The Runaway Part 4
Anthony Connington
Focus: Mercy Triumphs Over Judgement
Jonah’s Anger
Justice and Compassion
Word of Love
Part 1: Jonah’s Anger
Jonah 4:1-4
But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. And he prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster. Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” And the Lord said, “Do you do well to be angry?”
Why was Jonah so angry?
To answer this question we need to examine the Hebrew word for “evil” (raah). This word is used 9x throughout the book and it connects the beginning and end like links in a chain.
Chain Link of Hebrew word for evil (raah)
Jonah 1:2–People of Nineveh have done evil (raah).
Jonah 1:7&8–Fishermen accuse Jonah of bringing evil (raah) to them.
Jonah 3:8–King commands everyone to turn from their evil (raah) ways.
Jonah 3:10a—God saw what Nineveh did and how the people turned from their evil (raah) way.
Jonah 3:10b—God then relented of the evil (raah) that He had planned to bring upon them.
Jonah 4:1–Jonah felt a terrible evil (raah).
Jonah 4:2–God relenting from doing evil (raah) to the people.
Why did Jonah run away?
Jonah was angry with God because he knew that God would forgive the Nineveites when they repented. Jonah felt that was not just and that Nineveh deserved to be punished.
There is another connection here. What does Jonah say back to God?
This is a quote from the Old Testament found in Exodus 34:6
Exodus 34:4-8 ESV
So Moses cut two tablets of stone like the first. And he rose early in the morning and went up on Mount Sinai, as the Lord had commanded him, and took in his hand two tablets of stone. The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation.”
What about this passage is different from what Jonah said back to God?
Jonah changes the Exodus passage and takes out the word “faithfulness” or “truth” and replaces it with God “renouncing evil”.
Do you see what Jonah did? He intentionally changed God’s own self-disclosure and then used his own version of who he thought God should be as ammunition to be shot back as an accusation towards God.
Jonah had shortened his understanding of what God had spoken and in turn could not see how compassion and justice really meet in the person of God.
A compassionate and gracious God, slow to answer and abounding in kindness
These words in the mind of Jonah have become a great source of terrible evil. But why??
Justice of God: tell the story of police pulling people over and how that justice makes us feel.
To answer that question we have to first look at the very first verse, who is Jonah?
Jonah is the son of Amittai (Emmitt) hebrew for the “son of truth”
Jonah just “happens” to leave that one word out of God's own self disclosure of himself to us, he intentionally replaced the word truth with judgment.
Jonah expected God to bring Justice in the form of Judgement not in the form of Compassion.
How can you say you are the God of truth and faithfulness when you change your mind about doing evil (raah)? How can you change the natural consequences of their choices and let them get off scot free? Where is the Justice in that?
Jonah’s complaint toward God was that God changes His mind about doing evil, or bringing judgment to those who deserve it.
So Jonah waits and watches to see what God would do?
Part 2: Justice and Compassion
Jonah 4:5-9
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 become 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.”
Let me ask you a question: What was the purpose of this plant?
The final link in the chain of evil (raah).
Jonah 4:6–The plant is there to save Jonah from his (raah) evil.
The plant wasn't just there to be a source of shade. The plant was an experience designed by God to provide a spiritual deliverance.
Jonah’s problem is not just his hatred towards Nineveh. It goes much deeper than that. His real problem was his hatred towards God.
See what Jonah was feeling…How can a God of Justice let these people just get away with all their evil. How dare you God sweep their offenses under the rug. Jonah can not live in a world where the judge of the universe lets the guilty go free. It is better that I just die. Jonah doesn't want to live in a world without justice.
But what God was teaching Jonah is that he can not live in a world without compassion.
Why was Jonah so happy about this plant?
The plant is a pure expression of love and compassion. It was there just because God loved Jonah.
The worm is an expression of justice and the consequences of the natural world playing out.
The worm kills the plant because the plant does not have a seed. There are no roots. The plant does not belong so justice says it must be destroyed.
Justice says when something doesn't have the right to be here it must go away.
What was so upsetting about the plant when it died?
Here Jonah was angry because God killed the plant that didn't deserve to be there.
At first Jonah wanted to die because he didn't want to live in a world without Justice. Now he wants to die because he can not live in a world without compassion.
The great question of justice is what have you done?
The great question of compassion is what can you become?
One speaks of judgment for what you have done. We get what we deserve. The other speaks mercy and looks toward who we could become.
The argument of compassion is that you may not deserve to be here but it would be such a shame to destroy you.
When Jonah wants to die after the worm kills the plant he is really saying that he doesn't want to live in a world where beautiful things, expressions of love are destroyed just because they don't deserve to be here.
Part 3: Word of Love
Jonah 4:10-11
And 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?”
True compassion comes from the one who invests and has long suffering towards those which He created and continues to love.
I think Jonah is party right. In a world of Justice, simply saying sorry and repenting does not change the fact that.
This is a Word of Love.
The power of repentance is not that it changes the past, but rather it changes the future.
Repentance is more about who you will become and less about what you have done.
Did you make the connections yet to the New Testament?
The one place where true Love, Justice, Mercy, and Judgment collide is the cross of Jesus Christ. At the cross the wrath and justice of God was satisfied and the mercy and compassion of God was given.
Second City Church - Pastor Rollan Fisher