DOEST
THOU WELL TO BE ANGRY FOR THE GOURD?
Apr 15, 2001 AM
The prophet Jonah is a classic study in
selfishness. His self-centered, ethnocentric outlook stood squarely opposed to
the compassionate nature of God. Through the telling revelation of the book
that bears his name we see a man who was small. The littleness of his life
shows us how narrow we become when we think better of our own selves and our
personal concerns than we do of either God or His priorities.
CHAPTER ONE—JONAH
RUNS FROM GOD
1. The
year would have been around 760 BC. The Assyrian Empire was the world power
that had most menaced Israel. Yet Israel under Jeroboam II (II Kg. 14:23-25)
was at the height of her prosperity while Assyria under Ashurdan III was
temporarily in decline.
2. It
was under those conditions that Jehovah told Jonah to go to Nineveh and speak
of His wrath against the great city.
3. Jonah
chose, however, to flee from God and from his responsibility as a prophet. Why?
It was not fear, it was much worse than that. We will discover Jonah’s reason
for running from God later.
4. For
now, we might observe that a man cannot truly run from God ( Ps. 139).
5. From
the narrative of chapter one we learn that Jew and Gentile could actually care
for each other when a storm threatened to sink their ship.
6. When
all else failed, Jonah was cast into the sea and swallowed by a great fish in
whose belly he stayed for three days and three nights (cf. Matt. 12:39-40).
CHAPTER TWO—JONAH
REMBERED GOD
1. Chapter
two is essentially a prayer of forgiveness offered out of the distress of being
in the stomach of the great fish.
2. In
praying toward Jerusalem (I Kg. 8:27-30), Jonah showed that he had rejected the
apostate religion established by Jeroboam I (I Kg. 12:25-33), even though Jonah
was a prophet in the Northern Kingdom of Israel.
3. At
Jonah’s repentance, God commanded the fish to vomit Jonah up on to dry land.
4. Jonah,
therefore, gets a rather dramatic
second chance.
CHAPTER THREE—JONAH
RELUCTANTLY GOES TO NINEVEH
1. Nineveh
was the largest city in the Assyrian Empire, and soon to become the capital
city.
2. The
reluctant prophet had a totally negative message of doom for the city.
3. Upon
hearing the message, the entire city from greatest to least repented.
4. It
has been speculated that an eclipse of the sun in 760 BC, or plagues in 763 and
759, or the way Jonah looked after the fish experience might have gotten the
attention of the people to listen seriously to the message the prophet
proclaimed.
5. Whatever
the case, the message was a complete success.
6. When
people repent, God relents (Jer. 18:8).
CHAPTER FOUR—JONAH
BECOMES ANGRY FOR THE GOURD
1. With
perhaps the greatest success ratio in the history of preaching Jonah is,
nevertheless, highly upset!
2. Jonah,
in effect, tells God that He just doesn’t know how to deal with the enemies of
Israel.
3. God’s
grace and compassion were not at all appreciated by the prophet Jonah (cf.
Matt. 9:10-13; 12:1-7).
4. God
used a plant to show just how little Jonah was in his fit of anger.
5. How
could a prophet of God so misunderstand truly important things that he would
value a plant over the lives of thousands of people and animals?
6. Selfishness
and clannishness warp our perceptions and make us very narrow in our understandings
of who and what God cares about (Rom. 2:17-29; I Tim. 2:4; II Pet. 3:9).
7. We
can, like Jonah, become self-righteous and regard others with contempt (Lk.
18:9-14).
8. Jonah
wanted Assyria destroyed so they would no longer pose a threat to Israel.
9. God,
however, is interested in all people (Acts 10:34-35).
10. The
one redeeming thing about Jonah, and it is huge, is that he undoubtedly wrote
the book—with all his childish behavior starkly admitted and without a single
rationalized qualification (cf. Ps. 51:17).
APPLICATIONS
1. Me
and mine are far from all that God is interested in (Matt. 10:34-37).
2. It
is not blood lines, but peoples’ desire to live by God’s will that is most
important (Matt. 12:46-50).
3. God’s
justice is real, but He much prefers salvation over condemnation (Jn. 3:17).
4. At
least Jonah erred because he
accepted that God could do great things—thus he feared that there could be
forgiveness even for extremely wicked Assyria.
5. We
can actually be much worse than Jonah when we fail to act because we do not
believe we can trust God to do the great things He has promised (Eph. 3:20-21).
6. We
suffer from arrested development when our faith fails to launch out unless our
plans can first pass the muster of the crippling limitations of our own foolish
wisdom (I Cor. 1:18-25).
Edwin
4/15/01
Return to "Sermon
Outlines" Page