God Pursues the Ninevites
Jonah 4 (NIV)
But to Jonah this seemed very wrong, and he became angry. 2 He prayed to the Lord, “Isn’t this what I said, Lord, when I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. 3 Now, Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.”
4 But the Lord replied, “Is it right for you to be angry?”
5 Jonah had gone out and sat down at a place east of the city. There he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city. 6 Then the Lord God provided a leafy plant[a] and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the plant. 7 But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the plant so that it withered. 8 When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die, and said, “It would be better for me to die than to live.”
9 But God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?”
“It is,” he said. “And I’m so angry I wish I were dead.”
10 But the Lord said, “You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. 11 And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?”
The thing I love about the Bible is that it contains many stories. And many are stories you can share with children. If you read the Koran, you will find no stories. The Koran is one very long monologue of Allah to his prophet Mohammad. The Koran is very hard for children to learn. Stories are one of God’s favorite method for teaching his people. Jesus himself was a master at story telling.
The Jonah story is one of the most famous and beloved stories in the Old Testament. It is always included in children’s bible. Now, the problem is that some people think that it is only a children’s story. They take Jonah story as a myth, saying that it’s impossible for a man to live inside a fish for three days. But if you can believe that God spoke the universe into existence, this is no big deal for God. Jesus himself took Jonah’s story as historical account. And Jonah is mentioned in 2 Kings chapter 14 as a prophet who was active during the long reign of Jeroboam II of northern Israel. His ministry overlapped with that of Hosea, whom we looked at last Sunday. 2 Kings 14 says
“In the 15th year of Amaziah son of Joash king of Judah, Jeroboam son of Jehoash king of Israel became king in Samaria, and he reigned 41 years. He did evil in the eyes of the Lord…He was the one who restored the boundaries of Israel from Lebo Hamath to the Sea of the Arabah, in accordance with the word of the Lord, the God of Israel, spoken through his servant son of Amittai, the prophet from Gath Hepher.”
Before Jeroboam II, Israel was oppressed by its northern neighbor, the Arameans. But during the reign of Jeroboam II, the Arameans were overpowered by the Assyrians and Israel began to feel the oppression of the powerful Assyrians. In Jonah’s time, the Assyrians were the most cruel people world. They committed many atrocities against the conquered or the rebellious. Ninevah its captial was the greatest city in the world at the time. Book of Jonah says that it was “exceedingly great city.” There was no city like it in the world. Jonah says that it took 3 days to walk from one side of the city to the other. The wall surrounding the city had 15 gates. And this great city was also the most wicked city in God’s eyes.
The story of Jonah is not really about Jonah but more about God. It reveals to us a God who pursues the wicked and the disobedient. God pursues people while they behave like God’s enemies. God purses people even when people have no interest in God.
- In the Jonah story, we see God who pursues the wicked Ninevites.
God tells Jonah to preach against Ninevah because its wickedness has come up before God. This is the expression used when God talked about Sodom and Gomorrah, God said “the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great that it has reached me”. God used Israel to drive out Hitties, Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites from Palestine because their sins have reached their full measure. (Gen 15) Like the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, like the Amorites and Canaanites who were destroyed by Joshua, the people of Ninevah deserved God’s judgment. But before God destroyed Ninevites, God wanted to give them a chance to repent and live.
God pursues the Ninevites for their salvation. God does so through the prophet Jonah. Jonah did not want to go to Ninevah, but because of God’s intervention, Jonah goes and preaches God’s word. “In 40 days, Ninevah will be overthrown.” And surprisingly, the Ninevites believed God’s word. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them. The king of Ninevah removed his robe, put on a sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he issued a proclamation :
“By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water, 8 but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. 9 Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.”
Can you imagine the whole city of New York repenting and calling out to God with all their might ? Jonah’s message brought a great revival in the greatest city of the ancient world. When God saw how the Ninevites repented, God forgave them their sins and did not bring destruction upon them.
And this is why Jonah gets angry with God
“Isn’t this what I said, Lord, when I was still at home? That is why I fled to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. 3 Now, Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.”
Though Ninevah was the most wicked city in the world, God still wanted to give them a chance to repent. But Jonah did not even want the Assyrians to have a chance of repentance. He just wanted God to punish the Assyrians right away. Jonah wanted Assyria to be convicted without a trial. Though Israel had received undeserved mercy from God many times, Jonah did not want God showing the same mercy to Ninevah not even once. But God wanted to give them at least a chance to repent. We see God’s mercy and compassion in the last verse:
“should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?”
God made all living things so that they can prosper. In Ezikiel 18, God says “Do I take delight in the death of the wicked? Rather, am I not pleased when they turn away from their ways and live ?” God was pleased that Ninevites repented. Then God withheld his judgment to let them live. In the story of Jonah, we see a merciful God who pursues even the worst kind of sinners to give them another chance.
- God pursues the sailors
When God first called Jonah to preach at Ninevah, he disobeyed and got on a boat to flee to Tarshish, which is on the other side of the Mediteraanean sea. Jonah wanted to be far away from Ninevah as possible.
On his way to Tarshish, God sent a storm so violent that it felt like the ship was about to break up. All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god. They threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship.
But Jonah had gone below deck, where he fell into a deep sleep. The captain went to him and said: “how can you sleep? Get up and call on your god! Maybe he will take notice of us, and we will not perish.”
Then the sailors said, “lets cast lots to see who is responsible for this calamity.” And the lot fell on Jonah. And they asked him “what do you do? Where do you come from? From what people are you?”
Jonah said “I am a Hebrew and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land.”
This terrified them and said “what have you done?”
The sea was getting rougher so they asked him “what should we do with you to make the sea calm down for us?”
Jonah said “pick me up and throw me into the sea, and it will be calm. This storm has come because of me.”
But the men did not want to throw Jonah overboard, They did their best to row back to land, but they could not because the sea grew even wilder. They they cried out , “O Lord please do not let us die for taking this man’s life. Do not hold us accountable for killing an innocent man, for you O Lord, have done as you pleased.” And they threw Jonah into the sea and the raging sea became calm. At this the men greatly feared the Lord, and they worshipped the Lord and made vows to Him.
These were pagan sailors who did not know Yahweh, the God of Israel. Through Jonah, they learned that there is the God of heaven who made the sea and the land. This terrified them because Yahweh sounded like the most powerful god they have ever heard. The power of their gods were confined to one specific areas, but Yahweh controls the whole land and the sea. When the sea calmed down, the sailors saw that Jonah’s God really is God of heaven, who made the land and the sea. And from that time, they became worshippers of the Hebrew God.
While God was pursuing Jonah, God was also pursuing the pagan sailors. He revealed his power to them, so they can become Yahweh worshippers. Though Jonah despised them as pagans, these pagans have more respect for Yahweh than Jonah. While Jonah didn’t care if the pagan sailors died in the storm or not, they risked their life by continuing to row toward the land in order to save Jonah.
- God Pursues the disobedient Jonah
As God was pursuing the Ninevites and the sailors, God was also pursuing the disobedient Jonah. Jonah was a nationalist and loved his first assignment. God told him to prophecy that Jeroboam II will save Israel and restore her boundaries. Jonah said: Hallelujah. May God’s will be done! Israelites loved the message too.
But he hated his second mission and refused to go on it. He was suspicious that God would turn the hearts of the Assyrians, toward Himself. Then there would be no judgment and no destruction to the enemy of Israel. Jonah did not want the Ninevites to believe God’s message and receive God’s mercy.
So Jonah fled from God and fled from Ninevah. But God was pursuing Jonah when he was fleeing to Tarshish. When Jonah was thrown overboard into the sea, God commanded a fish to swallow him. The fish traveled toward Ninevah and vomited Jonah out on the shore. Jonah praised and thanked God for saving his life and acknoweldged that “salvation belongs to the Lord.”
But Jonah could not praise and thank God when God saved the pagans also. Rather, Jonah got very angry. He got so angry that he wished to die. More than anything, Jonah wanted to see the destruction of the evil Assyrians who caused so much suffering to Israel and other nations. He did not think the Assyrians worthy of God’s grace. When God’s grace was applied to Israel and himself, he was thankful. When that same grace was applied to Israel’s enemy, Jonah was furious.
Jonah was right to think that the Ninevites deserved to be punished for their wickedness. But then, Jonah failed to see that he himself also deserved to be punished for disobeying God’s command. While the Ninevites repented of their wicked ways, Jonah had not repented of his disobedience.
Though Jonah went to Ninevah as God commanded, his anger at God’s mercy shows that Jonah’s heart had not changed. Jonah knows that God is gracious, compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in love. But even after the experience of salvation, Jonah himself is not gracious. Jonah is not compassionate. Jonah is not slow to anger, and he is not abounding in love for others. Jonah is like the elder brother in the parable of the lost son. Jonah is like the vineyard workers who complained to the owner who paid the same wage to those who worked less than they did. They complained because the owner was merciful to the undeserving. While God was grieving over the sins of Ninevah, Jonah wasn’t grieving. While all the heaven was rejoicing at the repentance of sinners, Jonah was sulking and angry. Though Jonah’s body was where God wanted him to be, his heart was still far from God’s heart.
The little incident with the plant shows how selfish Jonah is. Jonah was so pleased that God had provided a shade, but then he got so angry that God took it away from him. Jonah wants a God who is merciful to him in giving him what Jonah would like, but he does not want God to be merciful to others. Out of all the prophets, Jonah is the most selfish, rude, angry, unloving and disobedient prophet. While God is concerned about the destiny of 120,000 people, Jonah is only concerned about his own comfort!
If I were God, I would have said, “you stubborn blockhead, forget you. I will use a better person as my prophet.”
But God does not give up on Jonah. God continues his pursuit of Jonah to make him more gracious like God himself. God does not let him die in the ocean. If I were God, I may not have provided the fish for Jonah. But God saves Jonah out of the sea. God does not get angry when Jonah gets angry. God does not kill him when Jonah wishes for death. Again something I would be tempted to do if I were God.
Rather, God uses a plant to teach Jonah to reveal more of God’s heart in order that Jonah can have God’s merciful heart for the nations. God pursues a change in Jonah’s heart with great patience. God is not only being compassionate to Ninevites, but also to his selfish prophet. God is not only pursuing Ninevites, but also Jonah.
Lastly, God pursues all nations through Jesus Christ.
All Christians have a bit of Jonah in them. We are like Jonah in some ways and we need to change to be more merciful and forgiving like God. And all humanity are like the Ninevites in the sense that all have turned away from God. All have sinned and fall short of God’s glory. All have rebelled against God’s rule over our lives and declared independence from any higher power over us. Because of our rebellion against God’s rule, all humanity have made ourselves enemies of God and are under God’s wrath.
God’s holiness and righteousness demands that the rebels and sinners are punished by death, but God’s love pursues the rebels and sinners to give them forgiveness and life. When the right time has come, God sent his son Jesus to take on the flesh of humanity, and gave him a mission to “seek, pursue, and save the lost.”
Jesus once said that “the one greater than Jonah is here,” and he was referring to himself. Though Jonah was commanded by God to go to Ninevah, Jonah refused and ran away from God and away from his enemies. But when Jesus heard God’s call, Jesus came down to the enemy territory to deliver God’s message. When Jonah rejected God’s will, he was swallowed up by fish for 3 days and 3 nights. But Jesus fully obeyed God’s will, even though it cost him his life. Jesus was swallowed up for 3 days and 3 nights, not be fish, but by grave. But then Jesus came back to life, emerging victorious from death. Jonah was vindictive and angry, but Jesus was merciful and forgiving.
John Crysostom, one of the early church fathers compared Jonah and Jesus like this:
Jonah was a servant, but Jesus is the master.
Jonah came forth from the great fish, but Jesus rose from death.
Jonah proclaimed destruction, but Jesus preached the good news of the kingdom.
The Ninevites believed without a sign, but Jesus exhibited many sings,
(the greatest sign was his own death and resurrection, which Jesus calls the sign of Jonah)
The Ninevites came to be ministered to, but the very Master and Lord of all,
have come, not threatening, not demanding an account, but bringing pardon.
Though God wanted Israel to be a blessing for all nations, Israel failed to be a light to Gentiles. Israel wanted to keep God’s blessing for themselves and did not want to share it with other nations. Jonah’s heart reflected the attitude of the Hebrews.
Jesus is the second and better Jonah who accomplished what Jonah or Israel could not do. The Christmas message is that Jesus landed in enemy territory to pursue us with God’s mercy, and while we were sinners, Christ died for us.
One thing unique about the Story of Jonah is that it ends with an unanswered question left hanging.
God says to Jonah
““You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. 11 And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?”
We don’t hear Jonah’s response. Why does it end this way?
There may be two reasons.
One. God was confronting the nation of Israel.
The pagan sailors have come to fear God and worship God. The wicked Ninevites have repented and received God’s mercy. Will Jonah finally come around and repent of his own disbodience and ask God for a compassionate heart? Or did he return to Israel bitter and angry, never to be used by God again?
The story of Jonah was God’s reminder to the Jews that God called them to be a light to the Gentiles, to share the blessing of Abraham to all nations.
God was telling his people, you are Jonah. Your hearts are hardened. You are stubbornly disobedient. You refuse to share your blessing of my word and my love to the nations. Shine your light!
Two. God is confronting us.
We see that God is compassionate and merciful to the undeserving. He is concerned that spiritually clueless people find His mercy. The unresolved ending forces us to think: Is that our main concern as well? Are we like God concerned that people hear of God’s mercy?
Have we become like Jonah, our hearts hardened with hatred, bitterness and disobedience? Snug in our attitude, selfishly concerned about receiving God’s mercy and blessing for ourselves, but not wanting to show mercy to others? Are we distancing ourselves from the very people God want us to love?
Generally, when we have been Christians for a long time, it’s harder to be excited about the gospel and it is easire to take God’s grace for granted. We also have many excuses for why living for God is unrealistic. We have tried and failed in various afeas of Christina life, so we are less willing to obey in those areas.
The pagans are not the only ones that need to repent, we are the ones that need to repent of our willful disobedience and show God’s mercy to everyone. God pursues us with mercy so that we can be merciful to others.
What will be our response ?
Additional comment:
On the day of Yom Kippur or “the day of atonement,” the Jews read the book of Jonah in the synogogue. The story of Jonah is read for two reasons. One is to remind Jews that like Jonah, they too have been disobedient to God even though they knew God’s command. Second is to remind them that God is merciful to forgive their sins once they repent. One Jewish Rabbi told this story:
Israel asked God “Master of the Universe, if we repent, will you accept it?”
God said “Would I accept the repentence of Ninevites and not accept yours?”