Episode Transcript
WEBVTT
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Let's turn our attention to Jonah,
Chapter Four. If you have one of
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the black bibles from the back cart, you'll find this chapter of the Bible
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on page seven hundred and seventy five, seven, seven five. All right,
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let's give our attention to God's word. But it displeased Jonah exceedingly and
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he was angry and he prayed to
the Lord and said, Oh Lord,
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is not this what I said when
I was yet in my country? That
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is why I made haste to flee
to Tarshish, for I knew that you
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are a gracious God and merciful,
slow to anger and abounding insteadfast love and
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relenting from disaster. Therefore, now, oh Lord, please take my life
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from me, for it is better
for me to die than to live.
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And the Lord said, do you
do well to be angry, Jonah went
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out of the city and sat on
the sat to the east of the city
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and made a booth for himself there, and he sat under it in the
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shade till he should see what would
become of the city. Now the Lord
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God, appointed a plant and made
it to come up over Jonah that it
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might be a shade over his head
to save him from his great discomfort.
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So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of
the plant. But when dawn came up
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the next day, God appointed a
worm that attacked the plant so that it
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withered. When the sun rose,
got appointed a scorching east wind, and
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the Sun beat down on the head
of Jonah so that he was faint and
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he asked that he might die and
said it is better for me to die
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than to live. But God said
to Jonah, do you do well to
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be angry for the plant? And
he said yes, I do well to
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be angry, angry enough to die. And the Lord said you pity the
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plant, for which you did not
Labor, nor did you make it grow,
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which came into being in a night
and perished in a night. And
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should I not pity Nineveh, that
great city in which there are more than
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a hundred and Twentyzero persons who do
not know their right hand from their left,
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and also much cattle sends the reading
of God's word, may bless it
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to us. You may be seated
if you don't know the story of Jonah.
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You could probably pick up most of
the details just here from chapter four
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to get a sense of what's going
on, but I will remind you just
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a little bit, to maybe connect
a few dots. First of all,
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Jonah was appointed for something. That
appointing is a word that comes up a
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lot. In Chapter Four, God
appointed a plant, or at least it
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comes up twice, I should say
it. Maybe not a lot, but
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it comes up twice. It got
appoints a plant, the plant grows,
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it covers him. We read that
God appoints a worm who attacks the plant.
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Here's a third one. Got Appoints
the scorching east wind to bear down
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the sun, to beat down on
the head of Jonah. God appoints these
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things and there have been other appointings
in the book as well. There was
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an appointing of us, of a
tempest, another wind that came upon the
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sea. There was an appointing of
a fish that swallowed Jonah. But the
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whole book, the whole book of
joining Jonah, begins with an appointing,
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the appointing of Jonah. Jonah was
appointed to go to this great city,
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Nineveh, that we just read of, this city of confused people. That's
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how we might describe, though,
the idiom that use there at the end
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of a hundred and twenty thousand people
that don't know their right hand from their
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left, they don't know up from
down, they don't even know what they're
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doing. They're confused people, a
sinful people, a mixed up people.
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There they are a mess. And
Jonah is called to go to this city
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and to preach to them and tell
them that the Lord's wrath is coming if
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they stay in their sin. And
Jonah, instead of saying yes, sir,
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which is what you say to a
King, a commander, to God,
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he says I'm out of her and
Jonah Fleece. Jonah gets on a
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boat, he tries to flee the
opposite direction from Nineveh to go to Tarshish,
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many many miles away. Instead of
crossing the land to go to Nineveh,
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he crosses the sea. or to
go to to go to Nineveh,
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he crosses the sea to go to
tarshish. Well, Jonah fails in this
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task and through a series of events, he eventually does wind up in Nineveh
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and does preach to them, but
his heart isn't perfect yet. At least
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Jonah, in some ways is still
confused or still frustrated or, we can
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say with certainty, still angry.
Jonah is not just angry. What does
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the Bible say exceedingly angry. We
have more coarse words from this which I
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won't use now. But Jonah is
really mad, really really mad, and
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God points this out to him.
Sometimes God points things out to us.
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We don't always like it, and
a lot, a lot of times it
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has to do with our anger.
I saw a funny picture of a of
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a Chihuahba with its skin pulled back
in, its eyes bulging and its teeth
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bear. That's little needly teeth go
like this. It's the captain says,
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I'm not angry. Right. Maybe
you've said, though, those very words
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in a moment of anger. I'm
not yelling, I'm not angry, you're
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not. Jonah is angry and the
Lord asks this very pointed question. Twice.
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He asks it. Do you do
well to be angry? It reminds
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me of of the Lord's question to
Adam, Adam and Eve. Did you
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eat of the fruit or de Kine? Where's your brother? These questions that,
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of course, the Lord knows the
answer to, but they're asked to
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us in this very pointed way to
knock us off our high horse, to
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make us think about what is going
on in our hearts. Do you do
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well to be angry. Well,
Jonah thinks the answer is yes, yes,
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I do well to be angry.
How dare you talk to me that
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way? and well, it's often
difficult to see our own anger, and
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I think that's why I'm God points
that's out for Jonah. It's often not
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hard to see other people US anger. Right, Jonah looks ridiculous, especially
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here in verse two. He's exceedingly
angry, he's displeased exceedingly. He goes
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out and he says to God,
a Lord, is this not what I
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said? I told you this was
going to happen. I knew that you
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were slow to anger and merciful and
gracious and abounding in steadfast love and relenting
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from disaster. Just kill me now. All right, you look at this
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and you say, what is the
matter with you? All right, this
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is like saying you know your your
your your your rich uncle gives to you
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a bajillion dollars. You say,
I knew you were gonna do this and
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now I'm going to have no want
for the rest of my life and I'm
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going to have everything I could ever
imagine and I'm so mad at you.
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What except riches? We know even
those can be a wait and a burden.
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Right, scripture talks about that.
There's even maybe, even in that
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situation, you might have some sort
of reason in which to say thank you,
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uncle, but no, thanks,
but not. There's no qualification,
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no pot visible way in which we
might want to say I don't think I
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should have the mercy of God.
There's no situation in which you would want
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to sidestep God's abounding insteadstat steadfast love
and say, well, you know,
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that might be a little too much
for me. You know right. There's
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no situation in which you would not
want God to be slow to anger or
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relenting from disaster. And yet that's
exactly what Jonah says. Why? Cause
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he's angry. He's really, really
angry. And not only does he confess
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that this is why he's upset,
which again is irrational, but he says,
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oh Lord, please take my life
from me, for it is better
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for me to die than to live. That's how much he hates what God
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has done, which stems from who
God is. It's a really strange irony
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because of course Jonah is praying to
this God. He believes in him in
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a way, he trusts him,
he's talking with him, he's complaining with
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him, he's arguing with him,
and yet at the same time he he's
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acting in this terrible way. So
God says, do you do well to
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be angry? Is this good for
you, Jonah, this anger that you're
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holding on to, this bitterness,
this rage over these good things that I
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have done, is is this good? So simple question. Do you do
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well? Is it for your wellness? Is it for your health? Is
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it for your blessing? Is it
for your happiness for you to be angry?
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Well, Jonah thinks so, and
so he goes outside. The city,
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sits outside, makes a booth for
himself and, strangely, it says
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he sat under the shade till he
should see what would become of the city.
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I'm not sure entirely how to read
that, you know, as Jonah
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sort of holding out hope that God
might relent from his relenting. Maybe I'm
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not sure, or maybe God or
maybe Joanah is just still really mad.
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I'm just going to watch him do
it. I'm just going to watch him
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be gracious. He's already said he
was going to do it. I'm just
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going to watch it. You know, he's going to stew over it.
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Maybe it's something like that. Whatever
it is, he's clearly still has a
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really bad attitude, and so the
Lord helps him in a couple ways.
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First, the Lord gives to him
something he doesn't deserve, well, a
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lot of things he doesn't deserve.
He gives him life. He allows Jonah
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to live another day, another moment. WHO GETS to speak to a king
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like that and live another moment?
Right, not in the ancient Near East
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anyway. When to go before the
Lord, God of the Universe, and
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to talk to him like this?
WHO GETS TO LIVE? Well, Jonah
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does. Many of us do and
have. Not only does God allow Jonah
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to live, God, in the
Amazingly Merciful Way that he does and is,
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he appoints a plant and makes it
come up over Jonah that it might
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be a shade for him, to
save him, write this Exalted Language,
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to save him from his discomfort.
Poor Jonah, right, this poor Jonah.
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So Jonah gets some shade and he's
so happy, exceedingly glad. He's
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just out of his boots, right. He's so happy for this shade that
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he has. God has done this
amazing thing. He has shade. But
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of course God not only gives him
the shade, but God uses the shade
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to teach him the lesson, and
so he appoints this worm. This is
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one of the great ironies of Jonah. God is a pointing as I mentioned
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at the beginning, all of these
things and creatures, and throughout the book,
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all of them. Yes, sir, yes, sir, yes,
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sir. Right. The worm abeys
God instantly, the FICI obeys God instantly,
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the with the wind obeys God instantly. Jonah, it's a big mess.
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This is a good reminder to us
of how deep the problem of sin
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goes in our hearts. The animals, the things of nature, they don't
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have any problem doing the will and
the bidding of God. And yet the
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the the ones who were made in
the image of God and called to be
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his, his viceroy, is his
under Shepherd's, his kings over the creation,
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can't pull it together. This is
what sin does, this is how
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far deep it goes. And then
Jonah, remember, is not just another
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person made in the image of God. He is a prophet of God,
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one of the chosen people of Israel
who's been specifically called and commissioned and equipped
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to preach. And even Jonah struggles. No wonder you, and I struggle
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too. So Jonah and we,
together with him, are complainers and whiners
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and were angry. And God appoints
a points of worm who attacks the plant
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and it withers. God's great sovereignty. The Sun rises. God appoints a
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scorching east wind and the sun to
beat down on the head of Jonah so
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that now he was faint. Does
God bring things into our lives? Does
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he work providences to teach us,
to shape us, to change us?
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Yes, yes, he does.
It does that with here, with Jonah.
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Well, Jonah's response to the Lord
is not thank you, Lord for
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the plant. I trust you,
now that it is died, that you
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have a good reason for this,
and I put my life in your hands.
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Please a point another plant that I
might be saved from my discomfort.
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But no matter what, it is
your will be done. No, that's
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not what he says. He says
kill me now. It is better for
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me to die than to live.
Thinking about anger again, have you noticed
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how anger and not only is irrational, like we were thinking about a moment
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ago, but it also is once
it gets going, it has this excessive
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character to it and which it gets
annoyed by the by the littlest things.
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Right, everything's exaggerated. Right.
Maybe when Jonah wasn't angry, he would
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have been that's a bummer. Of
the plants gone. I'll go find some
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shade, I'll go see what I
can do about this, or maybe even
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pray and ask God for something.
But no, when you're in anger,
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everything is you know, I gotten, but my button this big. Right,
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everything's this big, everything is exceedingly
terrible, right. And so this
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plant dies in he has no shade, poor Jonah, and he says kill
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me now, I can't take another
thing. It's all over. And that's
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what he wants. And so God
asks him again. Do you do well
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to be angry for the plant?
Yes, I do well to be angry,
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angry enough to die. Are you
not listening to me, jold?
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Calm down, and the Lord says
it hits at home. You pity the
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plant and yet not a hundred and
Twentyzero people who don't know their right hand
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from their left. Jonah, come
on, perspective. That's what a lot
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of the book of Jonah is about. It's about perspective. It's about learning
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to see things not from our myopic, self centered perspectives, but from the
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perspective of God, who is great
and powerful, capable, gracious merciful.
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Just Jonah thinks he's going to flee
from the presence of the Lord, that
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he's going to get out from gonder
God's thumb and he's going to do his
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own thing. No, he's not. We might deceive ourselves for a time,
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even as Jonah did. This was
not my insight, but it was
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pointed out in a commentary to me
about how quickly Jonah finds the ship,
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almost by accident. Right at the
beginning. He it says that he arose
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to go, or I'm sorry,
he rose to flee to Tarsha's from the
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presence of the Lord. He went
down to JOPPA and found a ship like
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it's almost just easy for him.
This is what happens sometimes when we're in
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the midst of sin. The the
the opportunities for sin just open up.
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This commentator, I'm forgetting his name, all of a sudd I think was
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Hugh Martin. He writes at about
anger. He says if a if a
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boy, and I'm paraphrasing and probably
messing it up a little bit, but
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he says if a boy is in
a playground in these angry all of a
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sudden there's rocks everywhere that you can
throw right there's Sirt of like opportunities for
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sin when you are desiring to sin. They sort of present themselves everywhere.
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And Jonah has finds the ship,
he gets on the ship and he thanks
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everything is fine. He thinks it's
going to work out, of course,
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until it doesn't. But you know
what, imagine for an instance, that
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it's something else had happened to Jonah, that the wind never came, that
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the sailors never were afraid, that
he was never saved, and so on
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and so forth. Imagine that he
made his journey to Tarsha's and he settled
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down and he lived the rest of
his life there, under the care of
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the world, away from God.
Did Jonah Wind? Would Jonah have succeeded
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in that case? Would Jonah have
done well, as God puts it in
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Chapter Four? Of course not.
Jonah was away from the place of Blessing,
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away from the presence of God,
away from everything, away from the
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one who holds all happiness and and
truth and beauty. And ultimately, Jonah
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would pay for his sins, as
we all will. No matter how,
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even if God allows us to live
in our sin to our very last day.
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He promises us, as he promised
the Ninovites, a coming day of
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judgment will come. We can't pretend
that things are fine because they seem fine
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to us. And just as that
storm came for Jonah, it will come
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for all who remain in their sins. So Jonah's angry, angry enough to
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die, and God is helping to
wake him up, he's giving him perspective.
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You can't get away from God.
His judgment is coming. It's either
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judgment or blessing, one or the
other. We can have blessing by relying
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in his mercy, by relying in
His forgiveness, by trusting in God who
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is gracious and merciful and slow to
anger. But if we flee from that,
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where do we wind up? Like
Jonah in chapter four, or or
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like Jonah on the boat, or
like Jonah in the seat in chapter four,
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it's Jonah angry, Jonah consumed,
Jonah Irrational, Jonah lashing out at
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the only one who has any hope
of saving him. And this, I
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want to point out to you,
is the rottenness of anger. He eats
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away at us. It takes away
the things that are healthy in us,
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the things that are good in us. Jonah wants to die. Jonah is
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not doing well. A life well
lived is a life lived in God.
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It's a life spent meditating on his
word and on his promises and resting our
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hearts and ourselves and him in His
mercy, in His grace, rather than
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lashing out at it because we want
our own ways. A life well lived
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is resting in it, wanting his
ways. And if you doubt the goodness
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of the Lord, all you have
to do is read Jonah for the way
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that he teaches, the way that
he shapes, the way that he's using
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his awesome power to do only good
things, to change the hearts of stubborn
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stubborn people to come unto him,
warning them of the wickedness of anger and
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sin, telling them about the judgment
to come, but offering them the hope
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of salvation. A life well lived
is not lived in anger and selfishness and
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pride. A life well lived is
not one going after our own desires and
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our own plans, but it's living
in God, in His grace and in
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His mercy. And when we live
in his will and we understand his will,
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we come to see God's perspective on
things, not just that he's bigger
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and stronger and more powerful than us, is it's makes clear here in Jonah,
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but that he is very, very
gracious and merciful, that God pities
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us and he pities the nation's he
pities the world so much that he sent
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his only son into that world to
die for people like Jonah and the Ninovites
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and the sailors and me and you. He sends his only son, to
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be born of a woman under the
law, to suffer under the curses of
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this life, miseries, a wretched
death on a cross death. For a
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time, Jesus, the son of
God, underwent separation from God, he
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underwent pains of Hell and judgment,
all these things that are promised to the
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Ninovites if they don't repent, to
the sailors, to Jonah, to us,
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Jesus undergoes all of that because of
his great love, and that's why,
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trusting in him and trusting in His
grace, we neither flee from him
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and say no, I'm going to
do my own way in my own things,
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nor do we come to God in
our own righteousness and say we'll all
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do it all for you and then
you can be pleased with me for my
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good service. No, we go
to God for his graciousness, in Jesus,
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trusting in him and saying you clearly
are a gracious God, you have
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pitied us, you have loved me, and so I stand in you,
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in your character, in your promises, in the work of Jesus Christ for
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me. And because I stand there, and because I'm standing in you and
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I'm trusting in you, instead of
running away when you tell me to do
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something, no matter how hard it
is, no matter how difficult it is,
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I'm going to say yes, sir, I'm going to do your bidding,
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I'm going to do your will,
I'm going to follow your ways because
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I belong to you, because you
are a gracious God and merciful, and
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you have captured me in your love. Because he loved us. We love
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him and we serve him and follow
him. Beloved anger and many other sins
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thinking about anger now. Anger will
take all that away from you. If
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you allow it to sit, if
you allowed to sleep, if you allowed
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to rot your heart, it strips
it away a little by little by little.
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It makes you say and do irrational
things. It makes you accuse God
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of terrible things, it denies you
the very hope of your salvation, because
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anger is rooted in selfishness, in
pride, in idolatry. Don't do that.
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Instead, trust the one true living
God who has presented himself here in
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Jonah in and all the scriptures,
particularly in the person of Jesus Christ,
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as Truly Gracious, as truly merciful, and is one to and trust your
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whole life in him. If you
do that, you will do well.
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Let's pray
