Angry At God’s Mercy | Sunday, January 22, 2023

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Oh, how high would I climb mountains if the mountains were where You hide? Oh, how far I'd scale the valleys if You grace the other side. Oh, how long have I chased rivers from lowly seas to where they rise against the rush of grace descending from the source of its supply?

'Cause in the highlands and the heartache, You're neither more nor less inclined. I would search and stop at nothing; You're just not that hard to find. I will praise You on the mountain. I will praise You in the mountains. I will praise You in the valleys.

God is within the shadows. That's the faithful peace. Your glory does your kindness extend along the path. It's on the sunrise, just a shadow guiding me through the night. Trace my steps through all my things for the one I call the Good Shepherd, who like a lamb was slain for me.

How much do you have to hate somebody to be unwilling to share the truth with them? To share the good news of the Gospel with them? That was basically the concluding question of the magician, the illusionist, and an avowed atheist, Penn Gillette. In an off-the-cuff video he posted on social media back in 2008, he reflected on an interaction he had with a fan the night before.

This fan, a Christian, gave him a Bible and wanted to share the Gospel with him. Of course, Penn Gillette is a pretty vocal atheist and has talked about his atheism quite a bit in a number of different arenas. So, this Christian had it on his heart to give Penn a Bible and to share the Gospel.

What was really interesting about the video that Gillette posted was that he was clearly, and I would even say positively, impacted by this interaction, this meeting with a fan. In fact, the exact words that Penn shared about this interaction are worth reading. I've got them right here.

Penn Gillette said, "I've always said that I don't respect people who don't proselytize. I don't respect that at all. If you believe that there is a heaven and a hell, and people could be going to hell or not getting eternal life, and you think that it is not really worth telling them because this would make it socially awkward, how much do you have to hate somebody to not proselytize? Proselytize means to preach the gospel to them. How much do you have to hate somebody to believe that everlasting life is possible and not tell them that? I mean, if I believed beyond a shadow of a doubt that a truck was coming at you and you didn't believe the truck was bearing down on you, there is a certain point where I would tackle you. This is more important than that."

Jesus taught in the gospel the Second Great Commandment, which all of the law and the prophets hang upon. He said, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."

In another place in the gospels, he was questioned by a devout expert in the Jewish law about the exact meaning of the word "neighbor." This religious lawyer wanted to quibble over the nuance of the word neighbor, and Jesus gave one of the most famous stories as an illustrative answer to that question, a story commonly known to us as the Good Samaritan Parable.

In it, we find this from Jesus in Luke's Gospel, chapter 10, verse 30. Remember, this is in answer to the question of this religious lawyer, who said to Jesus, "Well, okay, I know I need to love my neighbor as myself, but who is my neighbor?" He was wanting to justify himself and to justify not loving all people. So, Jesus gives this answer to him: "A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among thieves who stripped him of his clothing, wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance, a certain priest, a religious man, came down that road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side."

On the other side, likewise, the Levite, when he arrived at the place, came and looked and passed by on the other side. But now, a certain Samaritan came along. The Jews and the Samaritans did not get along; they did not like each other. Jews hated Samaritans. However, a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where this man was who had been taken by thieves and left for dead. When he saw the man, he had compassion and mercy. So, he went and bandaged up the man's wounds, pouring on oil and wine. He set this man on his own animal and brought him to an inn to take care of him.

On the next day, when he departed, he took out two days' wages, two denarii, and gave them to the innkeeper. He said to him, "Take care of this man, and whatever more you spend, when I come again, I will repay you."

Now, Jesus's question to the religious lawyer, who was trying to justify himself and find the nuance in the meaning of the word "neighbor," was, "So, which of these three individuals do you think was a neighbor to him who fell among thieves?" The religious lawyer, justifying himself, said, "He who showed mercy on him." Then Jesus said, "Go and do likewise."

Take careful note of the way that Jesus answered that self-justifying lawyer's question. According to Jesus, you determine who your neighbor is by how you treat that individual, him or her. Those whom you love and those to whom you show compassion and mercy are the people who are your neighbors. According to Jesus, love shows mercy.

Elie Wiesel, a concentration camp survivor, rightly observed that the opposite of love is not hate; it is indifference. Apathetic indifference is the epitome of hate. The unwillingness to show mercy to an individual, to show compassion, that is hate.

Now, why do I bring all of this up? Well, over the last few weeks, Pastor Jason, Pastor Mark, and Pastor Garrett have been introducing you to the prophet Jonah in the Old Testament. The prophet Jonah, as we've titled this series, was a reluctant prophet. However, even in calling Jonah a reluctant prophet, we should recognize that Jonah wasn't exactly reluctant to prophesy. He seems to have had no reservations about that.

The problem with declaring the word of God is that Jonah was reluctant to prophesy to someone he hated. Although it isn't indicated in the text of the Book of Jonah, I think that Jonah probably had no problem prophesying to the people he despised. The message that Jonah was given to share was one that likely delighted his heart. He was probably happy to tell the people of Nineveh, "God's going to destroy you," because he hated the Assyrians, with Nineveh being their capital.

Pastor Garrett talked last week about Jonah's short message. The message he had for them is summed up in Jonah chapter 3, verse 4. There isn't much to this message; it is very to the point and clear. Whereas my messages can go on for 45 minutes or more and have multiple points, Jonah had one simple thing to declare to the people of Assyria, to Nineveh. He said to them, "Yet 40 days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown."

Jonah's message for the Ninevites was one that I think he probably loved. He did not want these people to survive; he wanted them to be destroyed. So, why the reluctance? The text before us today, as we come to the last chapter, answers the question: Why was Jonah a reluctant prophet? Why did he not want to speak this message to the people?

In the previous passage, chapter 3, we have seen that Jonah's message of judgment was proclaimed. He went to where God called him to go and shared the message that God had given him, even though he was reluctant and hesitant. In the beginning, he tried to go in the opposite direction, but finally, God got him to the destination, to the people, with the message. Jonah's message of judgment was proclaimed, and as a result, the people of Nineveh experienced corporate repentance, from the top all the way down, even to the animals. They put sackcloth and ashes on the animals as a sign of repentance during that time.

God's response to the repentance of the people of Nineveh was to relent from His judgment. We find this in verse 10 of chapter 3: "Then God saw their works."

turned from their evil ways, and God relented from the disaster that He had said He would bring upon them, and He did not do it. Now look at this chapter 4, verse 1. Why was Jonah reluctant? Why was he hesitant to do what God had told him to do? This guy, who was a prophet of God, probably had no problem speaking God's words before to his own people and actually had no problem with the message that God had for the Ninevites. Why was he hesitant to bring it to them?

In Jonah chapter 4, verse 2, it says, "But it displeased Jonah exceedingly." Remember verse 10 of chapter 3? God relented from the disaster that He was going to bring upon the Ninevites, and it displeased Jonah exceedingly. He became angry. So he prayed to the Lord and said, "Ah, Lord, was not this what I said when I was in my country? Therefore, I fled previously to Tarshish, for I know that You are gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, one who relents from doing harm."

I think this is one of the most staggering prophetic responses in all of Scripture. If you read through the other prophetic books of the Bible, there are quite a few of them in the Old Testament, both major and minor prophets. Jonah's response here is staggering. At the preaching of Jonah, the people of Nineveh responded with massive corporate repentance.

Now think about that for a moment. If you've ever read through the Old Testament prophets, many of those guys never saw people heed their words. Jeremiah, Isaiah, Ezekiel—go down the list. They would prophesy, and the people wouldn't listen to them. Sometimes they would be beaten, sometimes they would be mocked, and sometimes they would be killed for their prophecies. Nobody would listen to them.

Jonah, on the other hand, preaches this very short message—probably the shortest message of any prophet of his time or any that would come after him. He speaks this very short message, and all the people who heard it responded in corporate repentance. God responds in mercy to the people of Nineveh's repentance, and Jonah responds to God's show of mercy not with joy over one sinner who repents, but with anger.

Mercy with exceedingly great anger and displeasure. Again, I ask a question that I started with: How much do you have to hate somebody to respond in this manner? How much do you have to hate someone to wish for their destruction and their demise?

What becomes clear as we look at this text, Jonah chapter one, two, three, and now coming to chapter four, is that Jonah's head was filled with God's word while his heart was filled with hatred. Let me say that again: Jonah's head was filled with God's word while his heart was filled with hatred.

Now, how do I know that Jonah's head was filled with God's word? Because we read in those verses that we just looked at, specifically in verse 2, he said, "For I know that you, God, are gracious and merciful, a God slow to anger and abundant in loving-kindness, one who relents from doing harm." How did Jonah know this? He knew it because of one of my favorite passages in the Torah. The Torah is the law; it's the first five books of the Bible, the Pentateuch.

One of my favorite passages in the first five books of the Bible is found in Exodus chapter 34, verse 6, where God and Moses are having this conversation, and God reveals His name and His character to Moses. In Exodus 34, verse 6, we read these words: "And the Lord passed before Moses and proclaimed, 'The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, to the children's children, to the third and fourth generation.'"

But notice there, keeping mercy for thousands, being gracious and merciful, long-suffering, and abounding in goodness and truth. Jonah knew those words. He knew God because he knew how God had revealed Himself in the word. Like the other prophets that we will meet in the Old Testament, Jonah was an expert in the Torah. He was an expert in Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, and other passages as well in Israel's history. He was an expert in the law, and that's how he knew that God would judge the people of Nineveh for their wickedness. He knew that God's word says in the law that God will visit the iniquity of...

Sinful people, their transgression, their iniquity, and judgment were all on Jonah's mind. He knew that the Ninevites would be judged because God is just, holy, and righteous. However, he also understood that God is merciful, gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth. This is why Jonah did not want to go preach the message of judgment to the people of Nineveh; he was worried that they might repent.

It seemed like a long shot, considering how wicked the Ninevites were. If you study the history of the Ninevites and the people of Assyria, you will find that they devised all kinds of horrible and wicked things, committing terrible acts against many people. Yet, Jonah was concerned that maybe, just maybe, they might repent if he spoke this word to them. He knew God's character, as described in Exodus 34:6. He was aware that God was merciful, gracious, patient, and abundant in goodness and truth. Jonah feared that if the Ninevites repented, God would relent from the harm He had proposed to do to them in judgment.

So, what was Jonah's original plan? Because of their wickedness, God intended to destroy the people of Nineveh in 40 days. That was the message God gave to Jonah to share with the people. Jonah's original plan was to take a 40-day vacation. He decided to go in the exact opposite direction of Nineveh and Assyria. He went down to Joppa, the port city. You can still visit the ruins of Joppa, located on the Mediterranean coast, just south of Tel Aviv in Israel.

Jonah got on a boat, trying to escape to the opposite direction of Assyria. He figured that if he spent 40 days on a boat, Nineveh would be no more; it would be destroyed. That was Jonah's intention. However, God had other plans. He said, "No, that's not what I'm going to do. I want you to go and speak to these people. I'm going to give them one more chance."

In the end, God spared them and relented from the judgment He was going to pour out upon the people of Nineveh. Jonah, however, was seething with anger. He exclaimed, "God, this is exactly what I told you at the very beginning! This is what I knew you would do. I did not want to come here because I knew that you would be merciful and gracious."

To them, if they repented, he wanted them damned. So, literally, he's saying, "Damn it, they repented! I want you to condemn them. I want you to damn them. I don't want you to forgive them. I want you to destroy them. They deserve your wrath," which is probably true; they deserve your judgment.

He says Jonah had knowledge of the Scriptures and even a genuine understanding of the true nature of God, but he missed God's true heart and God's true will. Jonah himself had a wrong heart and a wrong will for himself, a wrong plan for himself.

Now, notice Jonah's concluding prayer as God relents from His judgment. Look at how Jonah prays in verse 3 of Jonah chapter 4: "Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live." If you would rather die than see others live, then you do not have the heart of Christ; you've lost the plot, as they say. If you'd rather that people die than live, you may know God, and you might even really know His word. Jonah knew God and His word; it might be in your head, but you've got hatred in your heart.

Just before the Second Great Commandment, remember Jesus in the Gospels said the Second Great Commandment is to love your neighbor as yourself, alongside the first Great Commandment: love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all of the Law and the Prophets. Those words, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself," come from the Book of Leviticus, chapter 19, verse 18.

However, in the verse that comes right before verse 18, in Leviticus chapter 19, verse 17, we read these words: "You shall not hate your brother within your heart. You shall surely rebuke your neighbor if he has done something wrong and not bear sin because of him." You shall not hate your brother in your heart. Yet Jonah, the man of God, the prophet of God, the guy who knew those words from Leviticus chapter 19 or from Exodus...

Chapter 34 discusses Jonah's profound statement: he would rather die than see the people of Nineveh live. It's actually pretty hard to imagine that sentiment, but here it is, as clear as day. Jonah now expresses a desire to die because God's grace and mercy have given the people of Nineveh new life.

In contrast, Jesus came and died to bring us God's grace and mercy, leading us to eternal life. Jonah, in his anger, says he would rather die than see these people experience new life. Jesus, who is greater than Jonah, came to offer us God's grace and mercy, leading us to eternal life.

One of Jesus's followers, John the Apostle, writes in his first letter, 1 John 2:10: "He who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him. But he who hates his brother is in darkness and walks in darkness and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes."

Then, one chapter later, in 1 John 3:15, John states: "Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him."

You may console yourself today, believing that you have never acted like Jonah the prophet as we see him here in this story. You might think you have never displayed this kind of overt anger and hatred toward another person. However, before we comfort ourselves with that notion, we should prayerfully remember and consider the words of the atheist magician Penn Jillette, which I mentioned earlier in this message: How much do you have to hate somebody to not share the gospel with them? How much do you have to hate someone to believe that everlasting life is possible and then not tell them?

This is not a question I intend to use to beat you over the head; rather, it is a question I have had to wrestle with myself. That said, Jonah was enraged by God's mercy, so much so that he said to God in prayer, "I would rather die than see the people of Nineveh live."

God, just kill me. I wish that you would have killed them. In fact, it's almost as if Jonah says it would have been better if he had died in the belly of the great fish. Then God responds to Jonah with this sobering question. Look at Jonah chapter 4, verse 4: "Then the Lord said, 'Is it right for you to be angry?'"

There's a psychologist on TV—I'm sure you've probably seen him here or there on his show or on other people's shows—Dr. Phil. Sometimes he asks the people on his show, "How's that working out for you?" when they're going through whatever sort of thing they are experiencing. That's exactly what God is saying to Jonah here. This is kind of like a divine gut check, a God gut check for him. Is it really right for you to be so angry in this way? Do you have a good reason for your exceedingly great displeasure and anger?

This isn't just that Jonah is upset; he is more than just a little upset. He is literally seething with indignation, wrath, and anger. He wants these people completely destroyed. He may have had good reason. You could stack up all the reasons why the people of Israel, like Jonah, had all kinds of reasons to hate the people of Assyria. You can be sure that all the people who lived in the nations surrounding Israel during this time were not all that happy with Assyria and its capital, Nineveh. We could give him all kinds of excuses for being righteous and justified to be angry and upset in this situation, but God simply asks him the question: Is this the right response?

I love the way that Jonah responds to God's question. It's the "no response" response. Look at Jonah chapter 4, verse 5. So Jonah went out of the city. He does not answer. God asks, "Is it right for you to be angry?" in verse 4, and Jonah went out of the city and sat on the east side of the city. There he made himself a shelter; he built camp and sat under his shelter in the shade, that he might see what would become of the city.

The forty days are approaching; the timetable is ticking by. It's like five minutes to midnight, if you will, and Judgment Day is coming—the apocalypse for Nineveh. Jonah says, "I've got front row seats. I am ready to watch God obliterate and destroy." In his mind, he's probably hoping that there are a whole bunch of people who did not repent and that God is going to destroy this place. He prepares himself a camp outside the city to wait and see what would happen, and he wants to see Nineveh burn.

I want to give Jonah at least a small amount of credit. When he burned exceedingly with great displeasure and anger, he did, in part, do the right thing with his anger; he brought it to God in prayer. Jonah's prayer was actually good in that it was pitifully honest. It's better than putting on an air of superficial spirituality, like a lot of us do sometimes. When we pray, we kind of pretend to be more spiritual than we are. He didn't do that; he was completely honest in his prayer. He was angry and displeased. He was not happy with what God was going to do, and he expressed his emotions honestly.

However, it is super important to recognize this, so take notes on this one; this is key. God's aim in prayer is to change us. His ultimate end in prayer is not that we would influence Him, but that He would change and transform us. That's what God wants to do through our prayers so many times.

Still, as we go through this text, Jonah is largely unchanged. He did the right thing with his anger; he brought it to God and expressed his frustration honestly. His prayer is honest, but when the word of the Lord first came to Jonah in chapter one, he ran from God's presence because he didn't want God to be merciful to the Ninevites. He wanted the people of Nineveh to be destroyed.

Then, when God intervened and essentially forced Jonah to obey with the big fish that swallowed him up, He moved Jonah where He wanted him to go. Jonah reluctantly spoke God's message of judgment, and in his heart, all he wanted was for the Assyrians, the Ninevites, to be bullheaded and hard-hearted. That was what he was hopeful for—that they wouldn't repent, that they would be stiff-necked, bullheaded, and hard-hearted so that God would destroy them.

But that didn't happen. When they repented, Jonah was now seething with anger because he knew that their repentance would invite God's grace and His mercy. He knew who God was based upon the Scriptures, specifically Exodus chapter 34, which tells us that God is merciful and gracious, compassionate, and slow to anger.

He forgives iniquity, transgression, and sin. Not only does He forgive the iniquity, transgression, and sin of His own people, the children of Israel, but also any people who turn to Him in repentance and trust in Him. Jonah is furious with God's forgiveness. When God interrogates Jonah and questions him about his unrighteous heart, Jonah cannot even respond; he is speechless. He just turns and walks away.

It is interesting because, once again, Jonah is walking away from God. This is not the best plan. We have already seen what happens in that situation when he tries to flee from God's presence. It is important to recognize that a hard heart always causes us to distance ourselves from God. Sin separates us, and even when Jonah is trying to distance himself from God, God is still gracious. Just as the Lord prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah at the end of chapter one, He now prepares something else in Jonah chapter four.

Look at verse six: the Lord prepared a plant and made it come up over Jonah, the reluctant, angry, seething-with-anger prophet, so that this plant might shade his head and deliver him from his misery. Jonah is miserable and angry, sitting in the heat outside of Mosul, Iraq, on the east side of the city. He is seething with anger, and God prepares a plant to give him shade. Jonah is grateful for the plant.

At this point, with the repentance of the Ninevites effectively secured, God is seeking the repentance of the reluctant prophet, the angry prophet. This is an amazing turn of events. The wicked pagans of Nineveh, these people who did horrendous things, are, at this moment in the story, in a better place with God than the prophet who proclaimed to them the message of impending disaster. The heart of Jonah is further from God than the hearts of the people of Nineveh. God continues to be kind and merciful to the hard-hearted prophet, the prophet who is wishing damnation and judgment upon the Ninevites. In thinking about this, I can't help...

Think of the Apostle Paul in his New Testament letter to the church at Rome. He writes this in Romans chapter 2, verse 1: "Therefore you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are who judges. For in whatever you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things."

But we know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practice such things. Do you think, O man, you who judge those practicing such things

Misery. What we see here in this text is that God pursues the hard-hearted, seeking mercifully to restore. His desire is to restore this prophet and to bring him to repentance.

Think about it: the Ninevites, those wicked people in Nineveh, have repented and turned to God. Now God is pursuing the hard-hearted prophet, seeking to mercifully restore him as well. When you boil it down, that's the whole story of the Gospel right there. That is the major focal point of the grand story of the whole Bible, what is sometimes referred to as the meta-narrative of Scripture, which has four major movements: creation, fall, redemption, and restoration.

At this point, I can't miss the opportunity to speak to you right at this moment, wherever you are. Whether you're watching this on the day that it drops online or you're watching this six months or six years from now, I don't know where this message will go. But I want to speak to you at this very moment.

If you happen to find yourself in a place like Nineveh before Jonah prophesied to them, or if you find yourself like the prophet Jonah, who at this point is seething in anger and in a bad place before God in his heart, I want you to listen. If you are far from God because sin has separated you from Him, like the Ninevites, or if you have distanced yourself from God like Jonah here because of your anger and hard-heartedness, what this teaches us is that God is pursuing you.

He is pursuing you not with His finger on the trigger or like on the smite button to destroy you. He is pursuing you with His grace. He is pursuing you with His goodness. He desires that you would turn to Him in repentance and faith.

What you will find if you turn to Him in repentance and faith is that He stands there with open arms, like in the story of Jesus's parable of the prodigal son, who came to his senses after he left the father. When he returns, what does he find? The father is there waiting with open arms. That's what you will find if you turn to God. He is pursuing you with His mercy and His grace, just like He pursued the Ninevites. Just like He raised up a prophet and sent him to these horrible, wicked, wretched people before He destroyed them with judgment, He says, "I'm going to give..."

God gave them one last chance to repent, and they did. They turned to Him, and now He is pursuing the prophet who delivered that message. Jonah is angry, bitter, and upset; he just wants them dead. Yet, God is waiting with open arms for Jonah to come back.

You might be wondering how this all shakes out with jaded Jonah. The Lord prepared a plant to cover Jonah, providing shade for his head to relieve him from his misery. Jonah was grateful for the plant. He was happy, but he was also a bit bipolar—really angry one moment and then content the next, sitting on his perch in the East, watching Nineveh and waiting for it to be destroyed.

In Jonah chapter four, verse 7, we read that as morning dawned the next day, God prepared a worm. After preparing a great fish and a shade plant, He now prepared a worm that damaged the plant, causing it to wither. When the sun arose, God prepared another thing: a vehement East Wind, a hot, strong wind. The sun beat down on Jonah's head, and he grew faint. Once again, he wished for death and said, "It is better for me to die than to live."

At this point, if you are reading this story and observing what is happening, it is entirely understandable to think, "Why is God messing with Jonah?" It seems as if God is just poking and tormenting Jonah with all these things He prepares for him. In reality, what I believe is happening—and what will become clearer as we continue through the text—is that God is seeking to communicate an important truth to Jonah and to us from this story, which is thousands of years old.

Each of the things that God prepares for Jonah serves a purpose. He prepared a big fish, a shade plant, a worm, and a strong, hot East Wind. God is preparing to teach the prophet an important truth. It must be asked: What has God been preparing in your life to try to get you to return to Him? What has He been preparing to penetrate your thick head and hard heart? What big fish, what weed, what worm, or what East Wind have been present in your life lately? Are you listening? God is trying.

To speak something to you, the shade plant that made Jonah grateful for just a moment is now damaged and withered by the worm. The hot wind blew and beat on Jonah's head, causing him to become faint and tired. Once again, his pitiful wish comes forth from him; he wished death for himself and said, "It would be better for me to die than to live."

God asks Jonah again in Jonah chapter 4, beginning at verse 9. Then God said to Jonah, "Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?" This is another divine gut check. God gives him a little check here to see if it is right for him to be angry like this. In the first instance, Jonah angrily gave God the silent treatment and just walked away. But now, at the end of verse 9, Jonah responds to God, "It is right for me to be angry, even to death. I am angry," he says, "and I have the right to be mad. I didn't want to go to Nineveh from the very beginning. I wanted nothing to do with this. I did what you told me to do. I didn't want to, but I did what you told me to do. I did it, and they deserve to die. They do not deserve your goodness. They do not deserve your deliverance. They do not, in any way, deserve your mercy. If they are not going to get what they do deserve, then I just want to die. I don't want to live to see what is going to happen with these people any longer." Is that not basically what Jonah is saying here in this passage?

But the Lord responds. Look at verse 10. The Lord said, "You have had pity on the plant for which you have not labored nor made it grow, which came up in the night and perished in the night. Should I not pity Nineveh, that great city in which are more than 120,000 persons?" Note this; this is important. God says, "Who cannot discern between their right hand or their left, and much livestock are in the city as well."

God is saying, "Jonah, you have had compassion and pity on this goofy plant, and yet you've had no compassion or pity upon the people of Nineveh, where there are 120,000 in Nineveh who cannot discern between their right hand or their left." What He is basically saying there is that there are more than 120,000 children in Nineveh. That is what most commentators agree upon regarding what it means that there are 120,000 who do not know their right hand from their left.

He's talking about the innocence of the people in the city—those who have not reached an age of accountability where they really know what is right or wrong. God says there are more than 120,000 of those in that city, not including all the animals. If you don't have any pity for the people, maybe you have pity for all the animals that are there.

Jonah considered the people of Nineveh to be too wicked to receive or to serve God's mercy. He wanted justice; he was a divine justice warrior. In Jonah's mind, justice would be best served by Nineveh's destruction, even if that meant the destruction of the righteous along with the wicked.

There were many wicked cities in ancient times, just as there are many wicked cities today. When I say there are a lot of wicked cities today, I'm sure some cities pop into your mind. There were many wicked cities in ancient times, both before Jonah and after Jonah, that deserved God's justice, wrath, and judgment. Some of them, we are told in the Scriptures, were completely consumed by His wrath. Among them are two notable cities you may have heard of before: the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. There were other cities around them that were also destroyed, but the two most noted are Sodom and Gomorrah.

When God's judgment came to the gates of Sodom and Gomorrah, there was one who interceded on behalf of the innocent—the people who were innocent or righteous in those wicked cities. That one man was named Abraham. God reveals to Abraham in Genesis chapter 18 that He is going to go down to Sodom and Gomorrah to see what is going on there. Abraham perceives and understands what that means: God is going to judge the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and the other cities around them.

We find this in Genesis chapter 18, beginning at verse 23. Abraham came near to God and said, "Would you also destroy the righteous with the wicked? Suppose there are 50 righteous within the city; would you also destroy the...?"

Abraham said to God, "Far be it from you to do such a thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous should be as the wicked. Far be it from you! Shall not the Judge of all the Earth do right?" The Lord replied, "If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, I will spare the place for their sake."

Then Abraham answered and said, "Indeed, I who am but dust and ashes have taken it upon myself to speak to the Lord. Suppose there are five less than fifty. Suppose there are not fifty, but forty-five righteous. Would you destroy all the city for lack of five?" The Lord said, "If I find forty-five, I will not destroy it."

If you go back and read the remainder of Genesis chapter 18, you will see this back-and-forth between God and Abraham as Abraham intercedes to God on behalf of the wicked people of Sodom. He says, "Okay, there are probably not forty-five. What if there are thirty? What if there are twenty? What if there are ten?" God responds, "If there are ten righteous people in the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, I will spare all the cities for the sake of ten righteous."

Because God is righteous, He is upright when He judges. Ultimately, there were not ten righteous people found in Sodom and Gomorrah. God removed the four righteous people that were there and got them out before judgment was poured out. When God prepares to pour out judgment, just as He prepared to do in Nineveh, He seeks for one who might stand in the gap to intercede on behalf of the fallen, sinful people so that He might not destroy them by judgment. That is God's heart.

That's why He called Jonah. Back in Genesis chapter 18, it was Abraham who interceded and stood in the gap. God's heart is, or I should say, He always begins with patient compassion and gracious mercy. God, speaking through the prophet Ezekiel a couple of hundred years after the time of Jonah, says this in Ezekiel 22:30: "So I sought for a man among them who would make a wall and stand in the gap before me on behalf of this land, that I should not destroy it; but I found no one. Therefore, I poured out my indignation upon them; I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath, and I have recompensed their deeds on their own heads," says the Lord.

God seeks to be merciful; He will by no means overlook guilt. He will not by any means overlook sin; He will judge that.

God is always looking for mercy; that is His nature. God's default is mercy, intending by His mercy to rescue sinners and then to turn and make them merciful. He wants to transform us to become merciful like Him.

Now, in truth, I have totally run out of time here. The Book of Jonah doesn't really give us what we want. We want a positive resolution to this whole crazy story, but Jonah doesn't provide that. Jonah chapter four definitely doesn't give us that. The bad guys repent, and the one who was supposed to be the good guy, Jonah, leaves us wondering what happened to him. We are not given any information; the story just ends right where we left it off.

It's a strange story, an interesting story, one that has caused problems for a lot of people. They wonder, did a fish really swallow this guy and spit him up? Is this really true? There are lots of discussions around that. At the very least, if we believe Jesus to be authoritative, He speaks about Jonah as if Jonah was a historical figure. I have to assume that this is exactly as it happened.

In thinking about Jesus talking about Jonah, we need to be reminded, as we wrap up this study in the Book of Jonah, of the one who is greater than Jonah. He is the one whom Jonah pictures, points to, or looks to—the one who, like Jonah in the great fish, spent three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. Of course, I'm talking about Jesus.

As I said previously, Jonah wanted to die because God's grace and mercy were given to the people of Nineveh, giving them new life. But Jesus, the one greater than Jonah, came and died to bring God's grace and mercy to us, leading to eternal life.

There are so many things to talk about in this book, but I want to wrap it up like this: Why are we in the Book of Jonah at the start of 2023, coming into a new year? I think there is an important message here in this book for us. As I look around our culture and the world today, I believe there is very possibly coming a time, maybe in the not-too-distant future, where the antagonism of those who hate God and hate His word is going to increase. It is going to grow, and that hatred and antagonism is...

Going to be directed at us, His people, His church. The temptation for us is going to be to hate those who hate God. When in reality, God is going to call us, the church, to be gracious, compassionate, merciful, loving, and slow to anger, just like Him. He’s going to want me, and He’s going to want you, if you’re a Christian, to be all that He is to those who hate Him. He’s going to call you to share a message of grace to those who might hopefully turn to Him in repentance.

So, what are you going to do if the people who are outside the church become more hateful and antagonistic towards the church? How are you going to respond? Are you going to respond to their hate with more hate, or are we going to seek to be compassionate, loving, and gracious, sharing the good news of the Gospel? We should not overlook the truth of the Gospel, calling people to repent and making very clear what is right and what is wrong before a holy God, but we must still act with compassion.

What are we going to do? Maybe you find yourself even thinking about that in the belly of a big fish, not really wanting to be gracious to those who are outside. Or perhaps you find yourself seething with angry bitterness. Listen, don’t fall into the snare of Jonah, whose head was filled with God’s word but whose heart was filled with hatred. He would rather die than see other people live. He did not have the heart of Christ, and because of his hard-heartedness, he distanced himself from God.

But rejoice in the Lord, who continued to reach out to Jonah to try and rescue him with His mercy. If you have tasted of the grace and the mercy of God, then it is our commission and call from God to share that grace and mercy with others. Do not be like Jonah, the reluctant prophet, and fall into the trap that he fell into.

Father God, I pray as we come into 2023, it is highly likely that each person who watches this has a Ninevite in their life—someone they count as their enemy, someone they don’t like. Yet, You have not only called us to love our neighbors, but You have commanded that we love our enemies. You have said, "By this shall people know that we are Your followers."

Have love for one another. So, God, I pray that you would fill our hearts with your love, which is the evidence that Your Holy Spirit is in us. The fruit of the Spirit is love.

God, fill our lives with Your love and cause it to overflow to our neighbors, our co-workers, our family members, and those people that we interact with. Help us to reach out to those we count as friends, but also to those we count as Ninevites.

Lord, help us to share the good news of Your grace with them. You have been so merciful and gracious with us; help us to share that same mercy and grace with others. For we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Come, the pastures we call Grace, a mighty river flowing upward from a deepening. I will praise You on the mountain; I will praise You in the valleys. You're the summit where my feet stand. I will praise You in the valleys all the same. No less God within the shadows, no less faithful when the night leads me straight. You're the heaven where my heart is.

Thanks for joining us for our online service today. As we close, we would love to invite you to our on-campus service here at Cross Connection Church at 8:30 and 10:30 a.m. every Sunday. Also, if you'd like more information about Cross Connection Church, make sure you check out lifeinconnection.com.

My name is Terry Cutler, and I'm currently serving at the Cottage, which is part of the Care Connection Ministry at the church. I started in the senior ministry about 25 years ago. I've always had a heart for the seniors in the community, and it was something I could do with my granddaughter, whom I was watching at that time. I've been involved for a number of years and have loved every minute of it.

While serving in the nursing home ministry, there have been many changes. I've seen residents who didn't know the Lord and were very against being a Christian come to know Him. I've seen my granddaughters grow up to love working with seniors and to work with all different people. So, there's been a lot of good that has come from it. I've stayed with this ministry for 25 years because it's just a time of joy. There are just smiles, and it brings so much joy to those around me too. It's something I can do with my family.

Limited skills can be a blessing. I would recommend others to get involved in Care Connection. It's something you can do with your family; you don't need any special skills. You just need to be able to smile, share the love of Jesus, and bring joy into the homes of people who don't have a lot of visitors. I would encourage anyone to join Care Connection. You can sign up on the church's website.

Thank you, Terry. It is amazing what we are part of here at Cross Connection Church. Amen! It's incredible that we get to be part of the ministry that Terry is doing in the nursing homes. I want to encourage you right now, in the sanctuary, if you're here and you're not serving, why not? If you would like to serve this year and get plugged into one of the various ministry opportunities that we have here at Cross Connection Church, go to lifeinconnection.com/serve today and get involved. I would love to see you there, serving, and it will be such a blessing to have you as part of the team.

Also, parents of junior high and high school students, next Sunday after the second service, we will be having a quick parent meeting. So, junior high and high school parents, please be there in the youth room after the second service next week. Just put that on your calendars, and we will remind you again, of course, next week.