Apr. 28, 2022

“MAN ON THE RUN”

“JONAH THE UNHAPPY PROPHET”

JONAH 4:1-11

*The Marvel of an Unhappy Servant:

1 Samuel 16:7 “But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

God weighs the motives of the heart:

1 Corinthians 4:5 “Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and reveal the counsels of the hearts. Then each one’s praise will come from God.”

Ephesians 6:6 “Not with eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart.”

The heart of every problem is the problem in the heart, and that’s where Jonah’s problems were to be found.

Jonah 4:1 “But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he became angry.” 

The remarkable thing is that God tenderly dealt with His sulking servant and sought to bring him back to a place of joy and fellowship:

1.   God Listened to Jonah

Once again, Jonah would rather die than not have his own way.

Jonah 4:2 “So he prayed to the Lord, and said, “Ah, Lord, was not this what I said when I was still in my country? Therefore I fled previously to Tarshish; for I know that You are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, One who relents from doing harm.”

God’s tender response was to ask Jonah to examine his heart and see why He was really angry:

Jonah 4:3-4 “Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live!” 4Then the Lord said, “Is it right for you to be angry?”

2.   God Comforted Jonah’s 

Jonah 4:5-8

What a tragedy it is when God’s servants are a means of blessing to others but miss the blessing themselves.

A simple test of character is to ask, “What makes me happy? What makes me angry? What makes me want to give up?”

Jonah was a “double minded man.”

James 1:8 “He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.”

3.   God Instructed Jonah

Jonah 4:9-11

It seems incredible, but Jonah brought a whole city to faith in the Lord and yet he didn’t love the people he was preaching to!  

The people who could not “discern between their right hand and their left hand” (vs.11) were immature little children:

Deuteronomy 1:39 “Moreover your little ones and your children, who you say will be victims, who today have no knowledge of good and evil, they shall go in there; to them I will give it, and they shall possess it.”

Mark 10:13-16

But whether children or adults, the Assyrians all needed to know the Lord. Jonah had pity on the vine that perished, but he didn’t have compassion for the people who would perish and live eternally apart from God.

Jeremiah had compassion:

Jeremiah 9:1 “Oh, that my head were waters, And my eyes a fountain of tears, That I might weep day and night For the slain of the daughter of my people!

Jeremiah 9:10 “I will take up a weeping and wailing for the mountains, And for the dwelling places of the wilderness a lamentation, Because they are burned up, So that no one can pass through; Nor can men hear the voice of the cattle. Both the birds of the heavens and the beasts have fled; They are gone.”

Jesus looked on the city of Jerusalem and wept over it:

Luke 19:41 “Now as He drew near, He saw the city and wept over it.”

Paul beheld the city of Athens and was greatly distressed:

Acts 17:16 “Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him when he saw that the city was given over to idols.”

*The Marvel of an Unanswered Question:

Jonah 4:11 “And should I not pity Nineveh, that great city, in which are more than one hundred and twenty thousand persons who cannot discern between their right hand and their left—and much livestock?”

Nahum 3:19 “Your injury has no healing, Your wound is severe.
All who hear news of you Will clap their hands over you, For upon whom has not your wickedness passed continually?”

God was willing to spare Nineveh but in order to do that, He could not spare His own Son. Somebody had to die for their sins or they would die in their sins:

Romans 8:32 “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?”

Jesus used Jonah’s ministry to Nineveh to show the Jews how guilty they were in rejecting His witness:

Matthew 12:41 “The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed a greater than Jonah is here.”

Jonah almost died for his own sins, but Jesus willingly died for the sins of the world:

1 John 2:2 “And He Himself is the pr