Well, even prophets pout and so do you and I. When is the last time you pouted? I'm giving you a moment to think. Some of us wouldn't have to think very long. Why did you pout? You know, there's only one reason for pouting. You pout because you did not get your way (humph). Even prophets pout and so do you and I. We want to look tonight at "Jonah the Pouting Prophet". As we come to this last passage in Jonah; I must confess, I'm a bit sad to leave Jonah. I've seen an awful lot of myself in this dear prophet.
Even Prophets Pout
I wish I hadn't, but I did. And yet, this last passage really does explain, it really does exegete this struggle that is chronicled in this book. In fact, I'm convinced that this last passage of Jonah really does clue us in to why this curious little narrative is in the Bible at all, because this narrative exposes something profoundly important in each of our hearts. Let me just read for you a little bit, starting with verse five: Jonah went out of the city and sat to the east of the city and made a booth for himself there.
He sat under it in the shade, till he should see what would come of the city. Now the LORD God appointed a plant and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be a shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort. So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the plant. But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant, so that it withered. When the sun rose, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint. And he asked that he might die and said, 'It is better for me to die than to live.' 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.' 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.
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?' Well, we are greeted in verse five right away with the post redemption attitude of Jonah. Notice what happens here, Jonah is typically in the posture of a pouting man. He's outside of the city with this wait-and-see attitude. It's sort of the attitude, "Okay, you gave Nineveh Your grace; now let's see what will happen." And you understand from the first four versus of the chapter that Jonah is not hoping that something wonderful and good would happen, because Jonah is angry at the operation of God's grace.
And so, Jonah builds this little booth; the word there harks back to the booths that God ordained for His children to build during the feast of Tabernacles. It was a leafy, small, little shack, not much of a dwelling. And he sat inside the booth so he could watch the city and sort of silently hope that this operation of grace would turn sour. This is a pouting prophet, not happy with the calling of God and the grace of God that rained down on Nineveh. And so, God comes to Jonah and gives Jonah this wonderful, physical, object lesson.
Again, you reach these junctures in Jonah where you wonder how patient will God be? When will He say, "Enough with you, Jonah! Enough! You've complained enough! You have stood in my way enough! I've heard you enough! It's enough! I will have no more!" And you can't help but look at this passage and be shocked at the patience of the Lord who moves toward this pouting man one more time. This man has no right to pout in the face of the Almighty. He has no right to question His grace. He has no right to think that somehow, someway, he's better than the Ninevite.
And yet, here comes, again, the wonderful counselor and sits with Jonah one more time and harnesses the forces of nature to produce an object lesson for this man that is set up to expose his heart. Look at the details here, verse six, it says, "Now the LORD God appointed the plant and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be a shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort." God appoints the rapid growth of this huge, leafy plant which provides shade for this prophet. Surely God is gracious, and in doing that, is giving this man some comfort from the heat, but He's got a lot more going on.
God Turns Up the Heat
The plant that is a physical comfort from the heat is used by God to turn up the heat because God is really after the heart of this man. This illustration, this moment is more than, will God provide for this man's comfort? This is a man, a God who is after the heart of this man, this heart that's been so rebellious, been so proud, been so recalcitrant. God is still after the heart of this man. And the Bible says, there in verse six, that Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the plant. Are you hearing this?
Not exceedingly glad because he was called to be an instrument in one of the most magnificent demonstrations of grace that's in the Old Testament, not exceedingly glad of the redemption of 120,000 people. When do we finally see Jonah glad?...because he's got shade. Amazing! This is a prophet of God, and in the entire narrative, his greatest moment of joy is because he's cooled by the leaves of a plant. What brings you your biggest joy? What produces in you a glad heart? Are your greatest moments of joy attached to moments of comfort, moments of personal ease, moments of personal success?
Or are your deepest and fullest joys attached to the work of the kingdom of God? I would welcome you this evening to be honest. What brings you joy? Don't be too hard on this man. I think we can sit in the middle of the operation of God's grace just like Jonah and find greater joy in an evening to ourselves, greater joy in an airconditioned home, greater joy in a widescreen television, greater joy in momentary business success, greater joy in a new art outfit or a great meal...than our hearts actually experience as children of grace.
God help us! Don't be too hard on Jonah. What actually, functionally, where the rubber-meets-the-road, brings you joy? Verse seven says that when the dawn came, it became very clear, very quickly, that this object lesson hadn't completed its course. Poor Jonah! But when the dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant, so it withered. When the sun rose, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint. What an amazing picture of the sovereignty of God.
I love these four words: "God appointed a worm." Listen! If you want biblical proof for the sovereignty of God, you can run to all of those theological passages you love so much; I'm running to these four words. This is not just the God of grand moments of history. This is not just the God of huge waves and big fish. This is the Lord of worms. Praise Him! My God rules the worms! I find great comfort in that. And if God wants to say to a worm, "Worm, you move from here to here, and you'll be hungry, and you eat part of this plant because, frankly, I want it to wither because I'm not done this prophet.
The worm says, "Yes, Sir," and goes. That's the shocking sovereignty of your Lord. Praise Him! Praise Him! And why is He commanding the worm? It's not just a display of His power. It's a display of His grace. This is sovereign glory exercised for the purpose of grace, and this is sovereign glory exercised for the purpose of grace for one man! Oh, you can understand it with 120,000 in Nineveh and all the things God harnessed to get Jonah there because he had the salvation of 120,000 people in mind.
This Is Your Lord
This is one man. What a picture of the sovereign grace of the Lord...one man, one man. This is your Lord. The sun rises; the wind comes; the heat beats down, and Jonah asked that he would die. He actually says that, "It would be better for me, in this moment, to die than to live." You say, "Well, is that all about just the plant; is it all about Jonah's discomfort?" Well, it is about that, but there is something more operating here. This is where, once again, we see Jonah is not on God's page. Because if Jonah sits outside of this city, this city that has received the blessing of God, this city that, to Jonah, does not deserve God's blessing, this is Nineveh; these are the Assyrians; these are the mortal enemies of God; they should not be blessed.
And now Jonah sits in this moment of suffering, and he's holding up his hands like this (gesture)..."Nineveh is blessed; I am suffering; Nineveh is blessed; I'm suffering; if this is the world, I want to die. It makes no sense to me." And here's what Jonah is missing...This is not the suffering of divine unfaithfulness. This is not the suffering of punitive anger. This is not the suffering of divine neglect. This is the suffering of uncomfortable grace. This is a God who loves this man enough to bring this moment of discomfort into his life, so in this moment of discomfort, Jonah will finally get it, finally realize that he's living for all the wrong things and begin to submit his wisdom and begin to submit his plan and begin to submit his comfort to the all wise, all sovereign, all gracious God that is active in his life at just this moment.
Listen! Some of you are going through moments right now of uncomfortable grace, and you may also, like Jonah, be looking around at people who don't know the Lord, whose lives seem easy. You may be like Asaph in Psalms 73 who prays, "Surely for no reason have I kept myself pure." Can I give you my paraphrase? "I've obeyed for this? These people don't even love You, and their lives seem so easy and seem so full of blessing." And what we miss is, if you are God's child, it's impossible for Him to neglect you; it's impossible for Him to forget you; it's impossible for Him to not be faithful because He will not deny Himself.
And so, it cannot be that the equation is wrong; the equation must be right; this moment of distress must be a moment of uncomfortable grace. This moment of suffering is meant to turn my heart; this moment of suffering is a moment of redemption. But that's not what Jonah sees. And he says to God, "Why don't you just kill me? It would be better." And again, a patient God, the Wonderful Counselor, the wise Father, the universe's best Teacher comes to Jonah, not with an accusation, but with a question, and says, "Jonah, think about your anger.
Is it right for you to be angry? Think about what's going on here, Jonah. You pity this 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. You are so taken up with this physical object that was the source of your comfort, this momentary comfort has gripped you so. Jonah, is that really what you are about? Is that really what life is about? Jonah, do you understand what you're saying?" And then, God makes the contrast, "And should I not 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 I love this...) "and also much cattle?" God says, "I am the Lord. I am the King; these are my creatures. I made them, humans and cattle, and I will do with them what I please. And what pleases Me is grace." And you know it doesn't take much to figure this out, if the people get grace, so do the cattle. Amazing! What do you think about Philadelphia? If you were honest this evening as you live as a citizen of this great city, do you pity Philadelphia? Are you moved by the fact that this city is inhabited with thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands and hundreds and thousands of people who don't actually know their right hand from their left hand?
Do you understand we live in a culture that's dramatically and terribly lost? As you walk around this city, do you see more than new stores and new condominiums and new restaurants? Do you get the drama of the spiritual condition of the city in which God has placed you? Or is Philadelphia, for you, more a place of great restaurants and great stores, than it is a place of need and ministry? Oh, I wish I could say that I live every day with a heart of pity for my city, but it would be a lie to say that.
Walking the Streets Utterly Unmoved
I can walk through those streets on the way to Devon Seafood Grill or Continental Midtown or Barnes & Noble or to sit with Luella in the rotunda of the RitzCarlton and have a cup of tea and be utterly untouched, utterly blind, utterly forgetful of the huge need that is around me. Maybe I am Jonah. Maybe I'm actually more happy with my comfort and more sad at the obstacles to my comfort than I am joyful at the call of the kingdom and sad at the lostness that's around me. Here is the exegetical moment of this passage, what God is exposing in the heart of Jonah is a conflict of kingdoms.
The reason that Jonah never got on God's page, the reason he's in a quarrel with the Almighty to the very end is that Jonah has shrunk his life to the size of his life. Jonah, although he's a prophet, is engaged in the service of a kingdom of one. And for Jonah, (Hear this.) it's his wisdom; it's his plan; it's his comfort. And I am persuaded that that war between the kingdom of self and the kingdom of God rages in the heart of every person in this room this evening. It's not over. And this curious narrative is sent by God to surgically open our hearts to us.
I would ask you, "What kingdom sets your schedule? What kingdom commands the investment of your time and your money? What kingdom commands your passions and directs your thoughts? What kingdom shapes your conversations? What kingdom shapes your relationships? What kingdom determines the quality of your marriage and the nature of your parenting? What kingdom controls the expenditure of your money?" The scary thing about the kingdom of self is that it's a costume kingdom; it masquerades very easily as the kingdom of God.
And so, you can be involved in external service of the Lord; you can be regular in your attendance of services of worship; you may even be giving money in the plate, but when it comes to the actual energies of your life, what actually rules your day is not the kingdom of God, it's the kingdom of self. And God uses this stubborn and recalcitrant prophet who pouts to the very end as a mirror to expose the needs of our hearts. Oh, that every person who attends Tenth Church could say, "Your kingdom come.
Your will be done, on earth, as it is in heaven." And say it with honesty and authenticity and integrity and joy, because when we get there, we won't have to have ministry and programs to send you out in the streets of Tenth. You'll go and you'll give and you'll serve and you'll weep and you'll pity and you'll expend time and effort and energy and money because your heart will belong to the King and you'll love the service of the King. "Your kingdom come. Your will be done." May that be our prayer.
Let's pray: Lord, we would thank you so much for this study of this one moment in the life of one barely known prophet. We thank you for the way that You bared Jonah's struggle to reveal to us, not only our struggle, but to reveal to us Your grace, and like Jonah, You haven't given up on us. You still, again, pursue us once more. In fact, this sermon this evening is You pursuing us one more time. How patient You are, and our hearts are caused to remember the Second Jonah who came, who after a short life, would be in the belly of the Earth accomplishing our redemption, but who looked over the multitude, the multitude that would soon cry, "Crucify Him," and saw those who were distressed and scattered like sheep without a shepherd, and the Greater Jonah, the Lord Jesus Christ wept. In Him, we find our hope. Thank you, in Jesus name, Amen.
