Jonah - Mercy and Justice

556.

556.

And it's a good psalm to prepare us as we come to listen to God's Word.

Let's read Psalm 25 verse 1.

Psalms 25:1

To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul. In you I trust, O my God.

Do not let me be put to shame, nor let my enemies triumph over me.

No one whose hope is in you will ever be put to shame.

But they will be put to shame who are treacherous without excuse.

Show me your ways, O Lord.

Teach me your paths.

Guide me in your truth.

And teach me, for you are God my Saviour.

And my hope is in you all day long.

Remember, O Lord, your great mercy and love, for they are from of old.

Remember not the sins of my youth and my rebellious ways.

According to your love, remember me, for you are good, O Lord.

Good and upright is the Lord.

Therefore, he instructs sinners in his ways.

He guides the humble in what is right and teaches them his way.

All the ways of the Lord are loving and faithful for those who keep the demands of his covenant.

For the sake of your name, O Lord, forgive my iniquity, though it is great.

Who then is the man that fears the Lord?

He will instruct him in the way chosen for him.

He will spend his days in prosperity and his descendants will inherit the land.

The Lord confides in those who fear him.

He makes his covenant known to them.

My eyes are ever on the Lord.

For only he will release my feet from the snare.

Turn to me and be gracious to me, for I am lonely and afflicted.

The troubles of my heart have multiplied.

Free me from my anguish.

Look upon my affliction and my distress.

And take away all my sins.

See how my enemies have increased and how fiercely they hate me.

Guard my life and rescue me.

Let me not be put to shame.

For I take refuge in you.

May integrity and uprightness protect me.

Because my hope is in you.

Redeem Israel, O God, from all their troubles.

Amen.

Well, I'm going to ask Seth to come up.

And I'm going to pray for you.

Is that okay, Seth?

You don't mind people praying for you?

That's a good start.

So let's pray for Seth.

Father, we thank you for Seth.

And we thank you for him being here this morning.

We pray that you would use him to speak your words to us.

Fill him with the power of your spirit.

And may your spirit be at work within us.

Bringing us on to be the people you call us to be.

May we not leave this building without an encounter with you.

Hearing you.

And knowing you more deeply.

We pray this for your glory.

And for our good.

Amen.

Well, thank you.

It's great to be here.

I like this church.

I like to be here.

It's great to see just a glimpse of what God is doing

on this side of the county.

If you would just turn in your Bibles to Jonah.

I wonder if this could lower a little bit.

I'm not quite as tall.

Okay, not that much.

Right.

Turn your Bibles to Jonah.

If it's the church Bible, it's on page 927.

Now, last Sunday, it was only a week ago

that we were celebrating Easter.

And if we're thinking about Jesus at Easter,

which we should be, not just chocolate eggs and bunnies and things,

then we're probably focusing on his love for us.

We're probably focusing on his power to rise from the dead,

to give us that as well, that we'll be able to do that as well.

But there is something else going on at Easter,

maybe not quite so comfortable,

and that is God's judgment for sin.

Because Easter wouldn't have happened

if Good Friday hadn't happened first.

Jesus rose from the dead,

but before he rose from the dead, he had to die.

And why did he die?

Because of our sin and our rebellion,

it was that serious.

That's what it took.

If there had been an easier way to save us,

then God certainly wouldn't have made Jesus go to the cross.

If all roads lead to heaven, as some people say,

then why on earth would God send Jesus to die

just to open up one more road to the same place?

Jesus prayed in the garden,

if it is possible, let this cup be removed.

But it wasn't removed.

It wasn't possible.

There was no other way to save us

than dying the death that we deserved for our sin.

So yes, God's mercy is incredible.

It's amazing.

And it's to be celebrated.

But we're not going to understand quite how amazing it is

unless we have some idea

of the judgment that we deserved,

of what we're actually being saved from.

But if we only emphasize one or the other,

we can go off either way.

We can emphasize God's mercy so much

that we forget about God's judgment.

Or we can emphasize God's judgment so much

that we forget about his mercy.

We can go off balance quite quickly.

And this morning, we're going to look at a prophet,

Jonah,

who got the balance wrong in both directions

at the same time.

Which might seem a bit crazy, but it's true.

He's an interesting case,

and I think we can learn a bit from him.

So let's look at just the first couple of verses there in Jonah.

It says,

The word of the Lord came to Jonah, son of Amittai.

Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it,

because its wickedness has come up before me.

So right at the beginning here,

we see a command.

God's judgment is to be preached to Nineveh.

So there's God's justice.

Why will God be judging Nineveh?

Well, he says right here, he says,

Their wickedness has come up before me.

They're wicked.

We don't know everything there is to know

about the ancient empire of Assyria,

which Nineveh was the capital of most of the time.

But we know enough,

we've discovered enough to know

that they really were quite wicked.

Even by the standards of the people around them,

they were wicked.

And the standards weren't very high.

They worshipped false gods,

and their gods were capricious and cruel,

and the people that worshipped them became like them.

And it was normal in those days

for war to be very brutal.

I suppose war always is brutal.

But the Assyrians took torture and intimidation

and cruelty to just new highs,

new lows maybe is a better way to say it.

They were horrible.

I won't go into detail.

It's well documented.

If you want to know,

you can find out just exactly how terrible they were.

But we know very well they were wicked.

Now in Jonah's time,

they had already started to build a reputation for themselves.

They'd already started to expand their empire,

taking over some of their neighbors.

They hadn't got to Israel yet,

but they definitely were a threat.

They kind of stalled for the moment

when Jonah was around

because they were having some internal rebellions.

They were having some famines and things.

But Jonah knew that the first chance they got,

they would love to come and conquer Israel

and be just as cruel and merciless

as they had been to everyone else.

So he knows what's going on here.

He knows that these people really are wicked.

And what is his response?

Sorry.

What's his response to God's command

to go and preach judgment on them?

Verse 3.

Jonah ran away from the Lord

and headed for Tarshish.

Or Tarshish or Tarshish.

Anyway, that place.

He went down to Joppa

where he found a ship

found for that port.

After paying the fare,

he went aboard

and sailed for Tarshish

to flee from the Lord.

He ran away.

But why would he run away?

He didn't like them.

We see later

that he really wanted God to judge them.

He wanted it very badly.

And here God is telling him

that he's going to judge them

and that he should go

and announce that to them.

So why not go and tell his enemies

that they're doomed?

What would stop him

from wanting to do that

when he wanted them to be judged?

Well, basically, the reason is

that Jonah knew something

about God.

It's something that he had seen himself

because God had already used him

to prophesy to Israel.

We see this same Jonah show up

in 2 Kings, chapter 14.

2 Kings 14 · chapter mention

And I'll just read to you.

In the 15th year of Amaziah,

son of Joash, king of Judah,

Jeroboam, the son of Jehoash,

king of Israel,

became king in Samaria.

He reigned 41 years.

He did evil in the eyes of the Lord.

He didn't turn away

from any of the sins of Jeroboam,

which he had caused Israel to commit.

He was the one

who restored the boundaries of Israel

from the Lebo Hamath to the Dead Sea

in accordance with the word of the Lord,

the God of Israel,

spoken through his servant,

Jonah, son of Amittai,

the prophet from Gath-Hepper.

The Lord had seen how bitterly

everyone in Israel,

slave or free,

was suffering.

There was no one to help them.

And since the Lord had not said

that he would blot the name of Israel

out from under heaven,

he saved them

by the hand of Jeroboam.

So here's Jeroboam,

a bad king.

And yet God sends a message

with Jonah that says,

I'm going to bless you.

I'm going to bless Israel

through this bad king.

So Jonah already knew

that God was inclined

to show mercy to people

even when they didn't deserve it.

Because obviously Israel

had done nothing

to deserve this mercy.

This was an evil king.

The people,

the king had never repented.

The people had never repented.

And yet God says,

I haven't told them

that I would destroy them.

So I'm going to bless them instead

and give them another opportunity

to repent.

And turn back.

He knew also very well

what we've read already,

how God had revealed himself

to Moses.

We've had it read already

in Exodus 34.

The Lord,

the Lord,

compassionate and gracious,

slow to anger,

abounding in love

and faithfulness,

maintaining love to thousands,

forgiving wickedness,

rebellion and sin.

Yet he does not leave

the guilty unpunished.

He punishes the children

and their children

for the sin of the parents

of the third and fourth generation.

So there's justice

in God's dealings

with people, yes.

But Jonah knew

that there was more

than only justice.

There was mercy

and forgiveness

even for those

who had rebelled

and sinned.

And that kind of forgiveness

had already been shown

over and over

and over and over again

in the history

of God's people,

Israel,

and even in the nations

around them.

In Jeremiah 18,

God says specifically,

he says,

if at any time

I announce

that a nation or kingdom

is to be uprooted,

torn down and destroyed,

if that nation I warned

repents of its evil,

then I will relent

and not inflict on it

the disaster I planned.

So God has said it

very clearly,

very specifically,

and Jonah had seen

the pattern in history.

That when God

announces judgment

against people

for their sin,

he leaves them

an opportunity.

often many opportunities

to repent

and be forgiven.

So why did Jonah run away?

He ran away

because he knew

that if he announced

God's judgment

against the Assyrians,

there was the very real possibility

that they would repent

and that they would not be judged

because God would spare them.

It wasn't actually

specifically part of the message

because the message

was only go to the great city

and preach against it

because of their wickedness.

It wasn't in the message itself,

but the very fact

that God was giving them warning

before he destroyed them,

before he judged them,

showed that he was giving them

a chance to repent,

to avoid the judgment.

And Jonah just could not

stand the thought

of that happening

to his enemies.

And if we look at chapter 4,

if you just turn over

to chapter 4,

Nineveh actually does repent.

It happens just as

Jonah was afraid of

and God spares them

from the judgment

that he had warned.

So in 4, verse 1,

to Jonah this seemed

very wrong

and he became angry.

He prayed to the Lord,

isn't this what I said,

Lord, when I was still at home.

This is what I tried

to forestall by fleeing

to Tarshish.

I knew that you are

gracious and compassionate God,

slow to anger

and abounding in love.

Where have we heard

that before?

A God who relents

from sending calamity.

Now, Lord,

take away my life.

It's better for me

to die than to live.

He's pretty upset.

And here he is

quoting Exodus 34,

word for word,

God's character,

but he's not quoting it

as a praise.

He's quoting it

as an accusation

against God.

He's very much okay

with God

being gracious

to Israel.

He doesn't seem

to have any problem

delivering the message

that God was going

to be gracious

to Israel

in spite of their sin.

That's okay.

Not upset about that.

But when God

is gracious

to the Assyrians

even after they repent,

that's a problem.

And that's why

he runs away.

And it seems like

he thought that maybe

if he held back

the message,

that if he

just didn't tell them,

didn't give them

the warning,

maybe they really

would be doomed

because they'd have

no opportunity

to repent.

In his mind,

he seemed to think

that by running away,

he would make sure

that the Assyrians

got what they

really deserved.

Of course,

God wasn't so easily

put off.

He sends this

massive storm

to the ship.

The sailors are afraid.

They realize

it's the hand of God.

But Jonah's response

is interesting,

I think.

This is back

in chapter 1.

He talks about...

Sorry.

Jonah doesn't

beg for his life.

He doesn't say,

God, you know,

okay, fine,

I'll obey you.

Just please save us.

In fact,

Jonah doesn't

even pray at all.

The sailors pray.

They ask Jonah

to pray,

but he doesn't do it.

All he says

is just throw me in.

Which is basically

just saying,

just kill me now

because you get

thrown into a stormy sea

in the middle

of the ocean.

Well,

that's basically

certain death.

So, I mean,

is it possible

that Jonah

was actually

so committed

to making sure

that the Assyrians

were judged

that he was actually

willing to make,

to even die

to make sure

that that happened?

To make sure

that the message

would not get to them

and that they

wouldn't get the warning

and that if he died,

maybe they would die too.

One thing that Jonah

saw clearly,

he saw clearly

that the sin

of the Assyrians

was a serious thing.

And he was right.

Their sin

really did deserve

God's judgment.

There's no question

about it.

God had every right

to announce judgment

on Nineveh

for all the wicked

things that they had done.

But God had every right

to be gracious

as well.

And he had every right

to be gracious

to Israel

and he had every right

to be gracious

to wicked Nineveh.

What Jonah

can't see

very clearly here

is that God

also had every right

to announce judgment

on Jonah himself.

Jonah deserved

the same kind of judgment

that Assyria

was getting.

After all,

he had directly

disobeyed

God's clear command.

He had tried his best

to subvert

God's revealed will,

his stated will,

and make things happen

according to his own agenda.

He was very committed

to that,

even to the point of

maybe even being

willing to die for it.

And he never even

repents.

If you look in chapter 2,

he gives this long prayer

after God saves him

from his trying

to kill himself.

in verse 3 of chapter 2,

he said,

You hurled me

into the deep

in the very heart

of the seas

and the currents

swirled about me.

All your waves

and breakers

swept over me.

I mean,

he's basically,

he's saying

God hurled him

into the deep

and it was God's waves

that were over him.

But is that really fair?

I mean,

wasn't it Jonah

who asked the sailors

to throw him in?

Wasn't the very fact

that he was on the ocean

a result of his

direct disobedience?

I mean,

if he had gone to Nineveh,

he wouldn't have had

to cross an ocean.

So,

and look in verse 4.

He says,

I've been banished

from your sight,

yet I will look again

toward your holy temple.

But,

who banished him?

Wasn't it Jonah himself

that was doing

his level best

to get away from God?

To get away

from God's sight?

And yet,

he makes it sound

like he's doing

something wonderful

looking towards the temple

after he's been banished.

And in verse 7,

he says,

my life was ebbing away.

I remembered you

and my prayer rose to you

to your holy temple.

He makes it sound

like he's pretty great

that in the middle

of all this trouble,

he's looking to the Lord,

but there's no admission

that he actually

was the cause

of all the trouble.

That his rebellion

against God

was the reason

for all of that trouble.

He kind of promotes himself

even in his prayer

of thankfulness.

He's quoting lots

of scripture.

He knows his Bible well,

but there's something

really missing here.

There's no repentance.

There's no admission

of doing anything wrong.

And contrast that response

with the wicked people

of Nineveh

when they heard his warning.

Look in chapter 3,

starting in verse 5.

The Ninevites believed God.

They declared a fast,

all of them,

from the greatest to the least,

and put on sackcloth.

When the news reached

the king of Nineveh,

he rose from his throne,

took off his royal robes,

covered himself with sackcloth,

and sat down in the dust.

Then he issued a proclamation

in Nineveh.

By the decree of the king

and his nobles,

do not let any man or beast,

herd or flock,

taste anything.

Do not let them eat or drink,

but let man and beast

be covered with sackcloth.

Let everyone call urgently on God.

Let them give up their evil ways

and their violence.

Who knows?

God may yet relent

and with compassion

turn from his fierce anger

so that we will not perish.

They repented immediately.

And even the sailors,

in 116,

it says,

they feared the Lord.

And offered sacrifices to him.

So it seems like

everyone is actually

responding to God

better than the actual prophet

of God.

And yet even this rebellious prophet

who can't admit

his own disobedience

is given a second chance

by God.

That's a great mercy.

I mean,

God didn't have to do that.

He could have found somebody else

who would be willing to go.

But to Jonah's credit,

he does go the second time,

although his heart

really doesn't change.

We've read already

from chapter 4

about how Jonah

was angry with God

when God spared the Ninevites.

But again,

God is gracious with Jonah

and he gives him

this illustration

at the end of the book

about a plant.

He makes this plant

grow over Jonah

and Jonah loves it

because it gives him shade,

makes him comfortable.

And then he takes it away

and Jonah's angry.

But basically,

he's teaching Jonah

that his perspective

is just way too small.

He cares so much

about his own comfort.

He cares about this plant.

He cares about his own agenda.

But he can't see

the desperate need

of a whole city

full of people

that God created.

So what Jonah saw,

he saw very clearly

that other people's sins

deserve God's judgment.

Which was true.

But what he overlooked

was that his own sins

deserve God's judgment

as well.

He just took for granted

that God had mercy on him.

And God did have mercy on him.

But he didn't recognize

his own even need for that.

But God sees all of it.

He sees all sin.

He doesn't pick and choose

whose sin to take seriously.

He doesn't pick and choose

what sin to take seriously.

We love to take sins

sins that we don't struggle

with seriously.

And we love to kind of

justify and overlook

the sins that, you know,

are more common to us.

But God doesn't do that.

He sees all sin

as serious

as it really is.

But thankfully,

our only hope is

that God is a God of mercy

as well.

But the question is,

do we really

realize

realize

and do we

recognize

our own need

for God's mercy?

I mean,

Romans says,

the wages of sin

is death.

And all have sinned

and fall short

of the glory of God.

Isaiah says,

all of us

have become

like unclean.

I'm sorry,

all of us

have become

like one who is unclean.

All our righteous acts

are like filthy rags.

Even our righteous acts

are like filthy rags.

Even our best moments

are tainted

with sin.

Whether it's

wrong attitudes

or pride

or self-promotion

or self-sufficiency.

I mean,

it's clear that

even our good deeds,

even our good deeds

can be done

in rebellion

against God.

We might be like Jonah

and we might look down

on the really wicked people

around us

who are doing

really wicked things

and we think

that we're way

better than them.

But if we could see

from God's perspective,

it'd be obvious

that even if

our sins may be different,

all sin

is serious.

All sin

deserves

God's judgment.

We might try

to justify

our own sin.

We might take

God's mercy to us

for granted

like somehow

we deserve it.

But even while

we're looking down

on really wicked

people around,

we need to realize

that our sin

is so serious

that the only way

for God

to offer forgiveness

to us,

the only way

for God

to offer mercy

to us

was for Jesus

to take our punishment

to the cross.

that's how

serious

our sin is.

And following

on from that,

do we realize,

okay,

how serious

our own sin is?

But also,

do we realize

how serious

the sin is

of other people?

And do we realize

their need

for God's mercy

as well?

Jonah realized

very clearly

that people

deserve God's judgment.

But he didn't want

God to have mercy

on them.

But we might go

to the other extreme

and say,

well,

okay,

and just focus

only on God's mercy

to everyone

and say,

ah,

sure,

you know,

they'll be grand.

Even though

God is just

and he must

punish sin.

I mean,

the only place

where God's justice

and mercy

can meet

is the cross

of Jesus.

Where Jesus

met the demands

of God's justice

for us

so that God

could show us

mercy.

But do we even

care enough

about others

to show them

their need

and also

how God

has provided

mercy?

God gave Jonah

a message

of warning

to give to Nineveh

to give them

a chance

to repent

and to be saved.

But he's given us

a similar message.

I mean,

God's judgment

for sin

has not changed.

There still is

judgment for sin

today

just like there was

back then.

Jonah ran away

from giving that

message because

he wanted them

to be judged.

But we have

lots of reasons

for running away

too.

Maybe we don't

want people

to be judged.

We wouldn't

say that anyway.

Maybe some people

we do.

But maybe we're

just afraid of

what people

will think of us.

We're afraid

of our reputation

and people might

make fun of us

or see us

differently.

But the result

is really the same.

We'd still be

holding back

the message

that they need

to hear

to be saved,

to repent.

So,

we need to be

quick to remember

that we depend

on God's mercy

just as much

as everyone else.

We should be

quick to share

with others

that they need

God's mercy too

but that he has

provided it

in Jesus.

We need to take

sin seriously,

not just everyone

else's sin

like Jonah did,

but our own sin

as well.

But we also

should recognize

that in spite

of the greatness

of our sin,

God has provided

a mercy

that is even

greater.

It's not only

for us.

Jonah was very

happy to accept

mercy for himself

but this mercy

is actually

for everyone.

And he's given

us the privilege

of sharing

that message

with others.

The saying is

that the ground

is level at the cross

and it's true.

We all deserve

God's justice

and yet God

has provided

his mercy

that is available

to all.

And I think

that a great

thing for us

to do now

would be to sing

Thank You

for Saving Me

is the next song.

Thank you.