Jonah 4 - Acceptance of Authority

 

Read Jonah 4

 What in the world is going on here?  I love God’s mercy and compassion that he has shown me and that he was shown his chosen people, but these yahoos don’t deserve it.

These people have always been enemies of Israel.  We were not always at war but always on the brink of war.  Their incursions were ruthless. 

They may have deserved some fire and brimstone but surely not mercy.

Make no mistake about it, I know better than to disobey God.  I don’t want any more time in the belly of that big fish.  I’m still getting the fish smell off of me.  I don’t need another lesson.

Do what God tells you to do. Just do it!

But somehow, I need to convince God that he is wasting his mercy on these people.  I’m going to pick out a seat here and wait and see what happens.  Maybe God will see my distress and kill all of them and destroy their city anyway.  That’s what they deserve.

Did you pick up on the part about Jonah picking a spot out east of the city.  He made a shelter.  He wanted to see what would happen to the city. 

Maybe these suckers will still get their comeuppance.  Maybe they will still get what’s coming to them.

Jonah obeyed God but his heart was still in rebellion.  He complied with God’s authority.  He did not accept it or embrace it.

I have divided our response to authority into four areas.

Reject, comply, accept, and embrace.  So many live in the realm of rejection.  Some live in the realm of compliance.

Few know what it is to accept authority and even fewer to embrace it.

God is sovereign.  Does that bother us or comfort us?

God’s thoughts and ways are beyond our comprehension.  Does that bother us or comfort us?

God’s answers to our prayers may not always be what we ask for.  Does that bother us or comfort us?

We can tell people that God loves them and he has made a way to be right with God, but do we want them to repent and believe the good news?

Do we also desire that none perish and all come to repentance and life eternal?  Do we know God’s heart and are we teachable enough to let God make our hearts like his?

Jonah knew to obey God but his heart still rebelled against God’s sovereignty. God provided Jonah another lesson.

God caused a leafy plant—a vine in most translations—to grow up over Jonah’s makeshift shelter.  Jonah was pleased.

The next morning, God sent a worm to devour the vine.  Jonah was angry.

This was followed by scorching sun and desert wind.  Remember this area is essentially northern Iraq.  It was in the fertile crescent but on the edge of the Arabian desert. You can have scorching sun and sandpaper air on demand.

So, Jonah threw a pity party. 

Oh, just let me die.  God has bestowed mercy upon these wicked people and now he took away what little comfort I had.

It was time for a little conversation between God and Jonah.

So, you are really upset about this plant?

Jonah remained anchored in this anger.

Yes!  I’m so angry that I wish I was dead.

Let’s frame God’s comments in modern-day syntax.

Are we talking about the same vine?  The one you didn’t plant?  The one that you didn’t tend.  The one that you never watered? 

Are we talking about the same vine?  The one that sprang up overnight and gave you shade and relief from the heat?

Are we talking about the vine that was here one day and gone the next?

Is that what you’ve gotten yourself worked up about?

If your heart is not right with God, sometimes you just go into your day looking for something to anger you.  Sometimes we look for reasons to be angry.

Now that God had Jonah’s attention, he continued.

OK knucklehead, you are so upset about this vine that provided you relief for a day but don’t care one iota for the people in Nineveh—people that are part of my creation too.

There are over 125,000 people in this city and you get all wrapped up in whether this vine lives or dies but don’t care about any of those made in my image?

These people don’t know up from down, left from right.  They are lost.  Would you have me leave them that way?

Can I not be true to who I am?  I am a God of love, and mercy, and compassion.  Would you want me to set that aside and join your pity party?

That wraps up the book of Jonah.  I will now give you the quiz.

What do Jonah, the rich young ruler, and Nicodemus have in common?

We don’t’ know the rest of the story.  The rich young ruler went away sad because he had great wealth.

Nicodemus helped prepare Jesus for burial, but the gospel doesn’t say whether he did this out of respect for Jesus as a rabbi or as a follower of Jesus.

Jonah ends and we don’t know if his heart became like God’s heart or he was still in conflict with himself.

He didn’t want another 3-day/3-night all-inclusive stay in the belly of the fish, but he wasn’t too keen on this mercy for his enemies either.

We don’t know how Jonah lived the rest of his life.  We can only focus on how we take this account of Jonah and apply it to our lives.

I return to the topic of authority once again.

Few know what it is to accept authority and even fewer to embrace it.  That includes God’s authority.

God is sovereign.  Does that bother us or comfort us?

God’s thoughts and ways are beyond our comprehension.  Does that bother us or comfort us?

God’s answers to our prayers may not always be what we ask for.  Does that bother us or comfort us?

We can tell people that God loves them and he has made a way to be right with God, but do we want them to repent and believe the good news?

Do we also desire that none perish and all come to repentance and life eternal?  Do we know God’s heart and are we teachable enough to let God make our hearts like his?

Are we like Jonah or have we learned the lesson of Jonah?

God’s love is for all.  We can wrap our minds around that.  Can we get our hearts in sync with that as well?

Amen.