Jonah’s Anger

Summary

Jonah ran from God, blaming others for his anger. But God exposed his heart problem—idolatry of power and control. Like Jonah, we must confess, repent, and surrender to God’s transforming grace.

Sermon Transcription

Book of Jonah – Week 5

Introduction

Good morning, good to see you guys. So we’re in week 5 of the book of Jonah.

The themes of the book show:

How God calls people
People either say “yes” or run
God either empowers them if they say “yes” or pursues in love if they run

Everyone in the book of Jonah runs from God at some point, just like us:

Jonah runs
The sailors run
The people of Nineveh run

God calls all of them to something different. Some say “yes” and some run.

Examples of Saying “Yes” to God’s Call

Before we get into Jonah 4, I want to give you some examples of people at FBC who said “yes” to God’s call:

One man in our church was called to leave his career and instead volunteer his time and experience with an international business ministry. He said “yes” and now helps to provide financing, coaching, and consulting to small Christian business owners in 2nd and 3rd world countries.
A woman on our staff knew God was calling her to choose Jesus everyday as she battled a long-term illness. Discouragement crept into her heart and mind so easily. But she kept saying “yes” to Jesus every day.
A woman in our church heard God calling her to invite a neighbor over for dinner. She didn’t really know this neighbor. It seemed random to reach out after living next door to him for 14 years. But she knew he was going through a rough time in life. So, she said “yes”. She said, “who knows how God will use my simple invitation.”
A woman in our church loved going to Kenya to help with an established Christian ministry there. After going for 8 years, God called her to start a new ministry to spiritually disciple the teenage girls in the slums of Kenya. She felt completely unqualified for so many reasons, but she said “yes”. And today God is using this ministry to transform these women with the love of Jesus.

Saying “yes” to God’s call is always the best way to use your time, talents and financial resources for God’s Kingdom.

Scripture Reading: Jonah 3:10-4:11

10 When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.

1 But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. 2 And he prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster. 3 Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” 4 And the Lord said, “Do you do well to be angry?”

5 Jonah went out of the city and sat to the east of the city and made a booth for himself there. He sat under it in the shade, till he should see what would become of the city. 6 Now the Lord God appointed a plant and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be a shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort. So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the plant. 7 But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant, so that it withered. 8 When the sun rose, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint. And he asked that he might die and said, “It is better for me to die than to live.” 9 But God said to Jonah, “Do you do well to be angry for the plant?” And he said, “Yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die.” 10 And the Lord said, “You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. 11 And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?”

The Surprise Ending

The book of Jonah has a surprise ending!

Everyone would expect a prophet of God to:

Receive a call from God
Act upon that call
Praise God, if people responded

With Jonah we’ve got a very different story.

Today I want to focus on Jonah’s anger. Next week we’ll look at these same verses but focus on different themes: God’s lovingkindness and patience.

Message Outline

What does Jonah think is the problem?
What does God think is the problem?
How do we deal with the problem?

1. What does Jonah think is the problem?

If we look at 4:1: “…it displeased Jonah exceedingly”

What is “it”?

God’s action of relenting to destroy Nineveh
Jonah’s response to “it” is = he viewed God’s action as exceedingly evil
This is shocking! A prophet of God thought God was behaving with exceeding evil

Jonah 4:2 connects to this because Jonah viewed God’s character as negative: “God is a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love”

Jonah is not admiring God’s character. He’s shaming God for these attributes.
Jonah thinks the 1st problem is God
The problem is out there, not in here

There’s a 2nd problem for Jonah. Look at 4:8: The shade leaf has been eaten by a worm, the sun is beating down, and a scorching wind is blowing, and Jonah says, “It is better for me to die than to live.”

God asks Jonah if it makes sense to be angry at the plant with the withered leaf and Jonah says, “yes, I’m angry enough to die!”

Jonah thinks the 2nd problem is the plant
Again, the problem is out there, not in here

As Jonah sees life:

God’s character and action is problem #1 and
The withered leaf is problem #2

This is normally how anger works – people blame some outside cause.

Examples:

I’m angry at my neighbor for their barking dog
I’m angry because the server messed up my order
I’m angry at the fools in charge
I’m angry at… you fill in the blank

The root of the problem is somewhere out there… not in here.

2. What does God think is the problem?

Jonah’s heart
While Jonah is convinced the problem is outside of himself, God says “no, the problem is your heart.”

Three times we’re told Jonah is angry.

In fact, Jonah is furious! Through the whole chapter God attempts to show Jonah that his anger is unjustified by showing Jonah his unloving heart, but Jonah refuses to be persuaded.

He will not relent
He digs in
He is furious and he’d rather die than change

The chapter ends with God’s point being very clear with Jonah… you feel pity (concern) in your heart about a silly plant which you contributed nothing to for its growth, yet you malign my character because my heart is concerned about the spiritual death of over 120,000 citizens in Nineveh.

It’s as if God is saying you feel the wrong thing in your heart and it’s coming out of you through anger.

Understanding Anger

What can be said about Jonah’s anger?

Anger is a secondary emotion
Meaning that anger is not primarily about the immediate situation you’re facing…
- but instead arises as a response to other underlying emotions in the heart… deeper roots in the heart… at Foothills we refer to these as the 4 Core Idols of the heart

Example #1

Let’s say you’re left off of a group email or text or some other form of communication. You’re not a primary decision maker in the situation, but when you hear of the communication that’s been happening, you’re bothered. Maybe a little angry.

What reasonable reaction does that situation deserve? 1-10?

I’d say 2

Maybe a person could make a case to bump up to 4. Any reaction beyond 4 and this situation has struck a nerve in a person’s heart. Something is going on in the heart and it’s wise to investigate. It’s like a warning light on the dash of your car. Look at the engine.

Example #2

Here’s a situation that happened to me 2 weeks ago:

My wife was out of town for a week
Leaving me as the primary person taking care of a hyper, non-potty-trained dog
It snowed 8 inches, and the temps were in the single digits… meaning the puppy couldn’t burn off her energy playing in the backyard
All of this meant I was stuck indoors with the puppy or shoveling

What reasonable reaction did that situation deserve? 1-10?

I hit 7

Did I exceed your number? Of course I did!

Why did I hit a 7?

Was it the puppy? The snow? The cold? My wife leaving me to take care of everything all alone? No
Did I hit 7 because I’m a jerk? No!

I hit a 7 because of something misaligned in my heart.

There was an idol in my heart, something I loved dearly, that was being blocked from getting what I wanted
And I was angry

When I look back at it now, I see how silly it was. But in the moment, I was too close to relating to Jonah’s statement, “I’m so angry I could die.”

Anytime you’re overreacting, it’s an indication that an idol in your heart, something you love dearly, is being blocked. It’s wise to look into your heart and diagnose yourself.

Talk to the Lord about it
Read scripture
Get counsel from a friend

Here’s what was going on in my heart – My heart idol of Comfort was being blocked from getting what it wanted. I love Comfort and I was prohibited from getting it.

Comfort = freedom and I wasn’t free
Comfort = going to my Muay Thai class and I couldn’t go
Comfort = going where I want, anytime I want, and I couldn’t do that
Comfort = sitting on my couch on a Saturday and watching a game or a show and eating wings, without dealing with a puppy

I couldn’t get to this Comfort and my frustration with that came out in anger.

That’s how the 4 idols of the heart work that we talk about at Foothills. Whether it’s Comfort, Control, Power or Approval… when we’re blocked from getting 1 of these that we love, we lose it in some way.

Back to Jonah

Jonah is losing it
He’s overreacting

Let’s try to diagnose what’s going on in Jonah’s heart. He has an idol of the heart that’s being blocked from getting what it wants.

We know Jonah didn’t want God’s grace and compassion being offered to the Ninevites from Jonah 4:2. That’s why he ran from God’s call. He wasn’t afraid of the evil Ninevites. He was afraid God would show them grace and compassion.

We can deduce from 2 Kings 14:25 that Jonah was a strong Israel nationalist. He was a strong supporter of King Jeroboam II, one of the Israelite Kings, known for his aggressive military policies to extend the power and borders of Israel.

Jonah held no sympathy for foreign nations
Jonah expected the righteous judgement of God to reign judgment upon godless nations, like the Assyrians

Like many Old Testament Jews and Religious leaders during Jesus’ life, we can deduce that Jonah felt superior to the evil people of Nineveh because of his heritage and obedience to God’s Law.

In fact, Jesus picked up on this theme when he referred to Jonah in Matthew 12 and Luke 11. Jesus was telling the Pharisees that they were committing the same sin as Jonah – narrow national Jewish nationalism = God is for the Jews and against everyone else.

Putting all of this together, what was in Jonah’s heart?

He was self-righteous
He had religious-righteousness
He had “I follow the right rules righteousness”

Jonah’s core idol of the heart may have been Power:

If a person’s core idol is power, they’ll become domineering, harsh, even abusive
That sounds a little like Jonah

Jonah’s core idol of the heart may have been Control:

If a person’s core idol is control, they have a longing to have everything go according to their plan
That sounds a little like Jonah too

Either way, Jonah had a heart problem that revealed itself in anger and we have a heart problem like Jonah.

Jesus said in Matthew 12, “…the mouth speaks the overflow of the heart.”

Mark 7:21-23 Jesus described it this way:

21 For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22 coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. 23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.

Throughout the scriptures God tells us, the problem with our behavior and our words isn’t an out there problem, it’s an in here problem.

3. How do we deal with the problem?

We Confess and Repent

King David did that in Psalm 51 and asked for God to “…create a clean heart within him.”

Jesus said, “…unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”

The word Repent means there is a change of what you See, what you Love and the Direction of your life

John Piper wrote:

Repenting means experiencing a change of mind that now sees God as true and beautiful and worthy of all our praise and all our obedience.

Jonah is doing the opposite, in chapter 4. We’re meant to learn from him what not to do.

Because God is calling all of us today to Confess and Repent:

Look into our hearts
Look for the warning signs of anger and search for the source
Don’t try to blame others for your sinful reactions but identify which of the 4 core idols are you in love with
And Confess it to the Lord

Confess means you tell the Lord you’re sorry. Confess means you ask God to decrease your love for that idol. Confess means you ask God to put that idol to death.

Repent means you ask God to give you a love for what He loves. Repent means you ask the Spirit to empower you to speak and act in alignment with what God loves.

This is how God takes the power away from the idols of your heart.

You can’t kill your own idols. But God, in His supernatural power can. And when we confess and repent, we access the Spirit’s power to de-power our old nature and grow the Fruit of the Spirit.

That’s what we all want… Fruit of the Spirit growing from our heart, which is a product of the Holy Spirit.

God’s point to the nation of Israel who originally received the book of Jonah was not “do as Jonah”. The point was, Jonah was missing his need to confess and repent.