Jonah 4
Anger of Jonah explained verse 1- 3
BUT it displeased Jonah exceedingly
and he was very angry
And he prayed unto the LORD
and said
I pray YOU – O LORD was not this my saying
when I was yet in my country?
THEREFORE I fled before unto Tarshish
for I knew YOU are a gracious God
merciful – slow to anger – and of great kindness
and repent YOU of the evil
THEREFORE now – O LORD – TAKE – I beseech YOU
my life from me
FOR it is better for me to die than to live
LORD asks a question verse 4
THEN said the LORD
Do you well to be angry?
Jonah waits outside the city verse 5
SO Jonah went out of the city
and sat on the east side of the city
and there made him a booth
and sat under it in the shadow
till he might see what would
become of the city
LORD prepares a gourd to shade Jonah verse 6
AND the LORD God prepared a gourd
and made it to come up over Jonah
that it might be a shadow over his head
to deliver him from his grief
SO Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd
LORD prepares a worm verse 7
BUT God prepared a worm
when the morning rose the next day
and it smote the gourd that it withered
LORD prepared a east wind verse 8
AND it came to pass – when the sun did arise
that God prepared a vehement east wind
AND the sun beat upon the head of Jonah – that he fainted
and wished in himself to die – and said
It is better for me to die than to live
LORD questions Jonah again verse 9
AND God said to Jonah
Does you well to be angry for the gourd?
AND he said
I do well to be angry – even to death
LORD instructs Jonah verse 10- 11
THEN said the LORD
You have had pity on the gourd
for the which you have not labored
neither made it grow
which came up in a night
and perished in a night
AND should not I spare Nineveh – that great city
wherein are more than
sixscore (score = twenty) thousand
persons that cannot discern
between their right hand
and their left hand
and also much cattle?
COMMENTARY:
DAILY SPIRITUAL BREAKFAST: Young Believers
: 2 And he prayed unto the LORD, and said, I pray thee, O LORD, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that you are a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest you of the evil. (2587 “gracious” [channuwn] means merciful, benignant, friendly, or compassionate.)
DEVOTION: There are many verses in the Word of God that give us insight into the attributes of God. HE is sometimes characterized in the Old Testament by those who are not believers as a God who loves to kill groups of people. HE is not noted by some as a loving God until we move into the New Testament. This is not true.
God is the same in both Testaments. HIS attributes don’t change over time. HE is consistent. HE loved HIS people throughout the Bible. HE chastens those who are followers so that they can become better followers. HE judges people who will not repent with death many times. Even HIS own people, Israel, experienced death because of disobedience.
The New Testament states that if those who are believers don’t examine themselves on a regular basis they can experience death as well. HE will first chasten with sickness and weakness before HE allows death. HE states through John in his first epistle that there is a sin unto death for believers.
In this verse we see the compassion of the LORD toward a heathen nation. HE sends a prophet to warn of coming judgment unless they repent and they did repent and HE didn’t send the judgment.
HE would like us to manifest these characteristics in our life. We should be gracious to those around us. We should be merciful to those around us. We should be slow to anger to those around us. We should be kind to those around us. If those around us change their ways we should be willing to forgive them.
Jonah was not willing to forgive them even after they repented in sackcloth and fasting. He didn’t care. He was not acting in a manner that was pleasing to the LORD.
CHALLENGE: We need to act in a manner that is pleasing to the LORD regarding those in our world. We can’t condone sin. We can warn those who outside of Christ to enter into a relationship with Christ before judgment come.
__________________________________________________
: 4 Then said the Lord, Do you well to be angry? (menacing, stormy, feeling or showing angry).
DEVOTION: The LORD asks a lot of questions throughout the Bible of people who think that they know better than HIM. HE asked Job if he was there when HE created the world. HE asked Job if HE needed counsel of anyone. We all have questions about what is doing in our world. Sometimes HE is doing things to us but sometimes HE is doing things to other people.
I have had incidents in my ministry where I have asked God why. It wasn’t in relationship to something that happened to me but to others. Two come to mind.
I had a man in my second church who I considered a saint of the LORD. The LORD allowed him to have a stroke and stay in a nursing home for years and yet there was another family member I thought the LORD should have done it to instead of him. I was wrong.
Another man in my third church had a stroke and died within a short time and I wondered why the LORD took him so young with children to raise. There were others in the church who were older that HE took but I didn’t understand why this younger man was taken. I was wrong. The LORD always knows what is best but we allow our feeling to get in the way of our understanding of God’s plan for our world.
Jonah was not right about being angry because the LORD spared these heathen people who believed in HIM after the preaching of Jonah. He should have been happy. He should have been praising the LORD. This didn’t give glory to the LORD.
CHALLENGE: We are to give glory to the LORD. Anger of this type doesn’t give God glory. Jonah needed to confess his sin of anger and start praising the LORD.
DAILY SPIRITUAL LUNCH: Transitional Believers
: 10 Then said the LORD, Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not labored, neither madest it grow; which came up in a night, and perished in a night. (2347 “pity” [chuwc] means have compassion, spare, look upon with compassion, or regard.)
DEVOTION: Three times the LORD prepared something to influence Jonah’s life. First the LORD prepared a gourd. Then the LORD prepared a worm. Finally the LORD prepared an east wind.
Jonah was happy to have the gourd protect him from the sun. He was not happy for the worm. The east wind caused him to wish he was dead. Jonah was angry about losing the gourd.
Now the LORD comes along side Jonah to ask him to think through the three things that HE prepared. HE pointed out to Jonah that he had nothing to do with causing the gourd to be available to give him shade. The LORD caused the gourd to grow. The LORD is in control of the gourd, worm, and wind. The LORD is in control of the peoples of the earth. The LORD chooses when HE will allow things to happen in our lives and in the life of Jonah. If the LORD wants to allow a people to stay in existence then that is HIS decision. The based HIS actions on the decisions of the people of Nineveh. HE knew what they would do before they did it. This was a lesson for Jonah, as much as, one for the city of Nineveh.
We are responsible to do what the LORD tells us to do no matter what the outcome. The outcomes belong to the LORD. We are to be faithful.
Are we being faithful to the LORD or are we getting angry when the LORD does something we think is wrong? Are there some people we think the LORD should deal with today?
What about those people in other countries that are killing Christians? What about those countries leader who will not let missionaries enter their country with the witness of the LORD? What about that person/persons who hurt us?
CHALLENGE: The LORD sends object lessons into our life to teach us truths from HIM word. What is happening in your life to teach you a Biblical truth today? HIS lesson to Jonah was to have compassion for others.
DAILY SPIRITUAL SUPPER: Mature Believers
: 11 And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city wherein are more than six score thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle? (to see, or make out through any of the senses, to perceive with the mind.
DEVOTION: This is the final question the LORD asks Jonah. There were 120,000 children in the city. There was much livestock in the city. The LORD was concerned about the children and livestock. HE wanted to see them become followers of HIM. HE sent a prophet to preach a message that would save the city from destruction.
Jonah on the other hand didn’t care about any of these people. He seemed to hate the people and want to see them judged for their sins. He didn’t have a forgiving bone in his body toward the people of this city.
Can you imagine a pastor that wouldn’t want to see this type of results from his preaching in a city he came to start a church? He would be overwhelmed with the results of three days of preaching. He would be praising the LORD for all those souls who were going to heaven.
CHALLENGE: Yet, Jonah was angry at the LORD because he didn’t like these people. Can we get that type of attitude toward some people in our world?
______________________________________________________________
DISCIPLINES OF THE FAITH:
BODY
Chastity (Purity in living)
Fasting (Time alone with LORD without eating or drinking)
Sacrifice (Giving up something we want to serve the LORD)
Submission (Willing to listen to others and LORD)
Solitude (Going to a quiet place without anyone)
SOUL
Fellowship (Gathering together around the Word of God)
Frugality (wise use of resources)
Journalizing (Writing down what you have learned from the LORD)
Study and Meditation (Thinking through your study in the Word)
Secrecy (Doing your good deeds without others knowing but God)
SPIRIT
Celebration (Gathering around a special occasion to worship LORD)
Confession (Tell the LORD we are sorry for our sins on a daily basis)
Prayer (Conversation with God on a personal level)
Jonah prayed verse 2, 3
Silence (Letting the LORD deal with some problems and needs)
Worship (Time to praise the LORD alone or in a group)
_________________________________________________________________
DOCTRINES OF THE FAITH:
Scripture (66 inerrant books of the Bible)
God the Father (First person of the Godhead)
LORD – Jehovah (Covenant keeping, Persona) verse 2- 4, 6, 10
Gracious verse 2
Merciful verse 2
Slow to anger verse 2
Great kindness verse 2
Relents verse 2
LORD God verse 6
Prepared a gourd verse 6
Prepared a worm verse 7
Prepared a vehement east wind verse 8
Spare Nineveh verse 11
God the Son (Second person of the Godhead –God/man, Messiah)
God the Holy Spirit (Third person of the Godhead – our comforter)
Trinity (Three persons of the Godhead who are co-equal = ONE God)
God – Elohim (Creator, Sovereign, Plural name) verse 2, 6- 9
Angels (Created before the foundation of the world – Good and Evil)
Man (Created on the sixth twenty-four hour period of creation)
Tarshish verse 2
Nineveh verse 11
Sin (Missing the mark set by God on man and angels)
Displeased verse 1
Angry verse 1, 4, 9
Wished himself to die verse 8
Salvation (Provided by Christ’s death on the cross for our sins)
Prayer verse 2
Grace verse 2
Merciful verse 2
Slow to anger verse 2
Kind verse 2
Deliverance verse 6
Exceeding glad verse 6
Israel (Old Testament people of God)
Jonah verse 1, 5, 6, 8, 9
Church (New Testament people of God)
Last Things (Future Events)
_________________________________________________________________
DONATIONS:
Remember that all donations to Small Church Ministries are greatly appreciated. The treasurer will send a receipt, at the end of the year unless otherwise requested. Please be sure to make check out to “Small Church Ministries.” The address for the treasurer is P.O. Box 604, East Amherst, New York 14051. A second way to give to the ministry is through PayPal on the website: www.smallchurchministries.org. Also, if you can support this ministry through your local church please use that method. Thank you.
__________________________________________________________________
QUOTES regarding passage
4:9 Again the text portrays God as the great teacher, trying to help Jonah recognize the divine character and his own inadequacy in understanding. In this text God attempted to show Jonah the absurdity of his attitude, yet in a tender fashion. Jonah’s values were topsy-turvy, evidenced by his greater concern for personal physical comfort afforded by a vine than for the spiritual well-being of an entire city. God’s mercy toward Nineveh had made him angry, and then he was angered by God’s withdrawing mercy from him. God attempted to deal with Jonah’s inconsistency by asking him, “Do you have a right?” The question is identical to the one God asked in v. 4. Stuart is right in saying that this question is central to the whole book. “What right do we have to demand that God should favor us and not others? By reducing the question to the particular issue of the gourd, God focused it in a way that would cause Jonah to condemn himself by his own words. Jonah did just that.”
The next phrase is Jonah’s reply to this word from God: “ ‘I do,’ he said; ‘I am angry enough to die.’ ” The first time God asked for justification of Jonah’s answer he received no reply. This time an answer came forth quickly. He turns God’s question into an affirmation and adds a prepositional phrase that may be understood as hyperbole (as in the modern English idiom “I am so mad I could die”), although Sasson argues for a more literal meaning on the basis of Jesus’ use of it in Matt 26:38 (//Mark 14:33).
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 total frustration with his life. There was also a misconception that God had been more than fair with the pagan Ninevites and far less than fair in dealing with him. One finds here a pathetic picture. As Wolff explained, Jonah “neither wished to live under the governance of free grace (vv. 1–3), nor was he prepared to live under a government without grace (vv. 7–9).” (Smith, B. K., & Page, F. S. (1995). Amos, Obadiah, Jonah (Vol. 19B, pp. 280–281). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.)
____________________________________________________________
9 As in v.4, it would be better to translate God’s question by “Are you right to be angry about the vine?” and Jonah’s answer by “I am.” Modern Arabic usage suggests that we should understand the question as “Are you right to be grieved for the vine?” for the anger of pity is meant. Though “angry enough to die” seems to express the literal meaning of the Hebrew, we may question its accuracy. D. Winton Thomas (“The Superlative in Hebrew,” p. 220) takes it, probably correctly, as a strong superlative, i.e., “exceedingly angry” (see note at 3:3).
Why was Jonah so angry, or why did he feel such grief for the vine? Many commentators, including Bewer, omit “shelter” (sukkāh) in v.5, thus making the qîqāyôn the only giver of shade that Jonah had. This would make the cause of Jonah’s displeasure the fact that he had been deprived of his one bit of physical comfort. Such an interpretation overlooks that once the rains were over, anyone remaining out in the open overnight would normally build himself such a shelter or booth. In addition the sirocco is as vicious in Palestine as in Mesopotamia, and so its effects would come as no surprise to him.
God’s answer in v.10 suggests that we take “Jonah was very happy about the vine” (v.6) to mean that sitting there in the burnt-up Tigris plain, shimmering in the heat, Jonah felt real joy in the sight of the fresh, green plant. True enough, it increased his comfort, but that was secondary. While there may seem to be comparatively little appreciation of the beauty of nature in the OT, there is sufficient to show that it was a real factor in Israelite life. (Ellison, H. L. (1986). Jonah. In F. E. Gaebelein (Ed.), The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Daniel and the Minor Prophets (Vol. 7, p. 388). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.)
____________________________________________________________
4:9. God asked Jonah the same question He posed earlier. Do you have a right to be angry? (cf. v. 4) But here He added the words about the vine. God was wanting Jonah to see the contrast between His sparing Nineveh and His destroying the vine—the contrast between Jonah’s lack of concern for the spiritual welfare of the Ninevites and his concern for his own physical welfare. Both Jonah’s unconcern (for Nineveh) and concern (for himself) were selfish. Jonah replied that his anger over the withered plant was justified, and that he was so angry he wanted to die.
“Life for Jonah [is] a series of disconcerting surprises and frustrations. He tries to escape from God and is trapped. He then gives up, accepts the inevitability of perishing, and is saved. He obeys when given a second chance, and is frustratingly, embarrassingly successful. He blows up; his frustration is intensified” (Judson Mather, “The Comic Act of the Book of Jonah,” Soundings 65. Fall 1982, p. 283). (Hannah, J. D. (1985). Jonah. In J. F. Walvoord & R. B. Zuck (Eds.), The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures (Vol. 1, pp. 1471–1472). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.)
_____________________________________________________________
God instructed Jonah (Jonah 4:9–11). God is still speaking to Jonah and Jonah is still listening and answering, even though he’s not giving the right answers. Unrighteous anger feeds the ego and produces the poison of selfishness in the heart. Jonah still had a problem with the will of God. In chapter 1, his mind understood God’s will, but he refused to obey it and took his body in the opposite direction. In chapter 2, he cried out for help, God rescued him, and he gave his body back to the Lord. In chapter 3, he yielded his will to the Lord and went to Nineveh to preach, but his heart was not yet surrendered to the Lord. Jonah did the will of God, but not from his heart.
Jonah had one more lesson to learn, perhaps the most important one of all. In chapter 1, he learned the lesson of God’s providence and patience, that you can’t run away from God. In chapter 2, he learned the lesson of God’s pardon, that God forgives those who call upon Him. In chapter 3, he learned the lesson of God’s power as he saw a whole city humble itself before the Lord. Now he had to learn the lesson of God’s pity, that God has compassion for lost sinners like the Ninevites; and his servants must also have compassion. It seems incredible, but Jonah brought a whole city to faith in the Lord and yet he didn’t love the people he was preaching to!
The people who could not “discern between their right hand and their left hand” (4:11) were immature little children (Deut. 1:39), and if there were 120,000 of them in Nineveh and its suburbs, the population was not small. God certainly has a special concern for the children (Mark 10:13–16); but whether children or adults, the Assyrians all needed to know the Lord. Jonah had pity on the vine that perished, but he didn’t have compassion for the people who would perish and live eternally apart from God.
Jeremiah and Jesus looked on the city of Jerusalem and wept over it (Jer. 9:1, 10; 23:9; Luke 19:41), and Paul beheld the city of Athens and “was greatly distressed” (Acts 17:16, niv), but Jonah looked on the city of Nineveh and seethed with anger. He needed to learn the lesson of God’s pity and have a heart of compassion for lost souls. (Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). Be amazed (pp. 91–92). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.)
_____________________________________________________________
THE Holy Spirit has declared that “the carnal mind is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” It is a most humiliating truth, but experience and Scripture everywhere corroborate it. It is not that the carnal mind in an unconverted person merely, is so hopelessly evil; but this wretched principle is as unreliable and vile in the greatest saint as in the worst sinner. Indeed, it is when we see the working of the flesh in one who is an example of piety that we appreciate its incurable iniquity as never before. No child of God dare trust the flesh. It will betray him into unholy thoughts and ways every time it is permitted to have control. I say permitted, purposely, for no Christian is of necessity subject to its power. Rightly viewed, it is a foreign thing, that should not have place for one moment. The believer is called upon to refuse its sway, and, in place of yielding his members unto it as though it had a necessary authority over him, he is called upon to make no provision for the flesh to fulfil its lusts. He is to reckon himself dead to it, and to yield himself unto God as one alive from the dead. Let it be otherwise, and defeat is certain—the triumph of the flesh is assured. But if we walk in the Spirit, we shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. (Ironside, H. A. (1909). Notes on the Minor Prophets. (p. 214). Neptune, NJ: Loizeaux Brothers.)
___________________________________________________________
Ver. 9. And God said to Jonah, dost thou well to be angry for the gourd? &c.] Or, art thou very angry for it? as the Targum: no mention is made of the blustering wind and scorching sun, because the gourd or plant raised up over him would have protected him from the injuries of both, had it continued; and it was for the loss of that that Jonah was so displeased, and in such a passion. This question is put in order to draw out the following answer, and so give an opportunity of improving this affair to the end for which it was designed: and he said, I do well to be angry, even unto death; or, I am very angry unto death, as the Targum; I am so very angry that I cannot live under it for fretting and vexing; and it is right for me to be so, though I die with the passion of it: how ungovernable are the passions of men, and to what insolence do they rise when under the power of them! (Gill, J. (1810). An Exposition of the Old Testament (Vol. 6, p. 549). London: Mathews and Leigh.)
_______________________________________________________________
FROM MY READING:
(Remember the only author that I totally agree with is the HOLY SPIRIT in the inerrant WORD OF GOD called THE BIBLE! All other I try to gleam what I can to help me grow in the LORD!!)
___________________________________________________________
Sandy offers us a stern and poignant reminder that politics isn’t everything. And once again, we’re reminded that in this fallen created world, our prosperity — even our survival — depends not on politics, but on Him in whom all things exist and hold together. (Political Timeout: Responding to Sandy by John Stonestreet)
____________________________________________________________
Proverbs 31
An excellent wife cares for her home, is kind to the needy, and is an example of good character.
INSIGHT
One view of women is that they are merely caretakers of the home and have no role other than changing diapers, cooking, and cleaning house. Another view seeks to free women from the responsibilities at home. Both are wrong. Women are to care for their homes and maintain certain responsibilities—just as men should. But their role carries with it great flexibility and variety. The Proverbs 31 woman is a skillful, industrious person who models integrity and esteems her home and family highly. (Quiet Walk)
_________________________________________________________
HOW IS THE BIBLE INSPIRED?
All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. 2 Timothy 3:16
What is meant by inspiration? When we say that the Bible is divinely inspired, what exactly do we mean? I start with a negative. We do not mean that certain portions of the Bible are inspired and that others are not. There are some people who think that. There are, they say, portions and particular statements and teachings, especially those concerned with the Lord Jesus Christ, that are inspired. But, they say, the historical books and various other sections are not inspired. Now that is not what we mean when we say that the Bible is divinely inspired.
Neither do we mean simply that the men who wrote the Bible were writing in an exalted or creative way. When a poet produced a masterpiece, you have often heard people say that the poet was “inspired.” But we do not mean that the writers of the books of the Bible were inspired in that way when they came to write these books. Others say they regard inspiration as just meaning that the ideas that were given to the writers were inspired. That is true, of course, but we mean much more than that. Neither does it mean that the books–the writings as such–are the product of human origin onto which the divine breath or afflatus has come.
So what do we mean? We mean that the Scriptures are a divine product breathed out by God. Inspired really means “God-breathed.” We mean that God breathed these messages into men and through them, and these Scriptures are the result of that divine action. We believe that they were produced by the creative breath of Almighty God. Put in a simpler form, we mean that everything we have in the Bible has been given by God to man
A Thought to Ponder: The Scriptures are a divine product breathed out by God.
(From God the Father, God the Son, pp. 23-24, by Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones)
_______________________________________________________
Knowledge of the Truth
“For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.” (1 Timothy 2:3-4)
The phrase “the truth,” referring to a certain vital body of doctrine, is found often in the New Testament, and the text quoted above is one of the most important, indicating as it does that fully understanding “the truth” is equivalent to being saved.
The theme of “the truth” is especially emphasized in Paul’s two letters to Timothy, the first reference being in our text. He next points out that, in his capacity as an apostle, he must “speak the truth in Christ,” teaching “in faith and verity” (same word as “truth”—1 Timothy 2:7).
The church is called “the pillar and ground of the truth” (3:15). An attitude of thanksgiving is proper for those who “believe and know the truth” (4:3). On the other hand, those false teachers who teach with selfish motives are “destitute of the truth” (6:5).
In the second epistle, Paul urges believers to be diligent in studying the Scriptures, because they constitute “the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15). Then he warns of teachers “who concerning the truth have erred,” teaching false doctrine and destroying the faith of some (v. 18). Those who are faithful teachers, however, are exhorted to help the unsaved come to “repentance to the acknowledging of the truth” (v. 25).
Then, in his prophetic description of the humanist teachers of the last days, Paul says they will be “ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth” (3:7). This is because they “resist the truth” and “turn away their ears from the truth” (3:8; 4:4). Thus, “the truth” always emphasizes its vital importance in salvation and the Christian life. Most of all, the Lord Jesus said: “I am . . . the truth” (John 14:6).
(HMM, The Institute for Creation Research)
_____________________________________________________________
Doing the will of God from our hearts (Eph. 6:6) involves doing the right thing, in the right way, at the right time, and for the right reason. That reason, of course, is the glory of God.
____________
An event recorded in Numbers 20: 7-13 illustrates the point. Moses did a right thing (providing water) in a wrong way [smiting the rock instead of speaking to it) and for the wrong motive (to express his anger), and he paid dearly for his mistake. God gave his people water, but he deprived his servant of a trip to the Holy Land. Why? Because Moses didn’t sanctify the Lord before his people and wasn’t jealous for the glory of God. (p. 71)
No man can give the impression that he himself is clever and that Christ is mighty to save. (p. 71)
_____________
Servants who are yielded to the Holy Spirit and filled with the Word of God will be guided to say and do those things that most honor the Lord (James 1:5). They will gradually develop a spiritual intuition that helps them make wise decisions, a God-given “radar” that warns them of trouble ahead. When our only desire is to glorify the Lord, we’re nor than willing to step aside and let others use their gifts. We don’t care who gets the credit as long as God gets the glory (p. 72)
(10 Power Principles for Christian Service by Warren W. & David W. Wiersbe)
________________________________________________________________
We now have a Facebook page for Small Church Ministries – please invite others to join us on Facebook. Thank you. Look for the logo from the devotionals.