In this final scene in the Book of Jonah, God uses a plant, a worm, and a wind to teach Jonah that his priorities are all wrong, and that He needs to catch His heart for the lost and perishing multitudes of the world.

The Pouting Prophet

“Catching God’s Heart For The Lost”

Jonah 4:1-11

Do you have God’s heart for the lost?  If someone were to follow you around for a month and watch your life, would they see how God feels toward the lost? How concerned are you about people perishing outside of Christ? Are you concerned enough to walk next door and talk to them? Are you concerned enough to go door to door in your neighborhood and speak to them about their souls? Are you concerned enough to give sacrificially to support native missionaries around the world? Are you concerned enough to pray for them?

The Book of Jonah could have ended at the end of chapter 3, and it would have had a “they all lived happily ever after” ending. I mean think about it – God called – Jonah disobeyed – God hunted Jonah down and brought him to repentance – God called – Jonah complied – all Nineveh repents. Here we have the Greatest Awakening in human history. You can’t get a better ending to a story than that. And to top it off, Jonah is the hero of the story. However, that’s not where the story ends because although God has completed His work in the Ninevites, He still has a lot of work to do in Jonah’s heart! You see, God is not happy with mere compliance – He wants us to have His heart.

Jonah Chapter 4 is a study in contrasts. It shows the contrast between Jonah and God, especially a contrast between Jonah’s heart and God’s heart. Jonah’s heart was filled with Anger – both that the Ninevites were spared and the plant was not spared.  God’s heart was filled with Compassion.  Throughout this Chapter God is reproving Jonah for his Anger. The way God instructs Jonah about how wrong his heart has become is through an object lesson. At the end of chapter 1 God appointed a great fish. Well in this section, God appoints a Plant, a Worm, and a Wind to accomplish His will. God is going to use the Plant, Worm and Wind to teach Jonah that his heart is all wrong, that his compassion toward the Plant is misdirected, and that He is completely out of sync with God’s heart. As we work our way through this chapter, I think we are going to see that in many ways our heart is out of sync with God’s as well.

There’s also an interesting structure to this chapter.  First Jonah is Angry That God Spared The Ninevites. So he prays to die, and God reproves His anger.  Then Jonah is Angry That God Did Not Spare The Plant. So he prays to die, and God reproves His anger. Jonah is Angry about the Ninevites in 4:1-4, and he is angry about the Plant in 4:5-9. Finally, in the last 2 verses of the Chapter, God comes and teaches Jonah how wrong and misdirected his heart attitudes have become.

1.  The Anger of Jonah:  4:1-9

In fact, Jonah’s anger is mentioned 4 times in this chapter (4:1,4,9). On the other hand, Jonah says about God that He is “slow to anger” (4:2). No, Jonah is not being a good representative of God. In actual fact, He is misrepresenting Him! So, what is Jonah so hopping mad about?  2 Things – God Sparing the Ninevites, and God Not Sparing the Plant.

A.    Jonah’s Anger Because God Spared The Ninevites:  4:1-4. You see, Jonah is mad! Not at the Ninevites, but at God. Listen to 3:10 and 4:1 together, “When God saw their deeds, that they turned from their wicked way, then God relented concerning the calamity which He had declared He would bring upon them. And He did not do it. But it greatly displeased Jonah and he became angry.”

    1)  Jonah’s Wild Mood Swings:  He is Greatly Displeased, Then Extremely Happy, then angry even to death: (4:1,6,9). Jonah seems to be a very emotional man. Either he is really upset and angry, or he is really up and happy. I wonder if he might have been a little Bipolar. To tell you the truth I have a hard time relating to him, since I’m pretty emotionally flat!

    2)  Jonah’s Prayer:  4:2. This is the 2nd time in the book that Jonah has prayed. The first time was when he was sinking to the bottom of the sea, and he cried out in desperation that God would save him. Then a little later he prayed from the stomach of the great fish a prayer of repentance, faith, and recommitment. However, now his prayer is quite different. It’s a prayer in which he vents his anger. Have you ever prayed when you were angry at God? A lot of people just shut down and give God the silent treatment when they are angry at Him. Of course it is never right to be angry at God, because He always does what is perfect, right and just. However, if we are angry with Him, it is better to talk to Him about it, than to shut down and ignore Him. If you are angry, God already knows it. By not telling Him, you’re not keeping anything from Him. You might as well talk to Him, confess your anger, and ask Him to change your heart.

• Jonah’s Justification in Prayer:  4:2. What is Jonah saying? He’s saying, “I knew it! I just knew it! I knew that if I went to Nineveh and preached to them that You would change Your mind and not destroy them! That’s just the kind of God You are. And I didn’t want them to be spared! They deserve Your judgment. They are cruel, and vicious and wicked. They are our enemies. They are threatening to conquer us and take us captive. I couldn’t let that happen.”  It’s as though Jonah is blaming God for his rebellious flight to Tarshish. Notice throughout this book that Jonah is a man who knows God’s Word. Here he is quoting almost verbatim Exodus 34:6-7. When he is praying in the belly of the fish he is alluding to or quoting from several different psalms. Jonah’s problem was not that he didn’t know the Word. His problem was that he didn’t like the Word! Is that true about you? You know the Word, but you don’t always like it. Listen to the words of the psalmist in Ps.119:97, “O how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day.” He didn’t just believe in God’s Law; He loved it and meditated on it all day long. It is one thing to know what God’s Word says about God; it’s another to love who God is and delight in it. That’s what we need in our lives!

• Jonah’s Request To Die in Prayer: 4:3. All the way through this book Jonah talks about dying. He is a bit of a morbid guy. One of the characteristics of a bipolar individual is that they will think about, talk about, and sometimes actually commit suicide. Jonah told the sailors to pick him up and throw him into the sea so that the sea would become calm for them (1:12). Now he is praying that God would kill him, for it would be better for him to die than to live under these conditions. Later in the same chapter he will pray the same thing again (4:8).

    3)  Jonah’s Reproof by the Lord:  4:4. Notice how gentle God is with this pouting prophet. He merely asks him a question, “Do you have good reason to be angry?” He wants Jonah to consider the question and ask himself if he has good reason to be angry or not. If anyone had a good reason to be angry with Nineveh it would have been God. God hates sin and violence. Yet God was slow to anger, and even had mercy on them. God could have thundered down upon Jonah, “You rebellious, stubborn, stiff-necked prophet – Repent! You have no good reason to be so angry. Change your heart attitude NOW!”  Instead, God gently asks Jonah to consider where his heart is at. Jonah’s attitude could have provoked the Lord to anger, but it didn’t because the Lord is “slow to anger” (4:2). Notice how different Jonah is than God. Jonah is so quick to get angry. He has a very short fuse. God, on the other hand, is very slow to anger, with a very long fuse. Oh, how patient and gentle the Lord is with His erring children.

B.    Jonah’s Anger Because God Didn’t Spare The Plant:  4:5-9.

1)  Jonah Leaves The City:  4:5.  When God asked Jonah if he had a good reason to be so hot under the collar, his only response is to stomp off up into the hills where he could have a clear view of the city of Nineveh. This is now the 2nd time Jonah has fled his place of ministry. The first time He fled from the Lord to go to Tarshish. This time he is fleeing from the spiritually needy Ninevites. Now, think about it, the greatest spiritual awakening in the history of the world has just taken place. Hundreds of thousands of souls are in distress, with broken hearts, crying to God earnestly for mercy, turning from their wicked ways. This is an evangelist’s dream! Yet, what is Jonah doing? Is he serving the Lord, counseling these repentant sinners on how they can find peace with God? No! He’s leaving the city! And Why is he leaving the city? “To see what would happen in the city.” Perhaps Jonah is going to watch the city to see when the Ninevites return back to their wicked ways. He figures you can never trust a Ninevite. Once a Ninevite, always a Ninevite. And when the Ninevites slip back into sin, Jonah will be right there to throw it in God’s face. Then God would have to admit that Jonah was justified in his anger about the Ninevites. So, Jonah builds a little shelter, a little lean-to, probably a few boards with some leafy plants over the top to provide some shade. Apparently, in the desert heat, those leafy plants withered very quickly and exposed Jonah to the burning heat of the sun. I did some research online and found out that every day for the next 3 weeks, it will be between 110 and 120 degrees in that part of the world!

2)    God Appoints A Plant:  4:6. The rate of growth of this plant appears to be miraculous. In just a day or two it grew up high enough to provide shade. Here God is acting to remove Jonah’s discomfort. The result? Jonah was extremely happy about the plant.

3)    God Appoints A Worm:  4:7. This time instead of appointing a huge sea creature, He appoints a tiny worm.  Why? God had just given the plant to remove Jonah’s discomfort. Now, he reverses His tactics, and appoints a worm to wither the plant and make Jonah uncomfortable. Friends, never dream that God’s work of sanctification in your life is going to be pain-free! What has God done to Jonah to sanctify him?! He has hurled a devastating storm on the sea. He has caused Jonah to be cast overboard into the raging sea. He has allowed him to sink to the bottom, to the very point of death. He has caused a great fish to swallow him for 3 days and nights. And now he is taking away any source of comfort that Jonah was experiencing. But that’s not all…

4)    God Appoints A Scorching East Wind:  4:8. God throws another storm at Jonah. Instead of a storm at sea, it is a scorching desert windstorm. Now, God is not just removing Jonah’s source of comfort, God is bringing a scorching east wind to make Jonah’s life miserable! Apparently Jonah couldn’t learn his lesson any other way. God is more concerned about making you holy than making you happy! Believers were predestined to become conformed to the image of God’s Son (8:29), and God isn’t going to allow anything to stop that predestined purpose. So, how does Jonah respond? He swings from extremely happy to extremely angry, and for the 2nd time, he prays God would kill him. Only, this isn’t some little, half-hearted prayer. No, Jonah begs with all his soul to die.

5)    God Reproves Jonah Again For His Anger:  4:9.   God asks almost the same question, verbatim, except that he adds the little phrase “about the plant” at the end. Notice, God is not telling Jonah something, He is asking him something. He is seeking to draw out a confession from Jonah, but Jonah won’t hear a word of it. Jonah is steamed, he’s so mad that he can’t think straight. Have you ever felt that way? You were so frustrated and angry that you lashed out. You knew that you were not being reasonable. Your degree of anger was not proportionate to your circumstances, but you just lost control. The first time Jonah got angry it was because God spared the Ninevites. The 2nd time it was because God didn’t spare the plant. Why was Jonah angry about both situations? Because God had crossed his will. Jonah wanted the Ninevites dead, and God didn’t do it. Later Jonah was happy about the plant and wanted it to continue providing shade for him, but God took it away. You see, the bottom line, was that Jonah was only concerned about his own desires, not God’s. He wasn’t looking at anything from God’s perspective, but only his own. Jonah would rather be dead than alive if the Ninevites survived. Then he would rather be dead than alive if the plant didn’t survive. Jonah is all about Jonah. It won’t hurt Jonah if all the Ninevites die, but it will hurt Jonah if the plant dies. That’s why Jonah is upset about the plant dying. Even though Jonah is a prophet of the Lord and speaks His Word, his heart is miles away from God’s. What about you? When you examine your heart, are you all about you? Are you only really concerned about your own comfort and pleasure? Do you get angry when God or others cross your will? This is exactly what James said was the source of our conflicts – “What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members? You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. You are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel” (James 4:1-2).

Well, now that we have seen the anger of Jonah, let’s take a look at the compassion of God.

2.    The Compassion of God:  4:10-11.

    In 4:10-11, God comes to the lesson he has been driving at with the object lesson of the plant, the worm and the wind. God compares Jonah’s concern (compassion) for the plant to His own concern (compassion) for the Ninevites. And when you examine it, there is really no comparison!

A.    Jonah had compassion on that for which he had not labored – God had compassion on those for whom He had labored:  Jonah didn’t do a single thing to create the plant, plant the plant, water the plant, or grow the plant. Yet, he was very concerned when it was taken away. On the other hand, God had done everything for the people of Nineveh. He had created them, He had provided for them, He had watched over them year after year. If Jonah felt he was justified in being concerned about a plant which he had not labored at all, is not God right in being concerned over a city of people whom He has been laboring over continually for years? Jonah is out of step with God’s heart.

B.    Jonah had compassion toward a single plant – God had compassion for a vast multitude of people:  God calls them “the great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know the difference between their right and left hand, as well as many animals?” So, here’s the picture. On one hand you have 1 plant. On the other hand you have a million people? Which one is more worthy of your compassion? That’s a real no-brainer isn’t it? Jonah is out of step with God’s heart.

C.    Jonah’s compassion was focused on his own benefit – God’s compassion was for the benefit of others:  Jonah is entirely self-absorbed, self-centered, and selfish. God is concerned with the  welfare of others. Again, Jonah is out of step with the Lord’s heart.

D.    Jonah had compassion on that which would cease to exist – God had compassion on sinners who will face eternal damnation:  This, surely is the greatest contrast of all. When a plant dies, having no immortal soul, goes into the ground and ceases to exist. When a sinner dies, he spends eternity in either Hell or Heaven. Should Jonah be concerned over a Plant when a million immortal souls are in danger of perishing? Jonah is really out of step with God’s heart!

Life Application:

        The Book of Jonah ends with a question. We are left dangling. There’s no resolution to the story. We never find out how Jonah responded to the Lord. I believe this is by design. There is no answer given to the question, because God is asking this same question to all of us for every generation. He’s asking us if we have His heart. Do we value what He values, or do we value the trivial and unimportant? Do we have compassion on those God has compassion on? God desires all men to be saved (1 Tim.2:4), not just people just like us. God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked (Ezek.18:23). How greatly do we really desire the salvation of souls? We need to deal with this issue – this is the reason God had the Book of Jonah written and included in the Bible. This is the climax of the entire book. God’s heart is one of compassion for outsiders, not just Israelites, or Christians, but people of every race under heaven.

        Our Practices are Loving – Reaching – Connecting – Equipping. Are we going to practice those Practices toward outsiders? Let’s talk first of all about our own geographical location – the greater Sacramento Area. Who are we going to love, reach, connect, and equip? If we will only reach out to people just like us, we are in sin and don’t share God’s heart! Are we going to reach out to the marginalized, the poor, the downtrodden? Are we only going to take the gospel to middle class Caucasians? We started out by reaching out to my own neighborhood which is largely middle-class, financially stable people. But God has directed us to bring His gospel to the poor and the hurting. We need to continue that and not grow weary or give up!

        What about our responsibility to the perishing multitudes in other places of the world? Will we turn a blind eye to the fact that there are 16,445 people groups in the world, and 7,060 of them are still unreached. That means there is no self-propagating gospel church in that people group. That is 43% of the people of the groups are still not reached! There is still a lot of work to be done! So, will we fold our hands and say, “There’s nothing I can do about those people.” Oh yes there is! You can either go, or you can send. God may call some of you to go to other countries to bring the gospel, either long-term or short-term. If he calls – GO! If the Lord has not directed you to go, you can still send others, with your finances and prayers. Currently, our little church is giving $100 per month to Gospel For Asia to help native missionaries penetrate unreached people groups in Asia. At the same time, we are setting aside 10% of everything that comes in so that we have some resources for local church planting when the Lord gives us the go ahead.

        We need to repent of our indifference! We need to pray for God’s heart! We need to ask Him to break our hearts over the things that break His heart. Are you like Jonah, valuing a plant more than immortal souls? Do you value your TV watching more than the salvation of others? Do you value your video games more than their souls? Do you value your comfort, rest and relaxation more than their eternal happiness?  These are questions that all of us need to honestly ask and answer in the presence of God.  Let’s pray.

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