll be the kinds of people who seek opportunities to encourage each other to love and good deeds.
And we’ll be the kind of people who see the ultimate need that all people have – namely their need of full and free forgiveness of sins. And in seeing it, we will seek to meet it by taking the good news of Jesus’ death on their behalf, for the forgiveness of their sins, to the people of our community and to the nations at large.
And if you search for that kind of love in you and find it missing, then know this: ‘if you have faith that can move mountains but have not love, then you are nothing’ (1 Corinthians 13:2).
So then pray for God’s grace – the grace that was shed abroad in Christ Jesus when he laid down his life for your sake – pray that the grace you have received at His hands would become tangible in your everyday experience.
That’s what Jonah had lost and God worked to show it to him. God worked to show him that Love is kind. God worked to show him that Love is not self-seeking and it is not easily angered and it keeps no record of wrongs. God worked to show him, it always protects, it always hopes, it always perseveres (1 Corinthians 13:4-6).
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