Father, for those who have reached out to you by faith, Lord, we thank you that this morning we can gather to learn from your word and this time that we've spent together in the book of Jonah. Father, would you use me this morning to teach well this word of truth, Father, to us, to our hearts. May it nourish and sustain us as we endeavor to worship you today in spirit and truth later on in the services this morning. Be with us all, Lord. May your Holy Spirit teach us to walk in your statutes. And it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Well, good morning once again, and thank you for being here. Today is the final chapter in the book of Jonah. So we have walked through the book of Jonah for the last several weeks. It's been a joy and a privilege for me, and it's been a nourishment and a comfort and a challenge to my soul, and I pray that it has been such for you. I pray that you have grown in your faith and understanding of this little book, this very challenging book, but this very blessed book that God has in his wisdom, in his grace, in his mercy to us sinners all in need of a holy and righteous and saving God has left for us to learn about Jonah, but about Jonah as a lens through which we can see ourselves and we can see the need for someone like a holy savior in Yahweh God. Well, we've seen a lot, excuse me, in the past few weeks. We've seen Jonah flee. We've seen him flee from the presence of the Lord to abandon his post as a prophet before Yahweh God. We've seen God in his power, his omnipotence and his omnipresence hurl a great wind, a storm upon the sea, which caused a great tumult on that sea. And we've seen men in their fear, these sailors crying out to Yahweh for a savior, for mercy. even though we had a prophet who is in a dead-like sleep, refusing to do his job. God still used Jonah, despite Jonah. And may it be so of us all. We've seen those men hurl Jonah into the sea, that Yahweh would relent from the calamity He set upon them. And we've seen Jonah consequently dragged down to the depths of Sheol, to the gates of the land of the dead, only to be drawn back up once more by the deliverance that God appointed from eternity by the might of His power through a great fish. It was quite a sight when Jonah was saved by that fish. As we recall, we saw the consequence of that salvation. It was a bit of a humbling experience for Jonah as he was not just gently let out of the fish, but vomited out of that fish. An act of God on attacking a prideful heart in Jonah. And we saw last week that a once thought dead man in Jonah preached a word of doom against a city called Nineveh which was filled with wickedness. Its aroma of wickedness, its evil rose like a cloud of smoke up into the heavens into the nostrils of Yahweh God. And he was absolutely, it was repugnant to him. It was abhorrent to him. And so he sent Jonah. And finally, that second time, that merciful second sending, Jonah obeyed. And he cried out to Nineveh. And even though this was a half-hearted measure on Jonah's part, again, we saw God use Jonah. That message, although only sent in a day, which it took three days to travel through this city of Nineveh, proclaimed in very precise words that God gave him, reached the king despite Jonah. Reached the king. And so all of the people, despite this half-hearted measure of this prophet of God, who is still belligerent against these people, It touched not just the people's hearts, it touched the king's heart. And he proclaimed that it was a duty of all creatures of Nineveh, not just men, women, and children, but the creatures, the cattle themselves, needed to cry out to God and be covered in sackcloth and ashes. This was a profound act of faith and a dependence on God and God alone, this mighty God whom they had encountered before in history, in times past, as enemies of Israel, that brought them the mercy that they so desired. God, what does it say in Jonah 3 verse 10? When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he said he would do to them, and he did not do it. Praise the Lord. What a beautiful, beautiful act of mercy on Yahweh's part. And that brings us to our text today. That brings us to the close of the book, chapter 4. Jonah, a reluctant prophet to the Gentiles of Nineveh, now stands in the city once doomed to destruction, only to find that Yahweh's judgment has been stayed. There is no obvious forthright coming judgment at all, and Jonah, as we will find, is none too impressed. It's an indefinite timeline now that looms for this judgment, so eagerly sought by a judgment-obsessed prophet in Jonah. And Yahweh is still patiently teaching Jonah about mercy, his character. He wants this prophet, this belligerent, detestable prophet, to be a prophet after his own God's heart. That's what he's trying to teach Jonah here. Yahweh is teaching Jonah that he needs to understand it is important that you love your enemies. That you love your enemies. And that's the title of today's lesson. Love your enemies as yourself. Love your enemies as yourself. And we'll look under this text under three headings. We'll consider anger's deadly snare, dwelling in sin, self-pity, and righteous pity. So, anger's deadly snare, dwelling in sin, the sin of self-pity, and righteous pity. Those will be our three headings for the text today. And with that framework in mind, let's read together Jonah chapter four, verses one to the end, to 11. But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. And he prayed to the Lord and said, O Lord, is this not 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 were a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster. Therefore, now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live. And the Lord said, do you do well to be angry? 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. 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. But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant so that it withered. 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. 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. 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. And should I not pity Nineveh, that great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left hand, and also much cattle? Well, this final unit of Jonah is very significant because this is the first and only instance in the entire book where we see God and Jonah talk to one another. This is a very special chapter. It's a very interesting chapter. Jonah did speak to God from the belly of the fish finally after much prompting, much, much prompting as we recall, tossed into the sea, down to death perhaps, delivered by a fish, swallowed up. He finally prays out to God a Thanksgiving prayer. This is a different prayer. This is a different prayer altogether. This is not a prayer of thanksgiving. This is a prayer of complaint. This is a prayer of complaint. And these two prayers serve as counterpoints to one another. We saw Jonah's interaction with the foreigners in chapter one brought him back to communion with God in chapter two, right? The incident on the sea with the sailors, we saw that. The differences here though is that Jonah's brief engagement with foreign enemies now in chapter three, the people of Nineveh, enemies of Jonah, right, and Yahweh, respectively, has now turned him to Pray out to God, but in a very, very frustrated condition, a very frustrated condition to say the least. So it's a very hard contrast here between these two. Instead of thanksgiving, we're given a front row seat to Jonah's argument with Yahweh for delivering this people of Nineveh from judgment. In short, Jonah is furious, he's furious that God has pardoned these evildoers. So we look at this in verse one, you see it, but it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. What Jonah here is experiencing is not a tantrum. It's a fit of rage. He is absolutely livid with God. The Hebrew of the verse here is helpful when you translate it literally. It says, and it was evil to Jonah, a great evil. and it burned to him. Hopefully that helps communicate the reality of how furious Jonah is over this. Jonah is furious. Jonah sees what Yahweh has done as a great evil. This is an injustice by his estimation, by his judgment. He's pardoned these wicked, violent people for a judgment that is most certainly due to them. Where's the justice? They're murderers, they're liars, they're thieves, they're adulterers. Where is the justice? They've brutally mistreated Israel throughout history. Jonah knows this firsthand. Jonah knows that they're wicked and deserving of judgment. Why isn't Yahweh crushing his enemies? It doesn't make sense to Jonah. It's his chosen people's enemies, no less. These people will eventually, they'll rise up again, won't they? We know that they do. We know that they do. But no, Yahweh is relented. And this is all egregious to Jonah's sense of justice. And his intense displeasure is yet a symptom of a deep-seated evil that lies in Jonah's heart. And Kevin Youngblood notes here that ironically, just as Yahweh quenched his wrath, Jonah has kindled his. Jonah's anger prompts him to pray. We see that in verse two. And he prayed to the Lord and said. And we see the same pivotal verb back in chapter two, right? When you see that and he prayed, it's different, right? It's the yitpayel again from the Hebrew. This is a reflexive verb, but it's a pivotal verb in the text. Something important is about to happen here. This prayer is a desperate prayer from a desperate and communicable, a communion with God. So it's not just crying out. This is a direct communication now we get to experience. So this is important to know. So this invites us, this critical point, to compare and contrast the previous prayer in chapter two with the prayer that we see today in chapter four. And it's very interesting, it's provoked this incident, how it's provoked a fitful rage in Jonah when just a few chapters ago, he was just filled with praise. He was so glad to receive the mercy and deliverance of Yahweh himself. He's so pleased. And now he's furious that someone else has received the same grace that he has. It's very interesting. Matthew Henry writes, he had no rule over his own spirit, and therefore, as a city broken down, lay exposed to temptations and snares. And Matthew Henry here is referring to Proverbs 25, verse 28, which reads, a man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls. Jonah is that man. Jonah is that man. Jonah has fallen into anger's deadly snare. Well the prayer begins with a loud cry in verse two. Oh Lord, oh Yahweh, or if you do it more literally, alas, oh Yahweh. And we last heard this same cry from the lips of the sailors in chapter one when they pleaded with Yahweh for absolution over their act of committing Jonah to an inevitable death at sea by throwing him overboard. And this is an urgent prayer as much as it was for those sailors. This is an urgent prayer from Jonah. Jonah is in a similar circumstance in his own heart and mind today. There is a true crisis at sea. It was a terrifying storm that was surely going to destroy the ship and murder, just destroy those sailors utterly. That's a real crisis, true crisis. Well, Jonah sees this today, this mercy and grace that was gifted by God to Nineveh as a true crisis. He's crying out to God over this crisis. It's infuriated him into this state. Nineveh's salvation is an utter disaster to Jonah, an utter disaster. Well, the request we might expect to follow this entreaty, this, oh, Yahweh, and then here's my complaint, maybe we'd get something else, but he just goes into a rhetorical question in verse 2a, he says, Oh Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? So there's a shared understanding here that we didn't have any privy to until now. We could assume it, we could kind of understand perhaps maybe Jonah did say something, but it wasn't sure that the author has purposely left it out until now. We didn't know that there was a communication, a verbal communication between Jonah and Yahweh until this very last chapter. There's been no indication until now, but now he's giving us insight back to where he left, where he fled from Tarshish, or down to Tarshish, or to Joppa to Tarshish, rather. So our interest has been piqued, I would say. You're like, what is this guy doing? Why is he leaving? Why is he fleeing? He's not said a word to Yahweh. I don't understand, right? This is not the way a prophet acts, right? And if he does, well we know about the consequences for disobedience with a prophet, as we reviewed last week. Well, here it is in the rest of it. Why did Jonah flee in the rest of two all the way down just before verse three? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish, he says, for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and relenting from disaster. It's Jonah's own words. Matthew Henry notes of this, what a strange sort of man is Jonah, to dread the success of his ministry. Many have been tempted to withdraw from their work because they had despaired of doing good by it, but Jonah declined preaching because he was afraid of doing good by it. And still, he persists in the same corrupt notion, for it seems the whale's belly itself could not cure him of it. The belly of the fish just hasn't driven the message home for Jonah. He still doesn't get it. Jonah's so profoundly trapped in the snare of anger, this deadly snare, that he laments the mercy of Yahweh graciously bestowed upon himself so recently that it's been shared with an enemy of Israel. Excuse me. Jonah, he's made haste to flee west instead of obediently heading east to Nineveh. He made haste with all haste because he hated the job. He didn't want the job. He knew he was going to succeed. That's strange. Such confidence that the Lord is so merciful and kind and eager to forgive those who turn from their sin. He just knew if they did. that he would succeed. He couldn't stand the thought of winning over these people for Yahweh. Couldn't stand it. And so he ran. He ran. Jonah's perception of God's divine character here is imbalanced. It's an imbalanced view. Kevin Youngblood writes, divine justice, according to Jonah, was eclipsed. by an indiscriminate mercy. From Jonah's point of view, the clemency God showed Nineveh jeopardized Yahweh's covenant with Israel, which created a conflict of interest between his promises to Israel and the breadth of his mercy. Interestingly here, Jonah seems to be referring to Exodus 34, verse six and seven, where we see this incident of God relenting from punishment against Israel. and possibly drawn also from Exodus 32 when we have the golden calf incident. During this golden calf incident, there's much intercession on the part of Moses to relent and bestow mercy and grace and sustain life. Seems that there's this historical referencing in Jonah's mind to calamity being relented of when God is called upon in repentance. And Jonah is distressed that the merciful relenting offered to Israel is likewise now offered to Assyria. It's indiscriminate and this confuses Jonah and infuriates him. Unlike every other prophet, Jonah desires to see the woeful day. He wants to see it come down against his audience, so much so that he is grieved in his soul for them being saved, for God relenting over the judgment. He says it, we see this in verse three, therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live. And that's the appeal of Jonah's complaint. He wants to die. Jonah would rather die than live in a world where Yahweh, the God of Israel, forgives Israel's enemies. Forgives Yahweh's enemies. It's like Jonah's giving him an ultimatum. Kill me or kill them. But you gotta pick one. That's pretty bold. That's pretty presumptuous. That's pretty prideful. So Jonah is seemingly relying on Moses' past intercession here, as I mentioned earlier. He seems to be thinking that somehow he can intercede and say, you gotta kill these guys or it's gotta be my life. But there's this inversion going on here, where Jonah is demanding death, Moses is interceding for life. No, take my life, Lord, and let them be spared. It's about life with Moses. It's not about life with Jonah. It's about death and judgment and destruction, ruin. That's what it's about with Jonah. What a truly distorted and deadly view Jonah has been captured by here, by his anger. Well, God responds to Jonah in verse four. And the Lord said, do you do well to be angry? The response from Yahweh questions the intensity of Jonah's anger here. He's poking the bear, as it were. Tell me, do you feel justified being angry like this over my decision? Jonah's anger toward this, Yahweh's clemency granted to Nineveh is unwarranted, it's unjustified. He has no leg to stand on here. There's no reason for him to stand on this particular ground. Yahweh's words are tremendously well measured here. He deals with Jonah in precisely the character with which Jonah has just described him. Merciful, patient, steadfast. He's dealing with Jonah in the same way he's dealt with him this whole time and just dealt with Nineveh. It's beautiful. How longsuffering is our Lord. So patient and kind to us. He deals with Jonah exactly the character Jonah just outlined. And as we discussed last week, we know that Jonah has killed prophets for less, for acts of disobedience like this. And yet, in his perfect wisdom, Yahweh knows it would only serve to reinforce Jonah's misunderstanding, his unbalanced view of who Yahweh is in his dealings of unmerited grace and his strict application of justice. Jonah doesn't get it. But God is patient, and he is going to lovingly tend to this sheep of his, of Israel, to teach him about pity, mercy, and grace. Hans Walter Wolf writes, Yahweh's initial reaction to Jonah's rebellious resignation is a positively tender kindness, which sets about bringing the sulky Jonah to a proper self-examination. And sulk Jonah does. He certainly does. Next, we see how Jonah sets out east from the city to sit down and wait for a judgment that will not come for another 150 years, according to the book of Nahum. Still caught up in anger's deadly snare, Jonah is determined to sulk and remain dwelling in sin. Dwelling in sin. We'll go on to verse five through eight now. Well, there's a shift in scene here which indicates that Jonah has left Nineveh immediately following Yahweh's probing question. It reads in verse five, 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. He's waiting. Maybe Yahweh was just pulling my leg. Maybe he's actually gonna rain down some fury here. Maybe I'm gonna see a little bit of Sodom and Gomorrah action. I'm gonna go take a front row seat on the hill. Anyway, it's very strange that this prophet's acting this way, but it's very helpful that God has left this for us. Instead of being welcomed warmly into the homes of these saved people, thanking him for the fact that he came, and even though it was half-hearted, a paltry effort, to call them to repentance. He could be rejoicing with them right now as brothers and sisters in the faith. He could be enjoying hospitality, singing psalms and spiritual songs, praising the Lord for all of this, and what does he do instead? What does he do instead? He sulks, kicks a stone, and he walks out and sits down eastward. He's outside, he flees east of the city from Yahweh's peace-giving presence to dwell in his own sin of self-pity, leaving the question unanswered. Well, I have a question for us. Does anyone recall another moment in the Bible where someone heads eastward away from God's presence? And what do you think that means? I'm gonna engage you now. Reversed, what are you gonna do? Yeah. Does anybody have any notions of that? So I'll repeat the question. Does anyone recall another moment in the Bible, could be the Old Testament, right, where someone heads eastward, away from God's presence? And what do you think that means? Don't be shy, I'm not gonna grade you. Yeah, Elijah, there's a case of that for sure, yeah. That's right, yeah, yeah. So, Adam and Eve, and I have several other references for us as well. So there's a lot in Genesis. It's very interesting. Adam and Eve were driven eastward outside of Eden, as Pastor Josh noted, from the presence of Yahweh after eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, right? Forbidden fruit. That's Genesis 3.24. Cain, after his punishment and curse were put upon him by Yahweh for the murder of Abel, turned further eastward of Eden to establish the first city of man, Enoch, named after his own son in the land of Nod. And that's Genesis 4, verse 16 to 17. Babel's builders, interestingly, are heading eastward when they stop to build their man-made self-idolizing tower, a monument to their own fame and glory. And that's in Genesis 11, verse 2. When Lot separated from Abram and settled near Sodom and Gomorrah, the text tells us that he journeyed east. These movements are directly tied to the person's sin and being expelled from the presence of God. The further east someone moves away from God, symbolically throughout scripture, the further away they are from the life-giving God. They can't dwell in his presence, and the more sinful and wretched they become, the further away they go, the further away they're driven. Well Jonah was not driven out by anything then but his sinful anger and his self-pity. He can't help but enter into exile because of this. And he's made this covering for himself, this paltry covering for himself to be shaded from an undoubtedly hot, I mean ridiculously hot desert. just awful, awful climate. Mesopotamia would be 46 degrees Celsius on an average day, okay? We think it's hot right now. It's very, very hot where Jonah is. It's undoubtedly hot, and so he's just sitting there waiting with a bitter heart to see whether God will give in to his prideful ultimatum. This is some evoking imagery as well. Jonah's building a booth for himself. So outside of Canaan, where the people would have dwelt in the wilderness during the exodus, right? Before they were pushed out, they weren't allowed to come into the land either because of the disobedience in the book of Numbers. 40 years in the wilderness. This is another reference, you could see this, where Jonah himself is in exile, he's in a wilderness, and he's now built a covering for himself. He's not in the promised land. He's outside of God's favor right now. Put himself there. It's his own fault. Kevin Youngblood notes, just as Jonah, his first flight from Yahweh led him to the inhospitable and turbulent seas, his second flight leads him to the inhospitable, arid desert. It's a very interesting contrast here. And what did Jonah say in chapter one to the sailors? I fear Yahweh, the God of heaven, the maker of sea and the dry land. Well, here he is in the dry land. Here he is. Here we are once again in a place that resembles death and chaos rather than life and order. It's a fitting place for Jonah in his condition, his spiritual state. Jonah's self-made little hovel that he's made is insufficient. He doesn't have the right tools or the resources to build a proper cover. There's nothing really available for him. He's just taking whatever he can find and he's building it up. There's no indication. I mean, it's doubtful that he had any money lying around while he got swallowed up by that fish and vomited out. If there was, it's probably ruined anyway. It's probably gone. Fish probably took it for a fare. So we're thinking about he's destitute, he's desperate, and so he's constructed a covering for himself. It's very interesting. Does anybody else have an idea? Can anyone else perhaps recall a moment in the Old Testament where Yahweh God provided a covering for someone? And what do you think that means by God doing that? I'm reversing a bunch on you today. Adam and Eve again. That's right. In Genesis 3.21, Yahweh provides a covering for Adam and Eve after they sin against Him. And as Pastor Josh taught us recently, this serves as a type or a shadow of the thing to come. Right? It's very important. We see Yahweh God providing additional covering for His people's sin in the Mosaic Covenant through the Levitical priesthood. The day of atonement being the particular day, that pinnacle day of the holy calendar where God's people, the high priest, sacrifices and sheds blood for all of God's people. And he has to do it over and over and over again. It must have been exhausting. But we have a great high priest who has sat down, and we should remember that. Once for all for the saints. But like Adam and Eve's situation here, Jonah is in a similar situation. It's a typological situation. And it's very interesting that we see in verse six, Yahweh appoint a covering for Jonah. There's a covering now appointed for Jonah. Let's read verse six together. 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. And there's an interesting note here, and some of your Bibles may have this, and this is very helpful, that or his evil, it might have a footnote for discomfort there, because it's the same word in Hebrew that's used throughout this chapter, ra-ah. It means evil, discomfort, displeasure, wickedness, right? It's got that range of meaning. So it's possible here, and I'm gonna argue that it's exactly intended, pointing out a particular thing that's going on with our friend Jonah's heart here. So like Adam and Eve in their futile effort to cover their shame, Jonah has made that fruitless effort to cover himself from that harsh sun breeding down on him and try to hide his burning anger. Well, the author deliberately repeats that Hebrew word that I just mentioned in this chapter, ra'ah, evil. The use in verse six plays a double entendre, it's a double meaning here. It refers to Jonah's physical discomfort, but also his internal bitterness towards Yahweh for relenting of judgment. It's playing on two fields here. There's a literal evil dwelling in Jonah's heart that now God in his sovereign power and tenderness is covering by planting and appointing this plant to cover Jonah. Youngblood notes here that the repetition of the word evil exposes once again the fact that Jonah's moral equivalence to Nineveh, that city, has been which has been characterized as evil from the outset of the book. Same word in chapter one. Same word. Jonah is no better than Nineveh if the same hatred and disregard for human welfare resides in his own heart. He's no better. Jonah's response to the provision of the plan here, as we read, is one of great gladness. He's just overjoyed. What a relief. Jonah's intense displeasure is now replaced by exceptional joy. It's a joy God given. Here yet again we see a harsh contrast in Jonah. He's sitting out in the wilderness in self-imposed exile attempting to cover himself futilely from a heat regularly over 46 degrees Celsius as I mentioned earlier. Embittered toward Yahweh for mercy and provision to Nineveh. Embittered. But as soon as Yahweh graciously gifts him, administers mercy to him, he rejoices. He can't help himself. What a wonderful provision from the Lord. Don't we too do the same? Aren't we prone in our hearts to do similar things? Mercy for me and not for thee. We rejoice at the same blessedness that we receive, but we can cling in our sin to envy, to jealousy, and even hatred toward others for receiving the same. Don't we do that? I've been guilty of that. I've had to do much repenting over things like that by God's grace. Who, by our estimation, these people don't deserve it, right? We can think about it. I'm sure you could think about someone right now. I'm sure you could think about a person, a people. I'm sure you could think about a religious movement, a political movement. I'm sure you could think of one right now. I'm sure it's stirring up in your head right now. It's so easy to hate. It's so easy. It's a snare. It's a deadly, deadly snare that will drag us down into the pit along where Jonah was only two chapters ago. And yet, God is so wonderful. He's so patient. He's so loving and kind. He tenderly draws us nearer to himself by disciplining us as sons and daughters in whom he so delights. By the love that the father bears for his son. It's truly beautiful. Jonah's been caught up in this snare of his anger and has sought to sulk by setting out eastward, away from Yahweh's mercy and peace, to dwell in his sin. But now Yahweh has given him a reprieve. He's given him a reprieve from his evil, his own discomfort and his own wickedness for a moment. But that lesson hasn't ended. Yahweh hasn't given up yet for Jonah learning this lesson. He wants him to understand the evil dwelling in his heart. And we see this in verse 7. It says, Well here's the sovereign display of power yet again by a God. He is the God of the sea and the dry land. Amen. And this is that sovereign display of power yet again. The worm's role here is to devour that covering plant. It's to attack Jonah's peace. It's to attack Jonah's point of rejoicing. He's sharing an object lesson here. We'll see if Jonah gets it. The worm's role is as much part of this deliverance for Jonah as the fish was in chapter two, and the plant before it, in verse six. This is no trick. Yahweh is not capricious. He's not fickle. He's not a false god, deaf, dumb, and blind, and swaying with the tide, as it were. He is constant. He's committed. He's unyielding. We don't want to forget that. This is not a trick. This is a lesson. It's an object lesson for a hate-filled heart needing to be taught to love its enemies as itself. Jonah's supposed vindication by the covering of this plan is short-lived as God moved quickly to end Jonah's joy and any notions that he might have held that contributed to it. And that's a bit of irony again, isn't it, for us? The covering plant symbolizes Yahweh's gracious mercy. The same mercy Jonah has enjoyed under this plant shade, right? Nineveh received that mercy. Jonah has received a form of that mercy. And now the attack of this worm is the symbol and actual outworking of the very judgment and destruction our friend Jonah has been so pleading for. God's very, very wise in how he deals with us. Very merciful in how he's dealing with Jonah right now. The worm serves as that image of divine judgment, human despair, and humiliation. And we see that in passages like Deuteronomy 28, verse 36 to 39, Job 25, verse four to six, and Isaiah 14, 11. There are other verses, but those three stand out for me. This creature should conjure up images of death and the grave for us when we think of the worm. And if you read those passages, you'll see why. In this act, Yahweh demonstrates his judgment prevailing over his mercy. All right, Jonah. You don't want mercy, you want judgment. Here it is. How do you like it? Jonah is about to experience the judgment he desires to come down on Nineveh. In short, it is the withdrawal of mercy and the execution of strict justice, as John Walton puts it. Well, the plant is gone. Exposing Jonah to the elements, verse eight. 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. When the author tells us in verse 8a here, the first part of verse 8, that the sun is reaching its zenith and the noonday Mesopotamian heat is coming down on Jonah's head. It's coming down on him in full now. This is excruciatingly uncomfortable now. Very, very hot. God's sovereign power over creation is exhibited again by his appointing a scorching east wind, as verse eight tells us. This is the second time Yahweh has used the wind to get our friend Jonah's attention. It was on hurled a great wind onto the sea, and now there's a great whipping, fierce wind, a hot wind, a biting wind in the desert cast upon Jonah. The Hebrew here does describe the wind as cutting. It's a sharp, biting wind that Jonah is experiencing. Imagine the wind churning around you in this whirlwind wall of little daggers. It's hot. There's barely any air to really cool you at all. Everything is just churning and feels like it's burning and biting and scratching. That is the discomfort Jonah is experiencing at this moment. Jonah, the wind rather, has come from the east and eastward has been Jonah's departure from the city. Again, this is establishing that symbolic representation of Jonah's estrangement from God. He's been pushed out to the east, well here comes an east wind. You see what the wind feels like coming from the same direction the further away you get from me? The sun's unyielding gaze is blazing down atop Jonah's head as the cherry on top of this judgment sundae. I'm sure that Sunday's not gonna last very long. Jonah is now in this fiery furnace of Yahweh's judgment. When you desire to dwell in sin, you shouldn't be surprised that you eventually find yourself in the furnace of God's wrath. Jonah has been wishing that he still had that cover. Oh, like I'd rather die. This plant was so crucial to me and now it's gone. This mercy is gone. The respite from the biting winds, the scorching rays of the sun, it's gone. He's feeling faint now. Here's Yahweh at work teaching that wayward prophet and what's Jonah's response? It is better for me to die than to live. Jonah is grief-stricken over the loss of the plant, of the covering Yahweh, his God, has provided for him. And Matthew Henry writes, in inordinate affection lays a foundation for inordinate affliction. What we are over-fond of when we have it, we are apt to over-grieve for when we lose it, and we may see our folly in both. in both. So Jonah is most to be pitied here as he sits in his sin, embittered, lonely, and suffering under the judgment he so eagerly demanded, pleaded for, wished for from Yahweh. Yahweh wants him to understand the foolishness of this ultimatum that he's given him. Do you see it yet, Jonah? Do you understand? He wants him to understand divine mercy. That's what this is about. He wants Jonah to come to terms with righteous pity. Righteous pity. Verse 9 through to the close of the chapter. Well, God asks Jonah in verse 9, but God said to Jonah, do you do well to be angry for the plant? It's a simple but searching question. It's a hard lesson for Jonah. It's a hard lesson for us. When God takes away what he gifted you, do you become angry? I know I have. So angry that you wish you could just die? Because he's taken that thing that you've treasured, that you've held as an idol, and he's taken it away from you? Have you cried out with Jonah, take my life also? Or can you by God's grace proclaim the words of a righteous man like Job? Naked I came from my mother's womb and naked shall I return. The Lord God has taken away. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Matthew Henry writes, when afflicting providences deprive us of our relations, possessions, and enjoyments, we must bear it patiently. Must not be angry at God. Must not be angry for the gourd, or the plant. Like the plant that covered Jonah, all that we have are withering things. This world is passing away. And it's good that it's passing away. It is a good thing. For those found in the Lord Jesus Christ, it is the best news you could receive. I personally can't wait for the new heavens and earth. Come now, Lord Jesus, but yet give us time so more can come to you. Like the evildoers and wrongdoers, all will soon fade like the grass and wither like the green herb. Psalm 37, verse one to two teaches us. Our being angry will not recover these things, and we too shall surely wither along with the rest of the world that is passing away for the new one. That eternal life and heavenly glory upon heavenly glory, that beautiful kingdom that is coming, the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. So what does Jonah say? Verse nine, and he said, yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die. Where silence first met God's inquiry in this chapter, Jonah meets the second with an immediate and fiery retort. He confirms that what Yahweh has already known, he already knew this, but has patiently disciplined Jonah to draw it out from his own lips. Tell me the truth. As our Lord Jesus tells us in Luke 6, 45, the good person of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks. It should be obvious which the two Jonah presently finds himself displaying. Well, in his commentary, Billy K. Smith makes a helpful observation. What if Jonah had paused for an instant? He might have recognized the crossroads of the moment. If he had answered with a negative, he would have had to admit the inconsistency of his logic and the inappropriateness of his anger. But he would have been on the road to recovery. The rashness of Jonah's reply was due in part to his suffering from heat exhaustion and possible dehydration, as well as a total frustration with his life. There was also a misconception that God had been more fair with the pagan Ninevites and far less fair, far less than fair, excuse me, in dealing with him. One finds here a pathetic picture. Jonah is right on one level. He has a right to be upset that the mercy that was granted was given and then taken away. He's right. God's character, again, as we noted before, is not fluctuating. There's no variation in him, no darkness. It's light. It's justice. It's righteousness. It's perfect mercy meted out according to his perfect will and judgment. It's all there. If God offers mercy, he will remain faithful to it. He isn't some pagan god, as we noted. But has Jonah clued in yet? As he figured this out, this object lesson, what you're asking me to do is go back on my word. How dare you? Who are you, Jonah, son of Amittai? Yahweh God desires to enter into a covenant with these people. It's true. Jonah doesn't like that, can't handle that, but it's true. Jonah's mission from the very start has been to be a mediator between Israel, Yahweh, and the Gentiles. He's meant to be a light to the Gentiles. This has been part of the covenant since before Jonah was born. This was the purpose for which God selected Israel, cleaned them up, put them into a nation, and said, now be my light to the rest of these nations. Failed to do so. Failed to do so. Perfected in Jesus Christ. Thanks be to God. But failed in Jonah's part here. The redemptive goal has always remained to call the nations to repentance and bring their peoples, every tongue, tribe to the foot of the throne of grace as welcome sons and daughters of God most high through Jesus Christ our Lord, through the word of God. And we've seen this fulfilled despite Jonah's efforts in chapter one with the mariners and then chapter three with the city of Nineveh. And it's wonderful what Christ, if you recall what we read last week where Christ says these very same people will rise up in the judgment against the wicked generation and cast the judgment along with all of those who are in Christ against the wicked, the evil, the unrepentant. These people in Nineveh are counted among us as brothers and sisters because Jesus Christ tells us so. He rebuked his own generation, the wicked doers and evil doers of his generation, with that same word. These people are our brothers and sisters, and Jonah just can't handle it. Can't handle it. Well, Yahweh God answers Jonah's pitiable desire for death in two parts, and the first is in verse 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 the night. Jonas' pity is misplaced. This plant was not his. He didn't grow it. He didn't tend it. God made it. It came up in the night, perished in the night. It's God's. It's not Jonas'. It reflects Genesis 2, verse 5 to 10, where Yahweh created the Garden of Eden and then placed Adam in it as a gift. It's a gift to Adam. Adam had nothing to do with it, except keep care of it. That was his job. God made it for Adam and Eve. Their job was to tend it and to keep care of it. They failed, obviously, unfortunately, tragically, in that charge as well. So it was a gift. It was a labor of love. And so there is this hierarchy of life because Yahweh is showing that this pity of this plant is absurd. It's a plant. Why are you upset about a plant? You've just asked me to murder, to destroy thousands of people, women and children, and you're upset about a plant. But you see how ridiculous your anger makes you? Do you see? And so there's a hierarchy to life, and we know this to be true because God created man in his own image. We are the crowning achievement by God's own grace and glory. We are his crowning achievement in creation. Humanity, human life exceeds value of all other things on this planet. every other creature on this planet. That doesn't mean the rest of these animals' lives and creatures and plants and so forth are immaterial. We should just be fruitless in our efforts to use it, just abuse it and destroy it. No, we're called to tend the garden. The garden is the fullness of the earth. It's God's garden. We need to tend it well and keep it. But that said, God's very clear about the forbiddenness of destroying human life. in the sense of murder in particular, and you see that in Genesis 9, 3 to verse 6. He shows how humanity has the authority to kill and eat other forms of life, but murder of other human beings is forbidden, and it brings the penalty of death. So from womb to tomb, human life is more valuable than all others. All others. Well, as we discussed last week, Nineveh is a great city to God, and it says, we'll close here in our verse 11 here, and should I not pity Nineveh, that great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left hand, and also much cattle? This is God's city. It's his authority, it's his city. These are his people now. They've repented, they've trusted in him by faith. through his grace, they are his, they're his now. And Jonah on some level does recognize that all this authority is all God's because at the end of his Thanksgiving prayer, what does he say? Salvation belongs to the Lord. Looks like he forgot. And so Yahweh's salvation has come to this vastly populous city of Nineveh filled with those who can't determine their right hand from their left. They don't know the law of God. They don't have the Torah. They don't have covenantal relationship yet with Yahweh. But they will. They will. And there's a debate over this number, 120,000, what does it refer to? But the Hebrew text here is emphasizing vast amounts of life because it uses this repetition of a word called ravah, which means many, many. And so it's just stacking this use of many, many, many throughout this chapter. So we can't take this 120,000 as like an exact number. number. What it is trying to communicate to us is that there is so much life in this city, so much valuable human life, that they don't know about the right way to live. They don't understand the Torah. They don't understand Yahweh's way of life. But you, as a light to the Gentiles, need to teach these people. You need to show them. I want them to know me and to be part of my covenant kingdom. You have to go and do this. That's your charge. There's so many people here. And we see this in Judges 8, 10, a similar tally. It's all used in the sexagesimal system. It's a units of 60. So you're just thinking it's just vast amounts of people. It's teeming with life, valuable human life made in the image of God. And this is the communication. If strict application of justice is employed, there will be a massive loss of life. So significant, including the innocent animals of greater value than the vine that died in a day. The vine is lesser value than even the cattle. That's why I asked them about the cattle. And as we've noted, Yahweh is interested in drawing them in. That's the point. I am merciful, you know this, and I bestow mercy upon whom I shall bestow mercy, and I shall be steadfast and loyal to those whom I commit myself to and who commit themselves to me. You have no say, Jonah, son of Amittai. Well, we don't know what would have happened if Jonah had learned this lesson, but the lesson is clear, and I think the main takeaway here, as we're closing, is summarized best in James 1, verse 19 through 20. James 1, 19 through 20. Know this, James writes, my beloved brothers, let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger, for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Anger is the thing that trapped Jonah in the sinful loop of self-pity and outrage at Yahweh's righteous application of mercy toward Nineveh, a hated enemy of Israel. Anger is the thing that James here warns as being the very antithesis to producing Yahweh's righteousness. The lesson becomes more evident in Jesus' correction of Israel's misunderstanding and misapplication of loving a neighbor and hating their enemies. He says in Matthew 5 verse 43 to 48, you have heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you so that you may be sons of your father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect. We are to love our enemies as we love ourselves. For who is our neighbor? It is easy to love those who are nearest to us, who we get on well from the start, but the Lord Jesus and the Holy Spirit through James are evident, the lessons are evident. Your anger, your hatred of the enemy, like Jonah's, does not produce the righteousness of God, the righteousness of our Heavenly Father. It does not produce it, so put it away. Beg and plead with God, put it away. It will not serve God's righteousness. Well, there's a little bit of an ongoing debate about the use of imprecatory Psalms then. What do we do? What do we do with these? Pray them. Please pray them. But do not pray them in the prideful, foolish anger of Jonah. Pray them that those people who are speaking ill and evil against the Lord, shaming His name, blaspheming His glory. Pray that justice would be meted out because He deserves all glory. There should be no aspersions, no filth, no ill talk of the Lord and His name and of His law. Pray that He would be avenged. Remember that we deserve that wrath as much as the next person. And it is only by the grace of God that we have been spared it through Jesus Christ. Vengeance is mine. I will repay, says Yahweh. Beloved, let us be gracious as God is gracious. Let us, by the grace of God, put away all anger and malice. and put on the new creation, that new man, that new woman in Christ Jesus, and love our enemies by calling them to repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ that they might escape the wrath to come. That is our job. May God help us accomplish this goal to the glory of Jesus Christ. Amen. Thank you.