The Book of Jonah
Encountering God Series
“The Sovereignty of God”
Jonah 4.1-11
Introduction
In the opening words of the book of Jonah the Lord commanded Jonah to go to the hated
heathen city of Nineveh and proclaim the proclamation the Lord would give him. Since
those opening words the reader has been waiting for the reluctant prophet to honor God’s
word. After an unsuccessful attempted to divert from God’s call, Jonah eventually arrived in
Nineveh and began walking through the city crying out, “Yet forty days and Nineveh will be
overthrown.” (3.4b)
As I have mentioned the last couple of weeks this verb “overthrown” is very important
because it describes the two-edge sword of the Lord’s proclamation. In some occasions the
word “overthrown” is used to describe destruction, but other times it is used to describe “a
turn around” or “a transformation” referring to a change of heart. And after hearing God’s
word the Ninevites repented. The word of God pierced their hearts, and they experienced a
spiritual turn around, a transformation, a change of heart. From the least to the greatest of
them they believed in God, called a fast, prayed fervently to the Lord, and turn away from
the wickedness of their past behaviors and their wicked intentions for the future. (3.5-9)
The Lord seeing their repentance relented from the destruction He had declared against
the Ninevites and brought restoration and hope. (3.10)
But the repentance of the Ninevites “greatly displeased Jonah” and he burned with
passionate anger against God for allowing the Ninevites the opportunity to repent. (4.1)
There is no doubt that God demonstrating His grace by sparing Nineveh was the cause of
Jonah’s anger. Jonah knew the Lord was a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger
and abundant in lovingkindness, and one who relents concerning calamity. (4.2b) But that
didn’t matter. Jonah’s hatred for Nineveh was greater than his love for God and his opinion
about what should have happened was greater than his knowledge of God. Simply speaking
Jonah burned with anger against God for the way things had worked out. And the Lord said,
“Do you have good reason to be angry?” (4.4)
Ironically, after Jonah condemns God for not being angry with the Ninevites, the Lord
challenges Jonah to examine his own anger. The Lord is asking Jonah to pull back from his
rage and take a hard look at himself. And let’s face it. Taking a hard look at ourselves is
often a hard thing to do. With the briefest of questions, “Do you have good reason to be
angry?” (Only three words in Hebrew), the Lord sets out to show Jonah the condition of his
heart. Three times in today’s text the Lord will ask Jonah a question. The first one “Do you
have good reason to be angry?” The second one “Do you have good reason to be angry about
the plant?” And the third one Should I not have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in
which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know the difference between their
right and left hand, as well as many animals?”
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We see the Lord using questions throughout the Scripture. For example, the Lord asked
Adam and Eve, “Where are you? . . . Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from
the tree that I commanded you not to eat from? . . . What is this you have done?” (Gen.3.9-13)
In the book of Job, the Lord asks Job, “Who is this that darkens My counsel with words
without knowledge? Brace yourself like a man, I will question you, and you shall answer Me.”
(Job 38.2-3) Within today’s text the Lord will ask Jonah three questions to show Jonah the
darkness of his understanding and how empty his words are of the true knowledge of God.
So, Jonah should brace himself because the Lord is about to question him, and he will have
to answer.
Hear now the Word of God:
But it greatly displeased Jonah and he became angry. 2 He prayed to the Lord and said,
“Please Lord, was not this what I said while I was still in my own country? Therefore in order
to forestall this I fled to Tarshish, for I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God,
slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, and one who relents concerning calamity.
3 Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for death is better to me than
life.” 4 The Lord said, “Do you have good reason to be angry?” 5 Then Jonah went out from the
city and sat east of it. There he made a shelter for himself and sat under it in the shade until
he could see what would happen in the city. 6 So the Lord God appointed a plant and it grew up
over Jonah to be a shade over his head to deliver him from his discomfort. And Jonah
was extremely happy about the plant. 7 But God appointed a worm when dawn came the next
day and it attacked the plant and it withered. 8 When the sun came up God appointed a
scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on Jonah’s head so that he became faint and
begged with all his soul to die, saying, “Death is better to me than life.” 9 Then God said to
Jonah, “Do you have good reason to be angry about the plant?” And he said, “I have good
reason to be angry, even to death.” 10 Then the Lord said, “You had compassion on the plant for
which you did not work and which you did not cause to grow, which came up overnight and
perished overnight. 11 Should I not have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there
are more than 120,000 persons who do not know the difference between their right and left
hand, as well as many animals?”
The Shelter
Instead of going back into the city for Prophet Appreciation Sunday or returning to his
homeland, Jonah went out from the city and sat east of it. (4.5a) Jonah has nothing further to
say. He has filed his formal complaint against God for His compassionate nature and goes
out from the city and sat east of it. The reader is left to wonder what in the world is Jonah is
doing. Is he seeking isolation so that he has sulk in his anger? No, Jonah has perched
himself outside of the city so he could see what would happen in the city. (4.5c) Maybe he
was thinking that the city would revert to their pre-repentance violence and the Lord then
would impose the destruction Jonah was hoping for. If that was going to happen, Jonah
wanted a ringside seat for the fire and brimstone show. Remember, the Lord’s
proclamation said forty days and obviously several days left.
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It is impossible to determine how many days Jonah was prepared to sit and wait but Jonah
knew that he would need a shelter to provide shade from the scorching rays of the sun.
(4.5b) This was the first of several paradoxes we will see in Jonah from today’s text. Notice
that Jonah builds a shelter to provide comfort for himself while he wished the Ninevites
would experience discomfort. Jonah builds a shelter to provide a covering from the burning
sun while he wished the Ninevites would burn up in fire from heaven. I think we can agree
that Jonah is a long way from “loving your neighbor as yourself.” (Mt.19.19)
The Plant
So as Jonah sat in his private retreat sheltered from the rays of the sun, he is still
experiencing some slight discomfort as the sun beams penetrate through the cracks of his
makeshift roof. So, the Lord God appointed a plant, and it grew up over Jonah to be a shade
over his head to deliver him from his discomfort. (4.6a) Just as the Lord appointed the great
fish to swallow Jonah to save him from drowning (1.17) now the Lord appoints a plant to
grow over Jonah’s hut to save him from his discomfort. And Jonah was extremely happy
about the plant. (4.6b) In this arid climate Jonah had to have known that this plant growing
so quickly and luscious had to be the Lord’s doing. Here again is a paradox within Jonah’s
heart. Jonah is extremely happy about the plant easing his discomfort but is extremely angry
at God for relieving the Ninevites from destruction.
The Worm and the Wind
But Jonah’s enjoyment from the canopy of the leafy shade was short lived because God
appointed a worm when dawn came the next day and it attacked the plant and it
withered. (4.7) Notice that the beginning of verse six and verse seven have almost identical
beginnings with opposite results. Verse six reads, “So the Lord God appointed a plant”
bringing deliverance while verse seven reads, “But God appointed a worm” bringing
destruction. I hope you can see that the Lord has set a stage to dramatically illustrate to
Jonah, and to us by His written word, that the Lord is sovereign to deliver and sovereign to
destroy. This is the concept of the two-edged sword that the Lord’s use of the word
“overthrown” that I mentioned earlier in Jonah’s proclamation to Nineveh. Brothers and
sisters, the purposes of the Lord will stand. Remember that the Lord is God and there is no
one like Him. He declares the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things which
have not been done, saying, “My purpose will be established, and I will accomplish all My
good pleasure.” (Is..46.9-10)
Through the plant, the worm, and the wind the Lord is declaring to Jonah, and to us by His
word, “Who are you, O man, who answers back to God?” (Rom.9.20a) “Who are you, Jonah, to
be angry at Me? I am the sovereign God and I do all My holy will.” To add to the drama when
the sun came up God appointed a scorching east wind. (4.8a) Four times in the book of Jonah
the word “appointed” is used. “The Lord appointed a great fish to shallow Jonah.” (1.17)
So the Lord God appointed a plant.” (4.6) God appointed a worm. (4.7) And now, God
appointed a scorching east wind. (4.8a) You don’t need to be a hermeneutical genius to see
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that the Lord is making a point about His sovereignty. Yes, He is the Lord and there is no
other!
These types of winds are tremendously oppressive reaching speeds of sixty miles an hour
of dry heat. By taking his seat on the eastside of the city, Jonah would have been in the
direct path of the wind. This would have been like sitting in front of a furnace with the fan
blowing hot air on you at sixty miles an hour. And by midday the sun beat down on Jonah’s
head so that he became faint and begged with all his soul to die, saying, “Death is better to me
than life.” (4.8b) We have already seen Jonah ask to die earlier during his disappointment
with God’s compassion to Nineveh. (4.4) But now wishes to die because of the comfort he
enjoyed from the plant has been taking away. So, the Lord responds in basically the same
way saying, “Do you have good reason to be angry about the plant?” (4.9a) Do you see how
incomprehensible and self-absorbed Jonah is? Before he was angry over the deliverance of
Nineveh and now, he is angry over the destruction of the plant. Jonah wants things his way.
He wanted the destruction of Nineveh, and he wanted the plant to be delivered. But guess
what? That’s not what God wanted.
But this time Jonah has an answer to the Lord’s question, and he said, “I have good reason to
be angry, even to death.” (4.9b) What!? That’s, no answer. That’s like a parent asking their
child why they did this or that and the child replying “because.” “Because?” “Because” isn’t
an answer. “Because” doesn’t give a motive or a reason. The bottom line is that Jonah
doesn’t have any good motives or reasons for his behavior. He just has concluded that if
God isn’t going to destroy Nineveh and God isn’t going to deliver the plant and things aren’t
going to be the way Jonah wants them to be, then he might as well die. Jonah could not
accept the fact that God is sovereign. Jonah could not accept that fact that God’s ways are
higher than his ways and God thoughts are higher than his thoughts. (Is.55.9) Jonah wanted
to be in control and if he couldn’t be in control then he saw no reason to continue to live.
This might sound strange but it’s not uncommon. Many people feel the same way as Jonah.
Many people want to be in control and when they discover they can’t be in control they
became frustrated and angry at God. When something happens, they don’t understand, or
something happens they don’t agree with, they lash out with anger towards God. They say,
“If God is in control of all things, then why wasn’t He in control of this or that?” Instead, of
saying, “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.” (Job
1.21) They say, “If that’s God – forget Him!” Instead of accepting good from God and well as
adversity (Job.2.10), they spit in God’s face.
I’m not saying that having a righteous mindset in the face of adversity, complexities, or
difficult situations is an easy thing but what I am saying is that being confronted with God’s
sovereignty exposes our humanity, our fragile existence, our mortality like nothing else in
this life. And we don’t like to be exposed. Jonah’s experience on the eastside of Nineveh
exposed him to more than the scourging sun, the extreme heat, and the blistering wind. His
eastside experience exposed Jonah’s inconsistencies in his reasoning and his flawed view of
God. Then the Lord said, “You had compassion on the plant for which you did not work and
which you did not cause to grow, which came up overnight and perished overnight. Should I
not have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons
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who do not know the difference between their right and left hand, as well as many animals?”
(4.10-11)
The Lesser to the Greater
The Lord makes His point by using examples of the lesser to the greater. He says to Jonah,
you had compassion on the plant, the lesser, should I not have compassion on Nineveh, the
greater. You had compassion on the plant that you did not plant or cause to grow, should I
not have compassion on people made in My image. You had compassion on a little plant,
should I not have compassion on a great city. You had compassion on one plant, should I not
have compassion on more than 120,000 persons. You had compassion on a plant that doesn’t
have a soul, should I not have compassion on a spiritually illiterate people that don’t know
the difference between their right hand and the left hand. You had compassion on a plant,
should I not have compassion on many animals. The Lord is making the point that He had
every right to have pity on Nineveh, its citizens, and its livestock. Nothing falls outside of
His sovereign rule. For the Lord says, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will
have compassion on whom I have compassion.” It does not, therefore, depend on human
desire or effort, but on God’s mercy. (Rom.9.15-16)
The simplicity Lord’s argument from the lesser to the greater is easy enough for a child to
understand. If Jonah had compassion for a plant, the lesser, then he certainly and logically
should have had compassion for a city, its citizens, and its livestock. The Lord’s simple
argument from the lesser to the greater shows that Jonah’s problem is his theology. Jonah
must come to terms with God’s absolute sovereignty and the freedom of God to do as He
pleases. Once Jonah embraces the Lord absolute sovereignty then and only then will his
anger be transformed into love. And the same goes with us. The longer we harbor
resentment towards God for the way things have happened the longer we will be in denial
of God’s sovereignty and the longer we will hold on to our anger and not experience the
love of God.
Closing Thoughts
Did Jonah finally embrace the sovereignty of God? The text does not say, history does not
record, and the rest Scripture is silent. “It is primarily the reader on whom God’s final
words land, the reader who is left to ponder their meaning, the reader who must decide
what action to take next.” (Janet Gaines) While most people are familiar with the book of
Jonah because of Jonah’s encounter with a whale, the story of Jonah is really about Jonah’s
encounter with God and His sovereignty.
The book of Jonah shows us that the Lord has sovereign concern for both the salvation of
sinners as well as the sanctification of His saints. If you are here today and you don’t know
Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, I have good news for you. God is gracious and
compassionate, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, and one who relents
concerning calamity. (4.2b) God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whosoever
believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. (Jn.3.16) If you are here today and you
are a believer, but you are struggling with the ways certain things have worked out, I have
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good news for you. This is what the Lord says . . . For I know the plans I have for you, plans to
prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. (Jer.29.10-11) God by
His pursuant grace was with Jonah every step of the way and God by His pursuant grace
will be with you every step of the way.
The book of Jonah is a call for us to submit to God’s sovereignty. Don’t allow your life to be
like the end of the book of Jonah. Submit to God’s sovereignty today. Surrender to God’s
pursuant grace. I told you during the first sermon of this series that my hope was that
during this series each of us would have a fresh encounter with God and I pray that my
hope has come true for each of you.