When Grace is Hard to Swallow

Jonah: The Reluctant Servant

Part 4 – When Grace is Hard to Swallow

Jonah 4

The Ninevites, who Jonah hates, have now repented and God has relented of his judgment against them. Instead of celebrating the fact that they have repented, Jonah is angry. Jonah’s anger gives us an opportunity to take a long look in the mirror.

But to Jonah this seemed very wrong, and he became angry. 2 He prayed to the Lord, “Isn’t this what I said, Lord, when I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. 3 Now, Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.” Jonah 4:1-3 NIV

God uses Jonah’s absurd response to God’s forgiveness to show how ridiculous pride and unforgiveness are. Compassion is God’s thing.

4 But the Lord replied, “Is it right for you to be angry?”

5 Jonah had gone out and sat down at a place east of the city. There he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city. Jonah 4:4-5 NIV

How do you respond when people receive grace they don’t deserve?

6 Then the Lord God provided a leafy plant and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the plant. 7 But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the plant so that it withered. 8 When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die, and said, “It would be better for me to die than to live.” Jonah 4:6-8 NIV

God is sovereign over Jonah’s entire situation. He’s also sovereign over yours.

“​​Many times people think if God has called you to something, he’s promising you success. He might be calling you to fail to prepare you for something else” Tim Keller

9 But God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?”

“It is,” he said. “And I’m so angry I wish I were dead.”

10 But the Lord said, “You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. 11 And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?” Jonah 4:9-11 NIV

Jonah failed to have the same compassion God had for the Ninevites—not even for their animals.

Four Observations from the end of Jonah

1) Grace is hard to swallow when it’s for your .

17 Do not gloat when your enemy falls; when they stumble, do not let your heart rejoice, 18 or the Lord will see and disapprove and turn his wrath away from them. Proverbs 24:17-18 NIV

2) God loves the stubbornly !

Jonah was so consumed with the Ninevites’ sin that he failed to see his own.

3) are too far gone.

No matter how much you have sinned, there is still time to return to God.

4) The entire is about !

39 He answered, “A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40 For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. 41 The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now something greater than Jonah is here. Matthew 12:39-41 NIV