Jonah - 12
Compassion
We come now to the last talk in this journey of discovery through the Old Testament book of Jonah. This time we are looking at chapter 4 and I've called this talk, "Compassion."
This interesting and unusual Bible book is a story of "Commission", "Contrition", "Conversion” and "Compassion". It is a story of deep emotions. We have seen Jonah running from God. We have seen pagan sailors fearful and actually worshipping God. We have seen Jonah, swallowed by a great fish, desperately praying. And we have seen his great joy at his deliverance. Then there was the tension of Jonah's preaching of impending judgement to the wicked city of Nineveh. The result of his preaching was the very real repentance of the Ninevites and their turning to God.
And now in chapter 4 we are unexpectedly confronted with these words: "But Jonah was greatly displeased and became angry.” You may well ask, "Why did Jonah become so angry? ” We find the answer in chapter 3 verse 10: "When God saw what (the Ninevites) did and how they turned from their evil ways, He had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction He had threatened."
It seems amazing that it was the great compassion of God towards the people of Nineveh that caused Jonah to be angry. He just could not take delight in the conversion of a vicious and heathen people. In becoming angry he lacked reverence towards God, and he certainly had no affection for the people. His attitude was the same as the scribes and Pharisees centuries later when they criticised Jesus for mixing with sinners and healing on the Sabbath Day.
The repentance of Nineveh put the obstinacy of Israel to shame. Jonah in his pride as a Jew was disturbed by what God was doing. God was being gracious and merciful to Gentiles while Israel faced his anger and judgement because of their unbelief and disobedience. In forgiving the sins of the repentant Gentiles in Nineveh, God's actions were prophetic of the day when Israel as a nation would be set aside. In that day the Gospel of God's grace through Jesus Christ would be proclaimed to all peoples, both Gentiles and Jews. In Romans chapter 11 we have a detailed commentary on this.
Jonah had a zeal for God, but it was a misplaced zeal based on wrong ideas about God and his purposes. There are many people like that today. It is possible to be very religious, very zealous, and very knowledgeable about religious things, and yet have a cold, hard heart and a wrong spirit. This was the problem with Jonah. In chapter 4 and verse 2 we read that he prayed to the Lord. This was very different prayer to the one he prayed from inside the great fish! This was a complaining prayer in which he tries to justify his original disobedience in running away. In it he shows just how narrow a vision he had of God's compassion. He says: "O Lord, is this not what I said when I was still at home? This is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish. 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 is actually quarrelling with the very character of God. We see that Jonah was a very critical man, a very tragic man who could not submit to God's perfect will, either for himself or for others. He had a very narrow, even selfish, vision of God. He had so recently been the recipient of God's mercy and compassion himself, but his heart was not big enough to rejoice when others came into this same blessing.
How large is your vision for those who are still in their sins and facing the righteous judgement of God? Do you long to see them come into the same blessings that God has showered on you? Or are you content to keep them to yourself because you feel, as Jonah undoubtedly did, that there are some who do not deserve God's compassion? Not one of us deserves the mercy and grace of God and yet He has freely given his Son to die for us, and having saved us continues to give us all things in Christ. God's message of mercy is for all people and He has given to Christians this message of reconciliation to share with the same compassion that He has shown us.
Jonah's vision is so clouded by his prejudice that he now prays an astonishing prayer for a man who has so recently been saved from drowning. In verse 3 he says: "Now, O Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.” In other words he is saying, "If Nineveh must live, then let me die."
Jonah has seen wonderful things happen. He has seen a notoriously wicked city respond to the preaching of God's Word. He has seen even the king of that city repent in a very public way. He has seen God's judgement averted and many lives saved. We are told in the New Testament that there is great rejoicing in heaven when just ONE sinner repents and turns to God, but here is a whole city! And yet Jonah is angry and he wants to die. God reproves him with one short question: "Have you any right to be angry? "
This is a very gracious word from the Lord. It appeals to his conscience, but Jonah still has much to learn about the compassion of God as we shall discover now. Verse 5 tells us: "Jonah went out and sat down at a place east of the city. There he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city."
He still cannot believe that God is going to spare the Ninevites. Perhaps he is hoping that God's judgement will fall on the city. God is still dealing with his reluctant prophet and he is going to show just how wrong Jonah's attitude is. How patient the Lord is with this man. How patient He is with you and me when so often, by our behaviour or by wrong attitudes, we try his patience.
Jonah is sitting out in the blazing sun under a shelter he has made for himself. This shelter proves to be insufficient, and so we read in verse 6: "Then the Lord God provided a vine and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort.” The Lord is not only being gracious to Jonah in doing this. He is going to use it as a parable to teach Jonah something.
We read that he was "very happy about the vine.” It was delightful, it was refreshing, it was comforting, it was just what he needed. And just when he thought that everything was as it should be, we read that God took the next step in this lesson. He used one of the smallest of creatures, a worm, to chew the plant so that it withered and left Jonah exposed to the sun and a scorching east wind. It was so uncomfortable that Jonah becomes miserable again and says, in verse 8: "He wanted to die, and said, "It would be better for me to die than live.” All his comfort is gone now.
God was using this whole situation as a parable for Jonah. In verse 9 he says to him: "Do you have a right to be angry about the vine? ” Jonah replies, "I do. I am angry enough to die!” Now God applies the lesson He wants Jonah, and each of us, to learn. Here it is in verses 10 and11 of Jonah chapter 4: "You have been concerned about this vine, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. But Nineveh has more than one 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 is saying to Jonah, "Your priorities are all wrong. You care more about the loss of this plant and your own comfort, than you do about the thousands of people in the city.” Is there a lesson for us to discover in all this? Yes there is. We can become so materialistic and care more about things than we do about people in all their need. In a sense Jonah trusted in that plant, he rejoiced in it, but he forgot that it was God who prepared it for him. He only enjoyed it for a day, but that was enough to expose the condition of his heart.
God was concerned about that great city. Despite their wickedness He loved its people and that is why Jonah was commissioned to go and preach to them. In a previous talk I referred to the New Testament where the Lord Jesus Christ said of Himself: "A greater than Jonah is here.” He came as God's greatest messenger with a message of salvation. He came in love, without prejudice, to a sinful world facing judgement and declared the compassion of God for us all. He was rich beyond measure, yet made Himself nothing and yielded Himself to death on a cross for your sins and mine. Have you responded, as the people of Nineveh did, by repenting of your sins and accepting Christ as your Saviour and Lord? You can do so just where you are.
Christian, do you have a heart of compassion for the people of your city, your town, your village who face judgement? There are five things that we must do. We must trust, love, obey and serve our Lord Jesus Christ, and then we can rejoice in Him always. These are the essential lessons we discover in the book of Jonah.