Will We Be Like Jonah?

Today, we will consider the book of Jonah. You can already begin turning there if you want. You can put a book marker there or something. It's after Daniel, Joel, and that part of the Bible. Many view this book as fiction. Some consider it simple folklore. It's mainly due to its inclusion of a great fish that swallowed the prophet Jonah. Many, of course, think this book, because of that episode, is rather far-fetched. It's fantasy. It's very well suited, however, they claim, for children's books and cartoons.

A veggie tale I did one year ago, and I watched it, and it was kind of irritating to me. But that's the way children's cartoons can be to me. The point is, it's not intended, many say, for serious-minded adults. Today, we're going to look at the book of Jonah. Hopefully, you'll see that those opinions are quite wrong. This is an I.T.E. children's tale, although children should know this book.

It's significant. The content is very serious, profoundly serious, and it bears some excellent lessons for us. It's not a work of fiction. It's an historical account of actual events that happened nearly 3,000 years ago. It's not a children's tale, as I say, and neither is something we should treat lightly.

Its lessons concern sin and repentance and the nature of God, all things that are very vital to our spiritual development and growth. Today, we're going to look at the book of Jonah and consider its lessons, what happens here. I hope to draw out some things perhaps we have become less familiar with, very important things nonetheless. Now, little is known about the prophet Jonah.

Besides the book of Jonah, his name does appear in 2 Kings 1425. You're welcome to turn there, but it's just one scripture, and I'll read it to you. 2 Kings 1425, it's a reference to the reign of King Jeroboam II of Israel. He reigned from 793 to 755 BC, and that helps us to date when Jonah was alive.

The scripture, 2 Kings 1425, it reads like this, He, Jeroboam II, restored the territory of Israel from the entrance of Hamath to the Sea of Ereba, which is the Dead Sea. And he did that according to the word of the Lord God of Israel, which he had spoken through his servant Jonah, the son of Amittai, the prophet who was from Gath Heifer.

Now, Gath Heifer is a village located in the tribal lands of Zebulun, and that places it in an area called Galilee. Now, Expositor's Bible commentary tells us that until the 19th century, Jonah was considered as history, and no rabbi doubted its truth. Although the use of third person does appear in the book of Jonah, we read things like he said and then he prayed.

That indicates only that somebody else recorded what Jonah himself told. The information, according to Expositor's, they vouch and say that the information in the book clearly must have come from Jonah himself. Somebody else recorded it. And in his book, Kingdom of Priests, The History of Old Testament Israel, the writer Eugene Murrell writes, if one regards Jonah as anything other than historical narrative, well, it becomes difficult, if not impossible, to regard anything in the Old Testament as historical.

So again, this is not a work of fiction. That's what I'm stressing here. We should accept this as historical fact. And, of course, the best support for its authenticity is Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ himself. Jesus confirmed the veracity of Jonah by signifying the fact of his own death, burial, and resurrection with Jonah's experience of being three days and three nights in the belly of a great fish.

Now think of this. If Jonah's experience were a mere fictional event, a falsehood, it does not make sense that Jesus would use fiction as the sign of his messiahship. Does it? No, it wouldn't make sense. To claim something fictional as a sign of his messiahship would also call into doubt the fact of his resurrection and of our faith and our salvation. And I'm sure we're familiar with what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15, 14, if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty. It's this fact that Jesus fulfilled the sign of Jonah that gives us confidence of our faith and confidence in the authenticity of the book of Jonah.

Now, if you turn to me, please, to Matthew 12, verse 38 through 41. Let's read there. Matthew 12, 38 through 41.

Some scribes, we're going to take time to look at this sign of Jonah and how Christ applied it. Some scribes and Pharisees and other leaders asked Jesus for a sign. They wanted some miracle or wonder that would confirm to their satisfaction that he was sent by God. In response, Jesus said this in Matthew 12 beginning verse 39. And he answered them and said to them, An evil and adulterous generation seeks after his sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh, he added, will rise up in the judgment with this generation, speaking of those of his time, and condemn it, because they, the Ninevites, repented at the preaching of Jonah, and indeed a greater than Jonah is here. I'll have a little more to say about that later. Now, millions believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, but they incorrectly understand how Jesus fulfilled it. Most believe that Jesus died on a Friday afternoon and rose on a Sunday morning. But simple math should tell us that it's not possible to fit 72 hours of three days and three nights into that period of time, into what's really just a really short weekend. You just can't do it. But if we do a careful study of the gospel accounts, four gospel accounts, it makes clear that Jesus did indeed fulfill the sign of Jonah and according to Scripture. And I'm going to do just a quick review of this sign. It's very important that we not forget it, that we recognize its importance, and I want to make sure that our young people are familiar with this. It's not unusual that we take some things for granted, and this is very important for us to understand. And so as a quick review, we know that after sunset on the 14th of Abebe, a Tuesday it would have been, Jesus ate the Passover meal with his disciples, and he is later arrested that night. He died around 3 p.m. on Wednesday. Wednesday was a preparation day for the high day Sabbath, that first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. And his body was placed in the tomb near sunset. Near sunset. That was on Wednesday. Wednesday sunset to Thursday sunset was the 15th of Abebe, the first day of Unleavened Bread. That was day one. Thursday sunset to Friday sunset was a preparation day for the weekly Sabbath. There were two Sabbaths. The women prepared spices for anointing Jesus's body before resting on the weekly Sabbath day, which began at Sabbath. That would have been day two. And then Friday sunset to Saturday sunset was the weekly Sabbath. Jesus rose near sunset on Saturday, exactly three days and three nights after burial, fulfilling the sign of Jonah and confirming the sign he gave of his Messiahship, day three. Now that following day was a Sunday. And while it was dark, the women brought the prepared spices only to find that the tomb was empty. For Jesus had already risen, not on Sunday morning, but near sunset the day before.

And so Jesus did fulfill the sign of Jonah, proving that he is the Messiah. He accepted the authenticity of the book of Jonah, and so should we. Yet there is much more to be learned from the book of Jonah. There are lessons, especially timely, to this spring Holy Day season, which indeed, when we think about them, will help us to examine ourselves for sin, and they'll help us to evaluate the depth of our commitment to believe and obey God. So now we're going to turn to the book of Jonah, and hopefully you found it and marked it. And we're going to turn there, and we're going to see some lessons from the Word of God in the book of Jonah. We'll begin at the beginning, Jonah 1-2. We read this, Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah, the son of Amittai, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it. For their wickedness has come up before me. A little background, Jonah, the name Jonah, means dove, which implies gentleness. In Amittai, his father's name means true. Sometimes it means my truth, which is interesting. We might keep the meaning of these names in mind as we read along. We will find that Jonah is not always gentle.

And we find that in this account there does indeed seem to be a lot of truth to it, especially in how he depicts himself in a not-so-flattering way. He rather reveals himself, as we would say, warts and all. It's very interesting. And so we see that God ordered Jonah to Nineveh to preach against its wickedness. Nineveh is located in modern-day Iraq, in that part of the country, the world, and near the city of Mosul. And it was the ancient capital of the ancient Assyrian Empire. Assyria was feared for its military might. There were a number of prophecies regarding its pride and its cruelty. It was well known at that time for its expansive nature. It very much desired to conquer other nations. And, of course, it did conquer Israel in 722 BC. Now, all this may help to explain why Jonah did what no other prophet of God ever did. And I'll bring out more of this in a little bit. He knew quite a bit about Assyria and the Ninevites and what they're like. And so it's quite amazing after we see that he's ordered to go preach to that great city. Verse 3, he did something quite unusual. Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Japa. Going down to Japa, that's the city on the coast, would suggest some scholars think that he probably actually received God's command while he was up in Jerusalem, quite possibly in the temple. So the idea would be he was in Jerusalem, went down to Japa, and there he found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went down into the ship to go with him to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. Now Jonah foolishly tried to run away from God. He tried to go westward to Tarshish, which is the opposite direction from Nineveh. He did not want, it seems, he didn't want the Ninevites to hear God's warning message. At least he didn't want to be the one to deliver it to them. In verse 4, but the Lord sent out a great wind on the sea, and there was a mighty tempest, sort of like a hurricane, a whirlwind on the sea, so that the ship was about to be broken up. If you've ever ridden on a little, even a little boat on a rough day on the lake, it can be quite frightening. You can imagine a mighty tempest in old wooden sailing ships of old. The mariners, verse 5, were afraid, and every man cried out to his God. And they threw the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten the load. But Jonah had gone down. Again, he goes downward. He had gone down into the lowest parts of the ship, had lain down, and was fast asleep. So the captain came to him and said to him, What do you mean, sleeper? Arise! Call on your God! Perhaps your God will consider us, so that we may not perish. Destruction and death is imminent, and yet Jonah slept.

I've always wondered, how could he sleep through a storm at sea? I know of only one other person in the Bible who slept through a storm at sea, while everyone else was in a panic. It just so happens, interestingly enough, that this man was also from Galilee, and his father's name is also true. He's also true. But this man never tried to evade the will of God. And, of course, I'm referring to Jesus Christ. Hold your place here in Jonah, and let's read this account in Matthew 8, verse 23.

Matthew 8, verse 23. Now when he, Jesus, got into a boat, his disciples followed him, in verse 24, Matthew 8. And suddenly a great tempest arose on the sea, so that the boat was covered with waves. But he was asleep. Jesus was asleep. And then his disciples came to him and awoke him, saying, Lord, save us. We are perishing. But he said to them, Why are you fearful, O you of little faith? Then he arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. So the men marveled, saying, Who can this be, that even the winds and the sea obey him? Now I wonder, do you think Jonah was sleeping because of his faith and trust in God?

Well, based on the larger context, I don't quite think that may have been why he slept. I could be wrong. It's possible he slept due to exhaustion. He was doing a lot of fast travel, sounds like. Perhaps he was sleeping with relief because he believed he had evaded God's will. Sometimes when we finally avoid a problem, the adrenaline relaxes and we sleep deep. And I guess it's possible that he was so fearful of the storm he could have just fainted away, maybe passed out in terror. That's another possibility why he slept. But in any case, it was a time for praying. It was a time for drawing closer to God, but Jonah slept. I find that very interesting. Now I have a point to make here. Maybe I and maybe we shouldn't be too critical of Jonah. After all, how often have we slept when we should have been doing the good and right thing, for example? More specifically, how often are we asleep spiritually speaking when we should be alert and awake to reject temptations to sin, let's say? To be alert and awake to be more aware of death that threatens all around us in our lives. Another point would be that we all had, and especially in times of storm in our lives, the faith of Jesus Christ and that quiet sleep that comes along with such faith. The good news is, of course, we can have that faith, and we do, when we strive to be reconciled to God and our neighbor to set things right in our lives. Of course, that means we must constantly examine ourselves. We must be on guard against sinful attitudes, wrong thoughts, terrible actions we might take. And when we detect sin in our lives, we must be quick to repent and to keep on repenting. No matter how many times it takes, we don't stop repenting because we are fearful that God is getting tired of hearing us. Don't think that way. Don't think that way. We keep going to God as long as it takes, as much as it takes. And right along with that, we must ask our Father for His forgiveness. We must ask for forgiveness for our sins through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. And again, as often as it takes. It is our carnal nature to sin, and it's God's nature to have compassion and to forgive those who repent. And that's another thing we're going to learn here in this book. Now, let's go back to Jonah. Jonah 1, 7, back to the storm.

And they the sailors said to one another, they finally got Jonah awake, and they said to one another, verse 7, Come, let us cast lots, that we may know for whose cause this trouble has come upon us. This was not a typical storm. Something about this seems to have alerted them.

Something was unusual here. So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. And then they said to him, Please tell us, for whose cause is this trouble upon us? What is your occupation? Where do you come from? What is your country? And what people are you? They're panicked. They're wanting answers. They want them now. They're fearful for their lives. And so Jonah said to them, I'm a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.

Well, it's interesting when you think about it that Jonah declares that he fears, meaning reveres, fear and reveres, the same idea. He fears and reveres God, the creator of all things. And yet what is he doing? He's fleeing. He's running away from doing God's will. If we truly fear and revere God, then we'll be striving not to go away from him, but to be drawing closer to him. We'll be trying harder to be contrite and seeking God to help us to believe and to do what God says we need to do according to Scripture.

We need to follow God's will according to Scripture, not according to how we feel or what we think is right, but according to the guidance we have from Scripture. We always have the choice to draw near to God or to turn away from him. And what's interesting, our choices of turning away from him can have terrible repercussions. Our choices to turn away from God can have terrible repercussions on ourselves and also on other people, just as we see here happening to these sailors on this ship with Jonah. Continuing in verse 10, And then the men, when they heard who Jonah was and who he worshipped, the men were exceedingly afraid.

And they said to him, Why have you done this? For the men knew, they knew that he fled from the presence of the Lord because he had told them so. He was very frank and truthful with them, it seems. But ironically, again, it seems to me a lot of irony in the story.

It seems to me that the sailors seem to fear God more than Jonah does. And these men are idolaters. Verse 11, And then they said to him, What shall we do to you that the sea may be calm for us? How do we fix things? For the sea was growing more tempestuous. And he said to them, Well, pick me up and throw me into the sea. Then the sea will become calm for you. For I know that this great tempest is because of me. And I like this part of Jonah. For the first time, we see Jonah's virtuous qualities. He accepts responsibility at this point. He accepts responsibility for the danger these sailors are in.

They are strangers to him, idolaters, but he offers his life, as it were, in sacrifice for theirs. I admire that quality here. Verse 13, Nevertheless, perhaps these men were nervous about throwing him in the ocean yet. Nevertheless, the men rode hard to return to land, but they could not. For the sea continued to grow more tempestuous against them. Therefore, they cried out to the Lord, to Jonah's God, and said, We pray, O Lord, please do not let us perish for this man's life, and do not charge us with innocent blood.

For you, O Lord, have done as it pleased you. So then they picked up Jonah, and they threw him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging. Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice to the Lord, and took vows. That's interesting that these adulterous sailors are the first to pray to God. They're the first ones to pray to God. And God heard, and He delivered them.

Very interesting. And we know what happened next to Jonah. Continue in verse 17. Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. And right on to chapter 2, verse 1, and then Jonah prayed to the Lord, his God, from the fish's belly. Finally, Jonah prays to God, but he's waited, you notice, until he's in a truly dire and just awful, awful predicament.

Does that perhaps sound familiar? He waited until he's, what, upside down in a fish.

Then he prays to God, why is it that he, and why do we sometimes wait so long to turn to God for help? Well, if you've ever prayed in repentance to God and born in your hearts, sincere, profound plea to God for mercy, then you will know as we read Jonah's prayer that his prayer rings true. This rings like an authentic, powerful prayer of repentance to God. And when we couple that with its vivid description of his truly unique experience, Jonah's prayer certainly seems authentic. It does not seem like a fabrication. It does not read like fiction. Let's read it, verses 2 through 9. And then he said, again, someone is writing down the tale that Jonah told, then he said, I Jonah cried out to the Lord because of my affliction, and he answered me, out of the belly of Sheol, the grave, in other words, I figuredly speaking, I cried, and you heard my voice. For you cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the flood surrounded me. All your billows and your waves passed over me. And then I said, I have been cast out of your sight. Yet I will look again toward your holy temple. Verse 5, the water surrounded me, even to my soul, the deep closed around me, weeds were wrapped around my head, and I went down, he keeps going down, down to the moorings of the mountains, the earth with its bars closed behind me forever. It seems to be signifying that Jonah recognized that he was beyond all hope of being saved by anyone else or even of saving himself. And yet, look what happens. Yet, yet you have brought up my life from the pit. O Lord my God, when my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord, and my prayer went up to you into your holy temple. Those who regard worthless idols forsake their own mercy, but I will sacrifice to you with the voice of thanksgiving. I will pay what I have vowed salvation is of the Lord. This is a very beautiful prayer of praise and thanksgiving to God. In verse 10, so the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.

It's not a very elegant way of having a prayer answered, but God heard and God answered Jonah's prayer. And to his great relief, it happened three days and three nights later after being swallowed by that fish. Of course, the point here is God answers our prayers as he wills and in ways we don't always expect. But we should notice also regarding this prayer and the events leading up to it, we should notice how Jonah's journey away and downward from God, beginning in chapter 1, verse 3 to chapter 1, verse 5. It finally ends in chapter 2, verse 7, when as his life was slipping away in the belly of this fish, he remembered God and he prayed to God. After he turns his mind and heart to God in prayer, then God brought up his life from the pit of death. Chapter 2, verse 6. He brought him up, but it's linked to his remembrance of God and his prayer. It's a prayer of repentance.

And isn't that true? Isn't it true how our situations and difficulties, even our attitudes, improve when we humble ourselves, remember God and go to him in repentance? Again, why do we take so long to go to God sometimes? Why?

Well, it's this point after he's vomited by the fish back on the land. We see Jonah's a little bit different, isn't he? No more running away from Jonah. Now he moves with what I call great energy, great alacrity to do what God commanded. Let's look at Jonah 3, verses 1 through 4. Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time, the second time, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach to it the message that I tell you. So Jonah arose, boy, he's obedient now, he arose and he went to Nineveh according to the word of God. I like that part of Jonah, too. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a three-day journey in extant, and Jonah began to enter the city on the first day's walk. And then he cried out and he said, Yet forty days a Nineveh shall be overthrown. He did exactly as God commanded. He's preaching the message God told him to preach. Now Jonah likely preached during the reign of King Azerdan III of Assyria. Scholars have been learning a whole lot about Assyria. They've been finding more cuneiform documents on these clay tablets, and they're becoming much better at understanding the history of the times, those ancient times. King Azerdan III of Assyria reigned during the time of Jonah. He reigned 772 to 755 BC. Furthermore, they know now that Assyria at that time, according to Eugene Merrill again in his book, Assyria was in a dismal state of affairs at this time. Things were bad. And Expositors tells us that Assyria was in a life-and-death struggle. They'd had bad rulers. Other nations were threatening to destroy them. Things were going downward quickly for Assyria and the Ninevites, and they greatly feared for the downfall of their nation. They thought their days were over. They really did. And here comes Jonah. And that history may help to explain. Of course, God was also involved in this message and their hearing, but that history may help to explain their response to Jonah's preaching. Let's read what the people did, verses 5 through 9 now, chapter 3. So the people of Nineveh believed God. They believed God. They proclaimed Him fast. They put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least of them. Then the word came to the king of Nineveh, the king of Nineveh, apparently possibly King Azradan III. He heard of it, and he rose from his throne and laid aside his robe. He covered himself with sackcloth and sat in ashes. And he caused it to be proclaimed and published throughout Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, heard nor flock, taste anything. Do not let them eat or drink water, but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth and cry mightily to God. Yes, let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. Who can tell if God will turn and relent and turn away from his fierce anger so that we may not perish? The Ninevites, we see, were so convicted by Jonah's preaching that they indeed humbled themselves and their animals in repentance before God. This wicked and adulterous nation repented at the strange foreign prophets' first preaching.

It's no wonder, then, that Jesus said, as we read earlier in Matthew 12, 41, that the men in Nineveh will rise up in judgment this generation, condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and indeed are greater than Jonah is here. Of course, Jesus was at greater than Noah at his time, and the Pharisee scribes and leaders refused to hear. So the Ninevites heard this foreign preacher, and they believed him, and they will sit in judgment, rightly so, finding fault with the leaders of Jesus' time and that future time in the resurrection. And so, yes, God was pleased with the Ninevites' response. Verse 10, Then God saw their works. He saw proof of repentance. They just didn't say the right words. They acted. They took action. And they turned from their evil way. This word turned from, is the Hebrew word, shob. It's spelled S-H-U-W-B. And it means to turn. It also means to repent. A simple way to remember what repentance means. It means to change direction. Go back. Go back. Ideally, we want to go back towards God, not away from him. And so they turned from their evil way. And God relented. This word's different. It's nakom. N-A-C-H-A-M. It means to relent, to change. Sometimes it can also mean to repent. They repented. They turned first, and then God responded to what they did. And so God relented from the disaster that he had said he would bring upon them. And, just to be clear, he did not do it. So God was well pleased with the Ninevites' response. Jonah was not happy with their response. Verse 4, chapter 4, excuse me, verse 1. But it displeased Jonah exceedingly. He just wasn't ticked. He became angry. This word has to do with fiery. The fiery anger burned within him. He was outraged. He was angry because the Ninevites repented. Think about that. He was angry because they repented. What? He's a prophet of God.

He was angry because the Ninevites repented. Now, to his credit, again, there's some things he does that are commendable. To his credit, Jonah went to God in prayer, and he unloaded his heart. He unloaded his heart to God. And it's here that we finally learn why he ran away from obeying God. Verses 2 through 4. Jonah prayed to the Lord. He prayed to the Lord, and he said, Ah, Lord! Probably in a lamentful voice. Lord, was this not this what I said when I was still in my country? I know it's my country. Therefore, I fled previously to Tarshish, for I know that you are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant and loving kindness, one who relents from doing harm. Therefore, we're going, wait a minute, because God is loving and kind and relents from doing harm. You're angry? Something's not right here. Therefore, he says, Now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.

And then the Lord said, Is it right for you to be angry? Young's literal translation poses a question this way. God is saying, Is doing good displeasing to thee? Is God's doing good to the Ninevites displeasing to you? Jonah? Well, Jonah was angry. He was angry because the Ninevites repented. He was also angry because God was merciful.

And he knew that God would now likely relent from destroying Nineveh. And his anger and his hateful attitude is really astounding. And when you think of what he's saying and who he's saying it to, this should frighten us all. I find it very frightening what he's saying.

During the whole time he preached to them, and this is also interesting, this reveals that during the whole time he preached to them, was he secretly harboring the desire for their death and destruction? He's preaching, it seems, a message of repentance to them, but secretly he's hoping they fail so that God will snuff them out. That's an incredible thing for this prophet of God, a man who says he fears, reveres God to be doing. I find it very frightening.

In God's question, is it right for you to be angry? That tells us quite clearly in God's estimation that Jonah is not right in being angry. That Jonah needs to examine his heart as to whether he truly means what he says. Is this what you truly mean?

Jonah is wishing that the Ninevites were dead. That's pretty harsh when you think of it. Why would Jonah so hate the Assyrians? Well, Jonah was contemporary of the prophet Amos. And although Amos never mentioned the Assyrians by name, you can jot this down, it's just a brief reference, but in Amos 5.27, in Amos 5.27 Amos prophesied that God would send Israel into captivity beyond Damascus. God was going to send Israel into captivity beyond Damascus.

Amos and Jonah would have understood that to mean, and would have believed that to mean, that Assyria would destroy Israel and take its people into captivity. And so, it may well be that Jonah's love for his people, his nation blinded him so with hate for the Assyrians, blinded him from understanding that God's mercy and compassion extends towards all people. Jonah didn't understand this. Jonah did not want God to do unto the Ninevites as God had done unto him. Think about it. Jonah did not want God to do unto the Ninevites as God had done unto him, which is to accept their repentance as he had accepted Jonah's repentance, to deliver them from death as God had delivered Jonah from death. He wanted to draw a line of what God would do. And aren't we glad that God is not like Jonah?

But might we ever be like Jonah? Might we ever be like Jonah? Might we ever have blind spots caused by the love for our family?

Might we ever have blind spots for love of our people? I hear that a lot today. Or for our nation? For our culture, for our values. I stress those words because I'm hearing a lot about that in our media today. I'm reading a lot about that. I'm reading and hearing many hateful and divisive things about our people and those people. And it concerns me. It concerns me for me, and it concerns me for all of us. Could such attitudes that we're immersed in, could such attitudes and words influence us, cause us to have animosity towards individuals or groups? Such animosity that we would not want God to be merciful to them. Could we ever be like Jonah, angrily yearning for God to destroy those people, while at the same time praying for God's mercy on us and ours?

Yes. Here's the yes part. Yes, we should desire that God's justice and will be done. Absolutely. We should let God take care of the vengeance, though.

And we must also be very careful in our desire for God's kingdom, in his righteousness, in his justice. We must be very careful that we are not actually hating people instead of hating their sin. There's that old adage, and I think it's a true one. We must be careful to hate the sin, but not hate the sinner. Sometimes that's not always easy to do.

But these are thoughts that come to my mind as I read these frightening things Jonah was saying and feeling, apparently.

Hold your place here. Let's be turning to Psalm 119, verse 136. We need to have godly compassion and godly love towards all people.

This is not a New Testament idea. Some would push us to believe. Psalm 119, verse 136. Here's what the psalmist wrote. Some believe David wrote this quite possibly, King David. In any rate, Psalm 119, verse 136, the psalmist wrote, Rivers of water run down from my eyes because men do not keep your law. I think this is the right attitude Jonah should have had. I think this is the right attitude, obviously, we are to have.

We need to ask God to help us have this right attitude towards people. We have to fight our old carnal nature and feel this way, and when we catch ourselves with such terrible feelings towards others and thoughts, we need to check ourselves. Let's also look at Matthew 5, verse 44 through 46. Matthew 5, 44, 46.

From the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew 5, 44, 46. Are we learning to love our enemies?

I know we are. In verse 44, Jesus said, But I say to you, love your enemies. Bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you. Why? So that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. For he makes his Son rise on the evil and on the good. He sends rain on the just and the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? We need to be learning to love our enemies. And I'm sure we all need help in this area, both to recognize those hard places in our hearts, those hard places we have towards others, and to replace those hard places with the help of God and his Holy Spirit with a heart of compassion and love towards all, the right sort of compassion and love. God is love, and he will help us keep his Ten Commandments that define love. We're not to love our neighbor the way we think we should love our neighbor, we're to love our neighbor according to God's definition of love towards neighbor. We shouldn't confuse the world's idea of tolerance and pity and compassion. We have to be very careful that that would match what God tells us and shows us to do. For help in this area, we need to be sure to be praying, praying for God's help, and we should know that he will answer our prayer. He will answer our prayer. Now let's go back to Jonah chapter 4 verse 5.

God is compassionate towards all people, even to wrong-headed prophets like Jonah and other individuals.

And ironically, it is, we're going to see here, ironically, while Jonah prepared, almost like a spectator, it seems to me I may be wrong, while Jonah prepared for his hopeful view of Nineveh's destruction. God was preparing to teach Jonah about the depths of God's compassion for all people. Verses 5 through 8, So Jonah went out of the city and sat on the east side of the city, and there he made himself a shelter. And he sat under it in the shade, till he might see what would become of the city. He's got to see it. He's got to see it. And the Lord God prepared a plant. He prepared a great fish, now he's preparing a plant. The Lord God prepared a plant and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be shade for his head to deliver him from his misery. Again, here's another example of God's kind and compassionate nature towards Jonah, who's got off track. And Jonah, continuing on, was very grateful. He's very grateful for the plant. But as the morning dawned the next day, God prepared a worm. And I'm thinking it must have been a cutworm, because I know how you can look at a plant in the morning, and an hour later it's all, you know, it's just, I wonder. I'm not saying scripturally speaking, but it must have been something like that. He prepared a worm. And it so damaged the plant that it withered. And it happened when the sun arose that God prepared a vehement east wind. All these things he's doing just to get Jonah ready for something he needs to learn. And the sun beat on Jonah's head so that he grew faint. Then he, Jonah, wished death for himself. And he said, it is better for me to die than to live. He sure says that a lot. In verse 9, and then God said to Jonah, is it right for you to be angry about the plant?

New English translation puts it this way, are you really so very angry about that little plant? See, he's upset. He's grief-stricken because this plant has died. He really liked that plant. And again, God asked him a question. He asked a question that Jonah said, it is right for me to be angry, even to death. I'm so angry, just I want to die. That's how angry he was. But the point is now, he was ready for God's instruction. This shows us something else about God's compassion. He just didn't say, okay, Jonah, I'm done with you. Get away from me. No, he takes time to deal with Jonah too. Verse 10 through 11, but the Lord said, you have had pity on the plant for which you have not labored nor made to grow, which came up in a night and perished in a night.

Should I, on the other hand, should I not penny Nineveh, that great city in which are more than 120,000 persons who cannot discern between their right hand and their left and much livestock? God is setting up this stunning contrast between Jonah's pity for the loss of this little plant and God's pity for all those innocent human beings in Nineveh. The contrast would seem intended to shock Jonah into recognizing his terribly sinful way of thinking. God impressed upon Jonah that he was wishing for the death of many innocent human beings. And they're innocent animals too. Now scholars want to argue about, well, does this 120,000 refer to the total population of the city? Where's the number about the innocent children? And I get tired of reading things like that because I think they missed a point. Perhaps if we understood, as far as God sees it, he sees every individual human being that makes up that great city. They are not just numbers to God. They are people. They are individuals. And God has compassion for every one of them. Paul tells us in 1 Timothy 2, you can jot this down, 1 Timothy 2, 3 through 4, that God our Savior desires all men, all people, to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. God was trying to teach Jonah, he is trying to teach Jonah, that he is a God of compassion and mercy towards all people. And thus ends the book of Jonah. That's it. That's it. It's like one of those unexpected conclusions in a movie.

You ever seen some of those movies? It's like, you know, you're watching it, you think there's more, and it's over. It's closed. And we are left to mull it all over. And we're to sit there and ponder, because inquiring minds want to know. Well, what happened after that? What happened after that? I don't know. I don't know. The Bible doesn't say. Now, some think that Jonah failed to repent and learn God's lesson about compassion and mercy. They thought Jonah failed God. Others think he never returned to Israel, because he was too devastated by the fact that his preaching had caused Nineveh to repent and to survive. That's what some people think. Of course, this isn't what scripture says. We don't know. That's what people speculate. Personally, I would like to think that Jonah did learn from God. If I could write a conclusion, I can't. But I'd like to think that Jonah did learn from God, just like I'd like to think that I or any of us would learn from God, when we need to learn a lesson. I'd like to think that he did repent and was thankful that God helped him to understand that God is a God of mercy and compassion towards all people, and especially towards those who repent. So what did Jonah do? I have a better question for us. What will we do? That's the better question. We've read this. We've felt it. We've been shocked by what he thought and said. What will we do? Will we be like Jonah was? And I guess I should have told you sooner, but that's the title of my sermon.

Will we be like Jonah was, trying to run away from God's will? Will we turn always towards God and submit to his will in our lives? We have a choice.

Will we be like Jonah was, obeying God in words and actions, but not in our hearts? Or will we surrender ourselves completely, totally, by word, by thought, by action, our hearts and minds, totally, totally surrendered to God? Will we be like Jonah was, filled with animosity and hate towards others? Or will we profoundly repent? Will we be like Jonah was? I hope not. So, aren't we glad that God is not like Jonah was? Aren't we glad that God sent out another man? Aren't we glad that God sent out another man from Galilee, the one who is greater than Jonah, the one who fulfilled the sign of Jonah, who was three days and three nights in the earth, the one who is full of compassion and mercy, the one who willingly died so that all sin and yours and mine too might be forgiven, that all people might be saved?

Brethren, let us always, all of us, turn to God and humble the repentance for our sins so that we might receive his forgiveness through his Son, Jesus Christ, and be worthy of receiving salvation in the kingdom of God. Let us not be as Jonah was, but let us live to be like Jesus Christ is.