Jonah’s Bitterness & God’s Mercy | A Lesson in Compassion | Jonah 4:1-11

You're listening to the Bible Guys, a podcast where a

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And it's going to be a good day today. It

is such a good day. You know why? Why because

I'm wearing a vest again. It's going to be a

cold day to day.

I've been wearing vests.

It's supposed to snowstorm today. So yeah, yeah, so who

knows it's gonna be a pressure? My vest I came prepared.

Now, let me ask you a question. Do you wear

a jacket over the vest?

Huh? Yeah you do. Yeah. I always wear a lightweight jacket.

Because my son told me that if I wear a vest,

I can't wear a jacket. I said, that's not true.

Your son doesn't know.

I know. You only work for a clothing store. What

is he?

What is he?

Yeah, but it's Tommy Ohama, that's like, and that's a big.

Tommy Mohammad doesn't get to have an opinion about vests.

Tommy Bahamas.

They don't have a right. A Caribbean food or clothing

chain has o trainions about what layers you should wear

in I don't know the Subarctic.

So far, so far, this is riveting listeners. Hey, we're

going to start off with a segment that has its

own jingle, and so today we're starting off with nail bag.

I lost my voice last night.

I can hear it.

Yeah, well, well it's really rascy all the time, but

I lost my voice. Anyway, Matthew F sends in a

question and he says, what's a piece of advice that's

stuck with you over the years?

Yeah, have you thought about it? And say, Hi, Matthew,

I'm Matthew F. Well I'm just super excited about his question.

Yes are you?

Yeah?

Yeah, I think I have an answer if you want

me to go first. So, when I was younger in

high school, my best friend adopted a theme and he said, Chris,

come on, let's go make it memories. He would have

this this saying saying making memories. And now that's saying,

don't get me wrong, he's gotten me in a lot

of trouble.

Hey, guess I can't imagine.

Yes, However, believe it or not, it has served me

well more, way more than it is getting me in

trouble because, like, for instance, even still today, my parents

are still with us, they're still alive, and Liz's parents

are as well. And I'd say something to him, like

on the phone and I'd say, how we're thinking about

like going to Ohio this weekend, but you know, we're

really busy whatever, and he's like, he goes, what are

you talking about? Man? He goes, why would you ever

pass up on the idea of making memories? He goes,

what are you gonna do? Stay home and get stuff done.

He goes, but you're not going to have those memories

with your mom and your dad before it's too late,

blah blah blah. And so he always pushes me to

make the memories, no matter what it is or where

I'm at, we're on vacation together, He'll say like, oh,

let's go do this, and I say na, and he goes,

come on, man, he's gonna be great. Talk about it.

And I'm like, okay, So it's great. I love.

It's a good one. Advice, that's a good one. I

had a veteran tell me one time, old guy World

War two. It was all these guys wearing World War

two hats. I'm buckling up for this one at at

a restaurant.

Yeah, And.

I thanked them for their service. And then he goes, hey,

can I give you some good life advice? And I yeah,

So I was probably late thirties, and he said, listen,

he said, I don't know anything more important than this.

He said, never take a laxative and a sleeping pill

in the same night.

Wow. Wow he said that to you.

Yeah, I didn't even know it. Wow. And I saw laughing.

I said, so, of course, all the old guys sitting

at the table all start laughing at him. And I said,

this sounds like coming from personal experience my book. Yeah, yeah,

so it's funny.

That's really funny. That's really funny.

So Matthew f I don't think that's what you're asking for.

Here's here's a good one. Read your Bible every day.

So this is my dad before I went to college.

He said, read your Bible every day, share the Gospel

every week, and be a part of a church family

without stop, right without stopping, and don't and those three

things he felt like would carry you through right spiritually

and through life in general. So I think that that's

a great one. And then I had a chairman of

a board that I served with in Texas, and he said,

talking about money, he was he was a blue collar worker,

but he was a millionaire and it was because of

how he invested in things. And he said, give ten

percent to God, give ten percent to yourself. Live on

the other seventy percent or eighty percent, and he said

that he'll carry you far. I think those two things

spend daily time in God's word, regular commitment in a

church environment, you know that kind of stuff. And then money,

how you manage your money. I think those two things

are well guide your whole life.

Yeah, for sure I do. That's great. So okay, well the.

Uh you you're making memories where.

You started off with the laxative. So made me feel better?

Yeah right, No, I like that though. I think you're

exactly right. Well. I tell Chad Asmond, our executive pastor,

all the time. I was like, hey, man, you got

to be planning for. What's the story you want told

about how you died?

Yeah?

Right, you live like you're dying, right. You don't want

to You don't want the world to find out that

you died on the couch watching TV. Yeah, you know

what I mean? For one adventure.

That's so funny.

Question. We covered the gamut, we covered the money, talked

about relationship, yeah, I talked about Yeah. I talked about

spiritual stuff.

Yeah yeah, yeah, that's great.

Yeah. Health health advice, yeah, health advice.

Yeah, I thought that.

Speaking of healthy advice.

Oh, God's about to give Jonah some Yeah.

God's going to give Jonah a healthy dose.

A healthy dose of advice, that's for sure. That's really well.

Hey, we're wrapping up Jonah, the book Jonah. Yeah, last

week we did the first we did the first three chapters.

We have learned.

Yeah, heye, not the theme song.

Yep, that's right. And you're gonna say, Jonah is one

of the very few stories that I mean, when you

consider all the stories that was referenced by Jesus as

being true, and he connected it to his death barrel resurrection,

that's right, which is pretty cool. Mercy.

Oh good, So we're wrapping up. It's just a short

little book, only four chapters long. You can read it

in about thirty minutes. Yeah, but here's what it says.

This change of plans greatly upset Jonah. The change of

plans is that when God saw how they had repented,

he changed his mind.

Well, we should probably do a little review.

Yeah, so yeah, yeah, Monday, yes, Monday, and everybody slept then.

So chapter one, God tells Jonah to go to a

city called Nineveh, which was filled with wicked people tell

them to repent. Jonah doesn't like the Assyrians because they

oppressed his people. He doesn't think they're worthy or should

be worthy of God's chance to repent, so he decides

to not obey God, get on a ship and sell.

The opposite way, God causes a great storm to come

up in chapter two, actually at the end of chapter one,

and and Jonah says, hey, it's me, I'm running from God.

Throw me overboard. So the sailors throw them overboard because

they didn't want to die, and they feared that God

was causing this storm and they were going to sink.

So Jonah then goes overboard. The storm stops, and then

God caused a big fish to swallow Jonah, and then

all through chapter two he's in the belly of a fish,

miraculously survives and he actually repents and says, Okay, God,

I know you got big things planned for me, and

I repent, and you know, thank you so much. Thank

God for saving me. I'll do what you asked me

to do. I'm summarizing a lot of that. And then

at the end of chapter two, the fish vomits him

up on the dry land.

Yes.

Chapter three, he goes and finally gets to Nineveh, walks

through the town. It's so big he has to walk

three days. And then he tells everybody repent or else

God's gonna get you. And then the city, to his surprise,

completely repents, from the king all the way down to

the least these even the animals, and the all show repentance,

meaning the animals were too fast right they fasted from food.

And then Jonah is unhappy with God's decision because God

decides to change his mind and not destroy the city

of Ninevah.

God changed his mind and did not carry out the

destruction he had threatened. That's the last verse we read

last week. Yes, Yes, and now in Jonah chapter four,

verse one, it says this change of plans greatly upset

and it became very angry. So he complained to the

Lord about it. Didn't I say before I left home

that you would do this Lord? That is why I

ran away to Tarshish I knew that you're a merciful

and compassionate God, slow to get angry, and filled with

unfailing love. You're eager to turn back from destroying people.

Just kill me now, Lord, I'd rather be dead than

alive if what I predicted will not happen. The Lord replied,

is it right for you to be angry about this?

Then Jonah went out to the east side of the

city and made a shelter to sit under as he

waited to see what would happen to the city and

the Lord. God arranged for a leafy plant to grow there,

and soon it spread its broad leaves over Jonah's head,

shading him from the sun. This eased his discomfort, and

Jonah's very grateful for the plant. But God also arranged

for a worm. The next morning at dawn, the worm

ate through the stem of the plant so that it

withered away. As the sun grew hot, God arranged for

a scorching east window blow on Jonah. The sun beat

down on his head until he grew faint and wished

to die. Death is certainly better than living like this,

he exclaimed. Then God said to Jonah, is it right

for you to be angry? Because the plant died. Yes,

Jonah retorted, even angry enough to die. And the Lord said,

you feel sorry about the plant, though you did nothing

to put it there. It came quickly and died quickly.

But Nineva has more than one hundred and twenty thousand

people living in spiritual darkness, not to mention all the animals,

shouldn't I feel sorry for such a great city. And

that's it.

That's how it ends.

That's how it ends. And I think, come on, Jonah.

I think the very best thing, by far actually about

this message is that we don't get to see Jonah's response, right,

So we have no idea whether Jonah finally came to

his senses and he realized, oh, my goodness, God is

right here. I am, I'm so sorry for this life

of this plant. And I feel more pity and more compassion,

and I'm more sorrowful for this plant, which which is

just a plant, by the way, right, And and you know,

I have less compassion for one hundred and twenty thousand people.

And you would think that he would after that lesson go,

Oh my goodness, you're right, you know. Chapter five of Jonah.

Then Jenna falls down and he repents and says, God,

I am so sorry. Please help me to give me

your heart, your compassion. Oh, how great is your unfailing

love of God? Because you are patient with your people,

help us all to understand how great your love is. Right,

I mean it could have been that, or it could

have been I'm taking my ball and going home.

Yeah, it's it's amazing. I think it's so funny he

wants to die. Yeah, right, this is so way. I

just want to die. So I know a guy that

always speaks in hyperbole and always says he's going to

jump off a bridge or something.

Yeah do you?

And yeah yeah, And it's so funny to be clear, to.

Be clear, I only say that as an.

Expression to be funny. Yeah, that's just that's all.

This is so with him, though, he like, if I

experience something miserable, I go, oh my goodness, I just

wanted to jump off a bridge.

It's so funny. Take the tickles me. So you're my

own personal Jonah. But so I think in this, I

think maybe some of the funniest verses in the whole Bible.

So think about this. Here's the guy. You know, I've

heard scientists talk about this that if he had really

spent three days in the belly of a fish, he

probably was extremely pale, right, very very white, you know,

because it would have bleached his skin. The stomach asses

and stuff would have bleached his skin, thought all this

kind of stuff.

So he would have never gotten down to that science.

So he would have really stood out in the community, right,

really standing out, Wow, everybody, He would have had everybody's attention.

And then so I don't know if that's true or not.

I've just heard people talk about that before. Yeah, and

then he walks into the city, or he could have walked.

Out of the stomach of the fish like shadowed me

checking a bend to go without like smoke.

Yeah, I didn't say that though, I know, I know

he didn't, so he probably stood out. But anyways, he

goes in, he gets the attention to the whole city

to the point that the king listened. So there's something

about it other than his words. I'm sure other prophets

had said things, but right, so something got the king's attention.

King was like, yeah, you're right, we need to repent,

and God uses Jonah for that purpose. And then Jonah

is totally ticked off about this you would think that,

I don't know, having been swallowed by a fish and

not dying, and then preaching to the king saying you're

gonna be judged by God, and instead of being executed,

the whole nation, the whole city goes into repentance. You

think that those two things can get your attention to well,

God's really in charge of this.

Yeah.

Instead, funniest versus in the Bible, he goes, didn't I

say before I left home that you do this? Lord?

He's arguing with God about I knew it. I knew it,

and he's kind of saying, you're kind of a jerk.

That's what he's saying right through this whole thing. That's

why I ran away. I knew that you're merciful and compassion.

Not many people, any people in the Bible, complain about

mercy and compassion, right right right. It's the thing. So

you know why I think that he God doesn't include

the chapter five, It's because Jonah's opinion doesn't matter. That's

why God's going to do what God's gonna do. Right. So,

whether or not Jonah changed his mind or not, I

think that what he's highlighting here is the fact that

man you people. So Jonah is so narcissistic. He's more

concerned about a plant. He doesn't care about the plant.

He cares about what the plant does for him. Sure, right,

he's so self centered. I don't want the Assyrians to repent.

I knew you would go ahead and forgive them if

I told them. Just makes me so many you know,

it's his preferences, it's his biases. Then it's his own

personal comfort. And he's mad about all of it, and

he's telling God off, and God's talking out loud to him.

But all those things blow They all just blow my mind.

But do you think that maybe we can give Jonah

a little bit of the benefit of down.

He literally wants to jump off a bridge.

Like like like what if it was out of a

sense of justice, like you know, like, hey, the Syrians

have done horrific things to friends and family that I know.

You know, oppression back then wasn't just you know, feelings,

right like in twenty twenty five, right, So oh he

hurt my feelings. That's that's that's the extent of our

persecution most of the time.

But he's telling God off about your mercy, your compassion,

and your unfailing.

Love for sure. For sure, it's so funny, man, it

is funny. Yeah, But maybe maybe what he's trying to

do is maybe he's trying to say, where's your sense

of justice? Right? So, I don't know, I'd like to

think that maybe Jonah. I mean, after all, he is

a prophet, sure, he is a chosen man of God,

So doesn't he doesn't he deserve a little bit more

credit than being super selfish. Although I agree ninety percent

of it seems pretty bad.

It's it's pretty narcissistic, and you know, he feeling sorry

about the plant that you did nothing to put it there, right,

you just benefited, you don't care about and it says

you don't even care. Nine of it has more than

one hundred and twenty thousand people living in spiritual darkness,

is what the New Living Translation says. The literal translation

is has one hundred and twenty thousand people who don't

know their right hand from their left, right right. God's

saying these people, of course, they're living wicked lives. They

don't have any sense, right, they don't. They're just totally

they never have They've never embraced or understood the truth

of God's ways. They don't know their right hand from

their left hand. They're just stumbling through life. And finally

you come and you share the gospel with them. So

God's looking at this, going, you're my prophet. Man. Prophets

are just supposed to bring God's word to God's people, right,

That's all they're just. But he's the only one that

injects's own opinions about it. Yeah, if you read We're

going to read Amos, you know in the coming days,

if you read any of the rest of the prophets,

than Jeremiah. Jeremiah and Jonah are the two who kind

of or inject their own personalities and opinions about what

God's doing. Right, But Jonah disagrees with God God's opinion

on it. Jeremiah doesn't. Jeremiah just grieves, but Jonah is

so mad about It's just the whole thing's funny to me.

I think it's just a ridiculous thing. And it really

shows how it's possible, how God can use people who

don't have a perfect view on things.

Yeah.

Right, so this guy, he doesn't have a he doesn't

even want his own opinions to align with God's opinions,

and he's not. He's not trying to align with God.

But God says, Jonah, you're the messenger I have right

now to send to Ninevah. You know, Amos is busy

down there in Israel, so I need you. And Nahem

was busy too, So I need you to go up

to Ninevah. And Jonah says, I don't want to go.

So he goes the opposite direction. I don't want to

tell him. I don't want to. Now I'm mad that

you forgave them. You're I'm so sick. You're unfailing love.

Right right, which is hilarious. Hey, So speaking of not

wanting your enemies to be loved or accepted by God,

I have a very slight example. So when I was

a freshman high school, I started going to church, right,

and I just started, you know, getting involved in this church,

and I found sort of a group of friends and

I just become a Christian. We're talking like weeks, okay,

And there was this guy in this kid in my

class at high school. Good gravy.

You can turn your notifications of.

Oh yeah, yeah, I could go ahead and do that.

How do you do that? How do you do it?

I don't even know that surprised me.

The number of times that I've turned my notifications off

is almost like zero to not disturbed. Right there, That's

what I'm gonna do. Okay, thank you, Jeff. Welcome to

the twenty first century. So listen. So, uh, my friend,

So here's what happens. I'm I'm in high school and

I'm in health class and there's a kid back then,

and his name was Norm Sugden and he was a weightlifter.

So it's a big kid, and he sits right next

to me because for some reason, in science class or

no it was health class. In health class, they had

two desks or like a big long desk, almost like

science lab partners, and then it was just two people

at a desk. So Norm was at my desk. He

was with me, right, and I didn't I didn't like

the fact that he was there, but he was just

there with me. So one day we exchanged words and

we get in a fight. Okay, So he goes to

punch me and I go back, you know, and you know,

I miss his punch, misses me. So grabs the desk

and he flips it over right, just flips the whole

thing over and he's like, come on you blankety blankety blank,

you know, And I back up and I'm thinking this

guy one punch, he would destroy me, right, But I

got to act cool. So I go back and I'm like, yeah,

well come on, you know. And it's like one of

those eighties things. So it turns out he goes to

the office, we get in trouble. They separate us and

I'm not supposed to sit with him and things like that.

And so anyway, that happened like literally weeks before what

I'm about to tell you. So I start going to

this church. Well, little do I know that it used

to be Norm's church when Norma was a kid, right,

But I discovered this church, but Norm is no longer

going to church. So one day Norm walks into the

youth group and he sits in the back. But I

didn't know it was Norm, right, And I'm on this team,

and I know this is a crazy name, but it

was called his Image. Oh my goodness, it's such a

cheesy name, his Image. And I think the his stood

for something. It was we're going to be have his

Image teams, and I was on the greeting team. So

what happened was he would say, Okay, Chris, if somebody

walks in and they're a visitor and they're all by themselves,

what you're gonna do is you're going to sacrifice your

social time and you're gonna go and you're gonna sit

down and make friends with them and make sure they

feel included. Can you believe can you believe it? What

are the odds? So he looks over me and he goes, hey,

there's a guy in the back. And I'm just talking

blah blah blah, you know, social social. Hey, there's a

guy in the back. You gotta go ahead and be

assigned to and he's your guy. I said, okay, no problem,

and I get up and went in the back and

I didn't even look until I turned the row sat down,

and sure enough it's Norm and I'm like, oh my gosh.

And so sure enough, I'm just sitting there thinking this

is going to end really badly, and I'm thinking this

is awful, Like what are you doing? Get out of

my church, Get out of my church. This is my church,

Like what are you doing here? You know? And I

had all those feelings, and I just sat there through

the whole thing. And through the whole message. I wasn't

even thinking about the message that the youth astor was giving.

I was thinking about how uncomfortable it is that this

enemy of mine was in my church and I didn't

want him there.

And then all of a.

Sudden, he looks over me and he goes, so this

is where you go to church. I'm thinking, oh my god,

she's like actually speaking to me. And I said yeah,

and he goes, you know, this used to be my

church when I was younger, and I said really, And

all of a sudden we just started talking. Well, come

to find out he was, you know, he was messing

around with some drugs and had big, long red hair,

beautiful red hair, by the way, beautiful, and it was

all the way down in the middle of his back. Okay,

he said that. He told me. Eventually, he told me

his story that the day before he showed up at church.

I don't want to get emotional talking about it. He

was involved with some people with drugs. He had gotten

beat up in an alley and thrown into a dumpster,

and he was laying in the dump shirt. It was raining,

and he was so beaten that he was just thinking

to himself like, I don't know if I have enough

strength get up. He was so bruised, but he said

he looked up in the sky and he said, okay, God,

he said, if you can give me enough strength, get

up and go home. He said, I'll get up and

I'll go to church. And maybe it was a couple

days before that, but it was that week. But that's

why he was in church that day. And it turns

out that he ended up being one of my best friends.

Wow, well, yeah, isn't that great?

And then we went to Bible College together. Oh well,

and room together.

Yeah. Did he still have beautiful red hair?

He cut it short, but he always had red hair.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So one of the most amazing things. And it totally

changes your life. Man. This is why I think Jonah

suffers with narcissism a little bit. Here. One of the

most amazing discoveries that I think radically transforms your life

is when you discover that God's unfailing love, his compassion,

and his mercy are equal for your enemies as they

are for you. Right, because we tend to think salvationist

for me, Christianity's for me, God's answers to prayer for

me God's love is for me. That's how that's how

we worship, that's how we sing our songs. When you

tear up on a Sunday morning singing a song, or

driving down the road listening to worship song or whatever,

it's for you, right, it's the message you're hearing from Gosh.

But there is a transformative thing I think that radically

changes us when we realize that God loves my enemies

as much and as passionately as he loves me, right,

and that should change my own personal perspective. And I

think that's what he's trying to say here. He says,

you feel sorry about this plant. Shouldn't you feel sorry

for such a great city? Right? These people matter, and

everybody matters to God, even the people that offend us

a little bit.

Yeah, And the gospel finds its way to you, on

its way to somebody else, that's right. So it's our

job to pass it on.

Yeah, that's great.

All right, Well, that is a great place to end.

That is our time, So we will see you next

time on the Bible Gush